Three

      Fee glanced down at her new jeans, boots and hot-pink T-shirt with I love Wyoming screen-printed on the front as Chance drove away from the store. When had she lost control of the situation? When they walked into the store, she hadn’t intended to get anything but a pair of boots and maybe a couple pairs of jeans.

      She had to admit that Chance had been right about her needing the boots. Her sandals definitely weren’t the right choice of footwear if she was going to be around large animals. Even his suggestion about getting new jeans had made sense. She’d paid far too much for the stylish denim she’d purchased in one of the boutiques on Rodeo Drive to ruin them.

      But when he had suggested that she might want to start wearing the boots right away to get them broken in, that’s when her command of the situation went downhill in a hurry. She’d had to put on a pair of the new jeans because the legs of her khaki slacks hadn’t fit over the tops of the boots. Then she’d taken one look at her raw silk blouse with the new jeans and boots and decided to get something more casual, motivating her to get the T-shirt. She glanced at the hat sitting beside her on the truck seat. She’d even given in to getting the hat because his argument about protecting her skin had made sense.

      Looking over at Chance, she had to admit that a shopping trip had never been as exhilarating as it had been with him. When she stepped out of the dressing room to check in the full-length mirror how her new jeans and T-shirt fit, she’d seen an appreciation in his brilliant green eyes that thrilled her all the way to her toes. It certainly beat the practiced comments of a boutique employee just wanting to make a sale.

      She sighed heavily. Now that they were actually on the road leading to the ranch, she couldn’t help but wonder what she’d gotten herself into. On some level, she had been excited about the new experience of being on a working ranch. It was something she’d never done before and although she felt as if she would be going into the great unknown, she had thought she was ready for the challenge. But if the past hour and a half was any indication of how far out of her element she was, she couldn’t imagine what the next two weeks held for her.

      Preoccupied with her new clothes and how ill-prepared she had been for her stay at the ranch, it came as no small surprise when Chance drove past the lane leading up to the main house on the Big Blue ranch. They had traveled the thirty or so miles without her even realizing it.

      Now as she watched the lane disappear behind them in the truck’s side mirror, Fee felt the butterflies begin to gather in her stomach. It was as if they were leaving civilization behind and embarking on a journey into the untamed wilderness.

      She was a born and bred city dweller and the closest she had ever been to any kind of predatory wildlife was in the confines of a zoo. There was a certain comfort in knowing that there were iron bars and thick plates of glass between her and the creatures that would like nothing more than to make a meal out of her. But out in the wilds of Wyoming those safety measures were nonexistent and she knew as surely as she knew her own name there were very large, very hairy animals with long claws and big teeth hiding behind every bush and tree, just waiting for the opportunity to pounce on her.

      “Do you have a lot of trouble with predators?” she asked when the asphalt road turned into a narrow gravel lane.

      Chance shrugged. “Once in a while we have a mountain lion or bobcat wander down from the higher elevations, but most of the time the only wildlife we see are antelope and deer.”

      “Doesn’t Wyoming have bears and wolves?” she asked, remembering something she’d read about their being a problem when she’d gone online the night before to research ranching in Wyoming.

      “Yeah, but they’re like the big cats. They usually stay up in the mountains where their food sources are,” he said slowly. “Why?”

      “I just wondered,” she said, looking out the passenger window.

      She didn’t like being afraid. It took control away from her and made her feel inadequate. Fee couldn’t think of anything that she hated more than not being in charge of herself. But that was exactly the way she was feeling at the moment. But as long as the really big, extremely scary wildlife stayed in the mountains where they belonged, she’d be just fine.

      As she stared at the vast landscape, hundreds of black dots came into view. As they got closer, she realized the dots were cattle. “Are all those yours?”

      “Yup. That’s some of them.”

      “How big is this ranch?” she asked, knowing they had been on the property for several miles.

      “We have thirty thousand acres,” Chance answered proudly. “My grandparents settled here when they first got married. Then when Uncle J.D. inherited it, he kept buying up land until it grew to the size it is now.” He laughed. “And believe it or not, I’m going to be checking into leasing another ten or twenty thousand acres from the Bureau of Land Management next year.”

      “Isn’t the ranch big enough for you?” she asked before she could stop herself. It seemed to her that much land should be more than enough for anyone.

      “Not really.” He smiled as he went on to explain. “The Big Blue has around six thousand head of cattle at any given time. Since our cattle are grass-fed year-round we have to be careful to manage the pastures to keep from overgrazing, as well as make sure we have enough graze to mow for hay in the summer to put up for the winter months. That’s why we keep a constant check on grazing conditions and move the herds frequently. Having the extra land would give us some breathing room with that, as well as expanding the herd.”

      His knowledge about the needs of the cattle he raised impressed her and Fee made a mental note of the information. Since he supplied beef for the Lassiter Grill Group, it was definitely something she could envision using if she was assigned future promotions for the restaurant chain.

      When Chance stopped the truck on top of a ridge, Fee’s breath caught at the sight of the valley below. It looked like a scene out of a Western movie. “This is where you live?”

      Smiling proudly, he nodded. “This is the Lassiter homestead. The house wasn’t always this big, though. When I did the renovations before I moved in, I added several rooms and the wraparound porch on to the original log cabin.”

      “It’s really beautiful,” Fee said, meaning it. She pointed to two small houses on the far side of the valley. “Are those the cottages you mentioned for the married hired hands?”

      “Slim and Lena Garrison live in one and Hal and