The Rancher Next Door Read Free

be late for dinner.” He replaced his phone and offered Caley a quick wink that not only surprised her, but automatically made her insides flutter with a swarm of line-dancing butterflies. “And I don’t like cold potatoes.”
    Ha. So he wasn’t all uptight, after all—just stressed over figuring out a new routine. She’d been there. Odd how she already had so much in common with her neighbors. Maybe her coming back to Broken Bend was for more than Nonie, after all. She’d have to be careful, though. She didn’t do the commitment thing. But maybe she could somehow find a way to help this handsome cowboy and his adorable daughter and forget her own troubles for a while.
    Temporarily, of course.
    * * *
    That new neighbor was going to be trouble.
    Brady could feel it in his bones. Just like his achy right knee meant it was going to rain later that night, he just knew he was going to eventually regret living next door to Caley Foster. Even if she was the prettiest thing he’d seen in a long time.
    Or maybe because she was the prettiest thing he’d seen in a long time.
    Brady swung easily over the fence separating his property from Caley’s rental and strolled back to his horse, Nugget, grazing several yards away. Ava had taken to Caley quickly, and against his better judgment, so had he. And why wouldn’t they? With those bright green eyes and charmingly messy blond hair—not to mention her grit and ability to take care of herself—Caley Foster seemed like a fresh breeze wafting through Broken Bend.
    He just didn’t have much room in his life for gusts of wind these days.
    Still, there was something unique about a woman who moved cross-country by herself to take care of her grandmother in the nursing home—something that spoke of goodness and light. Something he didn’t get much of these days, not with him and Ava constantly beating their heads like a couple of battering rams.
    Nothing was the same anymore, and the new normal they’d created as a family of two instead of three felt awkward even at the best of times. A knot tightened in Brady’s throat and he swallowed against it, though he knew the effort would be as wasted as trying to convince Ava she didn’t belong on a workhorse beside him. A horse had killed her mom, and though everyone in town deemed it an accident, Brady knew better. It was his fault. He shouldn’t have allowed Jessica on that high-strung beast in the first place, shouldn’t have allowed her to insist she could handle it. Even though four years had passed, he couldn’t erase the image of the stallion’s flat ears and wide eyes before he reared up and threw Jessica off. Some memories were impossible to forget.
    And some he was determined never to repeat. The farther away Ava stayed from the dangerous animals he worked around daily, the better off she was. She belonged in the house, where it was safe, with Mary. If he could, he’d up and move them somewhere else entirely, but Brady couldn’t sell his livelihood. It ran through his blood. He had no way to make a living besides maintaining the land and animals that had been passed down to him from two generations before. The difference was, he knew what he was doing—a ten-year-old girl did not. He refused to allow anyone else he loved to be harmed.
    Brady swung up on Nugget’s back and nudged the horse toward the back forty acres, eyes automatically scanning the area for smoke. He’d gotten a little paranoid after the local fire department had issued a widespread warning about seasonal brush fires. The early-autumn winds and leftover summer temps could cause an issue in moments. Bad enough for any rancher—doubly bad for him, specifically.
    He shook off the memories that threatened to lodge, reminding himself he wasn’t a child anymore. He wasn’t trying to prove himself on a daredevil prank, and he certainly wasn’t trapped in a burning basement. He had plenty of issues to deal with now without being burdened by what wasn’t