Learning To Love (Contemporary Cowboy Romance) (Carson Hill Ranch series:Book 1) Read Free Page A

profiles, and we’ll just see what kind of response we get, right?” He cringed at the thought of a woman showing up at the ranch, the kind of sturdy, grizzled woman who would be willing to even consider signing on for the life of a ranch wife, especially one who would come all this way with marriage on her mind. He couldn’t bring himself to envision it but he couldn’t argue with his father either, especially when Dad was apparently only thinking of them.
                  Bernard dismissed his oldest sons with a nod, patting them on their work-hardened shoulders as they turned to go. They didn’t make it far before muffled laughter rolled down the staircase.
                  “You two look like you’ve seen a ghost!” one of their foremen, Jack, called out as he came down the last few steps. “Lemme guess, the old man had ‘that talk’ with you two? So you two are finally men now?” He leered at his own joke, enjoying the look of absolute embarrassment on Carey’s face and utter humiliation on Casey’s.
                  “Real smooth, Jack. And try to remember that the ‘old man’ is my father and your employer. Do you make it a habit to eavesdrop outside my father’s office when he’s conducting business?” Casey demanded, stepping up to stand face-to-face with Jack so quickly, Carey barely had time to put a hand out and pull him back. Jack only laughed harder.
                  “I sure do, ‘specially when that business is about somebody getting to dip his wick in a pretty young girl. If we get any good offers from that Internet site of your dad’s, maybe they’ll be plenty to go around. I won’t have to go visiting those strung-out, puny local girls if I had a wife of my own.” He laughed as Casey lunged at him again, only to be held back by his brother. He turned to head back to the shacks that dotted the western edge of the property, his sickening laugh still sounding around them as he went.
                  “I can’t tell you how much I hate that man. Good people get thrown off their horses or run over by tractors every damn day. Why can’t he hurry up and do us all a favor, and get his brains kicked in?” Casey seethed.
                  “You don’t mean that. Sure, he’s a horse’s ass, but he can get ten thousand cattle from here to Wyoming without losing more than a handful. That says something about the man. Besides, he’s been with Dad for longer than we’ve been alive. That must say something for him.”
                  “Yeah, it says it’s time for him to go. He’ll be one of the first ones to be sent walking out on the prairie without so much as a dried up biscuit in his pail when we finally run this ranch.”
                  “Well, hopefully, that day is a long time from now. Speaking of biscuits, I’m so hungry my stomach thinks my throat’s been cut. C’mon, let’s wash up and see what the kitchen staff has for us.” Carey put one arm around his twin’s shoulders and led him to the back porch to the water stalls.
     
     

CHAPTER THREE
     
                  “So, I hear we’ve got some love birds out on the ranch,” Emma said under her breath to Dee as they leaned against the corner of the brick bar, supposedly to entice men to come in. The sad handful of men who’d already been lured inside were either too broke or too drunk on whatever Crazy Mack passed off as whiskey to pay any attention to a couple of skinny working girls waiting outside.
                  “What are you talking about?” Dee whispered back, a pathetic smile that was supposed to make her look alluring plastered across her face.
                  “Jack was in here two weeks ago for his usual,” she said, rolling her eyes and making a face. “and he said the old man at Carson Hill Ranch was advertising for wives for his sons.”