Adler worked the pastures Monday morning. From a logistical perspective, he didn’t need to. There were more than enough hands and the cattle had settled into a relatively docile state now that most of the herd was pregnant.

From a personal perspective, Adler worried how Jake might interpret his presence—like maybe he was still checking up on the man. At the same time, he worried how Jake might interpret his absence—like he didn’t give a rat’s tail how his brother-in-law was fitting in with a new team.

None of that really mattered. The simple truth was that Adler needed a horse beneath him and a metric ton of obstinacy at the other end of his rope to keep his mind off Sage Ballard. He had almost driven his truck into the ditch on the drive back from the roadhouse Friday night because his thoughts couldn’t stop racing around her. He thought about how she looked, finally dressed like a local, the skirt hugging her exactly where a skirt should hug a respectable woman, just enough of her plentiful curves on display to make his mouth water.

Where Friday at the roadhouse was pure torture, Sunday was rife with embarrassment. His mother was playing the lonely widow routine in a bid to get Jake to move out of the house he rented from Adler and onto the ranch, with Leah and Sage in tow.

If only that were the embarrassing part. Adler kept missing his mouth with his fork because he couldn’t stop staring at Sage. He was so out of sorts that his mother stopped mid-meal, walked over to Adler and put her hand to his forehead.

When he didn’t prove to have a fever, she asked him if he’d been kicked in the head recently. He’d fabricated a lie on the spot, mentioning that his mind was fixed on the trade show he would be attending the following weekend. Of course, after thirty-three years of watching her son like a hawk, Lindy knew he was lying and why.

Throwing him a wink, she returned to her seat and continued to subtly push Jake toward admitting how much easier things would be if he wasn’t out in Willow Gap.

“Whoa, there,” Will Copely called, his gelding cutting between Adler on Cannonball and a bull that had drawn dangerously close. “Save the daydreaming for personal time, boss.”

Adler shot a glance at the ranch foreman. Copely wore a face-splitting grin, his pale blue gaze glittering at Adler like ice melting at a river’s edge.

“Or the office,” Will laughed.

Adler looked around. The rest of the hands, Jake included, were at the other end of the pasture. He hadn’t noticed them move away. Then he realized he was the one who had drifted, Cannonball interpreting the unusually high level of tension running through Adler’s body as steering directions.

The way his mind kept circling back to Sage made Adler a menace in the pasture.

“He’s fitting in.” Will nodded in Jake’s direction. “If that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Wasn’t worried,” Adler said. “Chandler couldn’t stop bragging about how he stole one of the valley’s best ranch hands out from under us and for a quarter the pay.”

Taking his hat off, Will wiped the sweat from his closely shaven head. Putting the handkerchief away, he chuckled.

“Wish I could have seen Jake break the news to the man. You can bet next time I see Old Chandler, I’ll be sure to thank him for getting Jake trained.”

“Just make sure Jake isn’t in earshot. He’s got a natural talent for this. Dad would have been so happy to see him working our herds.”

“Dawn, too,” Copely added.

“Yeah,” Adler scratched out. Tightening his grip on Cannonball’s reins, he nodded at the pasture full of cows. “I’ll get out of your hair now. Leave the work to the real cowboys.”

“Now, now,” Will teased, angling his horse toward the rest of his team. “You’re a real cowboy, boss—and you’ve got a pretty smile. All the fellas think so.”

Laughing, Adler leaned in to the saddle, his hips pushing down and forward as he lightly squeezed his knees against Cannonball’s sides.

“Come on, you beast, back to the stables with you.”

*

“This is the first time I’ve seen her throw a fit,” Sage laughed as Adler entered his office. “I didn’t know a temper tantrum could be so adorable.”

She nodded at Leah sitting in one of his visitor chairs, his wall calendar in her lap, her little mouth a tyrannically flat line. Seeing him, the toddler looked up, her brows bunching together and her nostrils narrowing to the point he didn’t think she could actually breathe through them.

“Are you glaring at me, baby girl?”

Her face folded for a second.

“What glaring?”

He mimicked her expression.

“Yes,” she answered, her head furiously bobbing up and down. “Leah glaring.”

Before he could ask her what sin he had committed and how he might attain absolution, she jabbed her index finger at the thick red line surrounding Saturday and Sunday, the days marking the upcoming trade show.

Back when Dawn was alive, the plan had been for her and Leah to accompany Adler. There were plenty of kid-friendly exhibits and certain promises may have been made to the toddler.

He got down on one knee in front of Leah.

“I’m sorry, baby girl, but I’ve got business to do at the show. Gam-Gam can’t go with us because she has to take Aunt Dotty up to Missoula for a school reunion.”

He could take Jake, but he didn’t want the man attending his first trade show as little more than a babysitter. It would have been different with Dawn going because she was front office. But hauling Jake along was as good as turning him into a gelding for the next few years when it came to dealing with the other ranch owners and major vendors.

Leah lifted her hand, waving it in that way she had of dismissing what she was hearing as crazy talk.

“Sage go,” she said. “Sage go, Leah go, Addy go.”

And, with that, the matter was settled.