Chapter 9
JAKE
She was dating Beau fucking Romero. Really? And what had he done that she was too embarrassed to tell me? I wish I knew, so I could make him pay.
Talking about my dad always fucked with me. Years ago, a therapist taught me a number of ways to turn my unresolved pain into something productive. It’s why I maintained a strict physical fitness regimen even now.
I asked to join Dani for coffee to bridge this weird distance I noticed the other night, not to hit on her. But then the talk turned to Katelyn, and I almost blurted it out. She could never find out I dated Katelyn because she was the anti-Dani.
Once Dani left for the university, it was clear she was never coming back. She loved Sierra Rose Ridge, but not the way I did. I needed a way to get over her.
But everyone I dated or fucked around with reminded me of her in some way. Except Katelyn. It was like she made a study of Dani and worked to be her opposite in looks, temperament, attitude, everything. I wasn’t proud of myself for using her that way, but I was good to her.
Dark emotions threatened to choke me. I needed to think about something else. Luckily, my order at the hardware store was in, so I picked it up.
I drove around for about ten minutes so I didn’t run in to Dani again so soon after our coffee date. Hang out. Reunion. Whatever it was called when you sat across from the person you’d loved most of your life who saw you as a brother.
By the time I pulled into my driveway, I’d worked myself into a state, and I wanted my punching bag. However, Dani was standing outside in her parent’s driveway, arguing with someone.
I couldn’t see him well. From her body language, she wasn’t happy to see him.
“Everything okay, Dani?” I moved towards them as I spoke.
“It’s none of your business, friend,” the guy called out.
“I didn’t ask you; I asked her.”
As I hoped, that got his attention. He swung around, and his eyes widened in surprise when he got a good look at me. This had to be Beau, but he changed.
That guy was a charmer and a goofball, but he planned to work at the ranch his whole life. The ranch life wasn’t for me, which made it easier to leave.
He didn’t look like a working ranch hand now. More like he was on a date or running for office with a fresh cowboy hat, new boots, and stiff black denim. It was lunchtime on a work day, but these clearly weren’t work clothes.
Is this what impressed Dani these days?
“Who are you?” he demanded.
Before I answered, he rounded on her.
“Is this who you’re cheating on me with?” he demanded.
I hadn’t noticed the grip he had on her upper arm until he shook her. He wasn’t a big man, but Dani was petite.
“Whoa, man, nobody’s cheating on anybody.” My hands spread in a calm down gesture. “I’m the neighbor, Jacob. We all went to school together a while back. Moved home again a few days ago. Everything’s cool here.”
His expression morphed into a big, fake smile, and he dropped Dani’s arm. My jaw ticked at the finger marks on her suntanned skin, but it was the embarrassment in her expression that ate at me.
“Jacob Brown? Is that really you?” He guffawed. “Aw, hell, that’s fine, then. Everybody knows you’re practically family. Whew. Thought I had to worry for a second.”
“Dani’s not a cheater,” I said with a frown.
I might not have been around her for a decade, but no way the person I was closest to in the world for fifteen years could have changed that much.
Not when she dropped everything to move home for her parents, worked two jobs to help pay their bills on top of her own, and everything else I knew about her.
He leaned closer to me like we were friends sharing secrets. It took everything in me not to recoil, especially when he spoke.
“Gotta keep her in line somehow, and I don’t like to hit women. But this way makes her eager to prove her loyalty, if you catch my drift.”
I’d never wanted to punch a man more, including when I found my second lieutenant in bed with my then-fiancée. My face conveyed my disgust.
“I kid, I kid. Can you blame me for being a jealous guy? Dani’s a treasure. She does so much for me.”
I glanced at her to see if she was buying this bullshit, but she averted her face. Her body was rigid with tension, though.
He slapped my back. If it was supposed to be intimidating, he failed.
“It was good to see you again, friend,” he said in an ingratiating voice as he turned me in the direction of my house. “Dani and I will have to have you over for dinner sometime when she’s back home.”
Nuances often went over my head, but his claim lacked subtly in spite of the friend label. A glance at Dani confirmed she didn’t appreciate his comments. Since she wasn’t in distress, I went inside.
I spent a few hours on the floors. It was tedious as hell, so I deep cleaned the other rooms for some excitement. Without furniture, it went quickly. After a workout and a shower, I debated going to the diner for dinner but decided I wasn’t up for more visits to the past.
Instead, I took a beer, a bottle of water, and a couple sandwiches out to the back yard.
With a nip in the air, this was the perfect time to break in my new toy.
Earlier that afternoon, I unloaded and set up my order from the hardware store.
Now that the sun had set, I could enjoy my fire pit to the fullest.
Lighting it was a breeze. I kicked back on my folding chair and stared at the evening sky through the slats of the pergola my dad built.
Idly, I wondered if the pergola would be enough when summer hit, or if I’d need to add a shade.
I hadn’t spent much time in my dad’s precious yard, but I could admit he did a good job.
Whenever I imagined my return to Sierra Rose Ridge, I envisioned myself cuddled up on an outdoor loveseat around a fire pit with my fiancée and a dog.
“I’m one for four,” I muttered.
Six months ago, I consciously ignored the problems in my life. My breakup was brutal, but Blair did me a favor. We would have been miserable.
And I could still get a dog.
“This is nice,” Dani said behind me. “Did you put the fire pit in, or did the previous tenant never use it?”
I didn’t hear her approach, but I must have expected her. Why else would I have brought the second folding chair outside when it was doing double-duty as my dining room chair and nightstand? I patted the chair, and offered her the unopened water.
“I should explain about earlier,” she said tentatively.
I took a swig of my drink and contemplated her statement.
“You don’t have to. I’m happy to listen if you want to talk, but you don’t owe me anything.”
Her sigh said a lot, but her words still shocked the hell out of me.
“He’s stealing from me, cheating on me, and running up bills in my name. I can’t break up with him or move out until the lawyer has everything finalized so he doesn’t utterly destroy my credit. He still thinks I’m ignorant. I don’t really want to talk about it, but that’s the gist.”
If I hadn’t been seated, her flat, emotionless declaration would have knocked me on my ass. The desolate expression on her face made it clear this was no joke. Before I figured out what to say, she rushed in to fill the silence.
“I told you I hadn’t gotten any better at picking guys. Do you remember Vanessa? Vanessa Garcia? She was a ranch girl, so I didn’t hang out with her, but she had English with you in Mrs. Gonzales’s class. Anyway, she and my cat will screen any future dates I have because I’m apparently a moron.”
“You’re not a moron. And your cat?”
“I might be. You don’t know me anymore.”
Her joking tone was forced.
“I might not know the details of your life now, but I know you.” I bumped her shoulder with mine but was careful to keep it casual. Fuck, how I wanted to wipe away her hurt.
Desperate to change the topic, I considered what to say.
“What are you doing out here, anyway?” I asked. “Off work?”
“It’s Wednesday night.”
I stared at her blankly before recognition dawned.
“Holy shit! Your parents still have date night on Wednesdays?”
She moaned.
“Yes, and it’s cute, and I’m happy for them, but it’s also salt in the wound. Plus, since they’re letting me stay rent-free until I find a place, they deserve time alone for a while. I was gonna drive around, but the light back here beckoned me.”
“Good. Do you have any leads for a new place?”
“Vanessa is looking for me since I can’t put out feelers yet. So far, nothing. Sierra Rose Ridge doesn’t have apartments except that rundown place on the edge of town where everybody buys drugs. There are a few guys looking for roommates, but I don’t know them. I’m sure they’re fine, but…”
“Jumping from the pan into the firing range.”
Dani snorted.
“That’s not how that phrase goes.”
I shrugged.
“It does now.”
Her throaty laugh rang out full force, and I willed my erection away. I once loved everything about this woman, but she still wasn’t for me. If only I could get it through my thick skull.
“Thanks, I needed a laugh.”
We sat in a silence for a few minutes and watched the flames. It was relaxing, but nothing smoothed my jagged edges as much as hanging out with Dani.
Her voice broke the silence, and the whole story of how she found out about Beau’s perfidy spilled out. At first, she spoke in a halting, ashamed voice, but the more she told me, the more her indignation and anger returned.
“Fuck, that’s a shitty situation,” I said when she wrapped up her tale. “I’m happy to help you get your stuff when you’re ready to make things official.”
“Thanks. I’ll take you up on that.”
She peeled the label off her water bottle, another habit from years past.
“We weren’t a couple when he asked me to move in with him. I was living with my parents and felt like a loser. His roommate got a new job across the country. It seemed like the perfect solution.”
After she pushed the label into the empty water bottle, she tossed it at her feet.
“The house has two bedrooms, and one was supposed to be mine. We were roommates. When I stayed at my parents’ house for a few nights when mom had the flu, he converted my room into a man cave since ‘we were dating anyway.’”
She buried her face in her hands. “God, I’m such an easy mark. No wonder he thought he could get away with it.”
“You’re not an easy mark; you’re trusting. That’s not the same.”
“Trusting, gullible, stupid, whatever you want to call it. I’ve been killing myself working around the clock, and I believed him every time he said the bills went up.
I never once questioned him because everything’s more expensive.
Finding out his parents own the house, and I’m not on the lease was a real gut-punch. ”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, it’s going to make it harder to find a place now. I have no rental history, and he’s tanked my credit if the lawyer can’t fix it. I’ll be stuck living with my parents forever. It’s a good thing I like them so much.”
Our conversation petered out, and we sat in companionable silence. Eventually, she grabbed her shoes to leave.
“Thanks for letting me crash your stargazing.”
“You’re welcome anytime.”
I didn’t tell her she made it better.