Chapter 4
FOUR
Ramsey
“Give me ninety days here. Then I’ll give you the divorce uncontested. You can keep the ranch and the inn.”
Her brow climbs, and her eyes drift over my face, but she doesn’t say a word for long moments, and then her eyes narrow.
“What’s the catch?” Her arms cross over her chest.
She knows me too well.
“For those ninety days, you’re my wife.”
“Obviously.” She rolls her eyes.
“No. I mean, my wife .” I give her a pointed look.
Her brow furrows for a moment and then releases in surprise before she shakes her head.
“You’re crazy. Certifiable, honestly. I’m engaged. Remember?” Her eyes slide over me like I’ve said the most offensive thing she’s ever heard.
“You’re married.”
She levels me with a look of contempt.
“I’m engaged. To a man I love. I’m happy—the happiest I’ve been in a long time. I don’t want you or any of the things that come with you, Ramsey. Not near me or this ranch. I have good things here, and I don’t want them fucked up.”
I roll my lower lip and dip my head to the side in contemplation, glancing up at her and then shaking my head like I’m unbothered, even though it feels like she just slid a knife through my ribs and into my lung.
“That’s too bad. You should have made sure you were in a position to get engaged first.”
I see the way her jaw tightens and the furrow in her brow deepens, but a moment later, it fades.
“Just sign the divorce papers, please. This can be civil. You can move on with your life, and I can move on with mine. If we do it now, I’ll still have plenty of time to get my paperwork filed for the inn. You can have your life back in time for the end of your parole. We both get what we want.” Her eyes go soft with the plea, but her shoulders stay rigid, and I know she’s just trying to manage me.
She’s bargaining and hoping she can dangle something in front of me that I want more. Unfortunately for her, I’ve had far too many months alone, staring at a cinder block wall and thinking about exactly what I would do differently if I had a second chance. And fate’s dealt me the opportunity for just that.
“Nah. I don’t think so. I think I want my family’s ranch back. My house. My inn. My horse… I think I want all of it back the more I look around.”
“That’s not how life works.” The brief glimpse of her softer side is disappearing as quickly as it appeared. “Everything here has moved on without you. I suggest you do the same.”
I knew she wouldn’t come around to the idea easily. I knew she’d hate it at first, but I didn’t plan for exactly how much the unequivocal, unyielding rejection would sting.
“Maybe.” I run my hand along the edge of the stall. “But it’s how the court system works. I imagine they won’t feel sympathetic to my wife getting engaged and nearly committing bigotry, trying to refinance my property behind my back, letting her boyfriend take over my ranch, and then trying to take my ancestral family home all in one go. Yeah. Haze, I gotta say, darlin’, you’re not lookin’ too good in that scenario. But I’m sure you’ve got plenty of money to fight it with the lawyers, right?” I raise my eyes to meet hers. “I don’t imagine you were refinancing because you’re hurting for money or anything?”
“You’re an asshole.” I’m pretty sure she’d throttle me right now if she thought it would do any good at all.
“I just want you to be sure you’re making an informed decision before you give me your final answer.” I shrug one shoulder, glancing back at Wolfsbane who seems as eager to hear her acceptance as I am.
“Even if I was insane enough to agree to this, and I’m not, to be clear. But even if I was, do you think Curtis would just agree to it?”
“I assume he has a pragmatic side.” I take a step closer to her and reach out for a lock of her hair that’s fallen over her shoulder, sweeping it back. “Tell you what, darlin’. I’ll give you a million to ease his conscience and yours. Instead of refinancing—you can just use that. Think of it like an early wedding gift.”
Her jaw drops, and she leans forward to match me, needling her finger into my chest. One manicured nail, her attempt to cover up all the hard labor she does around here from her guests, is threatening to pierce through my shirt and into my skin. Her eyes blaze with fury, and if one of the horses wasn’t rattling around in his stall, I’m sure I could hear the grinding of her teeth.
“I don’t even know where to start with how fucked up that is,” she spits.
“You don’t even want to mention the idea to Curtis?” I do my best to stay rational. I can’t imagine he’ll agree, but it’s worth a shot.
She starts to draw up again, like she’s going to argue about how ridiculous the notion is that her fiancé would accept my conditions, but there’s the slightest flicker of something over her face. A hint of doubt, and that tells me everything I need to know about Curtis.
I wouldn’t let a man touch her for a hundred times that. If I could help it, no other man will ever touch her again. But it’s obvious—from the flutter of her lashes to the way she nibbles her lower lip—she thinks he might go for it. She shakes her head, takes a step back, crosses her arms, and stares off into the distance; a long sigh escapes her lips before she looks back at me with disappointment.
“Be reasonable and just sign the papers.” It’s one last plea, but she’s caving. I can feel it. Hope floods my chest.
“Sorry, darlin’. Can’t do it.”
“Don’t call me darlin’.” She flashes a look of warning at me.
“Sure thing, sugar.” I wink at her as her chin dips back and her lips part. I haven’t called her either in a long time. Not since we were kids who fell in love and got married because we thought it would always be that simple for us—that we were built differently than everyone who came before.
We stand in an uneasy silence while Wolfsbane rattles the door of his stall, asking to be let out, and a truck rolls up the driveway in the distance. Her eyes follow the sound, and she stares out the door of the stables for a long minute .
“Why would you even want to do this?” she asks without looking at me.
“Nostalgia.” I’d rehearsed this answer, knowing she was bound to ask.
She lets out a huff, and her eyes flick over me, then dart back to the door.
“You’ve never been nostalgic in your life. It was always forward movement with you. Always what was next week, next year, next century. Now, suddenly, you like long walks down memory lane?”
“Yes, but it’s also my home of record for the authorities, and I don’t feel like refiling paperwork right now. Fuckin’ hate bureaucracy.” It’s not a lie, just not the whole truth. She tilts her head as if acknowledging that much is easy for her.
“I can give you a room in the inn,” she bargains, turning back to me with a optimistic look.
“Nah. I don’t want to be up at the crack of dawn because your ladies are headed out on one of their daily adventures. I want my house. My bed.”
“Fine. Then I’ll move into the inn while you play house. It’ll keep me closer to everything.”
“It’s all or nothing.” I press my luck, and now I have her attention. Her eyes search my face, and they harden.
“You’d do that? Try to take the ranch and inn away from me? When you never wanted them in the first place?”
“I told you. I’ve had a lot of time to think over the last few months. Reflecting on what I might have done differently if I’d been in a different place.” I offer her a crumb of honesty, but somehow that uneasy admission makes her angrier.
“You get nostalgic and want a do-over, so you just get to crash in here and take everything I’ve spent years working on? All because things got a little rough out there, and now you think you can come home to hide. Pretend you can put it all back like nothing happened. Fuck the rest of us, right?”
I bite my tongue to keep from responding. It took two of us to get where we did when things fell apart. She was every bit as stubborn as I was when it came down to it. But I’m making a big ask right now, and I know it. I deserve some part of this lashing, even if she doesn’t need to be quite so heavy-handed.
“I want a place to stay out of public view, serve out the rest of this parole, and have some sense of stability while I figure out what’s next. I’m offering you all of it and a million dollars for the inconvenience. Ninety days and you get it all for the rest of your life. That’s like winning the lotto compared to what I could do.”
“And you fuck off forever after? I don’t ever have to hear from you or see you again? Your lawyer isn’t going to show up someday pointing to some loophole where you take it all back?” Her arms tighten around her middle.
“If that’s what you want.”
“It is what I want. I don’t even want to be standing here having this conversation with you now. If it were up to me, you’d fuck off immediately and stay fucked off.”
I bite my tongue to keep myself from pouring gasoline on this fire.
“Yes. I fuck off forever after. No loopholes.”
“I want it in writing. Tell your fancy fucking lawyer I want everything in black and white. And I want you to sign it in blood. Anything less and I won’t do it.”
The average person would probably be terrified of her temper, but I love seeing it flare again. Anger means she’s still invested enough to feel something for me. Apathy is the real danger. Right now, I still have a shot to fix this. It might be one deep down in the bowels of hell, with rapidly dropping temperatures and the smell of snow, but I’ll take it .
“Is that a yes, then?” I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep the smirk off my face.
“No.” She practically hisses the word. “I have to think. Talk to Curtis. Make sure my lawyer can’t get me out of this first.”
“Your lawyer?”
“I have one.” Her eyes narrow and sweep over me before she looks away again. “Not to mention, I’m still hoping this is a nightmare I’m going to wake up from any minute now.”
“Afraid not, sugar.”
She flicks me another look before she turns to leave the stables.
“One last thing…” I call after her, and she pauses but doesn’t turn around to look at me. “I just want to be clear. When I say I want my bed back, I mean with you in it.”
I see her bristle, and she flips me the bird over her shoulder before storming out. I turn back to Wolfsbane and run my hand over his mane.
“You notice she didn’t say no,” I mutter under my breath, smiling as I hear the door to the stables slams shut in her wake.