Strong-Willed Cowboy (The Buckskin Brotherhood #5) - Vicki Lewis Thompson Page 0,1

grinned. “I wasn’t serious. Although they’d be handy if we had a balmy day in January. We could haul ’em out, no problem.”

“And the rest of the time the bunkhouse would look like a storage shed.”

“We don’t have to solve this tonight,” Garrett said. “This weather’s supposed to hold for another week or two.”

“I hope so.” Rafe gazed up at the clear sky. “The leaves have been amazing this year. They—” His phone pinged with a text. “’Scuse me a minute.”

“If that’s Henri, ask if she’d like to come on down,” Leo said. “I’m in the mood for s’mores.”

Rafe stared at his phone. “It’s not Henri.”

“Who?” Nick turned to him, his expression alert. Concerned. He had a sixth sense when it came to trouble brewing, especially for anyone in the Brotherhood.

“Kate. She wants to see me. Says it’s urgent.”

Nick met his gaze. “I thought you weren’t talking.”

“We’re not.”

“So what the hell?”

“Don’t know.” He stood. “Guess I’ll go find out.”

Technically he could have walked, but he hopped in his truck. It was about a three-minute drive from the bunkhouse to the three-bedroom cottage where Kate lived. Walking would have taken ten.

Her use of the word urgent made his stomach hollow out. She wouldn’t have contacted him unless something was terribly wrong. Their last private conversation two months ago had been a disaster. He’d proposed. She’d said no. Definitively. They’d avoided each other ever since.

Adrenaline pumping through his veins, he parked next to her truck and climbed out. She’d lived alone since Millie, the housekeeper for the guest cabins, had moved in with Jake.

Would she have called him if Millie still lived here? When she’d been hired to cook for the ranch guests, she’d moved into the cottage with Millie and they’d bonded. What if this urgent problem was an issue she and Millie would have handled together, like a flooded bathroom or a snake that had found its way inside the house?

Maybe he was working himself into a lather over a temporary emergency that could be quickly resolved. Except if she’d encountered that sort of situation, he’d be the last person she’d call.

His gut tightened as he took the steps two at a time and crossed the porch. “Kate! I’m here!”

She came to the door, her short curly hair golden in the glow from the porch light. An angel with a halo. A tired angel. There was no sparkle in her gray eyes.

He wanted what he’d always wanted, to wrap her in his arms and make her forget every bad thing that had ever happened to her. “What’s wrong?”

She pushed open the screen door and stepped back so he could come in. “I have a huge favor to ask.”

Music to his ears. “Anything. Name it.” He took off his hat.

“Thanks for saying that. Considering.” She gestured toward the living room. “Let’s sit. Can I get you a drink? Something to eat?”

“No, thanks.” Not a plumbing problem or a stray varmint, then. He left his hat on the little table by the door.

Walking into the achingly familiar living room, he chose the rocking chair so she could have the couch. That put the coffee table between them, which was just as well.

He hadn’t been in this room or spent time alone with her since their horseback ride after the bachelor auction. First and only time he’d kissed her. This private moment made him want to do it again.

Clearly she wasn’t in a romantic mood. She’d come straight here after finishing up at the dining hall. The damp spots on the sleeves of her blue plaid Western shirt told him she’d rushed through her cleanup routine.

She sat on the middle couch cushion, her back rigid, her denim-clad knees together, her boots aligned, her hands clasped tight. Something had her wrapped in barbed wire.

Taking a shaky breath, she looked at him. “My baby sister got accepted to Johns Hopkins University.”

“Is that good?”

“It’s one of the top medical schools in the country. Ginny’s over the moon.”

“Then good for her.”

“It’s also astronomically expensive. She doesn’t have the money. Mom doesn’t, either. And I’m still paying off the ginormous debt Enrique saddled me with.”

“What’s she going to do?”

“Apply for loans. Assuming she gets them, she’ll go into debt. Crushing debt. Way worse than what I’m dealing with. She has no idea what that will feel like, carrying that burden, weighing it against every job offer, every missed opportunity. It will control her life, maybe for twenty or thirty years. But it’s her only option so she’s barreling