Page 29 of Her Bachelor Cowboy Billionaire

“Did you buy the ranch this big, or have you expanded?”

“It was about a quarter this size when I bought it. Since then, I’ve purchased the surrounding ranches as they were inherited. If the kids wanted to sell, for whatever reason, I’d buy them. It’s hard for the smaller spreads to make a living and pay the ranch bills. Some people are tired of working so hard for nothing. Most of them have sold to me and then come to work for me, doing the same thing they used to but without all the bills and a paycheck instead.”

“It’s nice they can still do what they love.”

“It is, and if they want to stay living where they are, they can, or I have new homes for the families here.”

“This is quite the operation.”

“It takes many people. People who put money back into the local economy. It’s a win-win for everyone, but probably mostly for me because I get the knowledgeable staff I need. I don’t have to train them or worry about turnover.”

“Here we are, folks. Home sweet home.” Seth pulled the SUV to a stop in front of a large two-story wooden home.

What looked like river rock decorated the bottom half of the first floor. Large stones that looked to be about four to six inches in diameter. A wide porch, with logs for the railings and the roof braces, looked like it ran all the way around the house, but she wasn’t sure.

She was pleased to see a swing and a couple of rocking chairs on one side of the double doors, and a small table and four chairs on the other side. The arrangement was exactly how she would have done it.

They exited the car and stood next to it for a minute.

She gazed up at the house.

“Your home is beautiful, and I love the porch set up. Can you see the sunset from there?” She pointed to the swing.

Roark smiled. “You can, and I hope to show you tonight. We have some beautiful sunsets.”

“I don’t know. The sunsets looking over the mountains from my loft in Denver are hard to beat.”

“Trust me. You’ll enjoy this one. Shall we go inside?”

She gestured toward the back of the SUV. “What about the luggage?”

He turned back. “Seth, will you take Miss Kirby’s bags up to the guest room, please?”

Seth already had the hatch open and was taking the suitcases out. “Sure will, Mr. Sullivan. You might want to take Miss Kirby to the barn. We’ve got a couple of new foals, one filly and one colt. They were both born about a week ago. They are the cutest little things.”

Jessica turned to Roark. Her body was alive with longing. “Can we go now? I’d love to see them. I love babies.”

He laughed. “Sure. It’s this way.” He put out his arm.

She placed her left hand through the crook of his elbow and covered it with her right hand. Jessica was happier than she’d been in a while and she knew a significant part of that was because of the man at her side.

They reached the enormous barn a few minutes later. Inside was bright with lots of overhead lights.

She counted twenty stalls on each side of the structure. The barn was two stories on the long sides and three stories in the center to accommodate the hay loft. Straw crunched under her feet where it had fallen when they mucked the stalls. The building smelled of horses, cows, straw, hay, and manure. Barn smells that she’d missed for so long.

Roark walked them down to the seventeenth stall on the right side. It and the next two were larger than the others. “These are our birthing stalls. This is the first time we’ve actually used two at once.”

Inside the stall was a beautiful chestnut mare and a little black foal. As soon as they put their arms on the metal gate, he ducked behind his mama.

She jutted her chin toward the baby. “Is this the colt?”

“Let me see.” He walked over to the post between the seventeenth and eighteenth stalls and read from the small clipboard. “Yes, he’s the colt. His mama is Bonnie Blue. I haven’t named him yet. Would you like to name these two new ones?”

She looked up, her eyebrows high and her eyes wide. “Really?”

He laughed. “Yes, really. You’re a writer and name characters all the time. I figure you’ll give him a good name.”

Jessica looked hard at the colt. Her eyes narrowed. She thought about how she would name her character. She’d named many horses in her books. “I think you should call him Blue Boy after his mother.”