Maybe I need to find a new accountant.”
“Well, you might need to after you sell yourself off to the highest bidder,” he said.
My jaw dropped, air escaping that I couldn’t form into words. I took a deep breath.
“How dare you judge me,” I breathed, the cold rain seeping through my clothes. “From your castle on high with a million lamps, a fire in every hearth, a massive table heaped with food you can afford to waste, staff at your beck and call.”
“I’m not judging you.”
“How far would you go to protect what’s yours?” I asked. “To protect Abigail’s legacy?”
“This isn’t about my daughter.”
“No, this is about my property,” I said. “That you’ve come over here yelling at me about, so clearly there are no boundaries.”
I slid off Daisy and walked to the nearest section of rotten fencing, picking up the largest piece. I heard him blow out a frustrated breath, followed by the sound of leather and his boots hitting the ground.
“I don’t need your help,” I said, my back still to him as I weighed one side of a post in my hands.
“Then have your hands come fix this,” he said. “Why have they let it slide like this?”
“Because I had to let them go,” I retorted, dropping up the post and whirling around to face him. “They likely all came to work for you.”
He stopped short, looking shocked. Maybe a little humbled. Ranch owners didn’t usually know all the minute details. They had managers for that. I used to have managers for that.
“Who’s working the herd every day?” he asked.
“Malcolm,” I said. “And me.”
“You?”
“Yes, me,” I said, indignant as I shrugged out of the restrictive jacket and draped it over the fence. I turned to pick up the post again and look down the line. “I’m perfectly capable of it. And with it so small now, it’s really nothing.” I set the post back down and nodded. “I’ll go into town later and get supplies. I can probably fix this tomorrow.”
“You?” he said again.
I turned back around, fixing him with a look as I shielded my eyes from the rain. “We’ve established that.”
“You’re going to fix the fence.” He said it as a statement.
I dropped my hand and crossed my arms, suddenly a little too aware of my state of dress, or lack of it. Especially wet. And white.
“I’m a rancher’s daughter,” I said. “I’ve done every job on this land at least once, and fixing broken things is a daily chore.”
He wiped a hand over his face.
“You can’t go on like this, Josie. You need help to run a ranch.”
I snorted. “Really, now? Come up with that all by yourself?”
“So that’s why you were interviewing for husbands last night?”
I shook my head. “Are you—do you mean to keep insulting me, or is it just your natural charm?”
“I’m sorry, but do you realize the dangerous position in which you put yourself last night? Not all men are gentlemen, Josie.”
“Do you realize I don’t have a choice?” I spat, stepping up to him just as the rain went a little more horizontal. It didn’t matter anymore. There came a point when you couldn’t get any wetter. “And I suppose you’re calling yourself a gentleman?”
“I try to be,” he said, rain dripping off his hat as his gaze burned down into mine. “Every day. I try to be some sort of standard my daughter can use to measure a good man by.”
Words stuck in my throat at the sincerity that emanated from him with that sentence.
“Well, here’s a tip: Don’t be a cad.”
His jaw ticked, and being close enough to see that wasn’t a good idea. I backed up a step and turned back to survey the damage. Think, Josie. If Malcolm and I went into town together, we could probably get enough precut railings to take care of this. He was getting too old to do the physical work. I could do that; I just needed help manhandling the timbers.
“Get the horses out of this,” he said behind me, already leading both under a nearby tree.
“Feel free to leave,” I said. “You aren’t needed—”
“I’ll take care of it.”
I whirled around. “No, you won’t. I just need to get the materials, and I will do this myself. It’s not your problem, Mr. Mason.”
Anger flashed in his eyes, and that’s what I wanted: to make him mad enough to leave. I couldn’t keep up this back-and-forth bantering and seeing good in him. I didn’t want to see good in him.
“Well, because