Irritation roared into life inside him, and Liam did his best to tamp it down. It did no good to get riled up at something he couldn’t change. No matter what, Liam believed in doing his duty. He’d been raised to believe that a man’s word meant everything. And he’d given his word to Sterling Perry a long time ago.
“This is what happens when you owe somebody,” he muttered.
At least that old debt was nearly paid. In a month Liam would be free and clear and running his own place rather than being foreman on one of the biggest ranches in Texas.
“What was that?”
Liam looked at the man walking alongside him. Mike Hagen was new to Texas—hell, new to the Perry Ranch. But he was catching on quick, and that was a good thing, since he was set to become the new foreman here when Liam left at the end of the month.
Mike was no-nonsense and all about the job. He had ranching in his blood, just like Liam, which was probably why the two of them had hit it off right from the start. The only real difference between them was that Mike was a family man, with a wife and a baby on the way, and Liam was alone. By choice.
“It’s nothing,” Liam said. “Just grumbling to myself.” He glanced up at the cloud-studded sky. “It’s that meeting in the city I told you about.”
“Ahh.” Mike nodded sagely.
“Yeah, I hate getting pulled away from the ranch. Especially when we’re busy. Hell, I’ve been trying to get out of this particular meeting for a couple of weeks.”
Mike snorted a laugh. “Of course you hate going to the city. Why else would we be working with horses and cattle rather than people?”
“Good point.” It was going to make it easier for him to leave the Perry Ranch knowing he was leaving the responsibility for it into good hands. Mike would take care of the land, the animals and the men who kept it all going. Sterling Perry, the owner, liked being called a rancher, but he did it from behind a desk, trusting his employees to do the actual work.
Not so different from a lot of the big ranchers in Texas, Liam told himself. In fact, the bigger the spread the less likely it was for the owner to be involved. Whether they had loved ranching when they first got into it or not, most of the owners were seduced away from the day-to-day workings by their own success, drawn into board meetings and investments and God knew what else. But that wasn’t how Liam was going to run his own place.
He’d waited too long for a ranch of his own. And just a year ago, he’d finally achieved that dream. It was almost time to start living it.
Now, Liam took a deep breath and scanned the familiar yard, the outbuildings, the barns and stables. It would be hard leaving. Even strange at first. The fact was, he was proud of this ranch and all he’d done here. But it was time to move on and claim his own dreams—so he was grateful that he liked and trusted Mike Hagen. It would make it easier to walk away.
While they walked across the yard, he saw Mike lean down to pick up a hamburger wrapper tumbling along the ground, driven by the sparking wind. Mike crumpled it in one fist and looked around as if he could identify the cowboy who’d let his trash get away from him. Liam nodded to himself in approval. If the man cared about the little stuff, he’d be on top of the big stuff, as well.
“You never did say—what made you decide to leave Montana for Texas?” Liam asked.
Mike shrugged and stuffed the wadded-up paper into his jeans pocket to throw away later. “My wife’s family is here and she was pining for them. With her pregnant and all, she wanted to be closer to her mother. So, being offered the job on a ranch like this one made the move easy.”
“It is a fine place,” Liam agreed, letting his gaze once again sweep the yard, the stables and the big main house that made up the Perry Ranch.
It was a damn showplace, but in his mind, Liam saw his own ranch. For the last year, he’d been doing two jobs—his responsibilities here and then putting his heart and soul into the future he was creating for himself. He had the land, he’d hired men and a foreman. He’d started stocking the ranch with cattle and the horses that would be the bedrock of his place.
All Liam had to do was hold on for one more month—even if that meant taking meetings with spoiled rich girls like Chloe Hemsworth. Sterling Perry had insisted Liam meet with the woman, and just remembering that conversation from a week ago could still put Liam’s back up. He replayed it in his head.
“I need you to talk to this woman,” Sterling had told him that day, tapping his fingertips against his desktop. “She’s been calling here nearly every damn day, and I’m tired of getting her messages. I finally told her that I was leaving the decision up to you.”
Not a surprise, Liam had thought then. He’d been tossed under the bus before by a boss who only wanted the money the ranch brought him, not the satisfaction of running it.
Striving for patience, Liam had kept a tight grip on the brim of his hat and said, “I’m your foreman, Sterling. I handle the ranch, not meetings with socialites.”
Sterling’s eyes had narrowed on him. “As my foreman, you handle what I say you handle. And until next month, you still work for me.”
Exasperated, Liam had huffed out a breath and slapped his cowboy hat against his right thigh. Frustration had swept through him, but he’d fought it down. One more month and he’d be his own damn man and call his own shots. “Fine. How do you want it handled?”
Instantly, Sterling had relaxed and an affable expression settled on his features. It was deceptive, of course. Sterling Perry was many things but affable wasn’t one of them. He was stubborn and ruthless in business, but he had a way of keeping his opponents off guard until it was too late for them to get the best of him. Sterling had amassed a fortune through diversification. To him, this ranch was nothing more than a place to live and lord it all over everyone else. Sterling was, as they said in Texas, all hat no cattle.
“Take the meeting, hear her out,” Sterling had said. “If her idea doesn’t seem workable, tell her no. Seems crazy to me, but I wouldn’t be running it. Mike Hagen would be in charge once you’re gone.”
“Well, hell,” Liam had argued. “Have Mike meet with her.”
“He hasn’t been here long enough to know what would work and what wouldn’t,” Sterling had pointed out and narrowed his gaze on him. “And you know it.” He’d picked up a pen and a sheaf of papers, effectively dismissing Liam. Then he’d glanced up again. “I’ve told her the final call is yours. You’re the one who knows the ranch best.”
A real rancher would have been embarrassed to admit that he didn’t know his own ranch as well as his foreman. Not Perry.
One more month, Liam had told himself that day. After that, whatever happened at the Perry Ranch wouldn’t matter to him. But even as he’d thought it, he’d known that wasn’t entirely true.
His own father had once been foreman here, and Liam had practically grown up on this ranch. It would always mean something to him even though it would no longer be his main focus. So he still would look out for the ranch’s long-term interests. Even while planning for his own.
“Fine. I’ll meet her in Houston,” Liam had said as he’d watched his boss. “I’ll give her a half hour. No more.”
Sterling had shrugged. “Works for me.” Then he’d busied himself with paperwork, and Liam took the not so subtle hint.
He’d stalked out of the big man’s office and closed the door behind him. Meeting Chloe Hemsworth wasn’t high on his list of things to do since here at the ranch they had two mares ready to foal and the vet coming to start inoculations on the cattle, not to mention the fact that Liam was busy training his own replacement. “How the hell am I supposed to work in a meeting with some society woman with too much time on her hands?”
“She’s not like that.”