horses could come back in or stay out. That done, he went next door to the new hay barn, where he’d been organizing tack and making space for the new load of hay that would arrive that afternoon.
On his father’s farm in Montana, buying hay could set the whole operation into the red. But the Hammond family farm didn’t seem to have a budget. They didn’t have to use the money the farm generated to live, and Matt envied them that.
When his father had passed, he’d inherited a healthy sum of money. Nothing like a million dollars, let alone the billions Gray Hammond possessed. Enough to make his life comfortable.
Matt had been working for someone else since his father’s death, because he’d sold that farm and he’d needed to have a job where the daily tasks were well-defined by someone else. Then he could just get up in the morning, do the work, and go to bed at night.
He worked until lunch shifting around the hay and stacking it higher. He made a plan for how to rotate it, and he left notes for Gloria and Gray, the only other two people who worked the farm with him.
As if bidden by his thoughts, Gloria called his name as he finished his last note. “Right here,” he called, throwing up his defensive walls. He could admit he was attracted to Gloria. He could, and he had.
He’d also told Hunter once that he wasn’t ready to date again, and that still remained true though another month had passed.
The beautiful blonde appeared from around the corner, wearing a pair of skin-tight jeans with plenty of dirt on them, a tight, red coat, and leather gloves. “I need you,” she said. “We’ve got a cow caught in a fence.”
Matt dropped the pencil and hurried after her. She’d obviously been out checking the herd, as a single horse waited right outside the barn.
“I’ll get Shadow,” he called.
“No time,” she said. “Hop on with me.”
Matt hadn’t ridden a horse with another adult in a long time. He rode with Brittany all the time, but Gloria was quite a bit different than his daughter. She wasn’t much wider, but she was taller, and wrapping his arms around her made his heart stutter and skip in a way it hadn’t in a long, long time.
He held on as she spurred Knitted Cotton into a gallop. Her hair whipped behind her, and Matt put his head right next to hers to avoid it. She wasn’t wearing a hat, and he suspected she’d lost it on the ride in.
They arrived at the tangled cow in only a few minutes, and Matt swung down to the ground first. Gloria followed, saying, “I tried to pull that line down, but I’m not strong enough.”
Matt wasn’t sure he was either, but he could try. “You grab onto her legs, so I don’t get kicked.”
Gloria got right in behind the cow and grabbed her hind legs. The cow lowed, clearly not happy with what was happening. The scent of blood hung in the air, but Matt ignored it as he positioned himself on the other side of the cow and bent to pull one line of barbed wire up and push the bottom one down.
“Three, two, one,” he said, counting in quick succession. He put all of his strength into moving the lines that had been wired tight enough to prevent exactly what he was trying to do. He groaned with the effort, and said, “Just a little bit further.”
His muscles strained, and a wave of heat moved through him. “Got it. Go. Go.”
Gloria yipped at the cow, and it moved out of the fence. Matt released the lines and rubbed his gloved hands together, panting. The cow trotted off, still lowing like Matt and Gloria had done something horrible by saving it.
“Do we need to round it up and check her legs?”
Gloria sighed and turned to Matt. “Yep.”
Matt wished he had his own horse. “Guess we should’ve roped it before we let ‘er loose.”
Gloria exhaled and smiled, something he’d been seeing more and more often lately. They hadn’t talked much in the couple of months she’d been here. Gloria had always been a really private person, and Matt was still trying to figure out how to be a single father.
Now, though, everything seemed easy between them. “I’ll lead, and you can ride,” he said, starting back toward Cotton.
“I need to walk,” she said. “I’ve been in the saddle for hours.”