The Wrangler's Woman. Ruth Dale Jean

Jack assumed they would “—and they’re smart enough to realize you know the lay of the land and they don’t.” He hoped.

      “They ain’t got a prayer of gettin’ this place back on its feet,” Dobe scoffed.

      “Not without you,” Jack said, buttering up the old codger. “How about giving them a chance?” When that didn’t bring instant acquiescence, he added, “As a personal favor to me.”

      Dobe thought that over. Then he let out a disgusted snort. “When you put it that way, I don’t have a whole lotta choice. You always been square with me so… Okay, Jack, I’ll do it as a favor to you. But if they turn out to be anything like their old man, I’m outa here, no ifs, ands or buts.”

      “Fair enough.” Jack felt great relief. “How about comin’ up to the house with me so you can meet the rest of them?”

      “Okay, but I ain’t gonna like ’em.”

      You might, Jack thought. That grandma could be just your type.

      “THE HOUSE HAS TONS of possibilities,” Toni announced.

      “And some of this furniture is wonderful.” Niki ran a hand over the dusty arm of a leather chair with armrests made of animal horns. “I wonder how old this stuff is.”

      Dani, who was much more interested in the outdoors than the indoors, looked up from the old ledgers she’d pulled from a desk drawer. “Could be from the twenties. That’s when dude ranching really took off in a big way, according to the research I’ve done.”

      Toni looked around with surprise. “Gosh, I didn’t know you’d done research.”

      “It’s an interesting subject.” Dani closed the book and leaned her elbows on it. “For instance, dude ranching got started in the late nineteenth century. A lot of people from back East visited friends in the West, and sometimes they stayed and stayed and stayed. When it got too expensive for the ranchers to support all those frequent guests, some of them started charging and voilà! The dude ranch was born.”

      “I don’t know about that.” Toni looked worried. “It doesn’t sound too nice to charge your friends.”

      “Oh, dear,” Granny exclaimed. “Don’t let Toni handle the billing or we’ll be broke in a month.”

      Everyone laughed. Opening a drawer, Dani pulled out a wad of papers. Old bills, mostly, but when she unfolded a piece of lined notepaper it revealed a scrawled message: “Are you having fun yet? You girls don’t know half as much as you think you do.”

      “What in the world?” she wondered aloud. “Granny—?”

      The front door opened and Jack walked in, leading the old cowboy she’d met briefly at the barn. Hastily stuffing the piece of paper in her jeans pocket, she stood up to greet them.

      While Jack made the introductions, she tried to calm her jangled nerves. Finding the unsigned note had upset her because she was sure her father had written it. Reading it had been like hearing his voice from the grave. While he was alive he’d had no interest whatsoever in his daughters, leaving Elk Tooth before they were born and never so much as contacting them afterward. It had been a shock to learn he’d left them this dude ranch, but she’d supposed he’d had no one else to pass it on to.

      Now she wondered if he’d simply lured them here to torment them from the netherworld.

      “And you met Dani at the barn.”

      She smiled automatically and nodded, pulled back into the here and now. Dobe wasn’t looking at her anyway, but at Granny. And he wasn’t smiling, he was glowering.

      So was she, Dani saw with surprise. Grandma, who liked everybody and was liked by all in return, did not look impressed by Dobe Whittaker. It didn’t take much to figure out why, either.

      If Grandma looked like Mrs. Santa Claus, Dobe was the spittin’ image of Mr. Santa Claus. Tilly Collins didn’t like that, not one little bit. He was stealing her thunder, and worse, he’d got here first.

      Dani intervened quickly. “So when will it be convenient for you to show me around?” she asked the old cowboy.

      Dobe slanted a skeptical glance at Jack. “About anytime, I reckon. Maybe you can all come so I’ll only have to do it once. I’ll round up the horses and—”

      “Not me,” Niki said quickly.

      “Beg pardon?”

      “I’m not a horse person.”

      “Missy, this is a dude ranch. Horses are a real big part of it.”

      Niki’s expression grew uncharacteristically stubborn. “There are a whole lot of things in this world that I can do happily, but messing with horses isn’t among them. Count me out, please.”

      Dobe rolled his eyes expressively, but all he said was, “It’s up to you, missy. Tell you what, I’ll be ready first thing tomorrow morning and anyone who wants to come along is welcome.”

      “Thank you,” Dani said. “And thank you for taking care of things after…after our father died. We do appreciate it.”

      “Yeah, well…”

      “You’ll be staying on with us, won’t you?”

      Silence greeted her question, and Dani found herself holding her breath. They were starting so deep in a hole that without the continuity Dobe could provide, she couldn’t imagine what they’d do.

      He let out his breath on a gusty note. “I’ll stay for a while anyway, till we see how it goes. In the meantime, I got chores.”

      Turning, Dobe stomped out of the house. After a moment’s silence, Dani laughed a bit shakily. “Another crisis averted.”

      Jack stirred. “Naw, no problem, he’s always like that. Just treat him fair and he’ll work his heart out for you. He goes back a real long way with this place so I think he can tell you a lot of things you need to know.”

      “I’m sure you’re right.”

      For another long moment, she met his gaze directly, until a slight feeling of unease skittered up her spine. Looking down abruptly at the messy desktop, she said faintly, “Well, if you have to leave now… I mean, you’ve been very helpful, but I’m sure we’ve already intruded on your time quite enough.”

      Jack said, “I can take a hint.” Turning toward the door, he put his hat back on his head. “If there’s anything else I can do for you—”

      “You’ve done quite enough already.” The words sounded considerably more impatient than she’d intended.

      “See you around, then. Ladies…” His nod included them all and then he was gone.

      Everyone looked at Dani with various degrees of puzzlement. Then Toni said, “Gosh, he’s cute,” which pretty much broke the tension.

      THE WOMEN HELD a war council that night over a supper of canned soup and crackers. They were all in complete agreement: their futures depended upon making the Bar K pay, so they’d knuckle down and work their fingers to the bone if need be.

      Dani, proud of the lot of them, nodded approval. “It will be tougher because money is so short,” she said, “but when wasn’t it?”

      “Money can’t buy happiness, anyway,” Toni said blithely.

      “That’s only your opinion,” Dani snapped back. Softening her tone, she added, “It is a little strange that no money came with this place. With what we cleared for the house in Montana, though, we should be able to make it, God willing and the creeks don’t rise.”

      “I can get a job,” Niki said suddenly.

      Dani frowned. “Are you sure you want to do that? I mean, with all that has to be done here, you’d be working night and day.”

      “It