Chapter Four
Jensen
Harlyn, normally a blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty who displayed a confident air of composure stood on my porch looking disheveled and on the verge of tears.
I pulled the door open wider. “Come inside, darlin’, tell me what’s wrong.”
Harlyn stepped into the foyer, I closed the door and led her to the living room where I encouraged her to sit. Once she had, I kneeled in front of her and gathered both hands.
“What’s wrong?” I asked in a soft voice.
“I can’t do it! The men need my help and I can’t even ride a fucking horse.
Elijah said mucking the stables and feeding the chickens, ducks, and goats is a big help but I can see it’s not enough.
I’m not used to getting up so early and I no sooner finish one lot of chores than it’s time to start another.
It’s dark before I get home and I’m so tired I don’t even bother with dinner. ”
Leaning forward, I gathered Harlyn in my arms, her head resting against my chest, as she cried in what I suspected was frustration. When she hiccupped a couple of times and sat back, I handed her a tissue and she wiped her eyes.
“Darlin’, you’re struggling to adapt to the demands of ranch life because it’s unlike anything you’ve ever done.
Early mornings are a bitch for anyone used to starting their days well after the sun has come up.
It messes with your body clock and the days feel twice as long when you work until the sun goes down.
It’s only natural that you doubt your ability. ”
“I need help. I need you to teach me how to ride, what to do around the ranch to help the men, and how it should be done.”
I found it intriguing that Harlyn had come to me for help and advice.
“Let me speak with my men in the morning and then I’ll ride over and give you your first riding lesson. Ask Elijah to write out what needs doing and we’ll do it together. I’ll help until you find your rhythm and become confident.”
“What about your ranch? It’s not fair to expect your men to do extra so you can help me.”
“Darlin’, you asked for my help, how do you think I can do that if I’m taking care of chores over here?”
“I thought you might let me tag along,” she admitted.
“My men are more than capable of picking up the slack and I have five men to your four. It’s not a busy time of year so they’ll be fine. Can I get you a coffee?”
“No, it’s okay. I didn’t mean to bother you.” Harlyn started to stand but I put a hand on her arm and she turned her gaze on my face.
“You’re not bothering me. Have you had dinner?”
Harlyn shook her head.
“I was about to serve up a beef stir-fry if you’d like to join me. There’s more than enough for both of us. I usually cook a big batch and freeze some for down the track.”
“Are you sure?” Harlyn asked quietly.
“Wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t.”
“Thank you, I’d appreciate sharing a meal with you.”
“Come on out to the kitchen while I finish up.”
Harlyn followed me to the kitchen where I pulled out a chair and she sat. After turning the stove back on, I set her a place, poured a large glass of lemonade and she gulped down almost half.
When the food was cooked, I spooned a portion of rice onto each plate and a good helping of the beef and vegetables in honey-soy sauce.
I set one of the plates in front of where Harlyn sat and another opposite for me.
I then put a basket of buttered bread slices between us and joined her at the table.
Harlyn scooped in a mouthful and her wide eyes landed on mine. She indicated her food with the fork. “This is really good. I didn’t think ranchers cooked.”
“Why on earth would you think that? If I didn’t cook, I’d starve. Grantin isn’t exactly flush with stores that sell takeout.”
“True…Who taught you?”
“My Ma, before her and Dad retired to Montana six years ago. The ranch was my thirtieth birthday present.”
“Quite the present. They still alive?”
“Yep. Enjoying the cooler climate in the mountains, although they’re hardly ever home. They spend all their time traveling to exotic countries around the world. At the moment they’re in Mauritius.”
“This was your Dad’s ranch?” It seemed a silly question but I’d learned there were a couple of women who owned ranches in these parts and it could have been in Jensen’s mother’s family.
“Yep, and granddad’s before him. Ma came from a super wealthy family back east and the place was successful for Dad so he accumulated a good chunk of change himself. When they decided they’d had enough and wanted to travel, they signed the place over to me with a sizeable bank account.”
“Only child?”
I felt the sting of pain grip my heart, but it was an innocent question asked by someone who couldn’t have known what happened.
“My sister, Indigo drowned in the creek when she was 3. She’d escaped the house when Ma was bringing in the laundry and we didn’t find her until it was too late.
She was floating face down near the bank where she was trapped in tree roots. I was seven at the time.”
Harlyn reached across the table and gathered my hand in hers. “I’m so sorry for asking and bringing up such sad memories.”
I squeezed her hand. “You weren’t to know since you’re not from around these parts.
It was a tough time after she died. I was scared Ma and Dad would never be the same but they eventually learned to live with their heartbreak.
It was hard…I lost my sister and almost lost my parents.
Briggs, a ranch hand at the time who was seventeen, started taking me everywhere with him and even taught me to fish.
He held me when I cried and encouraged me to talk about Indigo.
Briggs is forty-six years old now, and when the previous foreman retired at the same time Dad gifted me the ranch, Briggs became my foreman.
We’re not just boss and foreman, he’s my best friend. ”
“I’m glad you had him to lean on at a difficult time.”
“Ma and Dad said it’s done them good to get away from the memories…they’re healing, although they miss me. I facetime them every Sunday night and we talk for a good hour. They visit at Christmas every year for three weeks…Christmas Day is my birthday. How about you?”
“I grew up in Farrer…California gal as you know but was never the typical beach babe. I learned to dive at a young age and often dived the reefs off the beach with Mom and Dad. They died in an accident a little over eight years ago.”
“I’m sorry…car?”
Harlyn shook her head. “Diving. They were experienced divers and did contract wreck work after Dad sold his computing business. They were hired to bring up whatever was left inside a shipwreck that had occurred a couple of weeks earlier and it was time sensitive. Both of them were recovering from flu and thought it wouldn’t be an issue…
it was. Basically they both had breathing problems, became disoriented, and drowned…
At least that was the ruling of the coroner. ”
“That’s…I don’t know what to say. That must have been heartbreaking.”
“It was. I spent three months wallowing. Then I met Finn who turned out to be a cheating gold digger.”
I felt a pang of jealousy dance down my spine. Why did hearing about a previous man in Harlyn’s life cause my fists to clench? “How so?” I asked, keeping my tone even.
Harlyn finished chewing the bread she’d mopped up the last of the gravy with, set the fork on her plate and sat back in her chair.
“I met Finn when I advertised Mom and Dad’s dive gear.
I’d made the mistake of saying it was part of a deceased estate.
Most of the inquiries I fielded were from men old enough to be my father and they were more interested in my newly inherited worth.
Finn caught me by surprise. He was my age…
23 at the time, and said he was starting a coastal dive business and the equipment would be useful for his students.
He paid the price I asked without a second thought.
I liked him…He was blond, with blue eyes, a killer body…
surfer type…and seemed genuine. So when he called me a couple of weeks later, asking me to join him at our local for a meal and drink, I said yes.
He was starting his own business so I figured he was well off and didn’t need my money. I was…”
“Lonely,” I injected and Harlyn nodded. “Only child?”
“Yes and yes. I was attracted to Finn and over the next couple of months we dived together, went to dinner, and had fun. About six months after we met I invited him to move in…he refused and I was confused. Finn wouldn’t move into a home that was my parents.
He wanted us to have a place that was only ours. ”
“You sold?”
“Yes. The home was in an elite area of Farrer and brought a price well above what I expected. Finn and I started looking for another place and he fell in love with one that required me to put in eighty percent of the price. I refused and said I would only buy one that we bought into fifty/fifty. We argued and it should have been a red flag but…” Harlyn shrugged.
“You were in love.”
“You know….I don’t think it was love now I look back.
Anyway, we found a place in a decent area, with good schools…
I eventually wanted children, and we bought it.
Then he asked me to go fifty/fifty in his dive business to get it off the ground faster.
I agreed but looking back, I wonder how he knew I had the money to do so.
I never broadcast how much Mom and Dad’s estate was worth and I’d put a lot of the money from the sale of their house into our new place.
We moved into the house and I did some decorating to make it more a home but when Finn made outrageous demands such as having a huge television in almost every room, I said if he wanted that, he’d have to buy them himself.
Needless to say, we had one television in our living room and no waterfall pool like he demanded.
I might have been a little blinded by love in some ways, but I wasn’t stupid, and I’d read about people losing their entire inheritance to men or women who played them. ”
“How did he accept you saying no to his every demand?”
“Not particularly well. He was pissed off that every penny of the money he’d gotten from his uncle had gone into our home and business.
He said I should give him his money back and pay for everything since I had a lot more than him.
Again, I wondered how he knew my worth but let it slide.
When I said it would all have to be in my name only and he’d have had to sign a prenup in case we split, he said I was just plain mean.
To be honest, I’m surprised he didn’t walk away then. ”
“How long were you together?” I wanted to find the asshole and beat him to a pulp for how he’d treated Harlyn.
“Eight years, give or take a month or so. Finn was always a lying cheater and eventually I refused to forgive him anymore. The last time I found out he’d been fucking around, I immediately hired a lawyer and began separation of our assets.
Finn tried to fleece me of a lot more money than he’d contributed but I’d documented everything.
Eventually he agreed to a more than reasonable price for him to buy me out of our house and business.
When the dust settled he had about the same as he’d started with years before plus a sensible amount in interest. I was damned if he was going to take one cent of my parent’s estate. ”
“Sounds like you had your wits about you. It was fortunate you didn’t trust him.”
“I’m not sure it was a question of trust so much as protecting what Mom and Dad had worked so hard to accumulate.
I think, deep down, I suspected Finn had come into my life for the money.
It just took me a while to admit it and get rid of the leech.
It’s strange…despite my not having any feelings left for him, it still hurt when we split. ”
“I can understand that. I’ve been burned pretty bad myself on a couple of occasions and although I didn’t allow my heart to get involved because I knew from the start the relationships weren’t meant to be, it still stung.”
Before Harlyn could ask me about my relationships, I stood, gathered the dishes and set them in the sink.
“Coffee?”
“Thanks, and then I’ll have to be going or I’ll never drag my ass out of bed in the morning.”
I flipped the coffee machine on and while I waited for it to brew, I studied Harlyn who seemed to have drifted into thought.
The lady was gorgeous and my dick was certainly interested if the way it kept flinching was any indication.
I was sorry she was having a tough time of learning the ropes of ranching after everything she’d already been through and vowed to help in whatever way I could.