Her Holiday Rancher

Reese could see rows and rows of hanging file folders with various headings: Payroll, Vehicles, Insurance, Veterinary Care, to name a few. “What about the financial information?”

“Ah.” Raquel pulled out an elongated brown binder, which she placed on the desk in front of Reese. “Do you mean this?”

“Wow.” Reese opened the binder and stared in amazement at the three-to-a-page checks and the thick stack of stubs. “I didn’t know anybody used manual checks anymore.”

“August didn’t trust computers.”

“So I see.” Reese sighed, flipping through the stubs and noting the entries. “What about income? How did he track that?”

Raquel opened a side drawer of the desk. Inside were a half dozen green accounting ledger books stacked one on top of the other.

“Great.” Reese definitely had her work cut out for her. “Prior year tax returns handy?”

Those were in the next drawer down. Reese was relieved to see they’d been prepared by a local CPA.

Thankfully, Hector Fuentes had given her a flash drive with August’s plan for the ranch, including a month-by-month and year-by-year schedule. Reese wasn’t sure what she’d have done with handwritten notes.

“I’ll tell the boys you’re here,” Raquel said and left, her footsteps soundless on the thick, colorful area rug.

Reese removed her laptop from her briefcase and powered it up. She also pulled out a copy of the entire living trust. When, a few minutes later, no one had yet arrived, she began examining the first accounting journal. It was meticulously updated until four months ago. After that, the entries were sketchy, then they stopped altogether.

August had probably gotten too sick to continue, which didn’t bode well for the ranch finances.

Cole entered the office, removing his cowboy hat and running a hand through his windblown blond hair. Not the person Reese expected to see first.

“Hi.” She greeted him in her best assistant bank manager smile. “Have a seat.”

Raquel had brought in three chairs from the dining room and placed them across from the desk. Cole chose the one on the right and, sitting, balanced his hat on his knee.

“Will this take long?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. Depends on a number of things.”

“Like?” He couldn’t have a bigger chip on his shoulder if he tried.

“The number of questions you all have. How quickly we get through reviewing the records. What shape they’re in.” Terrible, these past four months. “How cooperative you are.”

He answered by slouching in the chair, crossing his boots at the ankles and his arms over his stomach.

Reese wasn’t impressed or intimidated.

Gabe entered the office next with Josh right behind him. If she didn’t know better, she’d think they arrived together. But that was impossible, right?

“Hey, Reese.” Josh grinned affably before taking the middle chair. “It is okay if I call you Reese?”

“Of course,” she replied, trying not to stare at Gabe like a love-struck teenager.

He’d clearly come from the pastures or barn or wherever it was he’d been working. He smelled of the outdoors and looked ruggedly handsome with his tanned complexion and two-day growth of beard. With a nonchalance both unconscious and incredibly sexy, he sat, rolled down his shirtsleeves and rebuttoned them at the cuffs, but not before Reese caught sight of strong, prominently muscled arms with a light dusting of hair.

She remembered those arms from when they’d held her the night of their senior prom. She’d thought then they were the kind of arms a woman could rely on to take care of her and keep her safe.

“Are we ready to start?” Thankfully, her voice didn’t betray the riot of emotions warring inside her.

Chapter Four (#ulink_96765915-51eb-50e1-9887-746d32724bc8)

Gabe listened as Reese read from a document on her laptop computer. His father’s plan for Dos Estrellas. Given the amount of detail, he’d trusted his legitimate sons no more than he’d trusted Gabe acting alone to make the right decisions for the ranch.

If it were possible for Gabe to move farther away from Josh without being obvious, he would. Why his mother had felt the need to place the chairs within inches of each other, he didn’t know. To promote comradery was his guess. As if sitting close would dissolve years of animosity and resentment.

Admittedly, Gabe’s opinion of Josh had risen the smallest fraction yesterday following his remark about Gabe’s right hook. Cole, well, he continued to annoy Gabe. The guy took attitude to a new level with a temper to match. To be fair, he probably thought the same thing about Gabe. And, no, that didn’t make them brothers or even pals. Simply two people with good reason to be angry at each other.

Struggling to stay focused, he concentrated on Reese. It didn’t help. She was far too distracting.

Today, she wore dress slacks and a tan sweater that, despite being bulky, hinted at the lovely, lush figure beneath. She wore minimal makeup—something Gabe preferred. Her one exception, pink lipstick accentuating a very kissable mouth.

Come to think of it, the other day on the mountain she hadn’t been wearing any lipstick, and Gabe had still thought her mouth was kissable. Was every red-blooded male who came into the bank like him, appreciating her looks?