by Liz Isaacson
“Yes,” she said as she giggled, his lips moving to her throat. “You behave yourself. Surely you have work to do.”
He did, and a lot of it. “Yeah,” he said. “Clay texted a while ago about Inkblaster throwing his shoes again. We need to call Knox.”
“Go on then, cowboy,” she said, swatting at his chest.
Flynn met her gaze, and the moment between them sobered. He wanted to say all the things he felt for her, but he was sure they’d already been conveyed in the way he kissed her. “See you later, Jess.”
“’Bye, Flynn.”
He left the barn, pulling himself together so no one would know he’d just spent far too long kissing his girlfriend. She’d said she’d talk to Rhodes that evening, and that Flynn should just lay low for one more day.
One more day.
He could do that. He hoped.
In the stables, he found Clay standing with the tall, black horse that had only been at the ranch for a year. Rhodes loved this beast, but Flynn couldn’t figure out why. He wasn’t all that nice, and he constantly seemed to cause trouble.
“Did you get in touch with Knox?” he asked Clay.
“Yeah, he’s out at Fern Hollow this morning, but he said he’d come in this afternoon.”
“Great.” Flynn looked at the horse, who just glared right back at him. “This one’s wild,” he said. “What should we do with him?”
“He just seems to have a love affair with kicking the wall,” Clay said. “I’ve patched up more stalls than I can count.”
“Maybe he needs to be outside at night,” Flynn said.
“Rhodes will never agree to that,” Clay said. “Doesn’t trust the coyotes.”
“We haven’t had too many scares this year,” Flynn said.
“Morning, boys,” Rhodes said as he entered the stables. “What’s goin’ on now? Jess said something about calling Knox?”
“Your precious horse won’t wear shoes,” Flynn said. Rhodes stood there and appraised the horse, and dang if it didn’t seem a little cowed by the other man’s presence.
He reached toward the black beast and asked, “What are you doin’, huh? They’re just shoes. You’ve been wearing ‘em your whole life.” The horse pushed his nose against Rhodes’s palm, and he said, “I’m taking him out.”
“You’re going to make him think he can kick a hole in his stall and then go for a ride,” Flynn said.
Before Rhodes could argue—and he would argue—the door to the stables burst open. “Boss, there are six wolves already across the north fence.” Monson Jackson stood there, his chest heaving and his face red.
“Wolves?” Flynn asked at the same time Rhodes said, “Saddle up. Clay, you and Flynn come with me on the ATV.”
Flynn didn’t argue. His heartbeat rioting in the back of his throat wouldn’t let him anyway. Shep and Sally were out there, and Shep wouldn’t be afraid to tangle with wolves.
He jogged behind Rhodes to the homestead, where the family owned a few ATVs. Several minutes later, they met up with his scouting team that had been out in the remote cabin last night.
“Status,” Rhodes barked, but Flynn couldn’t see anything. Couldn’t hear anything. Sometimes the vastness of the ranch scared him a little. Those wolves could be anywhere.
“Seven down, Boss,” Gil said. “We pushed the wolves back and set up temporary fencing. They seem hungry though.”
Hopefully, they weren’t hungry for dogs.
“Okay,” Rhodes said. “Let’s wait for our backup team, and then we’ll get them out and reinforce the fences. Clay, let’s start moving the cattle west.”
“On it,” Clay said.
“It’ll take three days to move the herd,” Flynn said, stepping next to him, still scanning for any sign of movement.
“Yep,” Rhodes said. “But I’m not losing seven a night by leaving them here.” He glanced at Flynn. “What else should we do?”
“Call Wildlife Management,” he said.
“I’m assuming Monson did that,” Rhodes said.
“He did, Boss,” Gil said, bending to pluck a piece of long grass and sucking on it. “Just heard on the radio that they’re on their way.”
“So we hold tight,” Rhodes said. “Get our supplies out here. Move the herd. See what Wildlife Management says.”
Flynn nodded, because he couldn’t do anything else. The silence among the group suffocated him, and he pushed his hat back and then forward again. Words piled beneath his tongue, and he had to let them out.
“I may have broken my female fast a few days early,” he blurted.
A smile spread across Rhodes’s whole face. “I knew it.” He pointed at Flynn with such joy in his eyes. “You owe me and Clay.”
Flynn didn’t care about the steak dinner, and he could barely meet his best friend’s eye. “It’s your sister.”
Confusion puckered Rhodes’s eyebrows. “What?”
“I started seeing your sister,” he said.
“Cami has a boyfriend,” Rhodes said.
“It’s not Cami.” Flynn walked away, half because he thought Rhodes might deck him. But why would he? Rhodes had never cared who his sisters dated in the past.
They didn’t date players, Flynn thought, Rhodes’s voice talking somewhere behind him.
Barking sounded, and Flynn turned toward it, his heart taking courage. Sure enough, Shep and Sally came streaking toward him, and they danced around him as he greeted them. At least they didn’t care that he’d been out with far too many women in the past several years.
And they’d love the farm once Flynn got all the finances in order and could move in. Rhodes didn’t say anything else about Jess as the Wildlife Management crew arrived. He was all business, and he and Flynn fired questions at the team to figure out how to make sure the wolves didn’t cause a problem for the ranch again.
Flynn’s phone chimed several times, and he ignored it until Rhodes said, “That’s probably Jessie. I called her.”
“You did?” Flynn yanked his phone out of his pocket, and Jessie’s use of exclamation points wasn’t done because she was happy. “I shouldn’t have said anything. She said she was going to talk to you tonight.”
“I don’t care,” Rhodes said. “You’re a good man, Flynn. Maybe Jess’ll help settle you down.”
Flynn frowned at his phone. Did he need to be settled down?
Yes, a voice whispered in his head. And he definitely wanted Jess to be the one to do it. “Malcolm and Cami have the same age difference,” he said. “I thought you’d be upset.”
“I know you,” Rhodes said. “And it’s totally different.”
Flynn wasn’t sure how, but Rhodes barked something at another cowboy, and then they went back to the epicenter of the ranch, where Flynn still had a ton of work to do that day.
He rounded the corner of the barn though, watching the clouds gather in the sky as he dialed Jess.
“Hey,” he said when she answered. “Don’t be mad. Rhodes isn’t.”
“That’s what he said,” she said. “I just…we said I’d talk to him tonight.”
“I may have forgotten,” Flynn said with a smile. “My mind was all fogged up from kissing you.”
She scoffed, the sound getting swallowed up inside her laughter. “You’re impossible,” she said.
“Impossible enough that you’ll come to dinner with me tonight? Not at my place.”
A few seconds of silence passed. “Yeah, all right,” she said.
“Great,” he said. “I’ll pick you up when I leave the ranch.”
Chapter 9
The next week passed in a blur of activity around the ranch, kissing with Flynn in the barn and after work, and prep for the September cattle auction. The auctions were held every Wednesday, but Jessie only went to a couple in the fall.
She was already fielding calls from interested buyers, wanting to know when she’d be bringing the Quinn Valley Ranch cattle to the auction. She’d said, “First and third Wednesday in Sept
ember, like always,” at least a dozen times.
She did the auctions all at once, and it took over her life for most of August and September. She didn’t mind, because it normally gave her something worthwhile to focus on. But now that she was dating Flynn, she found her waking hours full, full, full.
As August dawned, Rhodes came to her and asked her to help him ask Capri to marry him. “Of course,” she said, glancing up from her standing desk in the barn. “What are you going to do?”
Capri worked at the grocery store now, and Rhodes let out a long sigh. “I’m going to build one of those soda can displays, spell something out.” He looked at Jessie. “Is that a terrible idea?”
Jessie grinned at her brother. He hadn’t said another word to her about dating Flynn, and as far as she knew, Flynn hadn’t taken Clay or Rhodes out for that steak dinner. He hadn’t bought his ranch back yet. Flynn hadn’t been doing much of anything.
“I think it’s great,” she said. “I heard her talking about them at dinner on Sunday.”
“She doesn’t seem to like them, and I’ll need a lot of help.”
“I can sling boxes of soda around,” Jessie said.
Rhodes grinned at her. “Great. We’re doing it next week. I’ve asked a bunch of cowboys too.” He didn’t say Flynn, but Jessie knew he’d be there too. After all, Flynn was her brother’s best friend.
“How are things going with you and Flynn?” Rhodes asked.
“Fine,” Jessie said quickly, turning her back on her brother. “Just fine.” She felt like clearing her throat, but she forced herself not to.
“I’m a little worried about him,” Rhodes said.
“Yeah?” Jessie asked, twisting back to see that concern in Rhodes’s eyes. “Why?”
“He closed on that ranch last week, and he hasn’t moved yet.”
“He closed on the ranch?” Jessie’s eyebrows knocked right into her cowgirl hat. “Are you sure?”
“That’s what he said last Friday.”
It was Wednesday, and Jessie had asked him about the ranch over the weekend. It had seemed to take an extraordinarily long time to close, especially when the previous owners were already off the property.
“He told me it wasn’t done yet,” she said, her mind churning on its own thoughts. “He said there was a delay, and he didn’t know when he’d be able to move.”
Their eyes met, and instant concern moved through Jessie too. “I’ll ask him about it tonight. We’re driving to Lewiston to see his mother.”
Rhodes nodded and knocked on one of the posts nearby. “Tell her hello for me.” With that, he left the calf barn, left Jessie with swirling ideas that didn’t go down good roads.
Why wouldn’t Flynn want to move back onto the ranch he’d lost when his father died? She’d been there with him when he’d looked at it, and he’d been nervous, sure. But he wanted the ranch. He’d always wanted that ranch back.
And if he’d closed last week, he had it.
She returned to her desk, but she didn’t pick up her pen nor did she look at the paperwork she’d been preparing for the calves she’d be taking to the auction in a month.
Her memories surged as she tried to find when he could’ve gone to town to sign papers for the ranch. She’d never bought a house, but she’d listened to Georgia talk about how long it had taken Logan to sign all those papers when he’d bought the ranch where she’d live with him after they got married.
“It took two hours,” Georgia had said.
Jessie didn’t keep tabs on Flynn every moment of every day. But wouldn’t she know if he left the ranch for hours?
“Apparently not,” she muttered to herself, her mood souring by the moment. In the end, she left her paperwork unfinished and left in search of Flynn.
She found him brushing down a beautiful palomino in a pasture, his whistling alerting her to his position before she could see him. He sounded like a bird from an animated movie, and Jessie couldn’t help smiling as she approached.
“Hey,” he said, smiling at her. Oh, that smile. Jessie leaned against the fence as her stomach fluttered.
“How’s Clover?” she asked.
“Oh, she’s acting up,” Flynn said. “Wouldn’t do her rounds in the ring, so I brought her out here and told her she’d have to be in the pasture with the pigs for a while.”
“She doesn’t seem to care,” Jessie said.
Flynn chuckled as he brushed. “No, she doesn’t.”
Jessie watched him work, those strong hands moving across Clover’s side. She didn’t know how to bring up the ranch without seeming pushy or accusatory.
“What are you up to?” he asked, glancing at her again. “We’re not leaving for another hour or so, right?”
“Right,” she said, sighing. “Just getting some sun.”
“You hate the sun.” Flynn slowed his motion. “Tell me what’s going on.”
She wasn’t sure if she should be glad Flynn knew so much about her or annoyed. “Rhodes told me—”
“Oh, I hate sentences that start like that.” Flynn glared at her and went back to the horse.
Jessie drew a deep breath and tried again. “You closed on the ranch last week, and yet when I asked you about it, you said there was a delay.”
“No,” Flynn said. “I said there was a delay in when I would be moving. Which is one-hundred percent true.” He looked at her, his eyes dark in the shadows of his cowboy hat.
“Why don’t you want to move to the ranch?” Jessie made her voice as gentle as possible. “I thought you wanted the ranch.”
“I do,” he said. “I’m just….” He exhaled. “I don’t know, Jess.”
“Okay,” she said, her voice much too high. She and Flynn had been dating for almost two months, and she hadn’t been keeping track of his previous girlfriends for very long, but she knew that was longer than anyone in the past year.
He didn’t commit to women.
Or, apparently, ranches.
“I’ll see you in a bit.” She turned and walked away, her heart trembling in her chest with every step.
“Jess,” Flynn called after her, and she paused, gathering her wits about her.
She turned back to him. “Yeah?”
“Can we go by my place before we go up to Lewiston?”
“Of course,” she said. “Just let me know when you’re ready to go. I’m going to go back to the homestead and cool off. You’re right. I don’t like the sun.”
It made her freckles pop out and her hair turn redder, both things she didn’t like. Plus, she still had to wrap the gift she’d bought for Flynn’s mother.
He didn’t say anything else, and Jessie walked back to the homestead with the heat of the sun burning her shoulders. She wished it would burn the doubts out of her mind too.
Later, she bounded down the steps to Flynn’s truck, where both of his dogs hung over the side so she could pat them. “Hey, guys,” she said, grinning at them. “Hey, did you have a good day on the ranch? I bet you did.”
She got in the passenger side and glanced at Flynn. He had one arm draped over the steering wheel, that sexy smile on his face. He probably thought that grin could fix everything—and he wasn’t far off.
“What’s that?” he asked, nodding to the package in her hands.
“Chocolate covered raisins,” she said. “You said your mother loved them.”
“She does.” He flipped the truck into reverse. “She’s going to like you more than me.”
Jessie laughed and shook her head, glad she’d been able to iron out the ponytail bump in her hair. “I doubt that, Flynn.”
He rumbled down the dirt lane to the highway that led back to town before he spoke. “All right. Let’s talk about the ranch.”
“You talk,” she said. “I don’t have anything to say.” She normally slid across the seat and rode next to him in the truck, her fingers laced through his, but today, she stayed on her side. Maybe she needed space to think. Maybe he needed space to talk. Maybe bo
th.
“I closed on the ranch last Wednesday,” he said. “I said I had to go with Knox out to Quinn Organics, which is totally true.” He glanced at her. “I just didn’t come back to the ranch afterward. It took forever, and I wished you were there the whole time.”
Bitterness clawed its way up her throat. But she hadn’t been there, because he hadn’t told her. Something stung way down deep inside her. Why didn’t he want to share his life with her?
Would he ever want to open himself up like that to someone? Why not her?
A sob caught in her mouth, and he looked at her. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head, unaware of when she’d started crying. “I—you—why didn’t you tell me? We should be doing things together, Flynn. That’s what people do.”
“I know.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me? I wasn’t doing anything Wednesday. I would’ve come with you, and helped you, and we could’ve celebrated with tacos and ice cream afterward.”
Flynn shook his head, his jaw tight.
“You just signed and went home and sat on the porch with the dogs, didn’t you?” She didn’t mean to sound so demanding, but she deserved to know why Flynn had refused to include her in his life, especially when he had before.
“Something like that,” he muttered to the windshield.
Jessie had a lot to say, but it all stayed stuffed up in her chest. Flynn kept his mouth shut and the truck moving, the awkwardness in the cab so thick Jessie could feel it between her fingers.
“I—maybe I shouldn’t go to Lewiston tonight,” she finally said.
“She’s expecting you,” Flynn said.
“So you just tell her we broke up,” Jessie snapped. “It won’t be the first time you’ve cut a woman loose.”
The air hissed out of Flynn, and he pulled over to the side of the road quickly, causing Jessie to yelp and brace herself against the dashboard.
She looked at him, his anger sparking like lightning. “That’s not fair,” he said. “I told you why I did that, and you—you’re the only one—” He shook his head, his chest heaving.
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “Flynn, I didn’t mean that. I just—why won’t you share your life with me?” The blasted tears came back. “Why haven’t you packed a single box? Why didn’t you ask all the cowboys at the ranch to come help you move over the weekend?”
