“Again, I want to explore my land. I need to know why the operation is failing. Who is going to take me?”
This time Brielle faced Tony with her shoulders back and a determined glint in her eyes. She wasn’t going to back down again, even if he did intimidate the hell out of her.
This time, she was going to get her way, and she was going to learn something about all these acres of land she’d unwillingly inherited from her father. She would make this damn ranch successful even if it killed her. And it might just.
“I’ll take you,” Colt said, surprising not only her but Tony as well, if his expression was any indication.
“You sure you have time for that, Colt?” Tony asked, making Brielle want to slug him.
“Yeah. I’ve got my projects done for the day,” he said with a shrug before turning back to her. “But there’s no way you’re getting on a horse wearing that ensemble. You need to change into jeans and boots. A hat wouldn’t hurt either. It will shield your face from the sun.”
“I don’t need fashion advice from a cowboy.” What was wrong with the cute shorts and tank top she was wearing? It was an unusually warm summer, she’d been told. And that was okay with her. She loved hot weather, and she hadn’t gotten enough of it in Maine.
“I’m not giving you fashion advice, Princess. I’m just stating how it is. You’ll break your neck if you even attempt to get on a horse in those heels. And your thighs will be scraped raw if you wear shorts on the long ride.”
Colt leaned against the wall and crossed one foot in front of the other, his thumbs tucked into his front pockets. He looked as if he could stand right there all day long and not be bothered in the least.
“Well, I don’t have that sort of clothes,” she said with a frustrated sigh.
The thing she wouldn’t admit to either man was that she was excited to take her first horseback ride. She’d seen it done in the movies all the time, and it actually looked like fun. But if she told them that, they’d just ramp up the mockery. She was through with being pegged as the dumb city girl.
“We’ll have to hit Peggy’s shop, and then I’ll take you out,” Colt said as he pushed off the wall and moved to the door. He turned around before he walked through it. “I’ll see ya later, Tony.”
With that, he left the room. Brielle stood there for a minute, watching his retreat through the open doorway. She knew he expected her to follow him without question.
The stubborn Storm blood in her told her to stand her ground. After all, she was the boss here. But the practical part of her told her that he didn’t give a damn. If she didn’t follow him, she’d lose her tour guide.
Curiosity and a desire to ride the land made her decision for her. She turned to follow him, but still stopped in the doorway and turned to give Tony a narrow-eyed glance. “We will talk further.”
He just stared back at her with surprisingly alert brown eyes. The man was wrinkled, balding, scrawny, and downright rude, but she had a feeling nothing got past him. She couldn’t fire him. That would be foolish.
“Looking forward to it,” Tony finally said before setting his hat back on his head and standing up.
She knew he was getting ready to leave the room too, so she decided to make her exit first. It was a matter of pride. Spinning around, she walked away feeling as if she’d just had a small victory. A smile even tilted the corners of her lips, if just the smallest fraction of an inch. But it was still a smile.
By the time her ride ended, that smile would be long gone.
Chapter Six
Dead silence was their companion as Brielle rode in the shotgun seat of Colt’s huge diesel pickup truck. The black beast boasted more bells and whistles inside the cab than her last Mercedes had.
How could a ranch hand afford such a smooth ride?
It was killing her not to ask him, but she refused to. She’d be damned if she spoke first. No way. No how! Brielle Storm was used to having people cater to her needs. That had been the story of her life. Well, it had been the story of her life up until a year ago, when her father had pulled her sweet Persian rug right out from under her.
Now she was twenty-five, living in a slightly ramshackle home, owner of a failing 10,000-acre ranch, and in charge of a whole hell of a lot of men who wouldn’t even look at her, let alone listen to a word she said. This was not something Brielle was used to, and it wasn’t something she planned to ever get used to.
Still, she was finally getting somewhere today. She was going to inspect her property, learn what ranching was all about, and when she did see her father, she wouldn’t sound like a twit. After all, the stars of all those cowboy flicks she’d watched made ranching look easy — well, when they didn’t end up in one mishap or other, that is.
She was too smart to make a fool of herself, so she had nothing to worry about, did she?
The truck cruised down the long Montana road without her feeling a bump. It was a much different ride than the one she’d approached the house in. Why had her father bought that old and rusty truck? Was that part of her punishment? She was sure it was. He had to be sitting back in his nice, comfy office chair with a cigar in his mouth and a grin on his face as he thought about his spoiled daughter fighting the elements and who knew what else in Montana.
When they pulled off the roadway and Colt suddenly swung in front of a store that simply said Peggy’s in big bold red letters, Brielle looked up and down the street. Surely this couldn’t be Sterling.
Could it?
She was seeing a post office, a very small post office, a pharmacy, a dental office, a sheriff’s office, maybe a salon, and a small café. There were a few other small buildings scattered on the street, and what looked to be a fire station not far away, but this one little street just couldn’t be the town she was expected to live in for the next year.
Her throat was practically burning with her need to talk, but she was still unwilling to speak first. She couldn’t! But when Colt climbed wordlessly from the truck and moved around to her side of the vehicle and opened the door, she was unable to take it any longer.
“Where are we?” she practically shouted, clearly startling him with the decibel level of her voice.
“Sterling,” he answered as he held out a hand to help her down.
Ignoring the hand he was offering, she grabbed the handle above her and stepped onto the wide running board before landing on the sidewalk next to Colt.
“This isn’t the whole town, though, is it?” Please, please, please don’t be the whole town, she added silently.