Rancher to the Rescue by Patricia Forsythe

Author:Patricia Forsythe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-12-12T21:09:17+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

BRADY LEANED AGAINST the corral fence, his forearms resting along the top rail as he watched Zannah, Chet and Gus prepare for the day’s activities. The guests, some eager and some less so, were assembled with their horses, ready for what was to come next.

Chet and Phoebe had tied their horses to the corral fence while they waited for the word from Zannah to begin. They moved among the guests, checking cinches and saddles, speaking reassuringly to anyone who seemed nervous. Brady appreciated the matter-of-fact way they approached their work, secure in their knowledge and skills. They knew their jobs and were happy to share their expertise.

Ordinarily, Gus would have been the one to get the day’s activities started. Brady watched the older man. He seemed deep in thought, though not with the excited, going-to-hunt-for-gold excitement he’d shown since the day they had met. He appeared to have a heavy weight on his mind. Maybe he was worried about all the details he still had to handle before he left.

Whatever it was, Brady wouldn’t pry. He’d seen Zannah casting concerned glances at her father but knew there wouldn’t be an opportunity for her to talk to him until much later.

Right now, the show had to go on. And that was what this was, he reflected. He’d taken a wild chance and really stretched the parameters of his own dad’s challenge to his three sons. He had no idea what Finn and Miles had become involved in. They were playing things close to the chest. They knew where he was and what he was doing because he’d always been the most talkative of them.

As for him, ranching and a cowboy college were far different than what he’d imagined when he had accepted the challenge. Zannah had been right on the day they’d met. There was far more hard work than entertainment involved in the operations at Eaglecrest.

He’d had visions of turning this outfit around, exactly as his dad had mandated, making it a success, accepting the accolades from his folks and the envious comments from his brothers before moving on to another business, maybe something he actually knew.

When he came in, he had planned only on being the money man, the one who balanced the books and paid the bills, riding horses whenever he chose, having a good time on a regular basis, then moving on. It wasn’t that he had itchy feet, he told himself. He simply hadn’t been raised to stay in one place for a lifetime.

He admitted he had been having a good time, but he had also lugged hay bales and sacks of feed to stack in the storage shed, repaired the four-wheeler and unclogged the toilet in one of the cabins.

The joys of being the boss, he thought as he watched Zannah climb atop the wooden mounting block the less skilled riders used to get onto their horses. She raised her hand to get the group’s attention.

“Good morning, everyone,” she said cheerfully. “We’re going to have a great day, and I promise you’ll be completely exhausted by the end of it.

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