She would be a freaking housekeeper and cook? As if she knew anything about either. Those kinds of jobs were so not her.
“There is only one little problem,” her parole officer said.
Sabrina’s red lips dipped into a frown and JJ’s tummy did a not-so-nice roll.
As if I don’t have enough problems
?
“As I mentioned, the ranch is in a very secluded area. So the only way in is by private plane. I have your flying schedule here.” She ripped a sheet off her pad of paper and slid it across her desk for JJ to take a look at.
JJ didn’t make a move for it. The word plane reverberated around in her mind. There was no way she could get onto a plane.
Anxiety swelled inside her chest. Suddenly the walls began to waver and then move in around her. She grabbed the edges of her chair and held on as a wave of dizziness swept over her. Was it suddenly getting hard to breathe? Yes, it was getting hard to breathe. She was going to suffocate!
“I realize you’ve been having a problem with claustrophobia, anxiety and panic attacks. So I’ve put in an order for a prescription for appropriate meds to keep you calm during the trip. You’ll be fine if you take them.”
Oh crap
.
I am so not getting onto any plane
.
I’d rather go back to prison
.
“The ranch is called Moose Ranch and it’s run by three men around your age. They’ve agreed to allow you to work there on a conditional basis. If things go well, they will hire you on a contract basis. You’ll get paid monthly. You’ll have to check in with me two times a week for the first month, once a week for another month and then once a month thereafter. And I may do unexpected spot checks too.”
The woman leaned closer and her blue gaze turned intense and her look was stern.
Despite not wanting to be intimidated by the officer, JJ shivered.
“JJ, I don’t have to tell you how lucky you are to get an early parole with the Freedom Run program. You only got it because of an overcrowding problem and due to your record for not getting into trouble. If this job doesn’t work out, you’ll be sent back to prison and I don’t have to
tell you that your next chance to get out won’t come until your next parole hearing, and that won’t be for a long time. Do you understand my meaning?”
“I understand,” JJ managed to say between frantic gasps for air. A familiar nausea, compliments of a panic attack, churned her tummy.
The officer smiled, seemingly satisfied that she’d managed to ruin JJ’s day with the talk about a plane.
“Good. Good. I’ll call the guard in and she can get you set up. Any questions?”
JJ’s grip on the chair tightened as the walls began to crush her.
“Yeah, where’s the nearest bathroom? I need to puke.”
Parole officer Sabrina Heathers listened to the convict retching in the adjoining office bathroom and shook her head in disappointment. At the mention of flying, she’d read the panic flare in JJ’s brown eyes. She’d wished the notes she’d read by JJ’s prison psychologist had been overstated.
She’d naively hoped that JJ’s anxiety problems could be overcome if JJ knew she was getting out of prison. Maybe she’d been wrong?
She had no idea why she’d taken it upon herself to make it as easy as possible for JJ on the outside with a good job. It had helped that the woman who ran Cowboys Online had a
government contract with the Correctional Service of Canada. Jenna was a friend of hers from her high school days, and Sabrina also knew the three men who owned the Moose Ranch.
They were good, hard-working, decent men and she had the feeling they would like JJ. She just hoped that they didn’t regret taking her, especially with her anxiety issues.
Another loud retch sprang from the bathroom and echoed through Sabrina’s office. She grimaced at the violent sound. If the mere mention of a plane made the woman lose it, she had to wonder how long JJ would last out there in the wilds and seclusion of Northern Ontario.
* * * * *
“All settled in. It’s going to be a cold night tonight. The snow storm is coming too. Black clouds to the north,” Rafe shouted back.
Brady frowned and lifted his gaze from the bookkeeping records and peered out the office window that was right in front of his desk. It was four o’clock and getting dark fast. The sun had dipped behind the pine trees spreading black shadows everywhere. From here, he could barely see the ice-covered lake where the plane was going to land. The large lake had been frozen for a good two months and would hold up with no problem beneath the weight of the plane.
They’d been lucky this year. It was already late November and not much snow so far. But it appeared as if that was about to change. Rafe was right. Dark clouds loomed on the horizon.
The plane bringing their new employee and their supplies was a little over an hour late and coming in from the north. He hoped they hadn’t been caught in the snowstorm. He’d give the plane another five minutes and then he’d get on the satellite phone and send out an alert.
Dan, the youngest partner in their cattle venture, suddenly opened the office door and popped his head into the office. A whisper of cold air blew against the back of Brady’s neck, making him shiver. He wanted to yell at Dan to shut the freaking door as he was letting all the hot air out, when movement out the window and in the sky caught his attention. A small red plane swooped in over the tree line and angled toward the lake.
“They’re here,” Dan said. He left and then Brady could hear the drone of the plane’s engines.
Red plane. That would mean Kelly was flying in. He liked Kelly. She was a pretty blonde with cheerful blue eyes and was a few years younger than he. She worked for North Country Air, a bush-flying business located a few hundred miles to the north of Moose Ranch.
He’d heard rumors that she was in the air more than she was on land. He’d asked her out a couple of times, but she’d politely declined, giving an excuse that she didn’t date. He wondered if she ever would date again after the horrific way she’d lost her smokejumper fiancé a couple of years ago in a raging forest fire. His body had never been found.
“Let’s go out and greet them,” Brady said a moment later, when he joined them in the mudroom. He grabbed his jacket.
Rafe and Dan grimaced and didn’t move to put their winter gear back on.
“Come on, let’s get a move on. Kelly is going to need help unloading the supplies and I can’t get the snowmobile down in time,” Brady prodded as he pulled on his black hat.
Rafe shook his head. “Sorry, but I have a cold ass that needs warming.”
“Yeah, and my belly is screaming for food,” Dan said quickly as he hurriedly tugged off his boots and gazed up at Brady from the bench seat. “You know I won’t be able to get dinner on the table if I’m out there greeting some old convict.”
Rafe chimed in. “Yeah, you can thank Mrs. Wilson for skipping out on us without notice.”
“Wasn’t her fault she couldn’t take another winter here,” Brady said.
He’d felt sorry for the sixty-five year old ex-con who’d been working for them for a couple of years. She’d finally confided in them that she couldn’t handle the desolation any more, let alone another long freezing winter. She’d left unexpectedly just last week, secretly calling in one of the bush pilots over at North Country Air to get her out of here. Thankfully, his sister, Jenna, had answered his call for help and was sending a replacement through her Cowboys Online service.
A sharp slap to Brady’s back made him wince.
“Besides,” Rafe said. “You’ve been warming your ass off in here all day. We’ve done your share of the work out in the cold. Now it’s your turn outside and getting some fresh air.”
“Yeah, maybe you can ask Kelly out again,” Dan said.
“Then she can turn you down again,” Rafe chuckled.
He winked as he and Dan rushed past him out of the mudroom and into the main house.
Irritation bristled through Brady. No way was he asking Kelly out again. A man could only take rejection for so long before he got the message loud and clear. She wasn’t ready, and he wasn’t her type.
“Fine. But I expect dinner to be ready when we get back!” he shouted.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Dan called back.
The drone of the airplane grew lower as Brady slipped on his boots. Kelly had probably already landed and was wondering why no one was there to help her with their supplies and to greet the new guy.
He opened the mudroom door and gasped as the bitter wind blasted against his face. He shivered and snuggled his chin deep into his jacket, then began to jog along the path toward the lake, a quarter of a mile down the low sloping hill.
Sometimes he wondered what the heck he’d been thinking coming up north to carve out a cattle empire in the middle of a desolate wilderness. He should have stayed in Toronto where he’d had a nice cushy corner office and played estate lawyer. But he’d become bored with his job and had begun to crave adventure.
Brady frowned as he spied Kelly hopping out of her plane with a couple of suitcases and added it to the several crates she’d already piled on the lake. Her blonde hair glistened in the twilight and when she spied him approaching, she waved. Then she stepped back into her plane.
A moment later, she appeared with another person. Shadows had wrapped around the plane and he found it difficult to make out the features of the newcomer, but he was already disappointed in the man’s small size. The person was no bigger than Kelly and he was wrapped head to toe in winter gear as if he were terrified of the cold.
Great.
Just great
.
The person was dwarfed in a heavy green winter jacket with a fur-lined hood pulled over his head. A red scarf covered his face. They’d been expecting someone with muscles. Someone who could help them on the cattle drives, pitch in with some heavy chores and assist with the cooking and housekeeping.
This person was already sitting down on their suitcases, instead of carrying them toward the ranch house.
“Hiya Brady. Got your cargo!” she called out as he approached. “Wish I could stay, but I need to scoot. Storm is coming in and I need to leave now or I’ll be staying here for awhile. Not that I wouldn’t mind, but I have contracts to fill and can’t afford to get stranded down this way.”
He still hadn’t reached her, so he yelled a thanks and a threw her a wave. She waved back, turned and climbed into her plane and settled into the cockpit. A moment later, she was roaring her plane over the smooth ice.
By the time he reached the lake and the new recruit, Kelly’s plane was disappearing over the tree line and the smell of booze was prevalent in the air.
Are you fucking kidding me
?
The new employee is drunk
?
The sound of a hiccup made him curse.
Shit! He could not tolerate a drunk. Not on his ranch.
“Oh, you look so grumpy,” a sweet feminine voice said.
Brady blinked as shock reverberated through him.
A woman
?
“Grumpy, but cute.” Her words were followed by another hiccup.
As she raised her head to look at him, he spied velvety brown hair tumbling from beneath her scarf. She had a luscious-looking mouth, a pert nose, and the longest eyelashes he’d ever seen.
She smiled up at him and he caught dimples popping in both her cheeks. Dimples that made him feel as if he’d just been sucker punched, but in a really nice way.
“Plane rides make me so nervous and I…b-broke into Kelly’s b-booze and self-medicated. She was so p-pissed when she found out.” She laughed prettily. The sound was like a gentle twinkle and made his heart skip a beat.
Holy shit. Why was he even reacting to her? She was all wrong for the job. All wrong for this place. Everything was suddenly just totally out of whack.
* * * * *
How’s the stew?” Rafe asked as he strolled over to where Dan stood stirring the food in his huge Crock-pot.
“All ready,” Dan said as he withdrew a long wood spoon, placed it on a plate, then removed the apron. He moved over to allow Rafe a peek.
Rafe’s mouth watered at the succulent, tangy smell.
“Impressive,” he replied. He meant it too.
Tomato sauce bubbled in the pot and he caught glimpses of sage, oregano, onions and potatoes mixed with generous chunks of meat. His stomach picked that moment to growl. He was
surprised Dan could cook so well.
“I do declare if that isn’t the best compliment you’ve ever given me,” Dan said in a feminine voice and batted his eyelashes at Rafe.
“Screw off,” he rolled his eyes and shook his head. Sometimes Dan could be funny, but not now. Not when he could eat a freaking bear. That’s exactly what was in the pot. Black bear meat.
One of his favorites. The meal had been simmering the entire day.
Aside from the bear, the other ingredients had been homegrown in the garden Dan had created at the back of the ranch house. He grew everything in cages so the animals couldn’t get to it and he had to admit, homegrown was a hell of a lot better tasting than the store-bought stuff they ordered in through North Country Air.
“You two. Get your asses down to the lake and pick up the shit that Kelly brought in,” Rafe’s gruff and very irritated voice shot through the kitchen like a missile.
Rafe whirled around to find Brady standing in the hallway. The newcomer stood right beside him and appeared…tipsy?
“What the fuck?” Dan’s question was drowned by a furious look from Brady.
Uh oh
.
Brady was really pissed and the instant Rafe saw the new recruit’s face, he knew why. They’d asked for two strong men who knew how to cook and clean, as well as someone who could assist the cook in the kitchen and them doing chores. Instead, a young woman stood in front of them.
“A mistake?” Rafe asked as he studied the woman. She was pretty. She had a light spattering of freckles across her flushed cheeks. Her face was pale and she had an odd smile flirting with the edges of her lips as she stared at them with big brown eyes that reminded him of an innocent doe.