Part Time Cowboy

“Get it yourself,” Kate suggested. “I’m already dishing up your dinner, and I am not a waitress.”

“You wouldn’t get a tip if you were one,” Connor grumbled, getting up from his spot at the table and wandering to the fridge, jerking it open.

Eli noticed that there wasn’t much in it beyond beer and cheese. He wasn’t sure he liked what that said about his brother’s mental state. Or maybe it was just that Connor hadn’t had time to go shopping recently. That could be it.

“You should get a housekeeper,” Eli said.

Connor grunted, which was something he seemed to do a lot lately. “I don’t want a stranger rifling around in my stuff.”

“Then hire someone you know.”

“No.”

Eli took a piece of pizza out of the box and set it on a plate, doing his best to ignore Kate, who wasn’t using her plate, but was standing, arched over the bar, dripping sauce onto the otherwise clean surface.

Eli didn’t like that. He liked things in their place. He liked things clean. He’d spent too many years putting things in order to let them slide now.

When they’d been kids, cleanliness hadn’t just been a preference, it had been survival. Connor keeping things going on the ranch and Eli making it appear that there was a functional adult managing the household had been the only way to keep Child Protective Services away.

Order had been the only thing keeping them all together.

“So, Connor was just telling me about our new tenant.”

“We have a tenant?” Kate asked, her mouth full.

“Yes, we do.”

“Get me a beer, Connor,” Kate said.

“Do I look like a damned waitress, Katie? Do I?” he growled, while he stalked back to the fridge and got out two beers, handing one to each of his siblings.

“Guess so,” Kate said, taking the bottle and popping the top on the counter.

Sometimes Eli wondered if Kate had suffered a bit for having nothing but men in her life. But if he mentioned that to Kate she would probably spit on him. Which just proved his point.

“So,” Eli said, leaning against the counter. “The tenant.”

Anything to get his mind off the events from earlier today. Sadie Miller. He remembered her as a little blonde ball of trouble. Dressed in all black, ripped jeans, she’d been a stereotype of social rebellion. His least favorite kind of brat to deal with. She’d also been feisty as hell. Resisting arrest was putting it mildly. It had been his first summer with the sheriff’s department, and they’d broken up a big party in an empty barn. Drunk, freaked-out teenagers had made the whole thing a nightmare. Basically, all hell had broken loose.

And he had ended up handcuffing and booking seventeen-year-old Sadie, making her the first person he’d ever arrested. Though ultimately she wasn’t charged, as he’d said, with ill-advised word choices today, you never forgot your first.

“I drew up a long-term lease so that the Catalog House could be used as a bed-and-breakfast,” Connor said.

“A what?” he and Kate asked the question in unison.

“You heard me. With the renovation of Old Town, and the fireworks show on the ocean getting bigger every year, tourism is a big deal. And I want in on that industry.”

“How is your going behind our backs us being ‘in on the industry’?”

“Income from the lease, and a small percentage of profits. And like I already told you,” he said, directing his words at Eli, “some of us only get money from the ranch, so the more profitable I can make it, the better.”

“And you’re sure that your lessee isn’t going to destroy the place?”

“She’s a local. Or at least, she was.”

The hair on the back of Eli’s neck stood on end. “Is she?”

“Yeah. Younger than us, older than Kate, so I don’t think any of us would have known her in school.”

He would have laughed if there were anything remotely funny about it. “I have a good guess about who it might be,” he said, setting his beer on the counter. “Sadie Miller?”

“Yeah. How do you know her?”

“I arrested her once.”

Connor’s eyebrows shot up.

“Well, damn, I didn’t know she was a criminal.”

Eli let out an exasperated breath. “She’s not a criminal. At least, I don’t think she’s a career criminal. Granted, she committed a crime, that’s why I arrested her, but she’s not going to make a skin suit out of anyone.”

“Bleah.” Kate stuck out her tongue.

“I’m just saying. I arrested her for being drunk and disorderly about ten years ago. It wasn’t exactly organized crime. And before that she was the kind of kid you’d see wearing too much eyeliner, smoking cigarettes and looking angry at the world. A bigger danger to healthy lungs than to society at large.”

“Well, that’s comforting,” Connor said.

“I take it you didn’t do a background check?” Eli asked.

“I did. But apparently not a thorough one. Credit check, though. Because her rental history reads like an epic novel. I needed to make sure she wasn’t dodging. But she wasn’t. She just likes to move.”

“Well, I can’t have any of this interfering with my campaign,” Eli said.

He’d thrown his hat in the ring to run for the position, with the blessing of the current sheriff, who was now retiring. And since he’d decided to do it, it had become more and more important daily. Especially after he’d won a top two spot in the primary, his lead over the other man running substantial enough that a win in November looked almost certain. But that didn’t mean he was resting on his laurels. No.

There were spreadsheets. Lots of spreadsheets. Because he couldn’t help himself. Anything worth doing was absolutely worth doing right.

“It’s not going to mess with your campaign. She’s going to run her business, and you’ll take care of your business. While I increase some of my profits.”

“So how long do you think she’ll stay here?” Eli asked, hoping the answer was “not long.” She disturbed his sense of order. All of this did, but the fact that Sadie Miller was involved only made it more disturbing. And he did not need disturbing. Not right now. Not ever, really.

“She signed for five years.”

“Five years?” he and Kate spoke together again.

“Will you stop repeating my answers back to me in question form? Yes, five years. It’s going to take time to get a business going. There’s some updating that needs to be done on the house. She’s agreed to pay for it, and orchestrate it all.”

“You’re crazy. You’re going to let someone else, a stranger, live on our property for five years without even...meeting her first?” Eli asked.