Free Boots and Twisters by Myla Jackson

better of it, he demanded, “What the hell are you doing here?”
    “Working.” Jerking her leg out from under a heavy bale, she managed to roll off him and onto the ground. “What does it look like?” As agile as a cat, she shot to her feet.
    “I can see that. But why?”
    “Isaac hired me as the new ranch hand.”
    “What?” Trent stood and stared at her.
    “Is it so hard to believe a woman can be as effective and efficient at ranch work as a man?”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    “No, you didn’t have to.” She stood, brushing the hay from her jeans but missing the straws stuck in her hair. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get to work cleaning this up.”
    “I didn’t say I agreed with Isaac’s decision to hire you.”
    She planted her hands on her hips. “You gonna fire me?”
    He glared at her. “I don’t know.”
    “Well, until you say otherwise, I have work to do.”
    Trent climbed over the bales to stand in front of her. “Like I said last night. You’re trouble.”
    Something clouded her already stormy eyes. “Maybe, but I work hard and I know my way around a ranch.”
    She grabbed a bale and threw it up onto the stack.
    “I gathered that.” And she was beautiful with fire in her eyes and hay in her hair. Trent worked alongside her until they had all the hay stacked in neat rows. When they were done, he brushed straw off his body and grinned. She’d worked hefting as many bales as he had. So, she could lift bales.
    Lucky flicked hay off her shoulders. “If we’re done here, there’s a fence on the northeast corner of the property I intend to fix.”
    “You can’t do that.”
    “Why not?” she asked.
    “Because it’s a two-man—person—job.”
    “I’ve strung fence with and without help. I can handle it.”
    “Maybe so, but we use the buddy rule around here. Unless you’re working around the house or barn, you always take a buddy with you. That way if one or the other is hurt, you have someone there to help.”
    She looked at him through slitted eyes. “You’re making that up.”
    He held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
    Her eyes narrowed even more. “When were you ever a Scout?”
    His lips twisted. “Okay, so I’ve never been a Scout. But we do use the buddy system. I’ll go with you.”
    Her full, soft lips tightened. “How do you usually get there?”
    “I take the four-wheeler. You can ride on the back.”
    “Is that how you and your partner…er, brother ride out?”
    “We usually take a couple of four-wheelers, but one of them is in the shop for repair.”
    She hesitated then nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”
    Trent gathered the come-along, a roll of barbed wire, pliers, a hammer and a couple of metal fence posts and the heavy pounder used to drive them in.
    Lucky took half of the supplies and carried them out into the open, then went back for the other half while Trent pulled the four-wheeler out of one of the storage areas in the barn.
    Loading what she could in the box on the back, she settled the fence posts over the box and Trent strapped them down along with the pole pounder.
    “I’ll get my hat and be ready to go.” Lucky disappeared into the barn.
    Isaac joined Trent, carrying two water bottles. He settled them in the box with the tools. “I take it you’ve met our new ranch hand.”
    Trent gave Isaac a withering look. “Yeah. You could have warned me.”
    “She has the experience and know-how. And from the looks of it, the stamina.” Isaac’s lips twitched.
    “Don’t go there.”
    “Well, she’s a lot easier on the eye than some of the ranch hands I’ve seen hanging out at the Ugly Stick.”
    “We needed someone to do the job, not someone to stare at. Dusty’s not coming back for another two months.” He’d done his share of staring and Isaac was right. The woman was a looker. Not a traditional beauty, more statuesque and fresh-faced all at once. She didn’t wear makeup or hairspray in her hair, but she had a natural