“How do you know me so well?”
“That kind of thing tends to happen when you spend sixteen hours a day with someone. Would you like to stop?”
“I’ve already gotten used to you. Why would I want to start over with someone else?”
“New translator might be more to your liking.”
“Thanks anyway, but I like the view from here just fine.”
* * *
For the second time that day, Anastasia felt herself getting lost in Laramie’s eyes. Mischa had to clear his throat three times before she remembered he was in the room.
“Is there something else you would like me to say?” she asked.
“Not about Yevgeny.”
“Then what is it?”
He looked as if he had done something he shouldn’t. “I invited Pavel to attend family day. Do you think she will mind?”
When she shook her head to let Laramie know that Mischa didn’t have anything to add regarding the missing money, Laramie excused herself to check on Shorty’s progress.
“I will join you as soon as I can.”
“Take your time. That boulder we’ve been pushing up the hill every day isn’t going to come rolling back down anytime soon.”
Anastasia noted Laramie’s allusion to the mythical tale of Sisyphus. For someone who claimed not to know much about anything except cows, Laramie seemed to be more well read than she let on.
“Who’s Pavel?” Anastasia asked after Laramie left her and Mischa alone.
“The incredibly handsome man who drilled into the safe for us.”
“You mean Thor?”
“Is that what you’re calling him? I don’t know if he has the body of a Norse god underneath his coveralls, but I’d love to find out. We wouldn’t have any of this information without his help.” He indicated the laptop and ledgers. “I’m sure Uncle Sergei would like to show him his appreciation, too.”
“And if Sergei doesn’t, you certainly would, right?”
“I wouldn’t be averse to the idea, no.”
“How did the invitation come about? Did you beg him to be your date as soon as he showed you his drill?”
Mischa leaned back in his chair and laced his hands across his stomach in a pose that was a touch too casual, which meant he was trying to downplay his obvious excitement.
“Actually, he asked me out first. He invited me to go for a drink with him tonight. It seemed only fair for me to return the favor.”
“A drink? Where?”
“There’s supposed to be a pub in town. The floor show, if there is one, probably pales in comparison to Lyubov’s, but I’m going for the company, not the ambiance. Would you like to come with us? I don’t think Pavel would mind.”
“I would if I were him. When I invite someone on a date, I don’t want her dragging her best friend along. It sends a clear signal she doesn’t expect the evening to go well.”
“If you bring Laramie with you, you wouldn’t be my chaperone. It would be more of a double date.”
“I would feel comfortable walking into Lyubov with her because no one would notice us. In a small town like this, everyone would.”
She finally realized that was probably the reason why Mischa had asked her to join him. Two women and two men sharing a booth would draw considerably less attention than two men alone. Not only would Mischa have to deal with first date jitters, he would feel exposed while doing so. She empathized with the difficult situation he was in, but she couldn’t do anything about it.
“It sounds like fun, but she will never agree to the idea.”
“Why not? I saw her doing vodka shots at your farewell party so I know she likes to drink.”
“Exactly my point. She banned alcohol on the ranch so the men could get better at their jobs. She can’t go out drinking tonight and not expect them to resent her for it. I can’t go either because I don’t want her to resent me. You’re just visiting so you can do whatever you want. I have to work with her. You don’t.”
Mischa looked pensive. “Now I feel guilty about saying yes. Should I call him and cancel?”
It had been ages since Anastasia had seen him this enthused about meeting someone new. She didn’t want the spark to fade.
“Of course not. Go, enjoy yourself, and tell me all about it in the morning.”
“You mean you get to live vicariously through me for once instead of the other way around? Talk about a change of pace.”
“You said it yourself. I’m all grown up now, remember? That means I get to stay home at night while you go out partying until the wee hours of the morning.”
She looked out one of the open windows after a subtle movement caught her eye. In the distance, she could see Laramie leading Krasota out of the stables.
“Text me if you find out anything else. I’ve got to go before I miss my ride.”
She ran downstairs and out into the yard. When Laramie placed her foot in the stirrups, Anastasia called to her to get her attention.
“You are not leaving without me, are you?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. Grab the ATV and let’s check on the boys.”
Anastasia touched her arm. Laramie seemed surprised by the contact and stunned by the request that followed.
“I was hoping I could ride with you.”
“Would you like the front or the back?”
“Is question same as asking if I like top or bottom? If so, answer is it depends on who I am with at the time.”
“If you were with me?”
“If I were with you, I think I would enjoy myself in any position.”
Even though there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the air between them seemed to crackle with electricity.
“Then let’s start with one and work our way through the rest.”
Laramie stepped toward her, bringing Krasota closer. Anastasia thought Laramie meant to kiss her. Instead, she bent, adjusted the stirrups, and gave her instructions on how to mount the horse.
Anastasia stepped into the stirrups the way Laramie told her to, but she couldn’t manage to pull herself up. She felt herself start to fall, but Laramie’s strong arms caught her before she hit the ground.
“It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
Laramie held her close. Even closer than Shorty and Elena had held each other while they were dancing last night. Anastasia could feel Laramie’s heart beating against her back. Like her grip, Laramie’s heartbeat was strong and sure.
“Ready to try again?”
Anastasia didn’t want to move. She wanted to stand there forever. With Laramie’s arms around her and a gentle breeze blowing against her skin.
“Yes, I am ready.”
She stepped into the stirrups again. With a not-so-gentle push from Laramie, she managed to mount Krasota. As she sat in the saddle, she felt awed by her achievement—and the power she could feel surging through the animal she now sat astride.
“What do I do next?” she asked as she fought to maintain her balance.
“Simple. Try not to fall off.” Laramie effortlessly mounted Krasota, then placed her arms against Anastasia’s sides. “Hold on to the pommel. I’ll try to keep you from swaying too much. Between the two of us, you should manage to stay upright.”
Anastasia latched on to the rounded knob on the front of the saddle with both hands.
“Here we go,” Laramie said. “Giddyap, Krasota. Easy now.”
Laramie clicked her tongue and Krasota slowly began to move. The horse’s gait felt awkward at first, but Anastasia quickly adjusted to it. Her fear and apprehension soon faded away. She felt safe. Protected. She was with Laramie. What could possibly go wrong?
“Make her go faster.”
Laramie’s soft chuckle vibrated against her back. “Have you ever heard the expression you’ve got to crawl before you can walk? Today, you have to walk before you can gallop.”
“Well, look at what we have here,” Shorty said when they finally reached the area where he and the other ranch hands
were working. “Was I right or was I right?”
As Shorty and the rest of the men looked on, Anastasia slid out of the saddle and into Laramie’s welcoming arms.
“You are correct. Nothing beats good horse.”
Nothing except the cowgirl who had taught her how to ride one.
Chapter Twenty-two
Laramie was so worked up she didn’t know what to do with herself. She felt like Krasota before she had given her some exercise yesterday: filled with pent-up energy she desperately needed to release. Unable to resort to her preferred method—taking Anastasia to a secluded place and kissing her breathless—she pulled her work gloves out of her back pocket and pulled them on.
“Need a hand?”
Shorty lowered a new fence post in the hole that had been left by the previous one and stamped the dirt into place. “Andy, Vlad, and I’ve got a handle on this section. Why don’t you take Ivan and Freddy to the next section? Remove the old barbed wire, pull up the posts, and start sticking new ones in. We’ll hook the wire on this section and take care of yours when you’re done.”
“All right then.”
By Laramie’s reckoning, the fence posts were situated ten feet apart, a sufficient amount of space for a six-wire barbed fence. Steel fence posts, commonly known as T-posts, were more durable since most were made of rail steel, but she and Shorty had always been partial to wood. It didn’t rust over time and it just plain looked better. Not to mention it was far better to use a wooden fence post to scratch an itch you couldn’t reach. As long as you didn’t mind picking up the occasional splinter along the way.
“How can I help?” Anastasia asked, shading her eyes from the sun.
“The way I see it, you’ve got three choices. You can keep Krasota company, you can fetch the ATV and start hauling off some of the old barbed wire, or you can act as a lookout.”
“What would I be looking out for?”
“Now that we’ve taken some of the wire down, a few of the cows might make a break for it. It’ll be your job to make sure they stay put.”
“Yes, I can do that job.”
As skittish as Anastasia was around animals, it remained to be seen how good a job she would do keeping the cattle at bay. Laramie decided to reserve judgment.
The work was backbreaking, but the ranch hands performed their assigned tasks without complaint. They fell into a rhythm, working quickly and efficiently.
“At this rate,” Laramie said as she paused to wipe her brow with her shirtsleeve, “we’ll have the whole thing patched up by the end of the day.”
Shorty looped a strand of barbed wire around a fence post and clamped it into place. “Unless you keel over from pushing yourself so hard. I’ve never seen you move this fast unless something was chasing you. What’s got you so het up?”
Laramie glanced at Anastasia, who was holding her hands in front of her like a traffic cop to prevent a curious calf from moving any closer.
“Oh, I see what your problem is.” Shorty peeked over his shoulder to make sure Vladimir was out of earshot. “You two did look awful cozy when you came riding up.”
“I keep telling myself not to think about her that way, but I just can’t seem to stop.”
Anastasia had felt so good in her arms. So right. Like she belonged there. Every time Anastasia had leaned against her, her head had swum and she had come close to swooning like some silly damsel in distress. It wasn’t like her to lose her head over a woman, but she had never met a woman like Anastasia Petrova. Outgoing, yet reserved. Open, yet secretive. A veritable study in contradictions.
“It’s like me and sweets,” Shorty said. “The more my dentist fusses at me to give them up, the more I seem to crave them. You’ve got yourself a good, old-fashioned addiction.”
“Yeah, but how am I supposed to fight it?”
Shorty began to roll out another strand of wire. “Don’t ask me. At this point in my life, I’ve got more fillings than teeth.”
Laramie had a hole inside her, too, and she was starting to think it was one only Anastasia could fill.
* * *
Anastasia didn’t like the way the cow was looking at her. Like she was the last obstacle standing between it and freedom. The cow bellowed at her. The noise was so loud it made her eardrums vibrate. More angry than frightened, she impulsively stuck out her tongue. The cow cocked its head as if confused, then turned and trotted off. Anastasia didn’t breathe until the cow lowered its head and began to graze.
“Ha. I showed you who’s boss, didn’t I?”
She didn’t say the words too loudly, though, in case the cow decided to take her on again. Hearing the ATV approach, she turned to see Elena slowly making her way toward them. Elena parked the vehicle, turned off the engine, and pointed to the large cooler sitting in the storage area.
“You look like you could use cool drink.”
Elena said the words haltingly, but she said them in English. She had responded so well to the flash cards that Anastasia had started to teach her a few phrases. Nothing major. Just enough to be able to hold a basic conversation. As everyone lined up in front of the cooler, Anastasia hoped neither Laramie nor Shorty would say something she and Elena hadn’t gone over yet.
“Now that you mention it, I was feeling a mite parched.” Shorty held up his cup of water. “Spaceballs.”
“Spasibo,” Elena said.
“Close enough.”
Anastasia was so busy watching Elena and Shorty stare into each other’s eyes she forgot to keep her own eyes on the cows. She heard a rumbling sound, then turned to see what was causing it. The cow that had confronted her a few minutes earlier ran past her and charged through the opening in the fence.
“We’ve got a runner!” Shorty said.
He dropped his cup and started after the cow, but Laramie held up a hand to stop him.
“I’m on it.”
Shorty grabbed a length of rope off the ground and tossed it to Laramie. Catching the rope in stride, she ran toward Krasota and untied her. She mounted the horse in one smooth motion. She looped the rope over her shoulder, kicked her heels against Krasota’s sides, and spurred her into action.
“That is Piotr,” Andrei said.
“The calf that got stuck in the mud the other day?” Shorty asked. “That little devil’s turning out to be a handful.”
Anastasia spread her arms to prevent Lesya, Piotr’s mother, from chasing after him. Behind her, Krasota ran so fast her long legs were a blur.
As Krasota began to gain ground on Piotr, Laramie transferred the reins from her hands to her mouth, gripping them between her teeth. She reached for the rope, formed part of it into a loop, and circled it over her head. Anastasia could hear the rope whistling as it spun through the air.
Laramie leaned slightly to one side, then tossed the rope in Piotr’s direction. Spinning lazily, the loop flew through the air and landed around Piotr’s head. Laramie quickly knotted the other end of the rope around the pommel on her saddle.
“Whoa, Krasota!”
Krasota skidded to a stop. The rope tightened. Krasota didn’t budge, but Piotr was pulled off his feet. Laramie slid out of the saddle and ran over to him to make sure he wasn’t injured.
Shorty slapped Laramie on the back with his hat as she led Piotr back to the pasture. “That was some darned good roping. Next time I see your brother, I’ll be sure to tell him he isn’t the only Bowman who knows how to wrangle a cow.”
Laramie’s response was characteristically modest. “I might not earn as many style points as Trey does,” she said as she steered Piotr toward the rest of the herd, “but I get the job done.”
Anastasia had never seen anything—or anyone—so amazing in her life. Ivan must have agreed with her.
“Did you see that?” he asked excitedly. “Tell her I would like her to teach me how to be a cowboy.”
“Me, too,” Fyodor said.
He grabbed the rope Laramie had discarded and tried to throw it around one of the new
fence posts, but his arm got tangled up before he let go.
“Dang, Freddy,” Shorty said as he helped free Fyodor from the loop that had closed around him. “I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen a cowpoke lasso himself.”
Anastasia laughed along with the rest of the group. “At least I am not only person who embarrassed self today.”
“You don’t have anything to be ashamed of,” Laramie said. “Some cattle can be sneaky. You have to keep your eyes on them at all times or they’ll pull one over on you.”
Laramie rested a hand on Krasota’s neck. The tall horse protected them from view, giving them a semblance of privacy. Anastasia took advantage of the opportunity.
“Sorry I was not watching cows. I was busy watching you.”
“Weren’t you afraid someone might notice?” Laramie asked, even though she seemed pleased by the revelation.
“Only thing I feared was that you did not notice me, too.”
“Then you can rest easy because it’s getting harder and harder for me to notice anything else.”
This time, Anastasia didn’t let the words go unsaid.
“Tonight, I teach you different way to use rope.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Laramie tried not to wolf down her food—chicken kiev served with a side of beet salad—but she was anxious for dinner to be over so she could get to what was supposed to happen next.
Tonight, Anastasia had said while they stood in the pasture a few hours ago, I teach you different way to use rope.
Laramie felt a thrill every time she thought about Anastasia lassoing her the way she had snared the calf that had bolted through the gap in the fence. As Shorty said, the animal was a handful, but she liked his spirit. She might have to keep him around. Even though he was still just a calf, she could tell he would grow up to be sturdy and strong. If he showed an interest, he would make an excellent breeder.
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