The Rancher's Bride. Stella Bagwell

going to help. Since I don’t have any wranglers anymore, it’ll just be us three and Amos.”

      The teenager stared at Rose in pretty much the same way her father had. “You don’t have help on your ranch?”

      “Not right now,” Rose told her. “We’ve had to do a little cutting back.”

      Harlan wondered what it cost Rose to admit to having financial problems. The woman obviously had pride and he respected her for that. He also respected the fact that she hadn’t given up. She was working hard to keep her home together. If she had caused some of the money problems on the Bar M, she was certainly trying to make up for it now.

      Wanting to lighten the moment he grinned at both women. “Too bad, honey,” he teased Emily. “There won’t be any young cowboys for you to show off for.”

      Emily groaned and tossed her head. “Oh, Daddy, you know I don’t like boys.”

      “Not yet, huh?” he said, then gave Rose a conspiratorial wink.

      Rose couldn’t remember the last time a man had winked at her. Feeling her cheeks turning pink, she quickly reined Pie away from him. “We’d better get moving,” she said matter-of-factly.

      

      Fortunately the Bar M cattle were feeding on a patch of prickly pear not far from the pasture Rose intended to move them into. With Amos barking and circling the herd, it wasn’t too difficult for the three of them to bunch the cattle in a tight wad.

      Because of the heat, they moved the animals at a slow walk. Even so, fine dust boiled high in the air and covered the three of them. Rose pulled a handkerchief from her jeans pocket and rode over to Emily, who was coughing and waving her hand in front of her face.

      “Do you want my handkerchief?” Rose asked her.

      Her face brown from the flying dirt, Emily grinned with appreciation, but shook her head. “Thank you, Rose. But you should keep it for yourself. I’ll be all right.”

      It was difficult for Rose to believe this was the same girl who had been whining about washing a sinkful of dishes. So far Emily hadn’t complained about anything. In fact, she was working just as hard as Rose to get the job done.

      “Then why don’t you ride up toward the front of the herd?” Rose suggested to her. “It won’t be as dusty up there. Your father and I can watch things back here.”

      Emily nodded and urged the Appaloosa forward. “Thanks, Rose!”

      Rose tied the handkerchief over her nose and mouth, then swung in place a few yards away from Harlan at the back of the herd. She was surprised to see he was watching her.

      What was he thinking, she wondered. That all of this would someday be his? Well, thinking was as close as he was ever going to get, she silently promised. She’d sell every last cow and calf on the place and beg every bank in the state before she’d lose this ranch to him, or any man.

      “How much farther?” he called over to her.

      She wiped her forehead with the back of her forearm. “About a quarter of a mile. We’re almost there.”

      He nodded and she noticed that unlike her and Emily, he appeared to be coping with the dust as though it wasn’t any more irritating than a pesky fly.

      “I sent Emily up toward the front to get her out of the dust,” she told him.

      “I noticed.”

      He didn’t say more. Rose didn’t expect him to, but something about the expression on his face made her gaze linger longer than it should have. Suddenly his eyes softened and she felt at that moment it was just him and her against the world.

      As if he’d read her thoughts, he said, “We’re going to get through this, Rose. The both of us.”

      Maybe they would, she thought. But what would it be like once the rain eventually came, the debt was finally paid and the two of them went back to simply being neighbors again? She’d probably never see him after that.

      The thought should have comforted her, even given her something to look forward to. But strangely enough she felt bothered by the idea. Although she couldn’t understand why. Harlan wasn’t her type. No man was her type. She’d do well to remember that.

      

      By the time the three of them left Rose’s cattle safely secured on fresh pasture, it was noon. Harlan suggested they eat lunch before starting the task of moving his cattle onto Bar M land.

      Down by the river, Rose found a smooth spot beneath a poplar and pulled out the lunch she’d packed in her saddlebags.

      As she spread the containers of food on the ground in front of her, Harlan walked up behind her. “You know, you never cease to amaze me.”

      The sound of his voice jerked her head up and around. She’d thought he was still tending the horses, not looming over her shoulder. The sight of him standing so close set her heart pounding heavily.

      “Why do you say that?” she asked, trying her best to sound casual.

      A faint smile tugged at his mouth as he looked down at her dusty face. She wasn’t comfortable in his company. He’d known that the moment he’d walked up to her yesterday evening and she’d introduced herself. Her voice had been cool, yet her glances had been shy. Now the more Harlan was around her, the more he wondered why she wasn’t married. She must still be in her early twenties, and when she looked at him with her clear gray eyes, he got the impression that she was far more innocent than her years.

      “I never expected you to have your lunch with you.”

      Frowning, she turned her attention to the sandwich in her hand. “I take food out with me every day. I never know when I’ll be too far away from the ranch house to make it back for lunch. Besides, it’s always wise to at least carry a thermos of water or some sort of drink with you in this country.”

      “That’s what I’m talking about,” he said. He sank to the ground a few feet away from her and leaned his back against a half-dead cottonwood. “Most women wouldn’t be so prepared. Hell, most women would be lost out here like this. But you seem right at home in the saddle, herding cows.”

      She bit into a ham sandwich and told herself not to look at him. She didn’t like it when her senses went haywire. And that’s what the sight of him did to her, she realized. It crippled her brain. “I was born on this ranch, Harlan. I am home, here.”

      He drew up one knee and rested his forearm across it. As he watched Emily splash in the river with Amos, he thought about the home he’d left in east Texas, the wife he’d buried there and the home he’d tried to build here.

      The Flying H had most everything they needed. A fairly nice house and several barns. Cattle and horses to work the place, cats and dogs for pets, two vehicles to get where they needed to go and a regular pew at church on Sunday.

      It was a seemingly normal household. Yet the place had never felt exactly like home to Harlan. And now he knew why. It was missing a woman. Others had pointed the problem out to him before, but he’d blindly refused to see it. He hadn’t wanted to see anything except the memories of his wife. The way it had been with her and the way he’d wished it could have been now.

      But Rose had opened his eyes. How or why, Harlan couldn’t figure. Nor did he know what, if anything, he was going to do about it.

      “You like ranching, or would you prefer to be teaching in a classroom?” Harlan asked as he pulled a sandwich from his own saddlebag.

      “I like being needed,” she answered, then glanced over to his face. His expression told her he didn’t quite understand.

      She gestured with her hand to the land around them. “Before Daddy passed away, he had men to take care of all this. There was no need for me to ride fence, spread feed and hay, doctor sick cows, or search for newborn calves. But that’s all changed.”

      The