The Wrangler

Looking down, Val studied his long, muscular legs. “Most wranglers I’ve met have bowed legs, from all the riding they do. You don’t.”

“I only got here a few months ago.” Griff realized this interview wasn’t going well. “I worked at my brother’s ranch. I did a lot of riding, moving cattle, roping and branding there.” He gave her a slight grin and pointed to his legs. “I haven’t had enough saddle time to bow them properly—yet.”

“Do you have your own horse?”

“No, I don’t. I rent a room at the MacMurray house on the west side of town and there’s no room there to own a dog or cat, much less a horse.”

“Andy said you just came from back east?”

The question was hurled like a gauntlet at him. Griff didn’t lose his slight smile. “New York City. Yes, I’m a city slicker, Miss Val.” He saw surprise in her expression. A faint blush fanned across her cheeks and her freckles momentarily darkened.

“Andy said you were a good worker.” She ignored his humor.

He glanced at the barn over his shoulder and hooked his thumb in the same direction. “I work six a.m. to three p.m. daily. I haul hay, feed and other items to the trucks.”

“And what do you do when you get off work?” It was a personal question, but Val’s curiosity got the better of her.

“I take odd jobs with any rancher that needs a little extra muscle or a mechanic.”

Val knew it spoke of his work ethic and she nodded. “Gus wants a man who can do it all, Mr. McPherson. She’s paying ten dollars an hour and we put in twelve-hour days. Not eight. Although you’ll get paid for eight.” Val thought for sure the poor pay would make him refuse the potential job on the spot.

“My brother works from dawn to dark. I would expect the same on any ranch.”

“There’s a lot of cleanup to be done. The property has been let go for years. The barn needs a new roof. The shed not only needs a roof, but new siding, as well. I have four wooden corrals and they all need post replacement. I’ve got piles of manure that need to be shoveled into a truck and then taken to the dump. The place is in ruins.” Val drilled him with a hard look, thinking that for sure he wouldn’t want to do those jobs, which were expected of a wrangler. She was betting his Eastern upbringing would make him walk away.

“I’ve already worked at taking out posts, digging new post holes and putting in both wood and pipe fences.”

“Most of the work we need is not done on a horse,” Val warned. She just didn’t think he could do it all. Yet, he looked easygoing and completely confident as she handed him the duty list.

Shrugging, he said, “That’s what I found to be true, too. Getting to throw a leg over a horse is a real gift compared to the everyday work on the ground.”

Frowning, Val sipped her coffee. She took a step back, making sure she didn’t get too close to this cowboy. He didn’t seem to be aware of his effect on her. She’d expected with his deadly good looks, he’d be arrogant. Instead, McPherson was quiet, thoughtful and seemed to listen. Those were all qualities Val knew many men did not have. “Well, whoever we hire,” she muttered, “they’re going to be busting their butt day in and day out.”

“That’s fine,” Griff answered. “I’m looking for a long-haul kind of job.”

Her eyes widened. “Really?”

Hearing the disbelief in her voice, Griff wondered if Andy had told her about his past life and career. “Yes, ma’am, I am.” He looked around and added, “I was born in Wyoming and love it here. I like waking up in the morning and seeing a clear blue sky, smelling fresh air instead of gas pollution and hearing the robins singing instead of sirens and car horns blaring.” Griff turned and met her lustrous blue gaze. “I’m sure Andy told you I grew up in New York City. The truth is, I hated it. I didn’t know it then, but I do now.” Gesturing toward the sky, he added, “I like the smell of the air after a rain. In the city, all you got was a dampening down of pollution. I spent a lot of time in Central Park, looking to reconnect with nature. I prefer grass under my feet to concrete.”

Mesmerized by the wistfulness in his voice, Val gulped. “That’s all fine and dandy, Mr. McPherson, but I don’t have time to teach you the skills you’re missing. We need a man who can do it all right now.”

“I understand,” Griff said, regret in his voice. “I admit I’m not fully qualified. But maybe if you let your grandmother know that I’m a fast learner and will make up for it, she might think about hiring me?”

“I’ll tell her,” Val promised.

“Great, let me give you my cell phone number. Could you let me know what her final decision is? I’d really like the job. It sounds like it’s difficult but I like a challenge.” Griff smiled a little and drew a business card out of his pocket. When their fingers met briefly, he felt a zigzag of heat move through his hand. He saw confusion and unsureness in Val’s eyes as she hesitantly took the card. She placed it in the back pocket of her Levi’s.

“We’ll let you know shortly.” She pulled the door open and disappeared into the Horse Emporium. Andy gave her a questioning look, as she approached the counter. Lifting her hand, she thanked Andy and left. As she climbed into the ranch’s red Ford pickup truck, Val felt all the tension flow out of her. She wondered if Gus would want this greenhorn wrangler or not. Val sure didn’t. He was powerfully male and it called to her dormant femininity in a way she’d never experienced. The truth, Val realized, was that she was drawn to McPherson. Woman to man. It was raw. Untamed. And it scared the hell out of her.

CHAPTER THREE

“WHAT DID YOU think of the wrangler?” Gus asked her granddaughter as they sat together in the kitchen. “You looked concerned when you came in.”

Val sipped her coffee as she eyed Gus. “Nothing gets past you, does it?”

Mouth turning down, Gus said, “I wish that were true. If it were, I’d have seen what Buck was doing to you and my daughter out here.”

Reaching over, Val touched her grandmother’s wrinkled, brown-spotted hand. “You lived clear across the state and my mother wasn’t telling you what was really going on here at the ranch.”

“Doesn’t matter. I should have been more nosey.”

“Well,” Val replied, “that’s over.”

“It is and it isn’t,” Gus pointed out. She studied Val and pursed her lips. “Beating an animal or human makes them scared.”

Laughing, Val said, “I’m hardly the scared type, Gus.”

“We’ll see….”

Val had no way to understand her grandmother’s enigmatic statement. “Well, Andy said this man, Griff McPherson, was a good wrangler and was looking for steady work.”

Her thin silver brows rising, Gus said, “McPherson? The Tetons Ranch folks?”

“Yes, one and the same. From what Andy said, his brother Slade owns and runs the family ranch now.”

“But, Griff is here in Jackson Hole? And not working for Slade?” Wrinkling her brow, Gus muttered, “That sure don’t make common sense. Families out here stick together like glue through thick and thin. I would expect him to be working with Slade. Not at the Horse Emporium.”

Shrugging, Val said, “Andy didn’t get into specifics.” She shared with Gus her talk with the wrangler. Val left out the fact he was mouthwateringly handsome. She didn’t want her grandmother to get the wrong idea.

“Okay, so he’s not a polished-off wrangler.” Gus rubbed her chin. “But it sounds like he wants to work. And that’s the kind of spirit we need around here. He can be taught whatever he’s missing.”

“Gus, we have ten-percent unemployment in the U.S. There are a lot of people out of work and looking for anything in order to survive. He’s just one of those poor people.”

Gus considered the information. “Let me guess, you don’t want to hire him because he’s an ex-city slicker.”

“Well…yes and no. But same as you, I wonder why he’s not working with his brother.”

“Slade just got married to Dr. Jordana Lawton,” Gus informed her. “I imagine the ranch belongs to both of them now.”

“You’d think that Slade would hire his brother part-time, though, if he could. Griff said he does odd jobs for other ranchers around the county on weekends.”

“Maybe there’s bad blood between them we don’t know about. From the sounds of it, I like his work ethic. This guy is busting his hump seven days a week to make ends meet. And you know ranchers won’t put up with a lazy wrangler. They get fired real fast.”

“All except here at the Bar H.” Val saw Gus quirk her thinned lips and nod her head.

“No disagreement there. Well, what should we do?”

“I want to pass on Griff McPherson,” Val said carefully. She wrapped her hands around the mug. “There’s just so much work around here for me to do that I don’t want to take the time out to teach him what he doesn’t know.”