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  He looked at her with respect. "Sam, the fact you know that tells me a lot. You said you lived on a ranch in the past, you said in Texas. Could you tell me when, or what happened, why you moved off the ranch, when it's obvious how much you like living on a ranch?"

  Sam looked at him and took a deep breath. It was hard to even think about, let alone talk about, but it couldn't have been easy for Trevor to tell her about his past. She was debating if she could trust him. Finally, she looked at him, as if seeing him would somehow settle the debate. Oddly enough, it did. His expression was so patient and kind and she remembered what he'd just confided to her. He deserved to know at least part of her story. She'd always heard if she could just talk about the problem, it would help. Well, she was about to put that theory to the test. She took another deep breath and started.

  Chapter 3

  "My story. Trevor, I want to be honest with you."

  "I want that, as well, Sam. Honesty is very important to me."

  That statement, like a couple others he'd made, caught her off guard. She decided to tuck it away in her mind for later. She'd think about it tonight. "I'm not sure how much of this I can talk about because there's parts of it that hurt too much yet."

  She was surprised when he reached over and gently took her hand in his. "I'm sorry, Sam. I didn't mean to bring up something that painful. If you're not ready to talk to me yet, I understand."

  "Thank you," she said sincerely. "But it might help to talk about a little bit of it anyway and you do deserve to know something about me. After all, you're giving me a job and letting me live on your ranch and I appreciate that."

  "That's a two way street, Sam. You're helping me out a great deal."

  "I'm glad." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I used to live on a ranch with my mom and dad, too. There was just me, no brothers or sisters. I loved them a great deal and they may have spoiled me just a tad bit. Especially my dad."

  He continued rubbing her hand. Trying to lighten her stress a bit, he chuckled and said, "So you were a spoiled brat, huh?"

  "Hey, I wasn't a brat." When he looked at her with his eyebrows raised in a questioning fashion, she sheepishly admitted, "Well, okay, maybe a tiny bit of a brat."

  "Good for you. There's the honesty I like to see." He winked at her and said, "Okay, go on, now that we've established that. I'll bet you were a cute little brat when you were little."

  "Oh, you," she said, punching his arm. He was making this a lot easier than she thought it would be. He had somehow put her at ease. "I loved everything about living on a ranch, especially the horses." She paused, staring at nothing in particular, before adding, "But then I went off to college. While I was there my mom died."

  She felt his hand tighten around her hand, which for some reason felt very comforting to her. That gave her the strength to continue, "That summer my dad and I became even closer, which I didn't think was possible, but we did. Then I went to school again in the fall and he met a lady and got married. Not long afterward he died."

  Trevor rubbed her back gently. "Sam, I'm sorry. That had to be hard for you."

  Nodding her head, she said, "It was. It was awful." Gathering strength, she quickly finished, "When I graduated I got a job in Houston, but my heart wasn't really in it and I did terrible. I got fired. I finally realized the place I've always felt the most comfortable is on a ranch, so here I am."

  Trevor knew there was a lot she was leaving out, but he could also see how hard this much had been for her. Maybe in time she'd fill in some of the blanks, but until then he wasn't going to push her. He simply said, "Sam, thank you for telling me that. If you're from Texas, that means you don't have any close friends nearby yet. I'm sure you have friends you keep in touch with by phone, but if you ever want to talk to a live person, I'll be happy to listen or talk and I'm sure Consuela will, as well."

  "Thank you." She stared at her hand, still in his, feeling the gentle, lazy circles he traced with his thumb and wondering what it would feel like to have his hands around her. Startled by the turn her thoughts had taken, she blurted out the first thing she could think of. "Consuela seems really nice."

  "She is. She's a gem. She did a lot for Carol and me when our parents died." He looked over at her as he said, "She likes you, you know."

  "I hope so. I like her, too."

  "No, I mean she likes you for real. I'm not sure how, but she's a good judge of people. It usually takes her awhile to warm up to people because she has to feel they're a good person first, but she's really taken to you."

  Sam thought about that and some of the things she'd told her before Trevor came in. That would give her something else to think about tonight.

  "So how much am I going to pay you and how soon do you want to move in?"

  She grinned at him, thankful for changing the subject. "Well, I did some checking as to how much other ranches pay their bookkeeper. Most of them do not include a place to stay, though. I wrote down the amounts that I found, both with and without a place to stay."

  She handed him a piece of paper with this information on it. "Letting me live on the ranch means a lot to me and if I don't have to pay rent I don't really need a lot to live on, so maybe we can help each other out. If you give me free rent, the lowest amount there is fine with me, especially while we see how that works. A year from now we'll have a better handle on how much the ranch can afford and how much work I'm doing, how long it takes, so we can talk again then."

  Grinning, he asked, "And when are you moving in?"

  "As soon as you say I can, Boss."

  "Let me look over these figures tonight, if that's all right. I'll let you know tomorrow what I think would be a fair wage for you. I'll get a couple of the men to do some scrubbing on the guesthouse tomorrow. Why don't you and Consuela wash up the sheets and things? You can move in as soon as it's clean."

  "Thank you, Trevor. I appreciate both the job and the house."

  "Thank you for being the godsend I've needed."

  Something suddenly occurred to Sam and she chuckled. He looked at her, puzzled and she said, "I just realized, I never gave you my resume."

  "I don't need one. You made friends already with my computer. That's good enough for me."

  "Do you at least want some references to check out before you let me live on your ranch?"

  "No, that's okay. Consuela likes you. That counts more to me than what anyone in Texas that I've never met could tell me. But the fact you offered speaks volumes to me, as well."

  "Okay, if you're sure."

  "I should ask you the same thing, though."

  "What do you mean?"

  "You've just agreed to live here and you know nothing about me." He frowned at her briefly. "Is this something you do often? Do we need to have a little talk about how safe that is?"

  Surprised at his words, she added them to the long list to think about later. She had a lot of thinking to do tonight. "No, it's not something I do. And I do, too, know something about you. Sally assured me you're a good guy. She said she grew up with Carol."

  Trevor smiled at the thought of Sally and Carol. "Yes, they did. Sally used to stay here sometimes. She's a good lady, but boy could those two drive me nuts when they were younger. As you work here you'll probably hear a story or two of them together, picking on Carol's big brother."

  "So you're older than Sally? I thought you two seemed about the same age."

  "Actually, we are. They were only a year behind me in school."

  "So you and Carol grew up close, I'll bet."

  "Definitely. We've always been close."

  "I always wished I'd have had a brother or sister."

  Studying her a minute, he said, "I'll bet you and Sally will be like sisters before long. And you'll like Carol when you meet her. I can see the three of you together quite easily."

  "I'm anxious to meet Carol."

  "Oh, you'll meet her, I'm sure, some day. Now, though, I have to ask if you can solve another problem for me."<
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  "What's that?"

  "I have a stack of mail here and I'm not sure what I need to do with it. Could we go over it piece by piece tomorrow?"

  "Yeah, I saw that stack. I didn't look through them, but I can help you if you want. We can try to get them all taken care of yet tomorrow. I want to take some time over the next few days to go through all the accounts and reports your mom was using. I want to see if I can bring them all up to date. I'll also start working on things I know the accountant will be asking about."

  "That all sounds good to me, Sam."

  There was a knock on the door, which was open and Consuela stuck her head in. "Lunch is ready whenever you two want to take a break."

  "You go ahead and eat whenever you want, Trevor," Sam said.

  "I think this is a good place, if you're ready. Come on." He reached over, took her hand and helped her up. "I don't know what she made for us for lunch, but I bet you'll like it. Consuela's a great cook."

  "Me?"

  He looked at her, a bit shocked. "Well, of course you. Wait. You aren't one of those women who try to skip lunch or something, are you?"

  "No, I eat lunch, but I never thought of eating your lunch."

  He laughed out loud. "Now why wouldn't you eat here with us? She makes a wonderful lunch every day for my foreman Grant, herself and me. Of course you'll eat with us, unless you want to insult Consuela."

  "No, of course I don't want to do that."

  "Good. If you insult my cook, you'll answer to me, Missy."

  Again, a statement she didn't know what to make of. He sounded serious, but he was already smiling at her. "As long as you're staying here, Sam, plan on eating here. Breakfast is early, but I'm sure Consuela would put something back for you for a little later if you ask her. Lunch is somewhere around noon and supper's normally around 6:00, but that can change, depending on what we're doing on the ranch."

  "You don't have to furnish meals for me, too."

  "We're going to be eating, so it's really no extra work. Besides, you don't know what I'm paying you yet. You may not be able to afford groceries." He laughed at the look on her face. "Seriously, we'd love having the company, but if you'd rather eat alone ––"

  "No, I like having someone to eat with." She sheepishly added, "Unless I'm in a bad mood. I just didn't want to be any trouble."

  "It's no trouble at all and I have my own cure for a bad mood," he said, gazing at her with a serious expression.

  Sam also thought Consuela was a good cook. And she liked Grant, the ranch foreman. She was also impressed that Consuela ate with them at the table. Many ranches had a cook, but they didn't eat meals with the family. She had a feeling she was going to enjoy living here.

  By mutual agreement, Sam spent the afternoon getting used to the computer and accounting system while Trevor went out to work. He came back in a little earlier than usual, hoping to catch Sam still working. He knocked on the open door and went in to talk to her, just as she was finishing up for the day.

  "Oh, Trevor, good. I was hoping to see you before I left."

  "Something wrong?"

  "Not really, no. I went through the stack of mail this afternoon and most of it I took care of. There were some notices from the bank about fees and stuff and I'll look at those once I get the account up to date."

  "I looked at them. I wasn't sure what they were and if they were normal or if I had to do something with them, or what. Thank you for handling them."

  "Oh, no problem. Some of the fees look high to me, but I'm not familiar with this bank. They may have offsetting advantages somewhere else. I want to go back over the last year and see if they've been consistent or if they're increasing or what."

  Trevor nodded, "Sam, I'm already glad you're taking this over. You obviously know a whole lot more about this than me," he admitted.

  "You'd have caught on, I'm sure."

  "I'm not so sure, but thank you for the vote of confidence." He sighed as he said, "You know, since Mom and Dad died I've been feeling inadequate. I mean, I can run the ranch. I know what I'm doing there and it's going fine. But this office part of it, I was and still am, totally lost. It's a horrible feeling because I know that's part of running this ranch and I'll be the first to admit, I'm not qualified to do it. I've been terrified I'll make such a mess of it no one will sell to us because their bills aren't getting paid or something. If that happens the hands won't have confidence in me and that could be disastrous. I don't want to let Dad down like that."

  At that moment Sam understood the stress Trevor had been under since losing his parents. Not only was he still grieving the loss of his parents, but that was a lot of weight on his young shoulders at the same time. This was a large ranch, requiring a lot of work, inside the office and out on the land. She determined then and there to do whatever she could to help him.

  They'd both been lost in their thoughts for a few moments. Sam came back to the present first and said, "Well, we can do the rest of this stuff tomorrow morning, but I really don't think it'll take too long. I was hoping to see you tonight so I could tell you. I thought maybe that'd make you feel a little better."

  "It does. Thanks for telling me, Sam. I was planning most of the day in here getting that stuff caught up."

  "No, it won't take all that long; maybe an hour or so in the morning. You should have part of the morning and all afternoon to prove to your hands that you are indeed the Boss Cowboy."

  Trevor loved the bit of mischief he saw in her eyes. "Good. I'd hate to have anyone working for me that didn't know that."

  He smiled at her as he said that and picking up on his teasing quickly, she said, "I hear you, Boss Cowboy. I'll see you in the morning."

  "Whoa there, cowgirl, where are you going?"

  She looked perplexed as she said, "Back to the motel."

  "Not until after you eat supper with us. I just told you earlier today that your meals are included in your pay and we'd love to have your company. Were you not listening? That's something else that's important to me. When I say something, it's for a reason and I expect people to listen."

  "I thought that was once I move in here."

  "Which will be tomorrow or the next day. We'll be ready to eat in a few minutes, so why wouldn't you eat with us?" He tried to look stern, but she could tell he was teasing as he asked, "Am I going to have a problem with you not listening?"

  Never one to turn her back on a chance to return a good joke or teasing, she said, "Absolutely not. I always listen. I may not always do what you say, but I'll always listen when you're saying it."

  He was laughing out loud now as he warned, "And I have a good way to deal with a little brat that does that, too." He put his hand on her back and led her toward the kitchen, still laughing, as he said, "Sam, I think we're going to get along just fine."

  She sure hoped so; his hand felt awful good on her back. She couldn't help teasing one more time and answered, trying to keep a straight face but failing miserably, "Yeah, I think I should be able to mold you into someone I can work with fairly easily."

  They'd reached the kitchen by the time she said that and Consuela dropped the spoon she was holding and whirled around to look at Sam. She saw the playfulness on her face and smiled. Trevor burst out laughing again, as did Grant, who just came in the back door of the kitchen.

  Consuela warned as she retrieved the spoon from the floor, "Miss Sam, you shouldn't tease like that. My heart is getting too old for it." She had a big smile on her face as she looked at Sam and Trevor, who were looking at each other, smiling.

  Grant noticed the way they were looking at each other, as well. He moved closer to Consuela. "I think life around here is about to get more interesting," he whispered.

  She nodded in agreement.

  Trevor smiled at the little minx he'd hired as his bookkeeper. "Darlin', you're free to try."

  Grant added, "Good luck with that, Sam."

  The two men and Consuela all chuckled. Sam wondered what she was getting herself
into and was anxious to find out.

  After a wonderful meal with lively conversation, Sam stood up and started gathering dishes to take to the sink. Consuela said, "Miss Sam, I'll do that."

  "Nonsense, Consuela. I don't have any plans for this evening and I'll be happy to help you."

  Trevor said, "Yes, you most certainly do have plans, Sam. Consuela, I apologize for stealing the lady that offered to help, but she and I have prior plans."

  Sam looked at him, confused. "We do?"

  "Yes, we do." He tried to hide a grin as he said, "Don't tell me you weren't listening to me then, either."

  "When? And I told you, I always listen."

  "Uh–huh, so you said. Yesterday you asked if you could borrow a horse and saddle if you got my bills caught up for me today. I told you yes, as long as you follow my rules."

  Her eyes lit up. "Really? I can go riding this evening?"

  "I told you that you could and I mean what I say. You may not know me well enough yet to believe that, but once you know me better you'll see. If I say something, I mean it."

  Sam noticed both Grant and Consuela nodding their head in agreement.

  "So, we can go whenever you're ready," Trevor said.

  "We?"

  "Yes, we. My first rule is if you're going to be riding one of my horses, I'm going to go with you the first time to assure myself you can handle my horse."

  "I can assure you I can handle a horse," Sam snorted, a bit disgusted.

  "I'm not saying you can't. As a matter of fact, I feel very confident that you can. But rules are rules. I'll feel a lot better about letting you ride alone in the future once I've seen for myself that I don't have anything to worry about."

  Sam considered his words a moment before accepting them. "Okay, I guess that makes sense."

  As they were walking out to the barn, again with his hand on her back, he said, "Besides, rule number 2 is I need to make sure you know where my ranch ends and the next one starts. I don't want you roaming onto land that's not mine."