Montana Hearts: Her Weekend Wrangler by Darlene Panzera Read Free Book Online Page A

that and pranced around. In turn, the mare, who had been calm all this time, got antsy because her baby was antsy.
    “I like my horses already trained,” Ryan’s mom growled. “Who has the patience for this?”
    She tried to slip the halter over the filly’s head a second time, but thefilly reared up on her hind legs, did a little hop, and when the front legs came down, one of the hooves glanced off Ryan’s mother’s leg.
    “Ow!” she cried.
    Ryan lurched forward with alarm. “Mom, are you okay?”
    His mother winced and rubbed her pant leg. “I’m going to have a nasty bruise.”
    Ryan sighed. “Why don’t we call it a day?”
    “I call it done ,” his mom muttered. “I boughta new dress for my fortieth high school reunion this week and now my leg is going to look awful.”
    “No one will notice,” he soothed.
    “The hemline is above the knee,” she insisted. “Of course they’ll notice.”
    “Tell them you were out roping some bulls.”
    “Ryan,” his mother said, her voice stern. “I may not have seen some of my old classmates in years, but they’ll still recognize a line of bull when they hear one.”
    “I don’t think Grammy’s having fun,” Cody said, and opened the gate for her to come out of the corral.
    Ryan tousled the top of his son’s short brown hair. “No, I’m afraid not.”
    “You can’t just have any woman help you,” she said, handing him the halter. “What you need is a woman with some experience with fillies, someone who knows what she’s doing.”
    “Yeah,” he said. “You’re right. But who?”
    His mom thought for a moment and then snapped her fingers. “I hear Bree Collins is back in town.”
    Ryan clenched his teeth. Couldn’t anyone think of someone other than Bree?
    L ATER THAT AFTERNOON, after Bree awoke from a sound sleep, Delaney informed both her and Luke that Grandma had summoned them to a business meeting in her “office.” Whichwas, of course, the vegetable garden.
    When they arrived, Grandma was stooped in a half-­crouch weeding the trenched rows where she’d soon plant her indoor tomato starts. With such a short garden season due to lingering frost, growing vegetables in Montana wasn’t easy, but each year their grandma was determined to do it. Upon seeing them, she straightened, distributed work gloves, and placeda shovel in Luke’s free hand.
    He gave her a wary look. “I can’t shovel while leaning on a cane.”
    “Sure you can.” Grandma gave him a wide smile. “We’ve all got work to do around here and there’s no time to waste. Bree, you can start by weeding the row set aside for my sugar snap peas. Delaney, you weed around the zucchini. Luke, you can dig those weeds out in the aisle right in front ofyou.”
    Luke dug the tip of the shovel in the ground. “I thought you wanted to talk business.”
    “I do. You know this ranch first got started with a shovel full of dirt. Your grandpa and I, we dug the foundation for the house ourselves when we were younger than you are now. I was just nineteen, your grandpa was twenty-­two.” Grandma smiled and patted her belly. “And your dad was on the way.He grew up here and, unlike the three of you, he never left. Never knew anything different. Although it’s hard for him to admit he needs you, I’m glad you all told him you’d stay.”
    Bree pulled out a clump of stubborn weeds and shot Luke a surprised glance. “You’re staying, too?”
    Luke shrugged. “Fishing in the Keys isn’t the same with a cane. At least here I can do something useful.”
    “Like pull weeds?” She grinned as she tore out another clump.
    “Someday you three will inherit this land, but after what happened last night, I want to make you a deal,” Grandma said, her cackling voice growing excited. “I want to give each one of you a portion of the guest ranch right now. If we all work together, we can split the profits into equal shares six ways. I’ll keep one sixth, andgive one sixth to your father, a