Julianna Morris - The Ranch Solution

He groaned.

It was so frustrating. One minute Kittie seemed almost like her old self; the next she was at her worst. Nobody else was bothered by her lightning mood swings, and why should they be? She wasn’t their daughter.

He hadn’t been this scared since Anna died.

When Jacob peered through the window again, Mariah was gone. Instead he saw Kittie. She walked to the barn, peeked around carefully and then went inside.

Crap.

He got out and grabbed a towel. Kittie had a crush on Reid Weston, and she’d already disappeared a couple of times—disappearances she hadn’t explained. Reid might have snubbed Kittie when they first met, but he was a teenage boy, and Jacob didn’t trust teenage boys.

After all, he used to be one himself.

* * *

I WISH MOM AND DAD were here.

Reid Weston spread fresh straw in the horse stalls, the familiar refrain going through his mind. If his parents were alive, they’d be managing the ranch and Mariah would be a veterinarian. But they weren’t and she wasn’t. She’d quit school after the accident and returned home.

And nothing had ever been the same again.

He blinked furiously and forked a load of straw into the last stall. Mostly he missed his mom and dad, but it would be nice not to feel guilty that Mariah had left school to take care of him and the ranch. She’d given up her lifelong dream of becoming a vet.

Another twist of guilt hit Reid’s midriff. He wanted to be a veterinarian, too. Yet how could he go away to college and leave Mariah in Montana to deal with everything on her own? On top of all the other stuff she took care of, she ran the business end of the ranch by herself, doing what their parents used to do together. And Reid knew that they couldn’t afford extra payroll costs, much less school expenses, no matter what Mariah claimed.

He wasn’t blind. No one talked about it, but he knew that if it wasn’t for the ranch finances and being responsible for him, Mariah and Luke would have already gotten married. Instead, his sister was working herself silly running the vacation business and taking on more and more of the things Granddad handled so he could retire. Never mind that Granddad didn’t want to retire.

“Why don’t you like me?” asked a voice suddenly from the barn door.

Damn.

It was that city brat. Kittie. He’d avoided her for a day, but his luck had run out.

Reid spread the straw more thoroughly than necessary. “I don’t dislike you.”

“Yeah, right.”

“It isn’t you I don’t like. It’s where you...” Reid stopped, realizing how dumb it sounded to say that he didn’t like her because a drunk driver from Seattle had killed his folks and that was where she came from. Maybe it was dumb. He’d have to give it some thought.

“If it isn’t me, then what is it?” Kittie insisted.

“Just take my word, it isn’t personal.” He hung the pitchfork on the wall and dusted his hands. The kid might not be so odd if her hair wasn’t so weird. And he should be polite—it was what his mom and dad would have expected. “I’m going to see that cow you brought in. You can come if you want.”

Kittie bobbed her head eagerly. “Mariah says she’ll be all right.”

“She ought to be. My sister has a knack with hurt animals.”

“My dad thinks she’s hot,” Kittie said matter-of-factly as she tagged along. “I can tell from the way he checked her out yesterday. He thinks I don’t notice that stuff, but I do.”

Reid didn’t break step. O’Donnell wouldn’t get anywhere with Mariah—the night before he’d overheard his sister telling Grams that he was an obnoxious jerk who thought his money was better than anyone else’s. At any rate, Mariah didn’t go for men wanting a vacation fling. Short-timers were a regular feature at the ranch; they could try hitting on her, but they never got out of the gate.

“Are breasts really that important to guys?” Kittie asked.

That stopped Reid in his tracks. He stared at her, nonplussed. “What?”

“I mean, nobody will date me unless I have bigger boobs. Isn’t that right?”

She looked so miserable that he was doubly at a loss for words. “Uh...well...uh...different guys like different stuff. We’re not all the same.”

It was a lame thing to say and Kittie obviously agreed. “Oh, sure. Some guys prefer brains and personality.”

Reid could have told her she wasn’t doing any better in the brains and personality department, but she’d probably try to scratch his eyes out. He could take her down easily, except Granddad would kick his butt for fighting with a girl and her dad would only make things harder for Mariah.

“You’ve just got to grow...er...up more,” he mumbled, wishing he was on another planet. “You could be like your mom. Do you know when she got...bigger?”

“Not really. She was awful pretty, though, and Dad says I’m like her.” Yet Kittie’s face became glummer. “I don’t know much about my mom ’cept she first got sick in high school. Real sick. They tried to make her better, only it didn’t work or stay that way or something.” All at once Kittie seemed alarmed. “Please don’t tell my dad.”

“About what?” Reid couldn’t think of anything he’d want to tell Kittie’s father, especially about her questions. Honestly, asking how he felt about breasts? The brat didn’t have a lick of sense.

“Nothing. N-nothing I said.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

He headed again for the corral where they’d put the mother and calf. It was in the rear of the far barn where she wouldn’t be upset by too much activity. Range cattle had little contact with humans and didn’t take kindly to being penned at the best of times. True to form, the mother cow grunted and moved in front of her baby, stamping the ground in warning.

Reid ran a practiced gaze over her and the feed box. Her muzzle was wet, so she’d obviously drunk some water. And a portion of the feed had been eaten. Not bad after getting roped, stitched, dosed and confined.

“How is she?” Kittie rested her arms on the top fence rail, the same as him, but she had to stretch to do it.

“Not bad, considering.”

“What would have happened if we never found her?”

Reid thought of the animals they lost each year. Life was hard on the range; he couldn’t sugarcoat it. “Could have died. The baby is too young to survive on its own, and the mother’s wound was infected. But even if you hadn’t located them, someone else would probably have come along.”

Footsteps came from behind them and Reid grimaced at the sight of Kittie’s father. “Mr. O’Donnell.”

“Hello, Reid. I haven’t seen much of you since we got here.” There was a faint emphasis on the I and a hidden query whether another O’Donnell had seen him before now.

Reid tipped his hat back. As if he’d be interested in a city runt with an attitude. “Stands to reason—I’ve been busy and I’m not your wrangler.”

“That sounds like something your sister would say.”

“Yup. Some things run in families.”

O’Donnell flicked a look at Kittie, whose attention was no longer on the mother cow and her calf. “I guess.”

“Dad, am I really, truly like Mom?” Kittie asked intently.

A smile softened O’Donnell’s expression. “Really and truly, sweetheart. She was beautiful, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.”

“I... Whatever.” Kittie pressed her lips together and turned back to the corral.

“I’ve got work to do,” Reid said, deciding it was time to escape. “Don’t stay long, and don’t get near the mama or her baby. It’ll make them nervous.” With a curt nod to Jacob O’Donnell, he strode away.

All in all, he felt kind of sorry for Kittie. Her dad was rich, so she had plenty of money, but apparently her mom was dead, and he knew exactly how that felt.