Page 100 of Then You Happened
“It’s just a lot, and what if we don’t deliver? What if they get here and see we’re nowhere in the realm of Hickman?”
“I sold them on our personal service and our attention to detail. That’s why they agreed to it on a one-year probationary period. These four guys like what they see while they’re here, then we’ll be set.”
“And they’re okay knowing you won’t be here the whole time? They know that, right?” I ask.
“Tate.” He uses my name to soothe me. “Don’t you trust me?”
Doubt tries to win a war I’m sick of waging so I push it back down and answer him with an even. “Yes.”
And I do.
Only, I’m not sure if that should excite me or scare me.
Especially after realizing he never answered my question.
35
TATE
There’s an excitement to the chaos that engulfs the ranch over the next few days. An organization to the madness as we work around the clock to make my little ranch look like it’s bigger and better than it’s ever been.
Sure, the doubt still reigns.
Of course, the worry over finances is never far from my mind. The fear that despite Sheryl’s phone calls, the lender might send who-knows-who out here while the Steely employees are here, lingers.
Still, we work hard and we get the job done.
Music plays from somewhere in the far stables where Will is busy setting up each stall for the studs. It’ll put them far enough away from the mares that it doesn’t cause problems, but close enough for them to smell the females in heat.
Talk about a tease if I’ve ever heard one.
“Whose idea was it to have them bring all those horses?” I groan with a smile on my face as we repair the rails of the ring we stopped using years ago.
“Gotta get them ladies pregnant,” Jack says with a smirk. His hair is plastered to the back of his neck, drenched through with sweat long ago. I’m sure mine isn’t much better where I have it tucked beneath my baseball hat. He has a smear of dirt on his cheek, the stubble on his jaw is the length of however long we’ve been at this, and the tear in the stomach of his dark blue shirt is from where it caught on a nail as he walked by.
“What are you staring at?” he asks, still in great spirits despite how freaking exhausted we all are.
“Just thinking I might work a little faster if I had some motivation.”
“Motivation?” He stops and turns toward me, tipping the front of his hat up and off his eyes.
“You without a shirt on is a good start.” I’m only partially teasing him.
“And you on your back is a good start for me too,” he says with a laugh that tells me his comment holds about the same amount of truth as mine.
My laugh is soft, and I just shake my head. “If this girl is on her back, I think the only thing she’ll be thinking about is sleeping,” I joke.
“We’ll see about that.” He hammers a nail, and I watch him. “Get to work, Knox.” He glances my way and flashes those dimples of his, making my heart skip a beat.
We work side by side, sometimes in silence and sometimes singing to the song Will has playing. It’s brutal labor, physically tiring, mentally draining, and so much more than I’ve ever done before, but there’s something so satisfying about working hard to accomplish something.
With Fletcher, I was nothing more than a window dressing. I was present but shielded from everything he was hiding. I was sequestered in this house to prevent me from going into town and knowing the truth.
But right now? I feel like I’m a part of this. Yes, Jack negotiated this whole deal, but I’m helping to make it happen.
“I’ve seen you taking pictures,” Jack says after we move onto the smaller pens where we’ll put the female in estrus and add the stallion raring to go.
“Hmm?” I glance over to him and then back to where I’m grading the dirt with a rake.
