Chapter Two
Victoria was still shaking when she pulled into the gravel driveway that led to her ranch. Nervous energy zipped through her since she’d met Cole, and it didn’t look like it would decline anytime soon.
Victoria handed the sack over to a ranch hand to give to Tomas, her foreman.
Her eyes scanned the yard, making a mental list of the things she needed to do.
She felt the chores would never end. When she got one thing done, another popped up.
The grass in the front yard was overgrown, and if she remembered correctly, there used to be flower beds in front of the house, too.
But those had long since been obliterated by weeds.
Victoria looked forward to relaxing on it like she used to when she came to visit her uncle. Her mom, Barb, would drop her off or have Uncle Lester come get her so she could go on vacations with the friends she’d met or the man she was dating at the time.
The swing always soothed her. It made her feel as if someone were holding her and rocking her. The attention she desperately craved most of her life. Victoria hadn’t been abused, but her life had been full of neglect and being put into sometimes dangerous situations.
She thought about one city they had stayed in for a while. It had only been an hour away from the ranch. Victoria had been optimistic enough to make friends and get a job. She’d been sixteen at the time, and she’d always felt so alone except when she was visiting her uncle.
Victoria had always been a small person.
Short and skinny. She’d kept her hair short at that time because it was easier to take care of.
She wore glasses because they couldn’t afford contacts.
The glasses were ones her mom had found at a garage sale, so they didn’t quite fit, and she still had trouble seeing anything far away.
She’d been wrong about the city. It hadn’t lasted. Her mother had angered the people they were renting from. She’d tried to exchange sex for rent. The manager’s wife happened to be there, and that was that. They were gone in a day.
It taught her a good lesson. Even if things were looking like they might work out, don’t get your hopes up or open your emotions. Because most of the time it was taken away, ripped from your arms and your heart.
Victoria had grown up with a mother who spent her time partying instead of raising the daughter she dragged around with her.
Victoria raised herself and cared for her mother.
She remembered she’d been four or five the first time she cleaned up her mother’s vomit the morning after one of her parties.
It never stopped, and over time became increasingly worse.
She’d never known who her father was, and she never would, because her mother had no clue which man it had been. Her mother liked booze and men and spent most of her time enjoying both.
The day after Victoria turned eighteen, her mother had walked away, and she’d never seen her again.
She’d been five months shy of graduating from high school.
She hadn’t told a soul and kept doing what she’d always done.
It was tough because she had to work more hours to come up with the extra money for rent since her mother took her welfare check with her.
It hadn’t been much, but the rent had always been paid before she would party the rest away.
At first, Victoria was devastated, but after a few weeks, she realized how little her mother had done to make wherever they landed feel like home. Any companionship she might have received from her mother was usually critical, or she whined about something.
Her mother never cleaned, cooked, or bought groceries. Victoria had bought the groceries as soon as she could get a job at fourteen. Her mom had called it her part of the rent. Victoria had called it ridiculous.
Her mother had always been selfish and lazy as long as she could remember. But Victoria was determined to do things the right way, and the first order of business was the ranch—finally, a home to call her own and people around who were helpful instead of selfish.
Even as a small child, Victoria would get herself up in the morning and go to school.
When she’d gotten older, and after school, she’d work several hours before going home, sometimes stopping at the grocery store on her way.
At home, she’d clean whatever mess her mother had made and make a quick, simple dinner.
It was close to midnight when she got to sit down and do her homework. Some nights she would only get four hours of sleep. She would try to take a nap in the study hall, but that didn’t always happen.
Her uncle had given her more than anyone else ever had, and Victoria was going to make him proud.
Victoria had felt such guilt that she hadn’t been with her uncle when he died, hadn’t gone to him when he needed her.
In her defense, she hadn’t known of his cancer.
He never told her about it when she called or asked her to come visit him.
She would have been there to take care of him in a second.
He was the only person in her life she’d felt safe with and cared for.
Victoria pulled a ladder and a pair of pliers from the garage attached to the house in the back and set to work.
“Miss Victoria, what are you doing up there? Get down and let one of the guys do that.”
Victoria grabbed hold of the chain when her balance wiggled at being startled.
“Tomas, how many times have I asked you to call me Victoria?”
Tomas held onto the ladder.
“I don’t know, ma’am. Get down.”
Victoria rolled her eyes. She’d known this man just about as long as she had her uncle. Tomas had been a part of the ranch for as long as she could remember.
“I’m just fine. You guys are busy doing the ranch work. I’m not taking you from that to help me when I can do this myself.”
Tomas breathed a sigh of relief when she finished and climbed down from the ladder.
Victoria slapped her hands together and smiled.
“See, easy-peasy.”
Tomas sent her a confused look as he folded the ladder. “I’ll just take this back to the garage for you.”
She knew he didn’t know half the things she said, and everything she did confused him most of the time. “Thank you.”
“Are you coming to the chow barn tonight? Benny made his chili and corn bread.”
As good as that sounded, she didn’t want to invade the guy’s downtime.
It was hard enough for them that she was even here and was the boss, although she was smart enough to let Tomas, the foreman, make the decisions and deal with the ranch hands.
She’d been blessed to have Tomas there to guide her and take over the operation of the ranch, because she knew next to nothing about how things worked.
“No, thank you, Tomas, but I’ve got a lot of paperwork to do.”
Tomas tipped his hat. “Okay, Miss. Have a good night.”
“You too, Tomas.”
Since it was late afternoon, Victoria decided to start cleaning the living room before she tackled the office.
Both had a thick layer of dust, and every corner seemed to be covered in cobwebs.
She could tell her uncle hadn’t cleaned in months, if not years.
She’d tackled the kitchen and bathroom the first day because she wouldn’t have stood the grime and been able to shower or eat.
The kitchen floor was the worst. Not only did it have dust, dirt, and cobwebs, but there was also a thick layer of grease mixed in, along with things growing in weird places around the fridge.
Victoria had spent a whole day on the kitchen alone.
She’d thought the floor was a brown Formica and the cabinets a light tan color.
After a good cleaning, they turned into a decent cream-colored vinyl floor with specks of color, and the cabinets turned out to be creamy white that she remembered from childhood.
A few hours later that day, Victoria sat on the floor, Indian-style, and spread all the receipts out to organize them before putting them into the computer.
“What are you doing?”
Victoria screamed, and when she jerked in reaction, the receipts she’d organized into nice little piles flew in different directions. She put her hand on her chest and looked over at the door.
“Mr. Conley,” she said breathlessly and frowned, confused why he was standing in her house.
Cole walked into the office. His eyes scanned the room.
“Hello, Miss Robertson. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
The look of suspicious disbelief on her face made his lips twitch.
“I never heard a knock,” she commented as she scooped up the papers.
She stood and moved around the desk, putting the piece of furniture between them.
It wasn’t much, but it made her feel better.
She didn’t do it because she was physically afraid of him, but his nearness made her feel unusually warm and jittery.
“It’s because I didn’t.”
Victoria ground her teeth together and decided to let it go for the moment. “What can I do for you?”
Cole walked further into the room. He indicated the plate with a half-eaten sandwich. It was already past suppertime.
“You didn’t eat your lunch.”
“Actually, this is my dinner.”
Cole frowned. “That’s all you’re going to eat?”
Victoria crossed her arms over her chest, and her chin tilted up an inch.
“Why are you here?”
He slapped his old, broken-in cowboy hat against his thigh. “I came to talk business.”
She watched as dust particles drifted through the air from his hat and his jeans. So much for dusting. Her frown deepened.
“What business?”
“I want to buy your ranch.”
Her heart stopped for a second as she dropped into the chair behind her. She never even considered that he would want the ranch.
“But it’s not for sale.”
“I’ll give you a good price.”
“Mr. Conley, I will not be selling this ranch. Not now, not ever.”
He took a seat on the other side of the desk and laid his hat on one knee. “What exactly are you going to do then?”
She looked at him, confused. “I’m going to live here and run the ranch.”