Free Summer Days by Susan Mallery Page B

line.
    “Some of it is in better shape, but only for small sections. What was it like when you lived here before?” she asked before she could stop herself.
    “Things were in better shape. Old man Castle might have paid his employees shit, but he cared about the ranch.”
    She heard a trace of bitterness in his voice, and knew he had cause to resent what his family had gone through. But she still had trouble reconciling the vision of a hungry little boy with the successful man riding next to her.
    “He kept a lot of cattle,” she said, watching the dark, moving shapes in the distance. “They’re everywhere and very wild.”
    Rafe glanced at her. “Wild?”
    “You know. Feral.”
    He laughed again. “Been attacked by a few feral cows, have you?”
    “No, but I stay clear of them. They make trouble with the goats. I swear, they come in the night and show Athena how to break out.”
    “You’re giving them way more credit than they deserve.”
    “I don’t think so.” While he was in such a good mood, even if it was at her expense, she risked a potentially dangerous question. “What does your mom want to do with the ranch?”
    “I have no idea. I’d say restore it to its former glory, but it never had much of any. She has an emotional connection to this place. She wants to make it…better. She’s talking about fence lines and fixing up the barn.”
    “Does she want to run cattle?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “You could ask.”
    “Then I’d know, and with my mother, that’s not always a good thing.”
    “Not knowing is the reason you’re here now. How come you signed the contract?”
    He shook his head. “A few years ago, one of my mom’s friends died unexpectedly. Her affairs weren’t in order and that made a mess for her kids. My mother decided that wasn’t going to happen and made sure she was fully prepared for her eventual passing.”
    “That’s both considerate and a little creepy. She’s not that old.”
    “I know, but once she gets her mind set on something, she can’t be budged.”
    “Oh, so you inherited that from her.” Heidi winced, wishing she could remember to think before she spoke.
    “Are you saying I’m stubborn?”
    “Pretty much.”
    The sun was high in the sky. The temperature was in the mid-sixties and there were no clouds to be seen. Some of the trees were budding, others had pale pink and creamy-white flowers all along the branches. She could hear birds, and if she ignored the wild cattle off in the distance, the moment would be about perfect.
    “Part of her plan to get things in order involved me,” Rafe said after a few minutes. “I have to cosign every financial transaction she makes. She uses an online bill-pay, so I’m not involved in those, but every other check or document with a signature comes to me first. It adds up.”
    “So, that’s how come you didn’t read the contract to buy the ranch.”
    “Yeah. It’s my own fault.”
    “Glen’s not a bad man.”
    “No one said he is.”
    “You implied it.”
    “He did steal two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
    “But it was for a good reason. To help a friend.”
    Rafe stared at her. She met his dark gaze and sighed.
    “Your point is, stealing is stealing and trying to justify it doesn’t change the act itself. He was wrong.”
    “Something like that,” Rafe admitted. “Glen may not be evil, but he’s not big on consequences.”
    Heidi wouldn’t admit it out loud, but Rafe was right about her grandfather. Glen skated through life using his charm to get him out of most of the world’s unpleasantness.
    “I don’t suppose it would help to say I’m sure he’s sorry.”
    “No.”
    They rode in silence for a few minutes. She tried to work up a good indignation or some old-fashioned annoyance, but couldn’t. Sure, Rafe threatened her and her home, and she would do anything she could to stop him from tossing her out, but there was a part of her that understood.
    Glen had defrauded an