Chapter 1 #2
Walker had made this seem like a fun, easy little proposition.
She should’ve known better than to listen to him.
He was the kind of man who got women into trouble, because he seemed light and free and easy, and also charming, and then the things he said seemed like they might be true, but of course they weren’t.
Zane was glaring at her like he wanted to roll her down the hill she had just driven up.
“I brought you some rolls,” she said, lifting the basket.
He jerked his head back, and she thought again of her analogy regarding horses. Right now, he looked like a wary stallion.
“What kind?”
“Strawberry,” she said, taking a step toward him.
“Why?”
“Because. Because I did. Because it’s…oop!” She took a step forward, and her ankle rolled slightly when she stepped on half a pinecone. She steadied herself and smiled. “Nice.”
“Why,” he repeated, this time, not a question, but a demand for an answer.
“Okay, Cody was hoping that I would talk to you about using your property for trail rides.”
“Fuck him and no.”
“But—” He turned away from her and began to walk up the front porch.
Wow. The muscles on his back were amazing.
Wow, that is not your goal here.
“But,” she started again. “He’s your best friend.”
“Yes. He is my best friend. He’s my only friend. And fuck him. I’m not letting him use my property to run tourists through it like it’s a goddamned theme park. Does this look like the happiest place on earth to you?”
“Clearly not. I don’t think he’s suggesting he bring the crowd up to roll merrily all over your land. I just think he wants to run a trail ride through the far end. Way, way, far away from your house. Anyway, you would benefit.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Why did they send you?”
“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?” She lifted the basket up higher. He turned toward her, cocking his hip and leaning against the railing on the porch.
He made a low, growling sound. “That may be true. If the man has a heart.”
The statement made her feel breathless, and she didn’t know if she wanted to roll her eyes at him or herself. Both, honestly. “I think you have a heart. I just think you’re stubborn.”
“Is this news?”
“I don’t see why you won’t do this for him.”
“Why do you care?”
“Honestly? It could be good for my business too.”
“He can run a ride up to the trail once a week. Once a week. That’s it. Then I don’t want to hear anymore. No more badgering me, no more trying to get me to give up more space. I’ll give what I give. That’s it.”
He turned away from her again.
“Wait,” she said, launching herself forward, and when he turned again, even though he was two steps above her and she was on the ground, he was far too close.
She sucked in a sharp breath, everything in her freezing. “Strawberry rolls.” She held the basket higher.
They were the only words she was capable of uttering.
“I don’t need a bribe.”
Except he had agreed only when she had come up here. Maybe… Maybe he had agreed because it was evidence that they found him so unreasonable they were willing to send anyone and everyone up to convince him. Maybe this had been a bit.
He reached out and grabbed ahold of the basket. His rough hand brushed hers, and she felt something like fire shoot through her veins.
He was awful. Genuinely. The least friendly, the least welcoming, the least accommodating man she had ever met.
So why was she breathless?
His eyes were a deep forest green, and she couldn’t help but notice the color right now. Really notice it. There were glimpses of gold in his eyes, and a darker ring around the outside. For a moment, she was held completely captive by those eyes.
For a moment, she couldn’t think, much less speak.
“Go on,” he said. “You’d better get.”
“Fine,” she said. She didn’t know what she had meant to say. She didn’t know if maybe she could’ve come up with something cleverer if she had given it a minute. But she hadn’t.
So instead, she got back into her car and drove down to Cody’s house.
Well, Cody and Marlowe’s house. They still stayed in the apartment at the hotel sometimes, but mostly they lived at Cody’s place.
He had a huge, beautiful ranch house out in the middle of the property, and they ate there a couple of nights a week.
Cara was in something of a unique position.
Because while she worked on the Painted Ridge Ranch, she did not live there.
That was most of the employees, to be fair, but she was someone with an ownership stake, someone who was close to the family by proxy, and yet, she wasn’t right there with all of them.
Zane had his own place, of course. His own property. But even still, he was a neighbor.
Cara lived in the town of Mustang River, about twenty minutes away.
It was a cute town, and she liked that she could walk to shopping, restaurants, and local bars if she wanted to.
In theory. She didn’t do much of any of that. Mostly, she worked on recipes, got up early, and made sure the bakery was perfect before opening every day, so that all of the sweets were ready to go.
Then at the end of the day, she had a drive home. So even though she ate with everyone sometimes, she didn’t do it as often as they did.
It made her feel a little bit outside of things. But it was a choice that she had made. She shrugged off her discomfort, chalked it up to the fact that she had just had a strange encounter with Zane.
Truth be told, every encounter with him made her feel like running a lap and throwing up.
It was like a pure shot of adrenaline into her veins, even if the encounter was completely benign. And this hadn’t really been benign.
She parked alongside Cody’s truck and could see that Walker, Lila, and their family friend Nolan were already there as well.
She got out and saw that the whole family was out back, standing around the barbecue, baking in the late June heat.
“Hello,” she said.
She received staggered greetings from the group in response to hers.
She took a deep breath. “Zane agrees. You can run a trail ride on his place once a week.”
Cody’s head jerked up so fast his cowboy hat nearly fell off his head. “How did you get him to agree?”
“I told you,” Walker said. “Beauty tamed the savage beast.”
Cody looked extremely put out by that, and Cara wasn’t sure why.
Marlowe put a hand on her man’s arm. Calling Cody a boyfriend was juvenile, like the term crush. He wasn’t a boy. But he and Marlowe weren’t engaged yet, and lover was just creepy.
“That’s not what happened at all. Though, he did take my bribe. I think he’s just tired of being bothered. Which is actually why I think you sent me, Walker, giving him an indication that he was going to be harassed until the end of days if he didn’t say yes.”
Walker looked innocent. “Me? Stoop to emotional manipulation like that? Yeah. That sounds trite.”
“God help any woman stupid enough to ever try to tangle with you,” his younger sister said, shoving him so that he went off balance and nearly tumbled onto the grass.
Nolan crossed his arms, grinning. “She kind of has a point,” he said.
“You’re really going to side with my sister?” Walker looked offended.
Nolan shrugged. “When she’s right. As rare as that is.”
Lila looked like she was about to launch a verbal assault on Nolan, and Cara barreled right along, not allowing a fight to break out between the two of them. If Lila and Nolan got going, no one else would get a word in.
“Anyway, it’s fine. You got what you wanted, and I’m unscathed.” Which was a strange way to put it, considering she felt like she had been skinned alive.
“Happy to see it,” Cody said.
“And happy to get your way,” Marlowe said.
“That’s fine. I just expect to be paid in steaks.”
“We can help you with that,” Walker said, walking over to one of the tables that were set up by the barbecue and handing her a plate. She went and stood by Cody, who was still grilling, and held her plate out, looking at him expectantly.
He did feel like an older brother in a lot of ways. Like an older brother she hadn’t had.
Cody was the type who had taken care of everyone and everything, always.
Maybe that was why she liked him so much. Maybe that was why she felt a kinship to him. Because even though her family had been smaller, her responsibility was not quite as great as his. She knew what it was like to feel like everyone’s well-being rested on her shoulders.
“We’re all going on a ride tomorrow,” Lila said, moving up beside her. “Do you want to come?”
Cara felt slightly uncomfortable. “Oh. I mean, I have the bakery.”
“I know,” she said. “But we were planning on going after hours.”
Cara still hadn’t ridden a horse. This brought her back to the baiting.
It didn’t help that she was a little bit afraid of horses.
Just a little bit. They were really big, and once when she was a kid, she had gone to visit a farm for a field trip with her kindergarten class, and one of the horses had bitten her on the shoulder.
She wasn’t sure why. It probably had something to do with the rowdy little boys who were acting up near her, or maybe it was because her coat was orange and she looked like a carrot.
Either way, she had been bitten, and horses had not really been her favorite ever since.
She’d tried to… commune with a couple of the horses. She found them a little bit scary. Building herself up to let one suction a sugar cube off of her flat, open palm had been a feat of bravery. Actually riding a horse?
Ugh.
She wasn’t taking advantage of living in the country.
Wasn’t taking advantage of her new home in all the ways that she should.
Going home to her quiet house, where she had her books, TV, and crochet, felt like a reminder of the fact that she had essentially been living like a septuagenarian for the last few years.
Because that’s what her mother was. And she had been taking care of her mother.
Full-time, with no days off for a very long time.
Her hobbies and lifestyle had adapted.