They Said She Was Wild And Unfit, Until The Cowboy Said, “Good, You’ll Match Me Just Fine”

Chapter 2

The hoofbeats came as the sun was sliding down toward the mountains. Kinley set aside the harness she was mending and shaded her eyes; a buckskin gelding picked its way up the lane, and Quentyn Blackwood rode out of the golden light like he belonged to it.

He dismounted with the ease of a man who’d spent most of his life on horseback. “Miss Evans.”

“Mr. Blackwood.” She nodded toward the house. “There’s coffee inside, if you’re interested.”

The ranch house was functional and spare. Her mother had been gone a decade now, and the softness had drained out of the place with her — curtains faded, walls bare, rooms for eating and sleeping between the real work of the land. Kinley poured two cups from the pot warming on the stove and sat across from him at the kitchen table.

“Let’s talk straight. I need help, but I can only afford twenty dollars a month plus room and board. Most men around here won’t work for a woman at any price.”

He took a sip, unbothered. “I’ve worked for less when times were hard. What’s the operation?”