The Cowboy Wore a Kilt by Grace Burrowes

Author:Grace Burrowes [Burrowes, Grace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781941419724
Publisher: Grace Burrowes

For most of three days, Declan had studied land records, looking for a cloud on the Bar J title, but the Jensens had handed the ranch down from father to son to daughter in a short, clean line. No odd easements interfered with the land use, no liens complicated the transfer. From an environmental standpoint, few properties were more pristine, and—worse yet, from Declan’s perspective—outside every window of the Bar J ranch house lay a postcard vista of the Canyon.

Worst of all, Declan was falling in love with the woman whose life he was supposed to wreck.

Claudia was unfailingly patient with her riding students and had a genius for figuring out how to explain a situation so a rider could get the desired result from the horse. Claudia was equally conscientious in the care of her land and livestock, and a tireless worker when it came to the endless chores necessary to keep a ranch operation moving forward.

By Thursday afternoon, Declan had had enough.

“We’re getting off the property,” he announced as he and Claudia scrubbed out a stock tank under brilliantly sunny skies.

“I beg your pardon?”

Declan tossed his scrub brush into a bucket. “I’m thinking myself in circles, and I need a change of scene. I think you do too.”

Claudia turned a stopcock and let the murky water in the bottom of the tank drain away into the red earth.

“You think I should leave the Bar J now, with you, when you’re trying to steal it out from under me?”

Declan had come to loathe the verb to steal, while Claudia tucked it into every other sentence.

“Whether you go out for a beer with me tonight, or stay home and fret won’t make any difference. I have only two more days to come up with a reason for Brewster to flash some other property under Miranda Davis’s nose, and all I’m doing is traveling the same ground—”

“Don’t you be insulting Andy Davis’s nose,” Claudia said, taking a drink from her water bottle. “But what does she have to do with all of this?”

“She’s the competitor Brewster’s trying to get into bed with—probably literally. Her family saw the renewable-energy initiative coming, while Brewster is pretending we’ll run out of sunshine, wind, wood, tide, and geothermal sources next week.”

“Miranda Davis is a smart gal,” Claudia said. “You should hydrate, Declan.”

He got a water bottle out of the cooler in the back of the dually. “How well do you know Miranda Davis?”

“I knew her. We ended up in the same freshman English class, and if that’s not trial by ordeal, I don’t know what is. We also played on the same intramural volleyball team, and she likes horses, or she did back in college. I need to get back to the house. Kara will be home soon.”

No matter how hard Claudia worked, or what chores needed tending to, she was always at the ranch house when Kara got home from school. Declan’s mum had observed the same priority.

“What do you think Miranda Davis will make of my boss?” he asked, gathering up the buckets and rags they’d used to clean the tank.

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