Forget That Guy (Don’t Date Him #5)

Prologue

Nothing is ever too much information. To me, TMI means “tell me immediately.”

—Denver’s secret thoughts

DENVER

“You never listen!” Juliana threw up her hands in defeat.

“What do you want me to do about your problems, Juliana?” I asked her.

“I work all day. Literally from five in the morning—if not earlier—until at least six thirty at night. Every single day. It’s not like I can just take a day off to go do fun things when we have literal living things that depend on us for survival. ”

Juliana narrowed her eyes. “We could go hang out with the club!”

“We do,” I pointed out. “All the fuckin’ time. When I have time.”

“What about hiring extra hands?”

I sighed. “I do that, too. But I can’t just sit in the house and hang out with you while I have people out there doing all the work. Plus, most of them don’t have the first fuckin’ clue what to do. They need guidance. I can offer that. Why don’t you come hang out with us?”

That caused her to snort. “Yeah, like I want to do that.”

Juliana and I had married almost fifteen years ago. When we’d met, I was in the Air Force. I got to go to all these places and see all the things.

But then my dad had died, and Sawyer had told me, rather succinctly, that he would rather cut off his own nuts than work the farm.

I didn’t blame him.

Farm life had never really been something he’d been interested in.

Would he help Dad and me? Sure, of course he would.

But he never got the thrill of excitement of it.

He never liked waking up at the ass crack of dawn and making sure the cattle were fed and the fences were secure.

And they weren’t all out having babies in the middle of a damn blizzard and stranding them somewhere in a snowdrift.

His son, Boone, had loved it. But he was on a different path in life.

So, I’d gone home.

Juliana had come with me, and we’d started having babies.

But she’d never acquired a liking to the life.

She hadn’t wanted to get a job, either.

She loved being a stay-at-home mom—even if she did fuckin’ suck at the stay-at-home mom part.

Hell, I got more kid time than she did before they were in school.

From sunup to sundown, I had at least one of the kids with me, if not all three.

All three of my babies loved the ranch life just like I did, but it was my oldest, Joe, who really got the most joy out of it.

Catalina and DeeDee loved it, but I had a feeling that they wouldn’t be spending their lives out here unless they found a husband that wanted to join that life with them.

“Are you even listening to me?”

I gritted my teeth and turned to my wife.

“What is it, exactly, that you want to do?” I asked. “Do you want to go on a vacation? I can swing that maybe for a week right before we have to start harvesting the hay for fall.”

Her eyes blazed. “That’s not going to work. I want to go to the Caribbean. Then I want to go to Italy. I can’t make both of those work for a week. It’ll take a whole day just to fly to Italy.”

I scrubbed at my face, only belatedly realizing that I still had my gloves on.

I yanked them off, because who knew what the fuck was on them, and started at my wife.

“Julie…”

“If you tell me no, this is it, Sinclair.”

Pulling out the big name.

But it didn’t matter.

I wasn’t going to be able to swing this one.

“Boone has a full-time job.” I paused. “Two full-time jobs. Sawyer hasn’t helped with the ranch in years.

With Wilks quitting this summer to move south, I have no one else that can do this job right now.

I can give you a weekend, at max, right now.

A week in the summer if I can convince Boone to take the week off—this is assuming that you want to take the girls. ”

Juliana rolled her eyes. “Why wouldn’t we want them there?”

“I’m not saying I wouldn’t want them there,” I pointed out.

“I’m saying that between the three of them they can keep this going for a week without me having to ask Boone to take a week off.

Which, might I add, is entirely way too hard for him to do since he has his own practice now. Emergencies don’t wait.”

“Georgina will start working there soon,” she pointed out. “She could cover for him.”

I leaned my head back and studied the ceiling. “A week’s all I have in me, Julie.”

Her eyes narrowed, then she said the words I’d fully expected to hear once this conversation started.

“Then maybe we should get a divorce.”

And before I could think better of the words that came out of my mouth, I just blurted out, “Maybe we should.”

I loved Juliana once.

But these last few years, as her friends had started to party more and go out and have fun while she was forced to stay on a ranch and work, she’d started to resent me and the ranch. Even our children.

She hated taking the kids to their after-school activities. Hated taking them to school. Hated going to the grocery store. Hated cooking. Hated cleaning.

Some of those things I was able to fix on my own.

I’d gotten Sawyer to help me pick up the girls from their lessons once a week. I’d asked my mother to help me prepare dinner once a week. I’d hired a cleaner. I’d hired my sister to cook later on when my mom got too tired too easily.

I’d literally done everything that I could to make this better for Juliana.

But I couldn’t give her a different life.

This was the one I had to offer.

“That’s it?” Juliana asked. “That’s all you have to say?”

“What else is there to say?” I pushed. “You’re hoping for an outcome that I can’t offer you.”

She stomped her foot. “Fine.”

I walked out, mad as a hornet, and stared out over the land that’d been in my family for generations.

Sawyer lived on the other side of the rise, with my mom’s guest house attached by a breezeway.

An old cabin sat to the left where Boone had once stayed before he’d built his house a couple of acres behind mine.

And the old farmhouse that I lived in sat smack dab in the middle of everyone.

My mom and dad built a new place a mile away, but still on our acreage, just down the dirt road from where I was standing.

Right next to the road where the only other neighbor for miles lived.

I had a feeling that Dad built it there so he could keep an eye on his old friend, Cantrell.

Honestly, we’d all thought Cantrell would go first seeing as he had cancer.

But he kept beating it over and over again. All of our theories were that Cantrell couldn’t leave because of his girl, Georgina.

Georgie was a great girl. Smart and funny. Always willing to lend a hand.

But she was worn out and struggling.

She was in college now, ready to graduate in the fall.

I was super proud of her, getting through everything so quickly on her own with almost zero help.

“Dad?”

I looked over at the oldest of my girls. The one that was most like me.

“Hey, Joe.”

She climbed up onto the wooden fence that I was currently leaning on, then sat her butt on the rail before saying, “I think you shouldn’t let her back out of it this time.”

I blinked, surprised to hear that from her.

She loved her mom.

“What?” I asked.

“Mom asking for a divorce,” she said softly.

“We all know that she’s really unhappy. And with me starting to drive next week, I can start taking everyone to school in the morning.

I can also run over and pick Cat up from the park where she’s practicing.

Mom can pick up DeeDee since she’ll be in town.

And then when I’m done getting Cat, I can grab DeeDee and we can come home. ”

“You wouldn’t want to live with your mom?” I asked.

“No.” She scanned her eyes over the horizon. “This place is my happy place. I don’t want to live anywhere but here. I’m going to put my house right there.”

She pointed to a spot on the hill that I’d once wanted our house on.

It’d been a possibility, but this place had been vacant, and there was no reason to leave such a big house empty when it’d work perfectly fine.

“Are you now?”

She nodded. “We’re going to have a family compound going on. When I have kids, they’ll just cross that pasture right there to come hang out with you.”

I snorted out a laugh. “You just have it all planned, don’t you?”

“Don’t worry,” she teased. “I’ll marry someone that’ll help you with the ranch.”

“Gee, thanks.” I wrapped one arm around her waist. “I’m not stopping her this time, Joe.”

She wrapped her arm around my neck and squeezed. “I think it’s time.”

Six days later, Juliana moved out of the house and into an apartment in the city.

She filed for divorce within a month.

Six months after she moved out, our divorce was finalized.

Now, she had to work.

Since I had full custody of the girls, she had to send me child support—though I didn’t make her most of the time.

And, even worse, she was forced to work so much to support herself that she barely had any time off.

Joe told me that she hated it.

I figured she deserved it.

Especially after her lawyers had fucked me over so badly.

Karma was a bitch.