Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
“Have fun tonight, cousin.” Luke—winner of the bet—smirks at me as he steps onto the back porch of Wild Ranch later the following evening.
“This is what I get for wagering with you about ranch shit—especially after I’ve had a few drinks and you’re stone-cold sober.” I tell him. “Had I been sober, I never would have thought I could rope anything, even a dummy steer, faster than you. I’m a fisherman—not a damn cowboy.”
“Wild, you’re in Montana now, not coastal Maine.” Luke claps me on the back. “So for now, you’re a cowboy. You’re on Wild Ranch. Embrace it.”
Luke Wild has been running Wild Ranch since his parents retired. He and his younger brothers, twins Cooper and Chase, work their asses off to keep their family business going strong, and they do a hell of a job at diversifying between cattle, tourism, and equine rescues led by my cousin Declan’s wife, Mia.
The ranch is hundreds of acres of prairie and forest all set against the majestic backdrop of the Montana mountains. The summer sun is still high in the sky, and Luke and his twin brothers, Cooper and Chase, are doing their usual—grilling on the back porch for dinner.
Cooper laughs. “Hey, maybe you’ll come back from your date married like Declan did.”
“Nice try,” Declan says. “Mia and I didn’t go on a blind date.”
Mia laughs. She’s sitting close to Declan on the couch opposite us as Declan rocks their baby girl, Lexi, to sleep. Mia’s good-natured and down-to-earth, two things my cousin desperately needed more of in his life. He adores her, and she, him, and their baby made their family complete.
I push away the pang of yearning that hits me when I see Declan as a dad. If I met the right woman, I would want to get married and have a family too.
But just because we want something doesn’t always mean we can have it.
And the dream of having a family is something I gave up on long ago.
“Michael’s married to his boat,” Chase says, his blue eyes bright with humor. “Ship Wild is the only mistress he’ll entertain for the long haul, right?”
He’s not far off. I am attached to my work as a fisherman. Some—like my Ma and brother—would say too attached. But I have my reasons.
“While you’re staying with us in Montana, you can’t date your boat. Long-distance with a boat doesn’t work too well from what I’ve heard.” Luke chuckles, and I want to wipe that arrogant grin right off his handsome mug.
My Montana cousins are great and all, but I’m only here because my boat had another scare.
I’ve had scares before. All fishermen have. But this one shook me to my core, and for the first time in my adult life, I took a vacation .
My brother, Ayden, who’s in Montana for the summer, saunters out onto the porch from inside the house.
I turn to him. “If this date goes south, I’m texting you to get me out of there. So keep your phone with you.”
Ayden shrugs. “I’ll try. But I may not hear the phone.”
“Ayd, I swear to fuck, if you don’t pick up that damn phone…”
He grins. “You don’t have to marry this woman. Just enjoy your night. Maybe you’ll even get laid and get out of this funk you’re in.”
“Fuck you. I’m always like this.”
Cooper snorts with laughter. “Ayden, how do you handle Michael’s grumpy moods?”
“My brother’s put up with me his entire life,” I say as I grin at Ayden. “He knows when to take a loss.”
I wave goodbye, grab a flannel overshirt, and step off the porch. It may be summer, but the night breeze is cool.
The sounds of my cousins’ laughter follow me as I head toward a line of parked trucks.
I love having a big family, but I’m definitely not used to the nosiness. Back home in Maine, Ma and Ayden would bug me to a point, but they knew when to back off. And then Ayden moved away, and my mother couldn’t challenge me as well one-on-one. Here, with so many Wilds up in my business, my privacy’s gone out the window. Reminds me of when Dad was alive. He never let me stay stuck.
I swallow hard.
But then he died, and my entire life changed forever.
I jump in Luke’s spare truck he let me borrow while I’m here. I glance out the window at the view. It still blows my mind to see the mountains so clearly. I do miss the salty air of the sea, but I’m certainly not going to complain about this either.
As I turn the key in the truck, I remember the dark- haired beauty from outside the coffee shop. She’s been infiltrating my thoughts since I met her yesterday, and I can’t shake the feeling of familiarity when we locked eyes.
I’d rather spend more time with her tonight than go on this blind date.
But then again, I only date women casually. It’s an unspoken rule I have with myself. No forevers .
I drive down the long, winding road of the property until I’ve left Wild Ranch behind.
Because of my dangerous line of work, it would never be fair to bring someone permanently into my life. I saw how it skewered my mom to go through my dad’s drowning, and I won’t do that to someone else.
I make the turn for Main Street and head for Lucky Cowboy.
As I park behind the bar and step out of the truck, I push all thoughts of the woman from yesterday out of my head. It’s for the best that she had to leave. I’m not the right man for a woman like her. She deserves commitment, and that’s something I can’t give her.