The Reluctant Wrangler Read Free Page B

should learn how.” Turning on her heel, she left him behind, not caring what he might have to say.
    Hoping he wouldn’t follow her, she tried to calm herself by taking the long way back to the main building. If there was anything else he wanted to say to her, it could wait. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so sharp with him, but it didn’t matter what he thought of her. She was here to help boys who hadn’t had the advantages in life most kids did, not get involved in a relationship. Her job had to be her main focus, even more important than what had initially brought her here.
    When she’d read about the Bent Tree Boys Ranch in a newspaper article, she knew she had to apply for a job. Jules O’Brien had apparently been impressed enough to hire her, and she’d liked Jules from the moment she’d met her. But it was Jules’s husband she was more interested in meeting. From the little her mother had told her, Tanner O’Brien was the older of the two brothers she’d never known.

Chapter Two
    “So what do you think of Nikki?”
    Sitting at the O’Briens’ kitchen table that afternoon, Mac looked up from the depths of his coffee cup to see Jules standing at the sink. “If you think she’s qualified, why should I question it?”
    Shaking her head, Jules sighed, but added a smile. “That’s not what I asked you.”
    He shrugged and returned to stare at the dark brew before him. When he heard a chair slide on the floor, he didn’t bother to look up, knowing that Jules had joined him at the table. He also knew it meant she expected an answer. “I guess I don’t think anything.”
    “Oh, come on, Mac. You can’t tell me that you missed how pretty she is,” Jules teased. “I know you better than that.”
    Mac gave in, leaning back in his chair and meeting Jules’s gaze. “You do know me, maybe too well. But it doesn’t mean—”
    “I didn’t ask if you’d fallen head over heels for her like you did with Missy Templeton when we were nine.”
    Mac laughed. “You aren’t ever going to let me forget about that, are you?”
    “Not on your life.”
    Mac returned his attention to his coffee. “You did check out her credentials, right?”
    “Nikki’s?” Jules asked. “Of course I did, and I was impressed. Not only does she know horses, she’s worked with troubled children. She’s had a taste of what some of the boys have lived with.” When Mac had no response, she continued. “You and I were lucky, Mac. We had two parents who cared about us and provided us with things others only dream of having.”
    “Or three parents,” he muttered. He felt a hand on his and looked up to see her watching him, a worried frown on her face. “Sorry, it’s just on my mind a lot lately.”
    She gave his hand a squeeze, and then released it. “I know that learning you were adopted by your dad and that he isn’t your biological father was a shock, but it doesn’t change anything.”
    “It changed me. ” He couldn’t look at her, even though she was the one person he knew he could trust. They’d known each other since they were seven years old, and she was like a sister to him and to Megan, his younger sister. But he still had trouble talking about how his parents had deceived him most of his life, turning that life upside down and leading him to where he was now.
    “You’re still the same great guy I’ve always known,” Jules said, her voice soft and comforting. “A smart little boy who used to tease me and his sister unmercifully, until poor Megan was in tears, but who grew up to be a very intelligent and caring man.”
    He looked at her and saw a smile of childhood bliss, and he smiled, too, at the memories. “I’m glad I came here. You were always the sensible one.”
    “I’m glad you did, too, and I hope you stay for a long time.”
    He pushed back his chair and stood. “I’ve wastedenough of your time,” he said, moving to the door. “We both have things to do.” But before he could walk out of