to him walk away back to the bunkhouse and then the door open and shut. A tiny sound after that told me it was locked. He’d locked me outside.
If I wasn’t making really good money doing what I was doing, I’d have given Rubin his rebuttal. I’d have told Walter that I didn’t particularly care how he felt. I’d have given Colt a middle-finger salute and gone back inside to my bed to sleep.
But I was making really good money, and that meant curling up by the fire as it started to burn low and pulling one blanket under me like a pillow and the other over me to wrap tightly.
As uncomfortable as I was lying on the ground in the cold, though, my thoughts were hot, burning with the memory of Jane’s body against mine.
Chapter 28
Jane
The morning of the last day on Montgomery Ranch came in beautifully. The sun rose over the mountains to the east, casting long shadows for miles before finally cresting over them and shining bright on a bright blue sky. The chill of the day before and the cold night seemed to have eased up, and it was already getting warmer as we began the last batch of herding the cattle. We were heading to the ranch, and it was a long last drive. I intended to soak up every single second of it.
Breakfast that morning was rough. Sawyer, having slept outside, woke before anyone and got the bacon and eggs cooking. We had plenty of food, but the tension was palpable. No one was speaking to anyone else, save for Cecelia speaking to me occasionally. Somehow, she had come out of this trip having worked the least, complained the most, and yet was the one who the older Beauchamps were least upset at.
I tried to block it out. I was enjoying myself too much doing the work. It shocked me to my very core that I would feel that way, but I did. I loved riding Brownie and learning her as she learned me. I started to be able to read her through her movements and sounds. I was understanding what it meant to be able to have that deep connection with a horse. Or any animal really. I had never had anything other than outdoor cats growing up.
I was also starting to connect with the cattle themselves. I could read their body language as we drove them out and could pinpoint when one was about to break from the pack a bit. While I would get nervous and want to go corral them, Colt or Sawyer usually held me off. They knew them much better than I did, and often, the animal just wanted to go rest for a moment or get some grass to chew on.
For sure, I was getting much more out of our trip than Rubin was. He was a jackass from the moment he opened his eyes until the moment he shut them, and I would be glad to not spend any more time around him for a while. Even though I was looking forward to a hot meal that used a plate and fork, a comfortable bed, and a bubble bath in my near future, the thing I was most looking forward to was not having to see his stupid face or hear his dumb voice for a few weeks.
I also couldn’t deny that this trip had changed me. Everything Dad wanted the trip to a Montana Dude Ranch to accomplish with me and Cecelia had at least happened with me. I was stronger than when the trip began, for one. I could ride a horse and wasn’t concerned with my makeup being perfect or my manicured nails. I could throw a lasso at least a little bit and had learned how to interact with and corral cattle. I had gotten dirt on every surface of my body and went to bed that way. I was a completely different woman than the one who got out of the car a week ago in a short skirt and heels.
I was whole.
This was part of me now, and perhaps it always had been and I just didn’t know it. It was hidden away with genetic memory and instinct. But I needed someone to bring it out of me, to get me to recognize what was in myself. That happened to be Sawyer.
But Sawyer wasn’t speaking to me either. Not that he seemed upset with me or angry, just that he