Erin put a cinnamon roll onto one of the plates and settled back against the pillows to enjoy it. “If I continue to eat all this fattening stuff, I’ll gain thirty pounds in a blink. Last night, Wyatt fixed hamburger gravy and served it over hot, buttered biscuits.”

“Oh, shit on shingles! I haven’t had that in ages.” Vickie chuckled and shook her head. “Working on a ranch, you’ll burn off all the calories and no longer worry about your weight. If you can loosen up your sore muscles enough to work today, that is, and every other day ahead.”

“It’s true that you aren’t a very big person. How on earth did you manage to keep up with all the men when you were younger?”

“The same way I do now, by working smarter instead of harder,” Vickie replied. “When you’re mucking out stalls, you should lift less weight with each swing of the shovel or fork. When you have to lift stuff, you should use leverage to protect your back or figure out a way to lift things with the skidder bucket. Bottom line, a woman doesn’t need to be as strong as a man on a ranch, but she does need to work smart.”

In other words, Erin thought, I’m supposed to wimp out simply because I don’t have the same equipment behind the fly of my britches that men do. That stuck in her craw.

After Vickie left with the tray, Erin swung out of bed and loosened up her muscles as best she could. Then she got dressed and made her way to the bunkhouse where she found only Kennedy, who sat at the table eating a bowl of cereal while he studied.

“Wyatt isn’t here,” he said. “He and the men were out working at first light. I don’t know where they are now. You might check the horse barn. He normally holds a huddle there midmorning to assign the guys their work for the day. The first stuff they do is just routine. Feeding, watering, and letting the horses out into the paddocks. After that’s all done, they regroup.”

Midmorning? It just turned eight o’clock. Erin wandered outside. She saw the side-by-side and three quads parked in front of the barn and walked that way. She found the men strapping on chaps and grabbing light jackets off wall hooks because the early morning air was still chilly. As Erin followed them outside, Wyatt drove up in Uncle Slade’s red pickup, pulling a flatbed trailer loaded four layers high with bales of hay.

“You feeling up to getting those bales under cover?” he asked Erin.

“You bet,” she said, even though she wanted to groan.

“Good,” he said. “Just remember to work smart. Use the skidder as much as possible for the lifting and stacking, and you should do fine.”

Erin watched him stride away. He hadn’t even wished her good morning. She guessed he didn’t appreciate having her on his crew. He must think Uncle Slade had been foolish to hire her. Erin thought back to when she’d gone to the academy and faced young men who didn’t like having a woman in their classes or challenging them on the mat. She hadn’t backed down then and wouldn’t now. But if she wanted to be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning, she did need to follow Vickie’s advice and work smarter today.