The Ranch Hand Read Online Free Page A

guided the truck and full trailer back on the main road and headed back toward Snowbrook. Traffic was light, but conditions were treacherous. She had the truck in four-wheel drive and the weight of both the truck and trailer gave her decent traction. She took it slow and steady, but the snow began to fall harder and visibility started to drop—not enough to force her off the road, but enough to make her concerned. A plow had been along once already, but the snow continued to come down fast.
    Driving was tense, but simultaneously tedious. Her mind began to wander as she rolled steadily along. She started thinking about Harlan again. That kiss. That blissful, toe-curling kiss and then…nothing. She didn’t know what she’d expected from him. But whatever she’d hoped for—him begging her not to go, him following that kiss with something more—whatever it had been, him talking about how she’d inspired him hadn’t been it. She wanted—
    A SUV came up fast in her rearview mirror, driving with far too much speed for the road conditions. Damn fool. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel, watching the SUV eat up the distance between them. She didn’t dare tap the brakes, even to let him know she was in front of him and moving at a far slower speed. Doing that might cause the SUV driver to overreact, lock up the brakes and crash.
    The road was only two lanes. The SUV swung out into the oncoming lane without a signal and zoomed past her. The glow of headlights appeared a few hundred feet off through the thick snowfall from a vehicle coming toward them. The SUV cut back into her lane too soon. She had to step on the brakes hard. The trailer lost traction, and the truck started to slide. Her heart leapt into her throat. She gently turned into the slide, careful not to over correct. The weight of all the supplies made the handling sluggish, and the truck seemed to fight her, determined to go into a full spin. Grimly, she fought back, struggling for control.
    She hit the bank of snow that had been shoved off the road by the plow. The truck shuddered for a second before powering through. The wheels on the right side went off the road. She fought against the pull to the right, battling to keep the truck moving in a straight line as she very gently tapped the brakes.
    Once she’d won control, she carefully pulled farther off the road so another driver coming from behind wouldn’t slam into her trailer. She slowed to a stop with her heart hammering away and adrenaline popping in her veins. Crap. She wished she’d gotten the license number of that idiot driver, but she’d been too busy keeping her truck from careening off the road. The SUV had raced off without stopping. Of course. She hadn’t expected anything different from a driver like that.
    She put on her flashers, checked her mirrors, and climbed out of the truck. First she examined the trailer load, throwing careful glances back along the road, still worried that the hazardous conditions would lead to someone plowing into the back of her trailer. The hay and feed and supplies hadn’t shifted, the tarp remained tied down perfectly, giving her a burst of pride that she was still a pro at securing a load. She hurried back to the driver’s door and climbed inside. She started the truck and gently applied pressure to the pedal…
    …and the tires on the right side spun without gaining traction. She shifted into reverse and tried again, nursing the pedal, but again, the right side tires couldn’t gain traction. She swore and climbed back out. The snowflakes kissed her face, blew in her eyes. She grabbed a couple of flares from the back and walked along the right side of the truck. The snow was five or six inches deep here. It was even deeper where the first plow had pushed it off the road. She waded through it, around to the right side tires.
    “Beautiful,” she murmured as she stared down at the muddy brown spray thrown around the tires, all along the sides of the