Juliette that way, except that he was more domineering. Thad was more modern than that, but his relationships never lasted long, since he didn’t want to get tied down. He never misled them, and described himself as not being a “commitment kind of guy,” except to the ranch. She suspected it came from the way he’d grown up, being bounced from one foster home to the next, until he was old enough to be emancipated at sixteen. Now he was careful never to get too attached.
They talked about ranch business all through dinner. He insisted on paying the check, and then he drove her home.
“Are you doing okay, Kate?” he asked when they stopped in front of her house. “I know it’s different without your dad.” She had been missing him terribly and suspected that Thad was too.
“He could be such a pain in the ass sometimes,” she said with a wistful smile. “But there was nobody like him.”
“You know, he didn’t say it much, but he admired you. He said you’d do a great job with the ranch one day, and he was right. You can do everything he did. You can make this place grow even bigger, if you want to.”
“I’d like to try,” she said, touched by what he’d told her about her father admiring her. It was news to her.
“I’d like to help you. JT didn’t want to go past a certain point. He didn’t want it to get any bigger than he could manage, he knew his limits, which was one of his strengths. But there are some things we could modernize to get better results. We should sit down sometime and talk about it.”
“I’d like that.” She had the feeling that he wanted to be a manager, and not just an employee or a foreman, and she had no doubt that he was capable of it.
“Thank you for giving me the chance, Kate.” Just as her father had kept her in her place, he had kept Thad in his. There was no question about who ran the ranch when JT was alive, but there was room for growth now, and change. Kate was open to it, and so was Thad. “I hope I get to buy a piece of the operation one day.” She realized that if he didn’t, he’d start a ranch of his own. He had the money to do that now, but he was waiting to see if the opportunity came up with her, and it might. It was too soon to know. Her father had just died and she didn’t know if her sisters were going to sell their shares eventually and want her to buy them out.
She got out of his truck then, and he walked her to the door.
“Are you going to be moving into the big house?” he asked her, curious, and she shook her head.
“That’s for Juliette. I don’t need it. I’m fine here.” She knew it would be hers one day. She was in no rush. Like her father, she was more interested in the land, and the functioning of her ranch, than her home. She always said that she didn’t have that gene. She left that to her sisters. She was more like her dad. And she knew Thad was the same way, in his tiny cabin, that he said was all he needed. Even if he was the foreman, he wasn’t interested in the trimmings, just in the job he did. And the job was the bond between them.
“You know, he taught us well.” He stood smiling at her on her porch.
She smiled back. “I think he did. We’re going to do a good job of it here,” she said with a warm look. “Thanks, Thad.” She leaned up and kissed his cheek, which surprised him, and then she opened the door and walked into her house. It had been a nice evening, and she knew they were going to do good work together. A minute later, he drove away. And he was smiling too.
Chapter 5
Gemma’s descent into hell was almost complete in the next week. They had the final show to film, everyone on the set was tense. Her agent had drummed up no work for her, not even makeshift money jobs, or appearances on other shows. He told her it might take a few months. Hollywood was dead in the summer, so things might not pick up until the fall. She was hit with an avalanche of bills for