Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“You—”
Hesitantly, she took a step closer before pointing at what I was pretty sure used to be potato salad a very long time ago. “I think that has fur on it.”
I locked the door on the way out.
TWO
It was 3:45 on Wednesday morning by the time I made it out to the Red Diamond, towing a horse trailer that was in better shape than my truck. I’d driven over to the Blue Rock Stables, where the owner, Addison Finch, let me keep Juju. What was great was that Addison was the one who took care of the horses for the resort, so the walk over there every night after I got off work so I could ride Juju was short. I had a routine down. Jog over, work out my horse, and then run the long way home to my bungalow. What wasn’t so great was I’d made my horse as nocturnal as I was, so when I got there in the early morning and loaded her into the trailer, she only had one eye open, just like me.
Rand’s house was lit up when I pulled in, so I knew people were awake. That made sense. Rand normally started his day at four, and we had at least a five-hour drive to get to the cattle.
Sitting there, I debated just calling and telling him I’d come down with pneumonia or the plague, anything to get out of the drive. It wasn’t even his fault, really; it was mostly that Rand was larger than life and everything he did turned to gold, making it damned difficult to ever measure up to him.
Rand owned the largest legacy ranch between Lubbock and Midland and had made said property self-sufficient out of necessity. Basically, he’d been booted not only from his seat on the community board of directors of Winston—where the Red Diamond was technically located—but from the town itself when the county had been rezoned. By boundary, after rezoning, the main house became part of Hillman, as was the resort where my restaurant had been built. I had never understood how they figured the boundaries because Rand’s 525,000 acres stretched over close to 470 miles, well beyond one county and into the next and the next, but apparently it was where the main house sat that determined which town you belonged to.
The reason for the ousting had been Rand coming out and bringing the man he loved—Stefan Joss—to live with him on the Red. The town of Winston could not handle one of the pillars of the community being gay, and so had taken steps to ensure they were separated from Rand and the land he called home. It had been a colossal mistake: the ranch turned out to be more profitable than anyone could have imagined, giving Rand the power and the funds to make changes in Hillman, as well as to turn his property into a small self-sufficient town in and of itself. The ranch boasted hundreds of quarter horses, thousands of head of cattle, and I had no idea how many acres of land now devoted to farming. There was still only one main compound, but the ranch now also hosted more than thirty private homes and an unknown number of cowboy camps that I had neither the time nor the inclination to ask about.
Rand was a force to be reckoned with, and everyone else, including me, paled in comparison. Since it was exhausting to try to measure up, and in order to keep my sanity, I steered clear of him, his husband, their son, and the idyllic life they lived on the Red Diamond.
But now I was stuck because my marker had been called in, and even though I was sure they could get along without me, paying my debt so it wouldn’t be hanging over my head anymore was too much of a temptation to pass up. After this, Stef and I would be square, and I’d never have to return to the Red and feel crappy about myself. We’d be even, and I wouldn’t have to see Rand ever again. I’d never have to find myself desiring things I couldn’t have, coveting the idea of his life, his lover, and the peace he seemingly felt down to his bones.
I could be more pathetic, I knew that, but at the moment, sitting in my truck in the dark, not moving, staring at the house, I couldn’t imagine how. It was time to make a choice. Taking a deep breath, I made it and got out, heading for the porch.
I got no answer when I knocked on the screen door, so I opened it and stepped into the living room. Instantly an enormous Rhodesian ridgeback tromped around the corner toward me, the welcoming bark, just one, making me smile before the whimpering began. I knelt, which with an eighty-pound dog might not seem smart, but she knew me, as was evident from the whine of happiness, tail wagging, and the cold wet nose that got shoved into my face. The tongue on my chin sealed the deal.