Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 17853 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 89(@200wpm)___ 71(@250wpm)___ 60(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17853 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 89(@200wpm)___ 71(@250wpm)___ 60(@300wpm)
“You look…fantastic.”
She smiles widely. “Thanks. It’s amazing what a shower and a blow dryer will do. Of course, I keep hairspray in my purse.”
“Of course, you do.”
“It’s the eighties. I have to have big hair.” She laughs and pulls on her coat. “Okay, are you ready? Should we take some coffee or hot chocolate?”
“Already done,” I inform her. “I’m prepared.”
“I’m impressed.” She hurries out the door I’ve just opened for her, and around to the passenger side of the truck. Once we’re both in, she smiles over at me. “This is fun.”
“We haven’t even gone anywhere yet.”
“It’s already fun,” she informs me. “I can’t wait to see everything.”
“Well, we’ll see as much as we can drive to. My four-wheel drive should get us pretty much everywhere.”
“What if we get stuck?”
“Then I’ll be hoofing it back to get help.”
Joy frowns. “No, I don’t like that idea. Maybe we should just stay at the cabin until it’s safer for a tour.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t take you anywhere that it’s not safe. I know this ranch better than I know your body, and that’s saying a lot, seeing as how I spent a lot of time memorizing every single gorgeous line and curve you’ve got.”
She blinks over at me. “Wow.”
“Yeah. Wow.”
CHAPTER 12
JOY
“Idon’t even know how you can tell where the road is, the drifts are so bad.” I glance over at John and feel my stomach tighten with worry. I sincerely don’t want to get stuck out here.
“Like I said, I know this property inside out. Don’t worry, it’s not too deep right here.” He reaches over and takes my hand, lifts it to his lips, and kisses my knuckles, all without taking his eyes away from where he’s sure the road is. “So, my great-grandparents bought this land close to a hundred years ago.”
“How many acres do you have?”
“About fifty thousand,” he replies, and my mouth drops.
“That’s a lot of property.”
He nods and releases my hand so he can maneuver the truck around a fallen tree. “I’ll come back later and saw that up. It’ll be good firewood for next year.”
“Why not this year?”
“It has to dry out,” he says with a smile. “Anyway, yeah, it’s a lot of land. That’s why I need ranch hands because it’s pretty much impossible to keep tabs on everything on a piece of property this big. Look over there.”
He points to what looks like abandoned buildings in the distance.
“We can’t get over there today, but that’s the original barn from way back.”
“Why did they build it so far from the cabin?”
“I’m not sure. The walls gave out on it about twenty years ago, and it collapsed, but I’ve been thinking about salvaging the wood from it and using it for something else.”
“That would be cool.”
There are black cattle in the center of a field, all together in a big huddle.
“They must be keeping warm,” I say, pointing to them.
“Yep, and keeping their babies warm. The calves are in the middle.”
“It’s a wonder they don’t freeze to death.”
“Some do,” he says, and I glance over to see a sadness in his eyes. “I can’t control the weather, and I can’t keep them all in the barn. We usually get one or two fatalities each winter.”
“That would make me so sad.”
He nods and then shifts the truck into four-wheel drive and proceeds to drive up the side of a hill.
“Oh, God, we’re going to die.”
John laughs at that and shakes his head as we level out at the top of the hill.
“No, ma’am. It’s perfectly safe. Open your eyes.”
“No way.”
I feel him take the truck out of gear, and then he reaches for my hand. “Joy. Open your pretty eyes for me.”
I comply, but I turn to look at him, not down the hill.
“Are you afraid of heights, sweetheart?”
“Maybe a little.”
“You’re safe with me. Nothing will happen to you up here. Look, the snow has let up, and the view is just fine.”
I take a deep breath, working up my courage, and then turn my gaze to the windshield, and feel myself gasp. “Holy Toledo,” I mutter. “John, this is gorgeous. You can see all the way into Bitterroot Valley from here.”
“We’re technically part of the Bitterroot Valley,” he says. “It’s funny because they named the town the same as the valley.”
“That’s the ski mountain,” I exclaim, pointing. “Wow, this is an incredible view.”
“Are you glad you opened your eyes?”
“Definitely.” I smile over at him and then look out around us once more. “Do you get a lot of wildlife out here?”
“Of course. Deer, moose, bear, lions, badgers, you name it.”
“Bear?”
“Grizzlies and black bears. This is Montana, honey.”
“I know,” I reply with a chuckle. “I just don’t like running into bears.”
“Have you before?”
“Yeah.” I nod but don’t take my eyes off the view. “I went hiking once with a friend, and we were talking and laughing, being kind of loud, the way you’re supposed to when you’re hiking in the woods. But we turned a corner, and there was a mama grizzly with two cubs.”