With Luke recovering and Nate still in Denver, he had a full afternoon of work cut out for him in the stables. Janet stayed with him as he went from stall to stall, checking on the health of the mares and yearling foals, turning them over to Chuck to exercise in the riding barn, then shoveling manure and dirty straw into a large wheelbarrow while the stalls were empty. She had a feeling he could have asked one of his men to do this but chose to do it himself. It was part of the way he held their respect. There was probably no job on the ranch he hadn’t done, no job he felt was beneath him. How could any of his men shirk their duties when he worked so hard? “I don’t know why a woman with as much sense as you wants to stand out here in the cold watching me shovel straw and horseshit,” he said. But Janet knew that he did understand. She wanted to be near the horses, near the way of life she’d known as a child, but she also wanted to be near him. It didn’t matter what he was doing.
