Free Last Chance Cowboys: The Drifter by Anna Schmidt Page A

likeable guy.” He grinned at her, wanting to lighten the mood and move away from any further discussion of Turnbull.
    She laughed. It bubbled up from someplace deep inside her as if it had been kept under control far too long. “Not exactly the self-deprecating type, are you?”
    â€œHere’s the thing, Miss Maria—if I knew what that fifty-cent word meant, I just might have to agree with you. But since I don’t know whether you’ve insulted me or paid me a compliment, I’ll just keep quiet.” He was teasing her and acting like they’d known each other for some time. He thought she might take offense, but she didn’t. In fact she smiled at him.
    â€œFair enough.” She took up her reins and turned the horse toward the camp, but just before she rode off, she looked back at him and added, “The fact is, Chet Hunter, I like you. I’m not sure I can trust you to stick around for as long as I’m going to need help, but I like you.”
    â€œNow that’s a straight-up compliment,” he replied and tipped his hat to her again.
    She turned fully in the saddle to look back at him, any trace of lightheartedness gone. “Yes, it is. Don’t disappoint me, Chet. I’ve had about all the disappointment I can handle for a while.”
    He watched her knee her horse and ride fast toward the cook wagon where Chet could see the night riders finishing their food before taking up their posts to relieve the day shift overseeing the herd. She’d asked him not to disappoint her. But in the end, he knew he would because she would want him to stay…and if he was going to realize his dream, he would have to go.
    * * *
    What had she been thinking? I like you? That sounded like something her sixteen-year-old sister might blurt out. She was a grown woman and the head of this family now. These men worked for her. That man worked for her. “Oh, Papa, this is so much harder than you made it seem,” she muttered as, instead of stopping, she waved to the men around the chuck wagon and turned her horse for home.
    Her mother and Juanita were sitting in the courtyard when she arrived as the sun set, the shadows of dusk settling in. Trey was there as well, sketching them. Amanda was no doubt in her room, where she spent every spare minute trying new styles for her long strawberry-blond hair or experimenting with the rouge and powders she wasn’t supposed to wear. Maria waved as she rode past the house to the corral. She was pulling off Macho’s saddle when she saw Roger come striding out of the barn toward her.
    â€œWhere were you?” he demanded.
    â€œI went out to check the herd.” She certainly did not owe him an explanation, so why was she giving him one? “I wanted to let Ricardo and the others know we’ve decided that it’s best to move to higher ground. The north slopes will provide more relief from the heat and better grazing until we get rain.” She swung the saddle around and rested it on the fence, then faced Roger. “It’s the right decision, Roger. Grass in that area is already patchy. Besides, moving them north gets them farther away from the Tipton boundary.”
    â€œYou could have told them all that here at the ranch.”
    â€œI like being out there. It makes me feel…I don’t know, like maybe I can do this.”
    â€œYou’re the boss,” Roger muttered without looking at her.
    â€œFor now, yes I am, and I am doing the best I can, Roger.”
    â€œI just don’t get why you think you have to do it alone.”
    â€œI don’t. I’m not. This was a group decision made at the cattlemen’s association meeting the other day. Besides, in addition to our good neighbors, I have Nita and Eduardo and you and—”
    â€œThe drifter?”
    â€œI was going to say the men.”
    â€œBut you seem to want his opinion over the others.”
    She was incredulous at the