High Desert Haven (The Shepherd's Heart) by Lynnette Bonner Page B

town and see the sheriff about this harassment you’ve been getting.”
    Nicki didn’t have time to ponder the implications of his concern, for Sawyer suddenly pulled on her sleeve. “Mama, come pway.”
    Nicki looked down and tousled his hair, “I can’t play right now, Son. Mama is busy.”
    Stomping one foot and folding chubby arms across his chest, he repeated, “Come pway!”
    “Sawyer. Mama is busy now.” When she turned back to resume her conversation with Jason, Sawyer threw his head back and let out a blood-curdling scream, throwing in a few stomps of his feet for good measure. Wide-eyed, Nicki turned to stare at the little tyrant before her.
    Tilly set her plate aside and came over, attempting to pick him up, but he arched his back and threw his hands in the air, squirming and writhing and making it almost impossible to do so.
    Jason set his cup down and stood, picking up the rest of his sandwich as he hollered over the din, “I’ll just go cut and chop some of that wood for you. When you’ve gotten him settled, you can let me know your decision.”
    As Nicki tried to calm Sawyer, she realized with exasperation that Jason had been the one who asked most of the questions.

7
    An hour later when Nicki had finally rocked Sawyer to sleep, she laid him gently on the bed and made her way outside to finish conducting her interview with Jason.
    She stared at the wood pile in amazement as she moved across the yard. He had reduced it by at least half, cutting more in an hour’s time than she had been able to cut in the last three days.
    Glancing past him, she saw that he had set up a three-sided screen for his horse, using the wind-sheltered end of the bunkhouse and several bales of hay, which she had not even known she had. He must have found them under the collapsed roof of the barn. She could see where he had dug down, removing sections of the roof to get at what was underneath.
    She gestured to the animal and then folded her arms against the cold as she spoke. “There might be some feed under that mess.” She motioned to the barn. “I haven’t been in there since before John’s accident. But if you can find some, you’re welcome to it.”
    “Thank you. I’ll go look as soon as I’m done with this wood. Where would you like it stacked?”
    “Um.” She glanced around. They had always had only enough cut up to burn for one day so there was no set place to stack it. “You can put half of it here by the bunkhouse and half over there by the soddy.”
    He nodded and went back to work chopping as he asked, “So is there anything else you want to ask me?”
    “Well, I find myself in an awkward position. You see I don’t really know the first thing about running a ranch, so I don’t know what questions I should ask you. You said you were the trail boss on a drive, so I suppose that you know something about cattle. Where did you learn that information?”
    Jason set another log up on its end, swinging the ax high and chopping it in half before he leaned on the handle and replied, “My uncle’s best friend owns a ranch. His name is Smith Bennett, and his son, Cade, and I were pretty good friends growing up. Every summer until I was seventeen I worked on their ranch with my cousins, helping do all sorts of odd jobs. I also sometimes helped my uncle with his work. He is the sheriff back home in Shilo. I learned cattle from Smith Bennett, and I learned about horses from Uncle Sean.”
    “And organizing and running a ranch, what do you know about that?”
    “Well, I’ll be honest with you on that. I have never had to run a ranch. But,” he glanced around at the rundown buildings, “I have some ideas that I think will work. At least improve your situation.”
    Nicki was about to ask something else when she heard a rider approaching and turned to see who it was.
    “Nicki? I heard there were some shots over in this direction?” William swung down from the saddle, his mouth thinning as he took in Nicki’s