Property Of The Mountain Man - Gemma Weir Page 0,3

ever said to me in one go. He’s here every morning the moment I open the doors, and every night till we close up. I know he works long hours up on the mountain, so why would he be shocked that I’d be working a full day, then be back again tomorrow?

“You’ve worked more than one fourteen-hour day this week, you should be off tomorrow,” he says lowly.

I laugh. “It’s fine, plus the extra money is always good. Marnie is in tomorrow, so I’ll be finished by three,” I say with a shrug, stepping up to my car and sliding the key into the lock. My old Toyota corolla does in theory have central locking, but it stopped working a few months ago and I haven’t had a chance to take it down to the garage to have them fix it yet.

“You should take that into Bay, he can fix it for you,” Beau says, nodding to my car.

“I will as soon as I get a chance,” I tell him, opening the door and sliding inside. “Good night,” I call.

“Good night,” he says with a gruff nod, waiting as I turn my engine on before turning and heading for his truck.

Rockhead Point is a small town at the bottom of the little base mountain range. It’s a beautiful part of the world, popular with tourists who take a trip to climb the local peaks and trails. My family’s property is about twenty minutes out of town, up the twisting roads that traverse the base of the mountain. I can practically hear my bed calling me the moment the sign for the Williams ranch comes into view. My daddy’s family have owned this land for a hundred years, but my dad was the first to farm it, and now the Williams ranch is known for the best cattle in the entire state of Montana. When my dad’s health meant he couldn’t work out in the fields anymore, my brother Caleb took over the physical day to day running of the herds, while Dad interferes where he can and runs the offices.

Caleb lives on the other side of our property in a house he and my dad built together when Caleb got married to Maggie, my wonderful sister-in-law. Mom and Dad had Caleb when Mom was just eighteen and I didn’t come till twenty-two years later, so my two nephews Noah and Olly are closer to me in age at fifteen and sixteen than my brother is at almost forty-three.

I love my brother, but we’re not close. He was already moved out of the house and married by the time I was born; and to him, I’m an annoyance that for some reason he feels responsibility for. Since our mom died, he’s tried to parent me, even though I’m more than old enough to look after myself, which has left us with a lingering resentment that hangs between any relationship we could have.

At the moment, we’re speaking only because we don’t want Dad to know there’s any animosity between us, but in the rare moments it’s just Celeb and I, we fall back into a stunted silence that I have no idea how to break.

Just like I knew they would be, the lights in the house are bright and calling me home. This house and land is my sanctuary. As a kid I grew up helping around the ranch, grooming the horses and mucking in to help if we were short-handed, just like my mom did. Since she passed, I’ve tried to step into her shoes where I can, baking cakes and treats for the ranch hands that live in the bunkhouse, offering an interested ear to anyone who has any issues, and generally trying to do as much of the things she did for this place as I can.

Parking my car, I turn off the engine and climb out, waving to Derek, one of the ranch hands, as he leads his horse into the barn, before I turn and climb the steps to the house. The smell of the chili I put in the crock pot this morning before I left for work fills the house, and my stomach groans appreciatively as I kick off my shoes and hang my jacket and purse on the hooks by the door.

“Hey Daddy, I’m home,” I call out as I pad toward the kitchen.

“Hey sweetie, how was work?” he calls out, his old gravelly voice surrounding me in a warm embrace without him even