His Dangerous Bride (The Brides of Paradise Ranch - Spicy Version Book 2) by Merry Farmer Page A

proving how competent he was. Just what he needed.
    “You’re trail boss,” Travis said when he was only a couple feet from Luke. His horse danced, but Travis kept it under control. “Your job is not to herd the cattle, it’s to herd the men.”
    “Yeah?” Luke tried to sound casual, but his mind raced to drink in the lesson, and his muscles clenched with the need to perform well.
    Travis nodded. “So as leader, you can’t do every job yourself. You see what needs to be done, who is available to do it, and you delegate to them.”
    “Right.” Luke lifted to search over the dusty herd and the men from Paradise Ranch who were driving it. Cody and Mike were up at the front, pacing the cattle, Mike taking his turn driving the chuck wagon. Billy and Mason were over on the right flank. Lawson and Oscar rode drag, bringing up the rear. That left him and Travis…and Eden.
    As if she could sense the conclusion he came to before he came to it, Eden smiled.
    “She wanted to come,” Travis said, seeing that she was the closest one to where action was needed too. He shrugged. “So far, she’s pulled her weight. Why not put her to work doing something other than cooking?”
    Luke gaped. “You want me to order my wife to bring back two straying cows?”
    “Why not?” Travis nodded, a grin making its way into his eyes. “A good leader can train anyone to do any job.” He was close enough to reach out and thump Luke’s arm. “Go to it.”
    Travis rode off, and Luke nudged Marshall to move on. Eden must have sensed some of what the conversation had been about. She had already walked her horse along the flank toward the spot where the two cows were drifting further and further up the slope. Following them was one thing, but Luke had never seen a woman herd a cow.
    He had, however, seen plenty of women herd a pack of unruly children. There was only one way to find out if that instinct stretched across the animal kingdom. Although, if he made a mash of teaching Eden how to manage cattle, he’d be reminded of it every day when he looked in her pretty face.
    “No way to find out but to try,” he murmured to himself, then kicked Marshall into action. “Hey, Eden!”
    She pulled on her mount’s reins to turn him toward Luke. “Hey, what?”
    “Travis wants me to show you how to keep unruly cows from wandering off.”
    “ Travis wants that?” A grin twitched her lips.
    Luke frowned. “Yeah. That a problem?”
    Eden shrugged. “Don’t you want to show me how to rein in some cows, trail boss?”
    Luke’s mouth sagged open. “What’s the difference?”
    She chuckled. “There’s a world of difference, sweetheart. You’ve got just as much backbone as Travis Montrose does.”
    “I’ve—” Luke frowned and shook his head. His plucky wife was driving at something, but right then there wasn’t time to work it out. The pair of cows decided to make a break for it.
    Luke pushed the strange conversation aside and nudged Marshall, nodding to Eden, then ahead at the cows. She spurred her horse after him, and in no time, the two of them were riding wide of the herd.
    “Cows aren’t the brightest creatures God made,” he explained as he showed Eden what to do. “They prefer to be in a mass. They like being guided. They get all itchy and confused when they stray.”
    “Kind of like a man?” Eden teased with a wink.
    It was probably a jab at him, but Luke laughed anyhow. “If you’d like. All they need is a little gentle encouragement to head back to the path they’re supposed to be on.”
    “Exactly like a man,” Eden laughed. “Show me how?”
    It shouldn’t have, but that simple question puffed Luke’s chest with pride. Sprightly as Eden was, she was asking for his instruction. He knew full well what he was doing and the best way to get it done, so as soon as she was shadowing him, he demonstrated the best way to guide and holler and coax nervous cows away from their escape plan and back into the bulk of the