Chapter 32
CHARLIE
Dad arrived with the rest of the camera crew.
Thankfully, as soon he took one look into the stall, he turned to face them and put his arms out so they wouldn’t get any closer.
“Alright, everyone. The excitement is over. Time to get back to bed. We still have more shooting to do tomorrow and I want everyone to get their rest.”
Dave seemed content with whatever footage he’d gotten when he’d arrived, and he sent her a satisfied grin. “I’ll get more shots in the daylight like you asked, but what I managed to get so far has been pretty special.”
She glanced up at him, seeming completely comfortable with her ass on the floor and her legs tucked sideways underneath her in the hay. The expression on her face was serene, soft, and a little bit dreamy as she nodded.
“Thanks, Dave. I’m glad you got here when you did.”
I stood and picked up the supplies I’d used. “We’ll stay behind and clean up here, Dad. You can get back to bed too.”
My father chuckled as he strode into the stable.
Some of the camera crew were still lingering outside, not filming and not coming in, but trying to peer past us to get a good look at the mom and her baby.
I let them be, understanding that even though they weren’t filming, this was still something they wanted to catch a glimpse of while they were already here.
“You did good, boy.” Dad patted me on the back after pulling me into a quick hug. “It looks like you got here right in time.”
He released me and glanced down at Olivia, still sitting on the floor and stroking the mama. “I know you’re from the city, but you belong on the ranch.”
To my surprise, he bent over and gave her a hug too. I was a little shocked to hear him say that, considering he’d been telling us all to stay professional, but I had a feeling something had changed.
While I knew he’d been suspecting that there was a slightly less than professional aspect to our relationship, I wondered if him telling her that she belonged here was him giving us his blessing. Even after he’d reminded us all this morning of just who she was.
Olivia looked a little surprised at what he’d said. Once he was gone, she shot me a teasing smile. “Watch out, I’m coming for your job, Anderson.”
I laughed. “It’s a lifestyle, not a job. This is my every day.”
As I carried the supplies out of the stable, Olivia stood up and surprised me again when she bent over to grab the gloves I’d used. She touched them gingerly, but she didn’t seem too grossed out by the bits of blood and goo on them.
“Tell me more about yourself,” she said as she followed me out, depositing the gloves in a designated bin. “You know, for the content I’m going to have to write.”
“It’s okay, Walker. I know you just want to know more about me because you’re curious.”
She rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t quite hide her grin. “Get over yourself, Anderson. This is strictly for research.”
“Oh.” I pretended to pout before I shrugged. “Well, in that case, there’s not much I can tell you. Maintaining privacy and all that, you know.”
She chuckled. “What was it like, being the oldest boy on the ranch? There must be some weight on your shoulders, knowing you’re the one who’s going to be running it one day.”
I walked back into the stall to clean up before I’d bring in some fresh straw. “I’m already running it. Just don’t tell my dad. He likes to think he’s still in charge.”
“I know that feeling,” she agreed with an understanding smile. “I suppose they’re still in charge, though.”
“Ultimately, yes, but the day-to-day? That’s been on me for a few years, and you’re not wrong.
There is a weight that comes with that responsibility.
” I grabbed a rake and rejoined her in the stall.
“My family has been on this property for generations. I don’t want to be the one who loses it or any of the others. ”
“I hear you.” She picked up her fancy jacket and shoes, not really bothering to clean them outside of picking off the largest bits of hay clinging to them. “Heavy is the head that wears the crown, huh?”
“Amen to that.” As I cleaned up, she started helping, just naturally kind of falling into the rhythm of it without needing much guidance over what to do.
“My brothers are happy to let me take the lead and to follow wherever I take them, but that means that when I make mistakes, it’s entirely up to me to fix them. ”
“Charlie Anderson making a mistake. Now there’s a story I’d like to hear.”
Folding my hands on top of the rake, I leaned my weight on it and looked into her eyes.
“I made a mistake with our last marketing rep. That’s the reason I was so wary of working with you in the first place.
I messed up big time, and if it hadn’t been for your dad and my dad’s relationship with him, I’m not sure we’d ever have regained the momentum we lost because of me. ”
“What happened?” she asked quietly, trepidation tightening the very corners of her eyes like she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know but realized that she probably needed to. On a professional and a personal level. “You got involved with her, didn’t you?”
I nodded, she winced, but I kept going, speaking quickly but clearly to get it all over with as fast as I could. “From the very beginning, she kept coming onto me. Flirting. Touching me. That kind of thing.”
Olivia’s teeth sank into her lower lip but she nodded. I inhaled deeply, desperately hoping she wasn’t going to start drawing parallels between the relationship I had with Scarlett and what I had with her. There was no comparison.
“I thought I was in love. She thought she was going to get rich. We were both very wrong.”
Liv’s green eyes narrowed. “She thought she was going to get rich?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess the money she was making just from doing her actual job wasn’t enough for her.
She grew up around here. She knew exactly who I was, who my family have always been, and how much we’re worth.
It turns out she fell in love with how much she reckoned was in my bank account and not really with me. ”
“I’m sorry, Charlie.”
I let out a sharp exhale. “It’s in the past now, but it did make me swear off women for a while. Going through something like that really makes a guy question people’s intentions. Their agendas.”
Realization seemed to dawn as she stared back at me, her eyes widening and her chin moving down. “That’s why you didn’t want to work with me. You fell in love with the last marketing rep for the ranch and she used you.”
“Bingo.”
Liv sighed. “Oh, Charlie. I wish you would’ve told me that before. I had no idea.”
“Because I didn’t want you to know, but there is a slight correction to be made there,” I said, trying to keep my voice as light as possible. “I said I thought I’d fallen in love with her. I’ve since realized it was never love. A lot of other things but definitely not love.”
“Well, I’m glad about that because it means you didn’t let some conniving user break your heart.” She offered me a surprisingly knowing smile. “Maybe she bruised it, but she didn’t break it. Plus, in the end, you’ve more than regained momentum with the public, so it was really her loss.”
I chuckled. “Again, only thanks to our fathers. See, when this girl first pitched us, I decided to take a portion of our business away from your firm and to let her handle it. Everyone warned me not to, but she was in my head, in my ear, and in bed, so…”
Liv winced again but nodded. “So you let your other brain make the decisions and it came back to bite you in the ass.”
“Pretty much,” I admitted on a low groan. “Thank God, your dad didn’t hold it against me. As soon as my dad realized what was going on, he called Nathan and he helped out without any questions.”
“Dad’s never been the type for grudges.” She glanced up at the rafters as if she needed a moment. Then she smiled and looked back at me. “He’s always told us to work hard and to do our jobs to the best of our abilities, and that success would follow from there.”
“What about your mom?” I asked, feeling my forehead pucker. I realized I’d never seen the woman or heard Nathan or Olivia speak about her. “Is there a reason she never comes up?”
Olivia chuckled. “No, I love her. She’s just different.”
“Different how?” I frowned. “Is she here in Houston as well?”
She shook her head. “No, she’s in New York.
Dad met her there when he moved to open the Manhattan branch.
She’s a trophy wife, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.
It’s just that she’s from a really wealthy family and she’s never worked a day in her life.
She doesn’t quite understand why my sister and I do, even if we don’t technically have to. ”
“Why do you?”
She lifted her eyebrows and propped her hands on her hips. “I have way more of my dad in me. All us girls do. Can you really imagine me being a lady who lunches?”
I stared back at her. “It doesn’t sound like the worst job in the world to me.”
She laughed. “No, it doesn’t, but I suppose I just never even considered it. I adore my mother. I really do, but I’m nothing like her. Neither are my sisters.”
“And your ex-boyfriend?” I asked, a lot more curious about the details now than I had been the other night. This suddenly felt like something I needed to know. “Did he want you to be like your mom?”
Olivia blinked a couple times before she shrugged. “Honestly? I don’t know. I never asked.”
“Did you love him?” I asked point blank, but I wasn’t sure I really wanted to hear the answer. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
Her eyes glazed over, unfocused until she gave her head a little shake. “What you’re really asking is if I was in love with him, and the answer to that is no. By the time we broke up, I wasn’t in love with him anymore.”
“But you did love him?”
She swept her tongue across her lips and rolled them into her mouth.
“I think I did love him, yeah. It’s just that the thing I loved most about him was that he let me do my thing.
He didn’t complain if I worked late or went to the office early.
He never complained that I had dinner with clients more often than with him. ”
That was pretty telling too, but it seemed Olivia already knew it.
She let out a dry chuckle. “I thought I was in love with him and that I would love him for the rest of my life. I would have married him just so I could be a wife and a mother, and I’m not sure I ever would’ve realized that I would’ve been settling if he hadn’t done what he’d done. ”
“Then I’m glad it happened, even if I’m never going to be glad that he broke your heart.”
She pursed her lips. “Let’s stick to bruising rather than breaking. I mean, I felt heartbroken at first, but then, I got here and my heart was all better almost right away, which I don’t think would’ve happened if it’d ever really been broken.”
I inclined my chin. “I think I know what you mean.”
She smiled. “Yeah, I think you do. Anyway, I suppose I’ve always just used work to fill some voids and to avoid my actual life. I still want to be a wife and mom one day, but for now, work is enough.” I laughed and she scowled at me playfully. “Thanks for finding my pain so funny.”
“No,” I said as I finally started raking again. “It just sounds like we have some of the same issues.”
“True.” She glanced at the wheelbarrow and brought it closer without having to be asked. “Who would’ve seen that coming, huh? The late-thirties country boy and the twenty-something city girl actually have some things in common.”
I nodded but didn’t comment. Most of the time, I forgot that there was such a big age gap between us, but nine years was pretty significant. She just didn’t act like she was that much younger at all.
Together, we finished cleaning up. Once we were done, we walked out of the barn.
I turned to face her. “You know, you can’t come out to the ranch for only twenty-four hours and not take some time to look at the stars.”
“It does seem like it would be a missed opportunity.”
I grinned. “Hang out here for a minute? I’ll pull my truck around and we can go do some stargazing before we turn in.”
Without waiting for a response, I jogged up the grassy incline to where I’d parked behind the barn earlier. I grabbed a blanket and some pillows that we kept around for the nights we ended up spending down here with the animals when they were sick or in distress.
When I had everything I needed, I arranged the blanket and the pillows on the bed of the truck and drove it around, stopped right next to her, and opened her door. “Hop in. I’ll take you to the very best spot on the ranch to see the stars.”