2. A Debt I Can Never Pay—But I’ll Try
A DEBT I CAN NEVER PAY—BUT I’LL TRY
LAKE
“What are we doing here again?” I ask, Ray.
“I know you’re dead below the waist, but the rest of us aren’t. I’ve been trying to get Olivia to go out with me for the last two months. She keeps pushing me away. I wanted to surprise her at work.”
“She new?” I ask, not recognizing the name.
“Nah. She was here before I was hired. You don’t know her?”
“Never heard of her. Can’t tell you if I’ve seen her or not. It’s a big ranch,” I explain.
“If you saw Olivia, you’d remember. She’s gorgeous.
Thick, honeyed, chestnut hair, hazel eyes that could haunt your dreams, and a sweet voice that could calm a wild stallion.
The woman is perfect. She’s soft, too. Not like most of the ballbusters you run into these days.
Meek and mild, just how I like my women.
I bet she’d get down on her knees with one command. ”
I roll my eyes. I tolerate Ray. It’s unclear to me why Carson and his brothers brought the creep on.
I keep waiting for the day he fucks up and gets fired.
It hasn’t happened yet, but I know it will.
Ray is the type of cowboy girls gravitate toward.
Thick brown curly hair, bright blue eyes, and muscles.
There’s not a scar on his pretty-boy body.
He’s totally unlike me. Hell, most are though.
There’s nothing pretty about me. Scars riddle my body.
The ones on my face are so distracting that I finally just let my beard grow out to hide them.
It makes it easier. I keep my hair shorter because it’s just cooler out on the range.
I’m no woman’s idea of a fantasy, though.
I’m a guy, so that stuff means shit to me, but I know Ray is the type women weave dreams around—at least until he shows them who he really is.
We walk into the office. I expect to see this bombshell Ray is horndogging over behind the counter, but the room is empty.
I roll my eyes. She’s not working. Maybe she’s as much of a fuck-up as Ray is.
I really don’t have time for this bullshit.
I’ve got a semi out there full of feed that I need to unload.
It’s backbreaking work, and my old injuries slow me down.
I still work harder than most of the men on this ranch.
Carson and his brothers took me in when I had nowhere else to go.
I won’t forget that. When they found me, I was on death’s door.
They took over my medical bills—which were so fucking huge, I would have been better off dead.
They got me back on my feet. Had surgeries organized to put my face back together and repair my throat.
Hell, they gave me a name because I didn’t even know my own.
I had no memory. The only thing I’ve ever known about myself is that I was washed up on the bank of Norris Lake—which incidentally is how I named myself.
Carson pulled in some favors and now my identification says Lake Norris is my name.
My birthdate is the day they found me, and since I look around forty, according to my new birth certificate I’m thirty-nine—only because Lisa said no one willingly owns up to being forty.
They said I had a severe brain injury. It took me a month to recover after they bored holes into my head.
They warned me that my long-term and short-term memory might be affected.
Turned out I had no memory at all. I don’t know if it’s from the trauma of my head injury or the surgery itself, since it was high risk. In the end, it didn’t matter.
Carson Wells—the eldest of the brothers and the CEO of Black Stone—did offer to track down who I was.
I didn’t allow it. I figured with the injuries I had, someone definitely wanted me dead.
It was better if they continued to believe I was.
Some people may think that’s insanity. Hell, maybe it was.
I just knew that I had almost died, and I wasn’t walking blind into a situation where I gave a stranger the chance to do the job again.
I’m not sure any of the brothers agreed, but in the end, they didn’t fight me. Maybe they knew I needed to start over.
Since that day, I’ve slowly been building a life on my terms. I work harder than any other man here because I know I have injuries that slow me down.
I don’t want to give anyone a reason to get rid of me.
I’m also out to repay them. I volunteer for anything they need.
I’ve even started working for their security company on the weekends.
I will make them glad they helped me. Despite their arguing, I’ve been giving them back half of my check each pay period.
They tried to refuse, but I won’t let them.
It may take the rest of my life, but I will pay them back. I owe them absolutely everything.
The ringing of my phone brings my thoughts back to the here and now.
I nod to Ray and step outside to take the call.
As I’m walking out the door, I hear footsteps behind me.
I guess the woman is finally manning her desk.
The urge to turn around and see what has Ray so caught up in her is strong, but in the end I don’t bother. His kind of woman is not mine.
“This is Lake,” I answer as I step onto the porch.
“Hey, buddy. I know you have tonight off, but I have a big favor to ask,” Colt—the youngest of the Wells brothers—says at once.
“What do you need?”
“Carson and Coop are going to be busy this Saturday with the security dinner to kick off the week of training. I will be there for a bit, but I’m going to watch over Livy and Claire.
I don’t expect any trouble, but I’d like to have some backup—just in case.
If you can’t, it’s okay. The new guy, Jeff, is going to help me, but I just feel better having someone I’ve worked with before at my back. ”
“Sure. I had nothing planned anyway. Do you want me to head straight to Carson’s house, or would you rather I meet you under the tent they’re having the dinner at?”
“Just head on up to Carson’s house that night. Jeff should be there early. He’s setting up the perimeter and I’ll join you two once I get there.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be there,” I answer.
“Thanks, Lake. If you’re interested, we could use a couple more men to help us in combat training. You’re one of our best and you’ve been here almost as long as our first string. The pay is good. I know it’s short notice—”
“I’m in,” I answer at once. Working extra means making more money toward my bill.
I don’t need much to survive. The ranch provides our breakfast and dinners.
I live in the bunkhouse with the rest of the ranch hands.
So, really, I can get by with next to nothing.
I have a truck payment, auto insurance, and health insurance bills.
I pay whatever medical bills I get and then put a few hundred back each check.
Once that’s done, I give the rest back to the bookkeeper here at the ranch as payment on my account.
My bosses didn’t like it but accepted it just the same.
I should have it completely paid off within another six months.
Then, maybe I’ll breathe a little easier.
I don’t know the person I was before, but the man I am now doesn’t want to owe shit to anyone. I stand on my own.
“Sounds good. We can talk about it more when I see you Saturday.”
“Deal,” I answer right before his phone clicks off.
I do the same and look out across the ranch.
My gaze takes it all in, breathes in the peace that the land gives me as my eyes focus on the Smoky Mountains.
I don’t know where I’m from originally. I didn’t have any ID on me when I was found.
Hell, I barely had clothes covering me. Still, this is definitely my home now.
The mountains have a way of getting into your soul.
Maybe once I get the debt paid back, I’ll find my own place, a small ranch, some cattle to make it self-sufficient. A quiet life.
I file the thought somewhere in the mess I call a brain and turn back to the campground office. Time to take in Ray’s dream woman, Olivia. The thought makes me scoff, shaking my head.
Ray really is an idiot.
She’ll probably use him. We may only be ranch hands here, but the Wells family pays us damn good. Olivia—as an employee here—would know that. I’d try to warn him, but Ray’s an asshole.
He deserves whatever he gets.