The Rancher's Daughter by Pamela Ladner Read Free Book Online Page B

Living on a ranch, it seemed, the housework came last most days.  There was dust everywhere.  They talked while they worked.  Both of them preferred to be outside working but with all the commotion, they tucked themselves away inside. 
                  They moved the coffee table, then rolled up the big rug and carried it out the back door. It needed a beating out really, bad.  They laughed when Hilary hit the rug with a board and dust settled all over them.  “You know, this sure does say a lot about our cleaning.  We are horrible,”  Josey said grinning. 
                  “Girl, I know you didn’t just call me a bad housekeeper.” Hilary and Josey, laughed at their own jokes.  Work was so much easier when you could enjoy it.  Josey and Hilary, carried the rug back in and went to work on the bedrooms. 
                  They stripped the sheets off all the beds and took them to the laundry room.  Next, they would wash and hang the quilts out to dry.  They worked the whole day.  By the time, night came the place was spotless. 
    People finally started pulling out around midnight except for a few of the cowboys with their RVs.  Most of them would be leaving tomorrow.  Tomorrow, they would set down and figure up the earnings from the rodeo.  Josey prayed it was enough.
                  She lay down that night and her mind drifted to the past. She thought of all the times she and Heath had snuck off at night to meet.  She remembered the first time they made love and she dreamt of all the things they could have had, if she had not sent him away.  She tossed and turned all night, unaware that the man she loved was also wide-awake remembering their past. 
                  She was the one that got away.  He should have never left.  He should have tried to make it better.  She needed him more than ever.  No other woman had ever come close to replacing her in his heart.  It had always been her.  Now here he was and he had a chance to make things right. 
                  He hoped she still loved him.  He knew she was still physically attracted to him, but did her heart still ache for him?  Had it ever ached for him, the way his ached for her?  She was a part of his soul.  He needed her and he vowed he would have her.  Nothing was going to stop this wedding from happening.  Come hell or high water, he would have the woman he loved.  He didn’t give a damn if the ranch was part of the deal.  He wanted his own ranch but this wasn’t about the ranch.  He wanted her and even if she would have turned him down, he knew in his heart, he would have given her the money anyway.
                  He was going to give it everything he had to make her fall in love with him.  They were a perfect match, always had been.  It was the same with them as it had been with J.W. and Hilary.  Only Josey could match his temper, his brains, and his work ethic.  Only Josey had ever been able to read him like a book.  There could be no other woman for him.  His heart and soul belonged to Josey.
                  He paced the floor in his father’s office.  He had been given permission to take over some of the foreman’s duties.  His father used the excuse that he was too old and he didn’t trust anybody else to do the job.  The fact was Heath had been groomed to be the foreman of this ranch from the time he was a boy.  He had no doubts about it, if he’d stuck around, he would be the foreman already.  That’s why he got the job of foreman so easily, at the Rocking K.
                  He would have to contact his old friend and boss and let him know that he should be looking for a replacement.  He figured on staying here as long as Josey would have him.  He knew that the boss of the Rocking K would understand. 
                 

Chapter Nine
     
                  It wasn’t long after