Kyle

Kyle Mayhew loves working on his family’s ranch, training their award-winning horses and making sure everything runs smoothly. That includes getting the barn roof repaired, and when RJ, a spunky girl ready to prove herself, shows up to work, Kyle knows his life will never be the same.

RJ has had to fight her entire career to prove that she can do everything her brothers can. When she moves in with her uncle to get her construction business going, RJ jumps at the chance to lead the project for the local celebrities—the Mayhew family. What she doesn’t expect is to fall for her hunky client.

Kyle’s plans to own a ranch nearby are shattered when someone offers a much higher bid. Will he fight for his dreams with the help of RJ and his family, or will he move on to greener pastures?

 Kyle tossed the last load of hay into
the pile and leaned his pitchfork against the wall. His moment of relief at
being done for the day was short-lived as water splashed down on his head from
the hole in the roof.

Oh no.

He glanced at his watch. He’d
forgotten to call a repairman yet again. Which meant that he’d have to wait
until morning. That was bad enough. But knowing that his older brother Scott
was going to ask about it when he went in for dinner just made it worse. Scott
had enough on his plate. He didn’t need to be worrying about Kyle getting his
stuff done on top.

Of course now that Cindy was in the
picture, Scott seemed a lot less stressed. Kyle pulled out his phone and made
himself a reminder to call first thing in the morning. True, Cindy would take
care of it if he asked, but he’d been the one in charge of finding someone to
fix this barn up, and he was going to do it.

He walked around the puddle of mud and
shoved his phone back in his pocket. It had been a little warmer the last
couple of days, which meant the several inches of snow on the roof was now
finding its way onto the floor of the barn—or Kyle’s head when he wasn’t paying
attention.

The lights to the office were still
on, which mean Scott was stuck on a phone call instead of eating with the
family. Kyle trudged through the messy yard and wiped his feet on the mat
before opening the door.

He set his shoes inside the door, then
went to the bathroom to wash up. He wanted to shower, but it was already late
enough that if he didn’t hurry to the table, he wouldn’t get any food. His
brothers and sister would be sure of that. Nothing beat his mom’s cooking, and
her fried chicken was one of his favorites.

“Smells good, Mom.” Kyle dried his
face as he left the bathroom, then tossed the towel into the laundry basket on
his way past.

Trevor looked up from his potatoes. “I
was hoping you’d take a while longer. Your chicken was calling my name.”

Kyle swatted at his hand. “My chicken
speaks to no one but me.”

Melinda smirked. “How’s the hay?
Usable?”

“Yeah, I think we got it far enough
away from the leaky roof that it shouldn’t get wet.” Kyle grabbed a few pieces
of chicken, then loaded up with potatoes and corn. “What’s Scott up to so late?
I figured I’d be the last one in.”

“The way he was talking, I’m assuming
it was Cindy.” Maggie grinned. “He’s so cheesy with her. If I didn’t like her
so much, I’d find it disturbing.”

Kyle let out the breath he didn’t
realize he’d been holding. So nothing bad had happened. They’d almost lost a
huge contract, and they weren’t quite out of the woods yet. They needed to sell
those horses to make way for the new ones that would be old enough to start
training soon.

“Yo, earth to Kyle.” A roll made
contact with Kyle’s cheek.

He picked it up off the table and
pulled it apart. “Thanks I needed one of the these. Pass the butter?”

Melinda handed him the butter dish. “You’re
distracted tonight. What’s going on?”

“Nothing. I’m just frustrated. I was
going to call to get the repairs going on the barn, but I didn’t finish in
time. I set a reminder for myself tomorrow, but that means yet another day with
an awful roof.”

“We live on a ranch. There’s always
something to do. It’s okay to take a five minute break during the day to make a
call, you know.” Trevor smirked. “Also, you stole my roll. Mom, can you toss me
another one?”

Melinda raised an eyebrow. “We don’t
throw rolls—”

Shawn grabbed one and lobbed it at
Trevor. “You might not, but we do.”

“Enough.” Melinda gave him her best
mom glare, then turned back to Kyle. “What I was going to say before Shawn
interrupted, was that I think you could probably still call tonight. It’s not
too late, and I think the hardware store is still open.”

“Good point. Maybe I’ll do that before
this turns into a full-on roll war.” Kyle grabbed another piece of chicken,
then escaped to his room. It was too loud in the kitchen to hear anything.

Paul, the owner, answered after the
first ring. “Frogwater Hardware, Paul speaking. How can I help you?”

Kyle grinned. He could see Paul on the
other end of the line, staring longingly at his cigar. “Hey, Paul. We’re in
need of some repairs at the ranch. A repaired roof, broken fence, that kind of
thing. Do you know of anyone who could take care of that for us?”

There was muffled chatter for a moment
while Paul consulted with someone in the background. Kyle took advantage of the
moment he had and took a couple of bites of potatoes. If he didn’t get to eat
the rest of his dinner soon, he might just eat his phone.

“You still there?” Paul’s voice boomed
into the phone.

“Yeah.” Kyle wiped his mouth.

“Tommy has family in town, and a few
of them are great with repairs. He’ll send them over tomorrow to see what needs
to be done.”

Kyle sighed with relief. “That would
be great. Thank you.”

“Of course. And while I’m thinking
about it, Daisy is dying to ride a horse again. Her birthday is coming up in a
couple of weeks. Think we could do her birthday party there that Saturday?”

Kyle held in a laugh. Daisy was Paul’s
granddaughter and had ridden horses for her birthday often enough that the
Mayhews had it written on their calendar as a yearly event.

“That works. Eleven to three again?”

“You know her all too well. See you
then.” Paul hung up before Kyle could say goodbye.

Kyle grinned and set the phone down.
Now that he’d finally set up the appointment for repairs, he could enjoy his
chicken in peace.