When Love Comes by Leigh Greenwood Page A

wouldn’t say anything while Broc was here, but she’d fill Amanda’s ears with complaints as soon as he was gone. They had to ride past the house, the bunkhouse, and the shed to reach the bull’s pasture.
    “Has anyone checked the fence?” Broc asked Amanda.
    “I’ve been around it twice,” Leo told him. “Ain’t no way he could have gotten out except through the gate. You’d think if someone was trying to make us think the bull was getting out by itself, they’d put a break in the fence, but any fool knows there ain’t no bull can open that gate.”
    Amanda thought maybe Leo was wrong. A circle of rope was looped over the end post of the fence and the end of the gate. It was conceivable the bull could have learned to lift it with his nose and push the gate open. Amanda explained her theory to Leo.
    “Maybe it happened that way before, but not last night,” Leo said. “I tied a rope farther down between the braces. Show me a bull that can untie a knot, and I’ll show you a bull that ought to be in the circus.”
    “Let’s put him in his pasture,” Broc said. “I need to get back to town.”
    “Mind if I go with him?” Leo asked Amanda. “I’m tired of doing my work and Andy’s.”
    “Go have a good evening,” she said, “but don’t drink too much or stay too late.”
    Leo grinned. “Yes, Ma.”
    Amanda blushed. “Sorry.”
    Now it was Leo’s turn to look uncomfortable. “It’s okay. It’s nice to have somebody to worry about me.”
    Before she could respond, Eddie and Gary rode up.
    “What’s he doing here?” Gary demanded, pointing at Broc, “and what’s he doing with our bull?”
    “The bull got out again,” Leo told him. “He couldn’t untie the knot I made in the rope, so someone had to let him out.”
    “That doesn’t tell me what he’s doing here,” he said, indicating Broc.
    “He found the bull,” Amanda told her brother. Her mother, seeing that her sons had returned, had left the house and was walking toward them.
    “How is it he’s always finding our bull?” Gary demanded.
    “Because he’s smart,” Eddie said. “He likes horses.”
    “Maybe he’s the one letting the bull out,” Gary said.
    “Why would I do that?” Broc asked. “I didn’t even know who owned him when I found him a few days ago.”
    “Maybe you did,” Gary accused. “Maybe you knew all along. Maybe you’re trying to make us so afraid something will happen to our bull that we’ll sell him and give you the money you say we owe.”
    “He wouldn’t do that,” Eddie said.
    Amanda thought the same thing but was relieved Eddie had said it for her. She had no rational explanation for her belief.
    “I’m certain Earl Carruthers is responsible for this.” Her mother had arrived in time to hear Gary’s accusation. “He will do anything to force me to sell this ranch to him.”
    “Why do you always blame everything on Mr. Carruthers?” Gary demanded, his anger growing.
    “Because his men are the ones always causing us trouble,” Leo said.
    “And he is the most insistent that I should sell the ranch now that your father has died,” her mother added. “He saysit’s impossible for a woman to manage a ranch successfully. He says no cowhand with an ounce of self-respect would work for women.”
    “I’m not a woman,” Gary said.
    “Neither am I,” Eddie added.
    “Mr. Carruthers thinks my being a widow is more important than having two sons,” her mother said.
    “Sammy says he just wants to have a bigger ranch than Mr. Sandoval,” Eddie said.
    “What would you or Sammy Loftus know about something like that?” Gary demanded.
    “Sammy is a lying coyote, and I hate him,” Eddie declared, “but he said his friend Pete overheard Mr. Carruthers telling his pa he wasn’t doing any of those things we said he was doing. He said he was just waiting for us to sell so he could buy our ranch and be bigger than Sandoval.”
    Amanda had reported the harassment to the sheriff, but she