Mossy Glenn Ranch 3 -Saddles and Memories by Bailey Bradford Page B

a table in the back of the diner—one right by the people Jen was waiting on. Rocky shot her a timid look as they sat. Jen nodded and returned a polite smile that she probably used on all customers.
    Salt didn’t like the whole timid bit. Rocky wasn’t like that—she was gregarious, loud and obnoxious but fun and good-hearted. “Just be yourself,” he mumbled softly. “Otherwise she might think you tricked her later on, if…well, if you two, you know.”
    Jen glanced at him and Salt winced. He’d been pretty damn quiet and didn’t think she could have heard him, but she was a mom and his own sure had had super-hearing abilities. It went with the whole eyes on the back of the head thing as far as he was concerned. Moms were about as omnipotent as a human being could be.
    “I’ll be right with you,” Jen said before heading over to the counter. Salt watched her pluck up two menus before he spoke again.
    “Maybe you need to relax a little,” he suggested.
    Rocky rolled her eyes. “Being myself ain’t got me nothing but a string of broken hearts. I’m not risking that kind of pain again.”
    “You seem to have gotten over Shelly quick enough. Are you sure you loved her?” Salt thought a broken heart should take months to recover from, not that he was any expert. It still seemed a good idea to get Rocky to thinking about the strength of her feelings for Shelly.
    Rocky opened her mouth and closed it again before covering her eyes with her hands. “Oh, hell. Maybe not. I don’t even miss her. Didn’t bother me at all to talk to her and tell her she wasn’t getting another dime from me last payday.” She peeked at him from between her fingers. “Maybe I’m in love with the idea of being in love. That’s bordering on too deep a thought for me, but it’d explain why all my ex-girlfriends don’t seem such a loss to me now.”
    “Surely you’re being modest. An intelligent person would be cognisant of their issues, and it seems like you are aware of yours.”
    Salt jerked his head around and saw Jen standing beside their table at the same time Rocky did. Rocky dropped her hands to the table top as her face flamed scarlet. “I—I—it wasn’t—I didn’t—”
    Hell’s bells, he’d never seen Rocky so flustered! Salt couldn’t bear to see her stumbling over her own words. “Rocky was just being modest. She’s a smart gal.”
    Jen and Rocky both looked at him. Salt held up both hands. “Oh, come on, now. When did gal become politically incorrect?”
    Jen brought her pen to her bottom lip and nibbled on it for a second before responding. “I suppose it hasn’t.”
    “He didn’t say I was smart for a gal,” Rocky said as she nodded.
    Salt huffed and held out a hand for a menu. “I’m not stupid. My mama would have skinned me alive if I’d ever even had a misogynistic thought.”
    Jen’s smile seemed a lot more genuine when she turned it on him. “Ah, your mama and I raised our sons the same way.”
    Salt almost reached back and rubbed his backside at that. He’d had a wooden spoon put to his butt more than once as a kid when he’d screwed up. Didn’t seem like abuse to him, either. If his mama hadn’t kept him in line, there was no telling what all kind of trouble he’d have got into.
    “You both work at the Mossy Glenn?” Jen asked.
    Salt decided Rocky could do the talking. Rocky glanced at him then at Jen. “Yes. Salt and I have been there since the first hires. It’s a great place to work.”
    “I imagine it is,” Jen agreed before tapping her lip with the pen a few more times. She seemed to be working up to something.
    “Everyone’s real friendly, and it ain’t like there’s wild parties going on,” Rocky continued, speaking a little faster than normal. “The ranch is doing well, too. Carlos was able to hire a few new hands about a month ago.”
    Jen took the order pad out of her pocket and went to tapping that with the pen instead. “Oh, okay. So I suppose there’s no