Almost Fired by the Cowboy - Natalie Dean Page 0,11

have now rather than more.”

Sal wasn’t exactly sure how that worked out, but he wasn’t going to argue.

His dad continued, “After all, we’re not socialists. We’re true-blue Americans, and we work hard for our country and freedom.”

“Right. Of course. I will do that, and I’ll keep at it until it works. Failure is not an option.”

“You’ve got that right.”

Nodding, Sal excused himself and headed back out, but as the door to his dad’s study closed, he couldn’t help but feel entirely exhausted. Except exhausted didn’t seem to do his mood justice. Worn. Inside out. Deflated.

Well, whatever the right phrase was, he was pretty sure that he could use a nap. And then a workout. Nothing like a session in his personal gym to forget his worries.

He certainly had plenty.

It took Sal about two days to gather himself and figure out the start of his plan. He figured the best place to begin was to confront Silas or Solomon and tell them that they needed to shape up. After all, there was a chance that they were just so punch-drunk from their lady friends that they weren’t thinking straight. Maybe, if he was concise and direct, he could shed some light for them, and their family could go back to being a family instead of two conflicting factions.

He could always hope.

Stealing himself, he headed up to Solomon’s office. Normally he didn’t make a habit of going over to his brother’s wing, but he figured uniting his family was a pretty good cause. Of course, when he got there and knocked on the door, it became clear pretty quickly that he wasn’t in.

He had to be off to the city again. Drat. It seemed like he spent more time there than home lately. That certainly wasn’t helping.

Oh well, there was always Silas. Chances were he was just going off to his morning ride. And if that failed, well, Sterling would be up in a few hours.

Nodding to himself, Sal headed out the door. Silas’ truck was still in their extended garage, so that bode well, but he had no idea where his brother was on the ranch. He supposed he could text the elder twin, but he didn’t want the forewarning, giving his brother a chance to make up some sort of excuse as to why they couldn’t meet.

Well, if his brother was out on a ride, he had to return to the stables eventually. Especially since he wasn’t riding on his favorite horse, Amaranth, as she was still recovering from her injury last summer.

Feeling pleased to have a plan, Sal grabbed one of their spare golf carts and headed towards the stables. He’d been skeptical when Solomon had suggested the little things as a way to cut down on their emissions in riding around the ranch, but the carts turned out to be pretty fun. Besides, Sal saw how much his mother had giggled when she’d first gotten her flowery one and, well, if it made his momma happy, he was alright with it.

It took longer to get there than it would in a truck, of course, but he wasn’t in a hurry. For the past year and a half, Silas had taken to horseback riding in the morning, racing his twin or just exploring around the ranch. Sal didn’t entirely get it, but he didn’t begrudge his brother in enjoying the horses. They were magnificent creatures.

When he arrived, he heard noises inside that indicated a human was in there along with all the mounts. Perfect. Striding in, he was all ready to confront his brother only to see that it wasn’t Silas at all.

No, instead it was the last person he ever wanted to see. Just his luck.

It was the crazy girl, the one who had tackled him, mucking out a stall and humming to herself with her earbuds in. She gave no indication that she even noticed him standing there and that irritated Sal for some reason.

Striding over, he cleared his throat once, twice, then a third time while rapping on the stall’s partition before she jumped, yanking her headphones from her ears.

“Jeeza-Louise! You really move silently for a hench chap, don’t you?” she exclaimed, hand over her chest.

Her accent and slang startled him, and he found his eyes automatically scanning her over again to catch anything he missed after their rather tumultuous first meeting. She wasn’t wearing the usual button-up and khakis that Elizabeth sported, or the jumpsuit that other workers wore. Instead she was wearing a sort