Casey pointed to her horse. “Let’s go. Saddle up.”
Ember headed for her horse, lifted her leg to get one foot in the stirrup and felt strong hands around her waist propelling her upward. With a gasp of surprise, she fumbled but managed to get her leg up over the saddle and turned to see Casey already moving toward his own horse, looking over his shoulder in the direction of the wolf.
“It’s pretty far away,” Ember said, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice.
“Let’s keep it that way,” Casey replied, and he pulled his gun off his back and reached into his saddlebag, coming out with two shells. “You go first.” He slapped Patience’s rump. “Go home, Patience.”
The horse didn’t need to be told twice, and Ember lowered herself over the saddle as they headed up to the tree line once more.
“Lord, protect us,” she whispered, but when she glanced back, she saw Casey with a rifle in one hand and his dark gaze scanning the landscape. If anything was going to come at them, she had a feeling she was in good hands.
Casey urged his horse faster as they approached the tree line. He looked back, surveying the countryside from his higher vantage point, but the wolf had disappeared, and he couldn’t see any more movement. Still, wolves blended into their environments rather easily, and he wouldn’t feel right until he had Ember back on the other side of the woods where wolves didn’t dare approach.
It was one thing to be looking out for himself and another ranch hand who knew how to deal with these things, and quite another to have a completely green city girl on his hands. One day he’d get married, but in his mind’s eye, his wife would be just as good a shot as he was. This land required respect and a steady trigger finger. That was a lesson he’d be teaching the boys when they got old enough to hold their own guns...
Ember put an arm up, pushing some twigs away from her face as Patience carried her into the forest. He took one last look behind them before he followed her into the woods.
“Are we in any danger?” Ember asked, looking over her shoulder at him.
“I wasn’t about to stick around and give the wolves any ideas,” Casey replied. “We can shoot them if they harass us or the cattle, but they’re endangered, too, so I’m not about to start taking potshots at wolves if I don’t have to.”
She turned back to face forward, and he was struck by the shine to her blond waves that fell over her shoulder and down her back. A twig was caught in her hair, and Casey had the urge to pluck it out, but he wasn’t close enough. She was a beautiful woman, but also vulnerable. A country woman wouldn’t be quite so reliant on him for safety and common sense out here, and he felt the weight of that responsibility.
They rode in silence through the woods until they emerged on the other side into the scattered shade at the forest edge.
“The wolves never come this close to a human settlement,” Casey said. “Not in daylight.”
“Shouldn’t you be able to do more about the wolves?” Ember asked.
“Yeah, if you buy this place, the wolves are your problem, too,” Casey said with a rueful smile. “But they’re an important part of the ecosystem out here.
“Like I said before, it’s not about your convenience out here. It’s about finding a way to live alongside nature safely.”
“I get it.”
Did she? He wasn’t so certain.
Casey let his eyes roam over the patchwork of fields and those gently snaking roads that made their way between them. He’d driven every single one of those roads, and he knew these fields—the kinds of grass that grew in them, the drainage when the snow melted, the state of the fences that surrounded them—like the back of his hand. If only he’d known his boss as well. He understood that things had deteriorated quickly for Mrs. Vern, but his boss had kept that private for a long time, too. He hadn’t opened up, shared a bit, given Casey any indication that he should be scraping some money together to make an offer that could compete with what a Reed brought to the table.
Everyone looked out for themselves, it seemed. Even Christians. Even country folk. Everyone kept their personal business close to the vest and tried to sort out their own situation.
Casey, people might like you a whole lot, but they like their own hide more, his father used to tell him. Funny how it took a couple of decades for wisdom to grow deep.
When they got back to the barn, he dismounted, then helped Ember down from Patience’s back. She rubbed her legs and stretched—definitely not used to the exertion of horseback riding, and he turned his attention to unsaddling the horses and turning them out to pasture for the rest of the day.
“Mr. Vern invited us up for lunch at the house,” Casey said, then paused. “Hold on—” He reached behind her back and plucked that twig out of her hair. It took a moment to untangle it, and her hair felt silky in his calloused hands. He held the twig up as proof that he’d had an excuse to touch her.
She smiled feebly. “I’m not scared off, Casey.”
“I’m not trying to scare you,” he replied, feeling mildly offended that she’d think so. “You saw the wolf, didn’t you?”
She eyed him for a moment. “You’re a ranch manager here. What would make working for me so different?”
“First of all, you wouldn’t be ranching,” he retorted.
“Fine. But I have a feeling that even if I were intent on raising cattle, you’d still have a problem with working for me.”
Casey headed for the door, pushed it open and waited for Ember to leave the barn ahead of him. “My family
