His Montana Bride by Brenda Minton

Author:Brenda Minton [Minton, Brenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780373879137
Google: Q6RUBAAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 21942805
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The Shaw ranch was huge. Thousands of acres of Montana grassland and mountains. Katie stood next to the barn and watched as Adam and Austin Shaw moved cattle to acreage closer to the main house. They’d been branding and tagging calves, giving shots. She’d gone out with them yesterday, just to watch the process. Cord had been there, the older brother, the brother who gave too many orders and got under the skin of his younger siblings. She’d enjoyed watching and then enjoyed the hot lunch Nadine drove out in her truck.

She walked Nadine’s poodle, Ranger, and the dog pulled on the leash. He wanted to keep moving, keep sniffing and investigating. The morning walks had become Katie’s way of helping out. She enjoyed the walks with Ranger, keeping the little dog out of trouble, and Nadine enjoyed the extra time it gave her to take care of book work, which was her duty on the Shaw ranch.

With Gwen gone again, Katie needed to keep busy, to feel as if she wasn’t just wasting time here. There were moments when she thought she should go home. There were more moments when she wondered if she would ever want to leave Jasper Gulch.

“Come on, Ranger, time to go inside.” She didn’t have to force the issue. The sound of a truck had Ranger’s attention and the dog turned and started back to the house, pulling on the leash to go home. It was Cord’s truck.

“Are you really that excited to see him?” Katie asked. In response, Ranger yapped a few times. “Fine, he is nice and I’m usually glad to see him, too. At least you can’t tell.”

The dog led her down the driveway, back to the house that looked stark in the middle of this valley with few trees and the blowing grass turning brown. The mountains in the distance looked gray this morning, gray but capped with white snow. Winter would be here soon.

Cord had stepped out of his truck. Lulu and Marci were still inside. Marci waved and Katie waved back. She headed in Cord’s direction, but not because she had a choice. Ranger tugged on the leash, pulling with all of his eight-pound might. It turned out eight pounds of determined was actually very strong.

“Ready to go?”

She nodded and held tight to the leash. “Let me put him in the house and grab my purse.”

“We’ll wait in the truck. If I go inside, I might never get away. I think Mom is doing some end-of-year stuff and she always has questions.”

Katie headed for the house, pulling the reluctant poodle. She finally picked the dog up because it was easier than fighting him on the leash.

She’d learned a lot about ranching in her short stay at the Shaw ranch. She knew that the business side of taking care of cattle was huge. It was a family corporation with taxes, investments, expenses and salaries. There were also big losses, Nadine explained. An early snowstorm could do them in; so could drought, if they had to haul hay from other states.

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