Chapter 18 #2
Cade’s had a rough go since his wife passed last year, and with a toddler to raise and a spread to run, he’s stretched thin. I figure I’ll offer to patch up both sides while I’ve got my crew out there.
I come back to our table to hear Elena tell Aria, “You can get Longhorn back in the ring, you know. Maybe not next season, but after. Get your cows in shape. Find a bull with decent lines. Start small. Grow hay right. You’ll make bank.”
I want to tell Elena to stop encouraging Aria. She doesn’t know the condition of the ranch’s finances, and worse, she doesn’t understand that Aria is not like her, doesn’t have her skills or experience. She’s a freaking grape grower for fuck’s sake.
Aria blinks, surprised by the casual reassurance. “You think I can?”
“It takes sweat and hellfire and making peace with dirt under your nails. And lookin’ at you, I see someone who ain’t afraid of work.” Elena raises her can of beer. “My husband says that legacy doesn’t come from money. It comes from grit.”
“I say that?” Duke teases.
Elena smiles at him. She’s been doing that a lot since she got back together with Duke. It warms my heart. Doesn’t stop me from giving him a hard time, though.
“You got grit, Aria, I can see it,” Elena announces.
Aria’s face lights up with something…dangerous. Hope, which will bankrupt her faster than debt.
Aria excuses herself, and I give Elena a pointed look.
“What?” she snaps.
“She thinks she can salvage what her old man let fall apart and when she won’t be able to….”
Elena gives me a withering look. “Stop underestimating her.”
“You don’t know what’s goin’ on at Longhorn,” I counter.
“Baby, he’s right.” Duke gets it.
Elena shakes her head, furious. “You know, you both like to behave like you’re not misogynistic assholes, but that’s what this is. If she were a man, you’d all give her more of a chance. She has a pussy, and y’all think she doesn’t have the balls to make it.”
I try to placate her. “Come on, that’s not—”
“I’m going to talk to someone else before I do something that’s gonna put you into the Emergency Room.” She almost stomps away but stops and turns around. “We’re not fragile. I’ve seen people bet their soul on a ranch and win.”
“I’ve seen them lose their soul to the land,” I say softly.
“Then why pretend to help her, huh?” She leans down, her face close to mine. “Why?”
“I’m not…I’m….” I shut the fuck up because she’s right. I am pretending. I’m being disingenuous.
Elena walks away.
I huff out a sharp breath.
Duke gives me a wickedly pleased look, clearly reveling in the moment. “It’s nice when you’re in the doghouse instead of me.”
“I’m helping Aria. I really am, but this ain’t a movie where hard work turns the tide. Sometimes, ranches die.”
Duke nods.
“And sometimes,” I pause as I see Aria come back into the tent, “the people who love them too much go down with the land.”
Duke studies me for a moment. “The way you’re lookin’ at her, I have a feeling you’re not going to let her go down.”
“Maybe, but I’m not sure how this will play out,” I tell him honestly.
“You know Aria looks at Elena as one of the invisible line of women who kept and keep the land alive,” Duke reminds me. “Women who’ve been dismissed and doubted and kept going anyway.”
“It’s not that she’s a woman,” I mutter under my breath. “It’s that she doesn’t know fuck all about ranching.”
I smile at Aria when she rejoins us. She looks like she ate something that didn’t sit well with her.
“What happened?” I ask, suddenly worried.
“I bumped into…bitchy and bitchier!” she whispers, leaning in.
Duke turns to see who just entered the tent and bursts out laughing.
I follow his gaze and find that Aria is talking about Sloane Whitmore and Delaney Pryce.
Sloane is the heiress to a bottled water empire, and Delaney Pryce’s father owns half the oil rigs between Rifle and Rock Springs.
They grew up in Wildflower Canyon, where their families are from. Though they usually prefer Aspen to our small town.
They’re decked out in designer ranch wear—Dolce boots, Fendi fringe, and sunglasses the size of dinner plates.
They’re squealing like high schoolers as they cling to Cade Mercer like he’s the last eligible rancher in the canyon.
“Did you know that you’re off-limits?” Aria says, a teasing quality in her tone, but I hear the irritation beneath it.
She picks up her beer can and takes a sip, then grimaces. Yeah, it’s probably lukewarm by now—just like mine.
“I am?”
“Apparently, you belong to my sister.”
Ah. There it is.
Duke chuckles and gets up from the picnic table. “I’d better go find my wife.”
“She’s with Hunt over at the sale tent,” Aria tells him.
Once he’s gone, I turn back to her. “You want to explain what that little jab was about?”
Her gaze darts toward the pair of loud, overdressed women across the barnyard. “They’ve been Celine’s best friends since middle school.”
“And?”
She tosses her hair back, that braid of hers a little loose now, and fixes me with a half-smirk. “They told me they know you so well since you hang out with Celine and them all the time.”
Damn, but she’s jealous!
I give her a slow, knowing smile. “Did they now?”
She flutters her eyelashes like she’s in some black-and-white screwball comedy. “And that you’re oh-so-swoony.”
That earns a short laugh out of me.
Christ, I like this woman.
“And I shouldn’t get any ideas,” she adds, eyes cutting away like maybe this is a little more honest than she wants to admit. “Because you’re Celine’s.”
I set my beer down, watching her closely now. “Do you believe that?”
She hesitates before responding, “It doesn’t matter what I believe. It’s what Celine believes. And she usually gets what she wants.”
“She’s not getting me.”
“I’ve heard that before,” she snaps.
I study her for a second, everything in me bristling against the way her shoulders tense.
“Someone else say that to you?”
She shakes her head and then gives me a plastic smile. “Forget I said anything.”
I want to push her, but I don’t. There’s that damn vulnerability again in her eyes.
I’m usually good at keeping a straight face, but it isn’t easy right now because she just revealed a hurt, something bigger than Rami asking her not to come home. I can guess what it is, and it burns the fuck out of me that it still stings her.
I guess the tables have turned since I’m the one who is jealous now.