Searching For Love (Contemporary Cowboy Romance) (Carson Hill Ranch series: Book 2) Read Free Page A

like him, and you can pet him all you want when you’re done working. Remember, these aren’t our pets. Even though we care for them and make sure they’re as happy as they can be, they’re still working members of the ranch, just like all of us cowboys. No one’s coming up behind me and giving me a back rub when I’m out here!”
    I’d like to, Amy thought, causing a sudden blush to shine through the fair skin of her cheeks and surprising herself with the brazen thought. I could do more than that, too.
    Carey couldn’t help but notice her embarrassment and didn’t let himself even wonder what thought she’d had that caused it. He nodded awkwardly and tipped his hat, then rode back toward the front to check on the others. He looked back once or twice to make sure she was still doing okay, and was taken aback when he caught her looking at him one time.
    “How’s the babysitting going?” a ranch hand said under his breath when Carey began to pass around him.
    “I think it’s okay,” he answered, looking over the new people and counting them to make sure they were all still with the group. “No one too obnoxious or too incompetent, I’m just worried about a couple of them who obviously haven’t been on a horse before.”
    “Hey, if it’s any help at all, there’s a couple of ‘em back there who can ride right up here with me,” the hand said slyly, patting the saddle in front of him. “Wouldn’t mind having to see a few of their faces more closely for the rest of the trip! I mean, only if it helps you , of course!.”
    “You say that now,” Carey said with a quiet laugh. “There’s one or two in that group who would rip your chest open with their claws and feast on your beating heart!” The hand, David, laughed so loudly, he startled a nearby steer.
    “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I met that one already. She took offense when I called her ‘ma’am’, then told me not to single her out by ‘labeling her with her imposed gender identity.’ I’m not exactly sure what that means, but I think it’s just safer if I don’t address her ever again!”
    “Just don’t make eye contact or speak in her presence, and for the love of Pete, don’t look at her chest. I don’t want to have to scrape up pieces of you from here to Missouri!” Carey slapped David on the shoulder then continued on.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Three
     
    By the time lunch rolled around, Bernard had assembled his remaining Carson sons—Carey, Joseph, Seamus, and Jacob—and the two foremen who still worked for the ranch. As much as Bernard hated to admit it, this particular drive had gone so much more smoothly—even with Casey’s absence as the oldest son—and the only thing he could attribute it to was the loss of Jack, a longtime foreman for Carson Hill. He wondered, once again, if he’d given the foreman far too much leeway over the two decades Jack had worked for him, especially considering he was crazy enough to murder someone and was now sitting in the state prison, hopefully rotting. The whole thing had made Bernard wonder how much he really knew any of the thirty or forty outsiders who lived on his ranch and worked with his family, day after day.
    The faces of his small crew looked up at him from their seats around the table in the large bus-like RV that served as his office during the drive. There were sleeping bunks and a shower that various members of the group could take turns using, and a real bathroom for any one of the paying visitors who was too squeamish to use the facilities the great outdoors had to offer.
    Maps were spread on the table in front of them, with marked waypoints as to where they would stop each day. The only thing different about this meeting compared to the same meetings that took place during round ups from a hundred years ago was the presence of iPads, handheld GPS devices, Bernard’s laptop, and a few