awful Blaine was, and she was grateful to Kaiden for making her take a step back and really look at her boss again. She’d gotten so tied up and tense dealing with his petty demands on a daily basis that she’d begun to think she was overreacting. But no, he really was that awful, and he didn’t deserve the promotion that should have been hers.
At the end of the meal, Julia turned to Kaiden. “Thank you for cooking.”
“You’re welcome.” He nodded at her dad. “I’ll clear up and make Juan some coffee if you and Blaine want to go through to the farm office and get on with it.”
“Thanks, we will.”
She wanted to kiss him, but didn’t want to do anything in front of Blaine that might get back to the office. He was incapable of keeping a secret, and implying that her focus was not on her work, but at home with a hot rancher, would be an excellent way to impede her forward progress in the law firm.
“I’ll bring you some coffee, and then I’ll get on with the chicken coop.” He turned to Blaine. “Nice meeting you.”
“Same,” Blaine said without raising his eyes from his phone, which made Julia want to rip it out of his hand and throw it at the wall.
Kaiden rolled his eyes at Julia, walked Juan back into the family room, made sure he was settled, and returned to the kitchen just as Julia showed Blaine where the farm office was. She waited until Blaine went through the door and then turned back to Kaiden.
“I owe you.”
“Yeah?” He gave her a slow wink. “I’ll think about how you can repay me.”
She kissed his cheek. “Please do.”
She was still smiling as she went into the office where Blaine was setting up his laptop and shut the door. She’d keep her temper, be polite, answer all his inane questions, and wave him off with great pleasure in a few hours. Hopefully, that would be the last she’d see of him for the next two weeks.
* * *
Kaiden had just knocked the last fence post in and stood back to check that it was level with the others when the kitchen door opened and Blaine stepped out. He lit a cigarette, walked gingerly over to Kaiden, and stared at the chicken coop.
“I bet those eggs will taste good.”
“They will.” Kaiden put his hammer away in his tool belt. “Not sure if they qualify as plant-based though. Where’s Julia?”
“She’s just finishing up some tasks for me.” Blaine exhaled a plume of smoke. “It’s a shame that I had to come all this way. If she hadn’t made so many mistakes in the initial documents, I wouldn’t have had to chase her down. It’s hard to manage people like her who are so sloppy.”
“Julia’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met,” Kaiden said evenly. “I can’t imagine her being anything but one hundred percent on task.”
“And what’s up with her dad? Is what he’s got catching or anything?”
“He has MS.” Kaiden measured the space between the posts. He did some mental math about how much wire fencing he’d need to surround the pen rather than calculating just how quickly he could dig a nice, quiet grave for Blaine.
“So he’s been sick for a long time, which makes me wonder why Julie had to rush to his side right now. It’s almost as if she timed it deliberately to make me look bad,” Blaine said. “She’s so not a team player.”
“Her name is Julia, not Julie, and her dad’s condition has gotten worse recently,” Kaiden said. “He had a bad fall.”
“But you’re still keeping him on?”
“Excuse me?”
“This is your place, right?” Blaine gestured at the ranch house. “You rent it to them?”
Kaiden laughed. “One hundred percent wrong. I live on my father’s ranch about a mile away. The Garcia family have owned this land for almost a hundred years.”
“They own it?” Blaine looked surprised.
“Yeah. Why would you think any differently?” Kaiden met his gaze head-on.
“I assumed they were recent immigrants.” Blaine shrugged. “It’s an easy mistake to make considering.”
Kaiden measured and rejected several answers, which would not have helped Julia’s career. “I don’t see why. Several families in Morgan Valley settled here after the gold rush, and a second wave came in the twenties and thirties between the wars. Most of them are still here.”
“How big is this place?”
Kaiden raised his eyebrows. “What’s it to you?”
“I was just wondering.” Blaine took another look at the pastures sweeping away