Untamed by Ciana Stone

shoulder. “How’s the cattle business, boy? Oh wait, you’re sheriffing now, right?”
    “Yes, sir. Not bad— on both counts.”
    “I hear tell your brother finally got hitched. Some gal from up north?”
    “The Carolinas.”
    “She a ranch gal?”
    “Yes, sir. She’s a damn fine horse trainer.”
    “Well, good, good. Tell your brother I send my congratulations.”
    “I will.”
    “You get yourself a wife yet? Last I heard you was dating some gal clear up in Tallahassee. Some slick city gal.”
    “That was a while back.” Cam didn’t even want to think about Camille Dresden. She was probably the worst mistake of his life. Beautiful and from a wealthy and politically influential family, she’d turned his head with her looks and then tried to turn him into something he was not. The breakup had been ugly and had pretty much made him decide he wasn’t destined for hearth and home.
    “Well, one day the right woman will come along, honey,” Myrtle said. “Love finds you when you least expect it.”
    Cam couldn’t help but smile at the look that passed between Myrtle and Byron. They might be old, but like his dad once said, just because there’s snow on the roof doesn’t mean there’s no fire in the furnace.
    “Well you two behave,” he said. “I think it’s time for me to call it a night.”
    Leaving them to their date, Cam made his way outside. As was typical for Florida this time of year. The air was heavy and moist, the humidity still high enough to bring a sheen of sweat to the skin if you stayed out more than a few minutes.
    He got in his truck and headed home. There wasn’t much of the county left that wasn’t developed. While tourism might fuel the state and there were more people moving in every day, development did not bode well for people like him and his brother, Clint. In the last few years, quite a few of the larger ranches had been sold off. Families who had been ranching or farming in the state for generations were selling out and heading for places like Texas and Montana.
    Not Cam and his brother Clint. Before their father died, he’d helped them buy the ranch and they fully intended to hang onto it. After their dad passed, their sister, Carly had taken over running the ranch. Their mother had chosen to stay in Arizona but now spent her time in a condominium complex with her mother, Irene, playing cards and going shopping. That was fine. She was happy and Cam didn’t begrudge her enjoying life. Their oldest brother Colton had settled in the Carolinas after he left the military and had a nice breeding farm.
    And Cam? Well he was fine alone. Hell, it was time he was alone. He was almost thirty-five. Aside from the time he’d spent in college and the two years he had spent wandering the country, he had never lived alone and even then, it hadn’t been what you’d call alone. His college years were cram packed with friends and parties. And he’d enjoyed the glory of being the star quarterback, of having his choice of the prettiest girls and becoming one of the hot new stars on the local rodeo circuit.
    Truthfully, living in the apartment on the ranch he and Clint had created by adding another floor on top of the big garage was not exactly like being alone. Clint and Lily were just a short walk away in the main house, and he spent as much time there as he did the apartment.
    As he passed the old Whitehorse ranch, he saw a truck pulling out from the narrow drive. That was odd. Old man Whitehorse had been dead almost six months and the place hadn’t gone up for sale. What was someone doing there?
    Cam and his brother had been on little more than speaking terms with Mike Whitehorse, despite their properties adjoining. Whitehorse had stayed to himself. And the man hadn’t run cattle in the last ten years. How he’d survived was a mystery.
    But still it was odd to see that old truck pull out of the drive. Maybe he would take a ride back over in the morning and check the place out, make