Renegade Father Read Online Free PDF Page B

time to build up that kind of trust with whomever she finally hired to replace him. She set the pencil down so hard the lead snapped off, and went to answer the door.
    To her surprise, it wasn’t Joe she found in the light of the back porch at all but Luke Mitchell, looking nervous and edgy and, if possible, even younger than normal.
    â€œLuke! Is something wrong?”
    â€œNo. I just…” the ranch hand shifted his weight, “I wanted to talk to you tonight. Are you busy?”
    â€œNo. Just trying to write an ad for a new foreman. Come in.”
    She helped brush snow off his black slicker in the mudroom, then led the way into the kitchen. “Can I get you something? I was having a cup of tea and there’s plenty more hot water.”
    He shook his head. The movement seemed to remind him of his manners because he abruptly yanked the cowboy hat from his head, leaving a flat line haloing his blond hair.
    She took her seat again and pointed to another chair. “Why don’t you sit down, then.”
    He shook his head again, a quick, restless gesture. Shoulders tense, he stood in the doorway and began measuring the brim of his hat with his fingers. Round and round he went, first in one direction then the other, over and over until—given her lingering headache and the uproar of her emotions—she had to fight the urge to yank the blasted thing away from him and throw it on the table.
    He opened his mouth to speak twice, but both times he jerked it shut again, and she could tell he was tryingto work up his nerve for some kind of major announcement.
    Fiddlesticks. She had absolutely no energy left to deal with this after the day she’d had. “It’s late,” she finally said, when it looked like he was going to stand in her kitchen fidgeting all night. She should probably try to be more patient, but she just wasn’t in the mood tonight. “What can I do for you, Luke?”
    â€œI’d like to apply for the foreman job,” he blurted out, so loudly it startled both of them.
    The foreman job? She stared at him, shocked, watching a flush creep up those baby-smooth cheeks. Of all the possibilities racing through her head about what he might be doing there at ten o’clock at night, the idea that he wanted Joe’s job never would have occurred to her.
    â€œI know I’m young and all but I’m a hard worker. Joe’s always sayin’ so. I’m strong and I’m willing and I’ve been around cattle all my life. If my daddy hadn’t had lost our spread because of the damn banks—excuse my language, ma’am—I’d be on my way to runnin’ my own place by now.”
    Like so many ranching families, the Mitchells had been hurt by the recent run of low beef prices. They had run a pretty big spread near Big Sky and she knew his father slightly.
    She heard he was trying to support his large family by working in a ranch supply store over in Bozeman now. It had been one of the reasons she’d taken a chance and hired Luke two months earlier, in an effort to give the family one less mouth to feed.
    Compassion for the eager young man washed over her. To grow up thinking he would take over the reins of the family ranch someday and then to lose it all withthe bang of an auctioneer’s gavel must have been devastating. Heaven knows, it was one of her own biggest fears.
    â€œYou could do a whole lot worse, ma’am,” Luke went on, “if you don’t mind me sayin’.”
    Drat Joe for putting her in this position. She rubbed suddenly clammy hands on her jeans beneath the table. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt his fragile pride by telling him she didn’t think he was man enough for the job.
    Especially when life had already dealt him a rough hand—and when he had more than a slight crush on her. “I… You’ve been a real asset to the Double C, Luke.”
    â€œThank you.” His