A Montana Cowboy by Rebecca Winters Page A

decision to live in Colorado, but as she’d told Trace, it was none of her business.
    Cassie should be thankful he’d been up-front with her this afternoon. Trace had given her enough time to find a new job she badly needed. Her college degree in wildlife conservation from the University of Montana in Missoula could open doors for her. She would hunt for jobs with the government, but her first choice would be to work in the private sector.
    The White Lodge Wildlife Sanctuary might be a good place to start looking since she already had a connection there. It depended on one of their paid staff leaving, but she didn’t know what the odds were of that happening. If she found a decent apartment to rent in town, the location would be perfect.
    She could approach the owners at the sanctuary and find out if they were planning to hire someone else. With her college credentials and her work with the American Prairie Reserve after she’d graduated, it was possible they might hire her. The two years she’d spent on the High Plains in northeastern Montana helping facilitate and maintain water rights along with livestock and wildlife had given her invaluable training.
    It was on one of her brief trips home she’d met Logan Dorney, the new hired hand on the Bannock Ranch. Technically speaking, Jarod had done the hiring. When Cassie’s father had fired him, Jarod didn’t override the decision. Sadie confided to Cassie that her husband felt it was wise to leave it alone. Everyone, especially Jarod, knew how fragile Cassie’s father had become because of Ned.
    If Cassie and Logan hadn’t fallen in love, she’d still be working in the northeast part of the state. With that on her resume, it was worth it to find out if the sanctuary would be interested in her.
    Tomorrow after breakfast she’d drive into town and make a start. If there was no opening, she’d run by the fish-and-game office to see what they’d posted locally. After that she’d drop in at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
    A water conservancy group was doing a project out on the Pryor Crow Reservation an hour away from White Lodge. Maybe she could get hired on there, but they preferred to employ an Apsáalooke. She understood that. Still, if they needed someone qualified and no one else had applied, she could get lucky and be hired.
    Cassie was desperate for a good job and wouldn’t stop until she found one.
    For the next hour she looked up all kinds of positions in her field on her laptop. Helena and Kalispell had half a dozen wildlife conservancy openings, but she didn’t want to move to either place away from Avery and her cousins’ wives. Sadie and Liz had been her friends from grade school. With Logan gone, she needed them, even if they didn’t get together very often.
    Though Trace had said she could stay here until the new owner moved in, she knew she was living on borrowed time. Tomorrow she’d go to town and start looking for an apartment. The small nest egg she’d saved from the insurance money would make it possible for her to put down a cleaning deposit, plus first and last month’s rent.
    As soon as she could move in, hopefully next week with Avery’s help, she’d drop by the vet clinic and turn in the house key to Sam. If her applications for work didn’t produce results soon, then she’d get a temporary job in town until the right one came along. Having made up her mind, she could finally settle down to sleep.
    But when she got ready for bed and crawled under the covers, she soon broke down in agony and reached for the picture of her husband she kept on the bedside table. “Logan...why did you have to die? I need you more than ever now. I don’t know how I’m going to make it.” Tears soaked her pillow as she fell, finally, into a fitfull sleep.
    * * *
    T RACE CHECKED ON the horses to make sure the storm hadn’t bothered them. There’d been