“I gave Heath Wilde a set of keys. He's taking care of the goats. He may be out there when you arrive.”

  He handed her a file with paperwork, the deed to the property, the title to his truck, and all the keys.

  “Ms. Winter, on behalf of everyone here in Fate Rock, my deep condolences. But also allow me to welcome you home.”

  She pursed her lips and widened her eyes before turning to the door. It was a kind thing to say, but the entire situation was blowing her mind. A goat ranch was probably the last thing she would ever choose for her life, but now she owned a million-dollar property, and she couldn't sell it.

  As she got in the car, she started thinking about what else she could do. The will only said she had to keep it in the family. It didn't say she had to live there. It didn't say she couldn't rent it out to someone more qualified. Maybe this Heath Wilde would want to run it for her. They could split the profits, and he could live in the house.

  As she followed the GPS directions down the narrow road toward the property, she was beginning to think that her plan just might work. She could start her life over with a new job back in Denver.

  Things really were turning up. She pulled up in front of the house, a grand old Victorian farmhouse. It was really quite striking. Everything looked well maintained and in order. There was a big weeping willow tree in the front yard, a bit of lawn, a red barn beyond the house, and fenced pastures full of long-legged goats. She cringed as she stepped out of the car and heard them bleating.

  She spotted the Ford truck and made her way toward the house. On the other side of the F150 was a second truck. It was a newer-model Dodge. Maybe it belonged to Heath Wilde. She'd have to find him and offer him the proposal of running the ranch.

  She tried the key in the door, and a husky male voice called out behind her.

  “Ms. Winter?”

  She turned and found the most handsome bearded man she had ever seen in her life. He was broad and muscular, with dark-blond hair and kind eyes. He waved at her from across the driveway, coming from the barn. She stepped down the porch steps into the light. They met on the small patch of lawn in front of the house. The fall leaves dropped from a maple tree and fluttered between them. He stopped short and stared at her, sniffing the air.

  “Is something the matter?” she asked.

  He took a step closer, confusion marring his handsome features.

  “Ms. Winter? Does your name happen to be Rose?”

  “Yes. I'm Rose Winter. Berry Winter's granddaughter.”

  “I'm Heath Wilde.”

  “I know. Mr. Boyd told me that you were taking care of the property.”

  “I'm Pack Wolf. From Mate.com.”

  “Oh…”

  Rose was at a loss for words. She hadn't even checked the matches she'd received before deleting the app. And now, standing before her, was this handsome, rugged man oozing masculinity, telling her that… what? That he was her mate?

  “I deleted that app. I'm not ready to date after my divorce. It was a silly mistake.”

  “We were matched…” He took a step closer.

  “How do you know? I didn't even post my picture.”

  “I can sense it. I can smell your scent. My inner wolf is crying out for you.”

  “Well, that's very interesting,” she said, taking a step back. The situation had escalated quickly.

  “I didn't mean to scare you.” He widened the distance between them. “I'm sorry. I'm just so surprised. I got the message that I’d been matched with someone, but then as I was reading your profile, you just disappeared.”

  “Oh, that must've been when I deleted it.”

  “Didn't you get the message that you'd been matched?”

  “Maybe. I don't know. I was in kind of a state at the time. Yesterday, I got a divorce, filed bankruptcy, and lost my job. Then the lawyer called and told me about the grandfather I’d never met. So I was a little distracted at that time.” She pulled her phone out of her purse and checked her text messages. “Oh. I guess I did get one. So, what does this all mean? That we're fated mates?”

  “It means that we are made for each other. I've been on Mate.com for almost twenty years. I can't believe you're standing in front of me. Dylan was right. Fate does work in mysterious ways.”

  “Well, I wouldn't go that far. But I do have things I want to discuss with you about the ranch. Why don’t you come inside and show me around?”

  Rose’s heart raced at the idea of allowing this man into the house with her. All her warning bells were going off. He could be some psycho stalker. But she did know a little bit about shifter customs, and typically, they were good guys. Except all the drama with the hyenas, who were obviously not good guys. But he seemed nice enough, and he'd been taking care of her grandfather’s ranch. Not that she knew anything about her grandfather. But at the moment, Heath was her best option for getting out of Fate Rock and going back to Denver.

  She walked inside the house. There was a stairway leading to the second floor immediately upon entry, a living room to one side, and a dining room and kitchen down the hall.

  “I suppose my grandfather has some tea or coffee around here. We could discuss my ideas about the ranch.”

  “I know where Berry keeps his things. I could make us some coffee, if you like.”

  “That would be lovely.”

  They walked into the kitchen together. There were a few dirty dishes in the sink, but it was generally tidy. She was relieved that the old man hadn’t been the messy type. She had noted that the house smelled slightly musty, but at least she wasn't walking into a hoarder’s home. And despite his odd behavior and intensity, the company wasn't too bad either.

  She sat at the little kitchen table in a bay window and watched Heath as he moved about the kitchen, making a pot of coffee. When it had brewed, he poured them both a cup and brought them to the table with cream and sugar.

  “The cream’s still good.”

  She fixed her coffee the way she liked, with cream and no sugar, and took a sip.

  “It's good. I see my grandfather had good taste in coffee.”

  “Berry was an interesting man.”

  “So, anyway. I am a financial planner, not a rancher. But you are a rancher. The stipulation of my grandfather’s will states that I must keep the property in the family. But there wasn't anything about living here, so my proposal is you run the ranch, and we split the profits fifty-fifty. You can even live in the house rent free. What do you say?”

  “Well, ma'am, I'd be happy to teach you about the goats and how to run the ranch. But I've got enough work to do back at my own place to run another one, and I know old Berry wanted you to come stay here. It sure was important to him. So it might technically not go against the will, but I sure do think that it goes against the heart of it. Don't you think?”

  “Very well. I guess I can always find someone else. Maybe you could give me some suggestions.”

  “Well, Rose, I’d be happy to do that. I'm sure there's someone around here who would be more than willing to take over the ranch. But I will ask you to do one thing. Just stay here for a month. Learn about the goats. Learn how to do the milking. Get a sense of Fate Rock. It's a wonderful place to live. And I'll find you a good guy or gal to run this ranch for you if you still want to leave.

  “Now I'm sure you could find someone on your own, but you know there are plenty of people out there that would not have your best interest at heart. And if you're going to be going back to Denver and leaving the running of this ranch to a stranger, there's no telling what they might get up to out here.”

  “Are you bribing me?”

  “No, ma'am. I'm just trying to show you there's a reason your granddad wanted you to stay here. Maybe it could be a good life for you. You just have to give it a chance.”

  “This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that I am supposedly your fated soul mate or whatever, would it?”

  “That hadn't even crossed my mind. I just want to do what's best for you and for old man Winter. That man was close to my heart, and I know that he wanted somebody with the Winter name to stay here just like they had for the last hundred years.

  “If you and I get to know each other over the course of the next month, then that's just a bonus.”

  “I have a hard time believing you aren’t motivated by your shifter instinct or whatever it is.”

  “Well, ma'am, you're going to just have to take my word for it. Now all the milking is done for the day. The herd is back out in the pasture, so you shouldn't have to worry about anything else until morning. I'll be here at five a.m. sharp. Good day to you.”

  He tipped his baseball cap, turned, and walked out the front door. Rose was both flabbergasted and mildly aroused. The look of his butt in his Wrangler jeans was devastating.

  Chapter 5

  “It's her, Dylan. It's my mate, Rose.”

  “You found her?”

  “She's old man Winter's granddaughter. I just met her at the property. I've never been so shocked in my life.”

  “See, what’d I tell you? Fate works in mysterious ways.”

  “He left her the property, but she doesn't want it. She wants to go back to Denver.” Heath paced back and forth on the front porch of his house, his cellphone pressed to his ear.

  “I can't imagine inheriting a ranch and being expected to work would be easy for a city girl.”

  “No. I suppose you're right. She asked me if I would be the caretaker for half the profits from the goats.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I told her to give it a month. I’ll teach her everything I can about ranching, and then she can make her decision.”

  “That was probably smart.”

  “She thinks that I only did it because she’s my mate.”

  “You have to expect her to be a little suspicious. I wouldn't doubt if she is scared.”

  “Of me?” The sun was setting in the west, the cows mooing out in the pasture.

  “Yeah, to a human, you're just some random dude who's claiming to be her soul mate. You’ve got to expect her to have some red flags going up. That's not common human behavior.”

  “But I didn't make the offer so I could keep her here. It was to protect Berry Winter’s legacy.”

  “I know. You’re a good man with integrity. But she doesn't know that. All she knows is that she walked into the ranch, and you were there. So, why did she delete her profile?”

  “She’d had a rough day. The roughest day anyone could have. Divorce, bankruptcy, lost job. And then she found out about her grandfather for the first time. She just deleted the app without ever checking her texts. She didn't even know about me.”

  “I knew it had to be something like that. It sounds like she's going through a pretty rough time, and now she's got this whole new set of problems. A bunch of land she can't sell, a hundred head of goats she doesn't know anything about, and you.”

  “I don't want to be a problem.” Heath rubbed his sweaty brow under his baseball cap.

  “Then just focus on being helpful. I know that you can do that. Being helpful is what you're all about.”

  “Thank you, Dylan. You've been a real help to me. I'm not sure how I would've gotten through this without your advice.”

  “That's what brothers are for.”

  “Have you talked to Gunner lately?”

  “No, I haven't. I haven't seen him in almost a week. We've got a lot of orders coming into the warehouse, and I'm going to need his help with packing after the fall harvest.”

  “He hasn't been pulling his weight. Cal and Cash had to do the haying by themselves yesterday. Until I went to go take care of Berry Winter’s ranch, I was picking up Gunner’s slack in the hay fields. The goats were in bad shape. I wish I'd known about it sooner, but I guess he was in the hospital, and then the instructions had to go through his attorney after he was pronounced dead. The poor goats were left for three days without milking.”

  “I hope they're all all right.”

  “A couple of them needed some antibiotics. They'll have to come off milk production now to keep his organic certification, but I'll explain all of that to Rose.”

  “She's not going to understand any of this stuff. It's a lot to take in. The animals, the business. She's going to need a lot of help. And in the end, she might decide to leave. Not many people who were born and raised in the city want to come out and do this kind of work. You should be prepared for that. And it won't be because she's rejecting you. It will be because this is just not the life for her.”

  Heath’s heart sank, and he stopped pacing as the last rays of sun sank below the horizon.

  “But I could never leave Fate Rock.”

  “At some point you may have to make a decision, Heath. A tough one. But I'm sure that everything will work out in the end. It always does. Someday, I hope it works out for me too.”

  After he got off the phone with Dylan, he had a lot to think about. He wanted to believe that he could have everything—Rose, his home, the ranch. After she learned about the farm, he could help her with the big stuff, and she could hire someone to help with the day-to-day.

  And if need be, he could dedicate his life to the Winter ranch. As long as everyone else was doing their share at home. Austin had been talking about bringing in interns to teach them about regenerative agriculture for the last two years. And with Shane spending his time writing, Gunner flaking out, and Heath caretaking the Winter ranch, they were on a skeleton crew right now.

  Austin was completely distracted with Cheyenne and the pregnancy. Not that Heath blamed him. Austin's baby was the first on the Wilde ranch. Austin was pushing his forty-first birthday. Bringing children into the family had been a long time coming, and Heath knew that it was a great priority for all of them. But as he sat down at his kitchen table with a craft beer, the schedules for the animals, and his brothers’ workload, he didn't see how everything was going to get done.

  When you had an operation as tight as this, you couldn't let details slip through the cracks. The chicken harvest was scheduled for three days from now, and he was supposed to oversee it. He just didn't know how it was all going to get done.

  He sat back in his chair, running his hands through his hair. All he could think about was Rose and the look on her face when they'd seen each other for the first time. She was so beautiful, with dark olive skin and almond-shaped brown eyes. Her wavy brown hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail. She was dressed in business casual style, with khaki pants, flats, and a silk button-up blouse. Not the kind of clothes one saw on the ranch unless it was on an insurance salesman or tax collector.

  She probably wasn't even expecting to stay for more than a day. He hoped that she was doing all right back at the ranch by herself. They had exchanged numbers before he’d left earlier that evening. It was eight o'clock now. Maybe he would call in and check on her. He wondered if she would find that rude or gallant. He stared back down at the schedule and then dialed her number. There was too much rolling around in his brain to worry about whether he should call someone he was concerned about.

  She answered on the second ring.

  “Hi, Heath. What's up?”

  “I was just checking in to see if you were doing all right. I know that you weren't expecting to stay. Did you find everything you needed at Berry's house? Is there enough food? You need anything from town?”

  She laughed. The sound was light and melodic. She didn't seem angry that he’d called.

  “Berry had a vintage bottle of wine. It's helping. There were some frozen dinners from a brand that wasn't disgusting, so I popped that in the oven. I have to say, the water from the tap is delicious, and I'm impressed with Berry's housekeeping and his taste in food.”

  “Berry always took care of his health. Probably why he made it to ninety without retiring.”

  “I wish I’d known him,” she said wistfully. “I've been looking at photographs, pictures of my father when he was young. I don't recognize any of these people. It's like walking into a movie that I'm the star of but I've never seen before.”

  “I can imagine that it would be disorienting.”

  “That's putting it lightly.”

  “Well, I'm glad you're doing okay. I'll be there in the morning to start the milking. I should be around until midmorning. I can explain some things to you before I head back over to Wilde Ranch.”

  “Thank you, Heath. I really appreciate everything you're doing for me. I know I was a bit flippant earlier. I was rather surprised at all of this. And finding you on my grandfather's ranch… it's like I've been in The Twilight Zone the last few days. But I've decided I'm just gonna go with it. What else can I do?”

  “I totally understand. I'm here if you need anything. Have a good night, and I'll see you in the morning.”

  “Bye, Heath,” she said before hanging up.

  The conversation went better than he had expected. He could totally understand why she had behaved as she had earlier. He probably would do the same if he were her. But he had to get to sleep to get up early tomorrow morning. He had his duties on his own ranch before he was going to be able to go over to take care of hers.

  He went upstairs and did his nightly routine. Took a shower, brushed his teeth, put on his pajamas, and climbed into bed to do a little light reading before turning off the light.

  When his alarm went off the next morning, his heart was filled with anticipation for the coming day. He pulled on his pants, his T-shirt, and flannel, slipped into his boots, and made his way downstairs.

  He grabbed his ball cap off the coatrack at the front door along with his keys and made his way out into the predawn morning. It was cool in the mountains as the summer turned to fall. The trees were changing color, and the chill grew deeper each morning.

  He went about his work on the ranch, milking the cows that provided for the family, cleaning out stalls, inspecting the water tanks. He then went back to his truck and made his way over to Winter ranch. It was five a.m. by the time he pulled up in front of the milk barn. The goats were bleating and ready to be milked. He flipped on the lights in the milking barn and brought the first ten goats into their stanchions. He washed their udders and hooked them up to the milking machines as they ate their alfalfa.

 

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