Her Last Billionaire Boyfriend

by Liz Isaacson

  He told himself to be patient, that he’d come to New York City to support Adele in this dream. He’d had plenty of opportunities over the past few weeks to tell Adele he didn’t want to come. That he’d never traveled farther east than Denver, Colorado, and that he didn’t like cities.

  Surely she knew, though. It wasn’t like he’d kept any of his personality back from her.

  His thoughts moved to Colorado, but not Denver. He remembered Cache telling him his father and brother took their cattle to Shiloh Ridge in Colorado, and he wondered if he should go visit the ranch.

  He dismissed the idea. He didn’t need another job. He had one at— His thoughts stalled. He hadn’t exactly quit his job at Last Chance Ranch, but he’d told Scarlett he’d be in and out with Adele.

  “Excuse me,” he said, standing up. Yvonne didn’t say anything, barely looked up at him as he strode away. He practically burst out of the space, pulling in a deep breath of morning air. The sun was already hot here in the city, but he didn’t care. He could breathe out here, and that was all that mattered.

  A week later, Carson didn’t get coffee with Adele. They didn’t hold hands as they walked down the city streets to what would become the new restaurant. They hadn’t done anything together that they’d talked about. No visit to the Statue of the Liberty. No city tour buses pointing out all the sights to see. No Chinatown. No Broadway plays.

  Carson had spent most of his time in the hotel room, climbing the walls. Or listening to Adele gush about Joey and the opportunity she had to cook for him. If she knew he was dying a slow death, she didn’t acknowledge it.

  Hudson had texted him to find out why he wasn’t at the ranch, so he knew Hudson and Scarlett had made up. Which was great. Just great. He felt like his relationship was unraveling one string at a time, no matter how he tried to grab onto the end of it and hold it tight.

  Chapter 21

  Adele could hardly sleep while in New York City, and it had nothing to do with the city traffic, the sirens in the middle of the night, or loud people coming in late to the room next door. Her excitement kept her brain whirring until the wee hours of the morning, and she’d drawn no less than four maps of the kitchen at the restaurant down the street.

  Joey’s After Hours.

  He’d told her the name yesterday, shown her the sign he’d ordered, and consulted her on the layout and color of the menu. Consulted her.

  Adele hadn’t really been consulted about much in her life, and it sure was nice to think she had thoughts and opinions that someone else cared about.

  She didn’t need sleep. The coffee shop down the street had delicious cappuccinos and lattes, and she hadn’t held back on sampling all the good food the city had to offer either. Carson had stopped coming with her to the restaurant, and a twinge of guilt hit her that they hadn’t done any of the touristy things she’d promised they would.

  “We’ll be living here soon,” she whispered to herself. They’d have plenty of time to see the Empire State Building and Central Park once they moved here permanently.

  The thought put fear in her mind, and that kept her awake now. If she and Carson were going to move across the country together, that meant their relationship was serious. And could she admit that it was?

  She’d only known him for a couple of months, and she wasn’t wearing his ring. They hadn’t even talked about marriage. Or where they’d live once they came back to New York City for good.

  He’d been out looking at neighborhoods while she’d been developing recipes in one of Joey’s functioning kitchens. A real, restaurant kitchen. Thoughts of Carson disappeared behind the way her life had changed completely in the last couple of weeks.

  Tomorrow was her last day in the city, and she’d already tied up all the loose ends with Joey and the restaurant. She and Carson had planned a late breakfast before they left for the airport and headed back to California.

  By the time she woke up—so she did sleep a little bit—packed, and made it next door, Carson’s room was empty. At least he wasn’t answering her knocking. She turned in a circle in the hall and pulled her phone out of her pocket.

  She did have a text from him, though she’d just looked at her phone, and she hadn’t seen it. “Strange,” she muttered as she swiped to open it.

  I’m downstairs, it read. Nothing else.

  Adele reached for her bag and continued down the hall, irritation rising within her. Why hadn’t he come next door and gotten her before he’d just left?

  In the lobby, Carson sat on the couch, his head leaned back and his eyes closed. “Hey,” she said when she arrived next to him.

  He opened his eyes, and it took a moment for him to focus on her. “There you are.”

  “Here I am? Yes, here I am.”

  Carson’s expression hardened, and he stood. “I knocked, but you didn’t answer. I thought maybe you’d come down here for coffee, but I didn’t see you.”

  “I just knocked on your door.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “We’re supposed to go to breakfast on our way to the airport.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Forty minutes ago.” He held up his phone as if she could see the clock on it.

  “What? No.” She yanked her own phone out of her pocket. “We agreed to meet and leave at nine….” Her brain caught up to her mouth when she saw that it was almost nine-forty-five, and her memory jiggled enough to tell her they’d agreed to meet at nine.

  Nine. Not nine-thirty.

  Her anger leaked out of her, replaced instead with embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Let’s just go,” he said. “I can’t wait to get back to the ranch.” He grabbed his bag and hers and started for the doorway, leaving her to stare after him. Her heart fell down to the bottom of her feet and rebounded to the back of her throat. Pain radiated through her with the strength of his words.

  I can’t wait to get back to the ranch.

  He wasn’t happy here, and Adele hadn’t even seen it. How had she missed it?

  Sure, he’d been a little quieter while they’d been here, but Carson had always been a man of few words. She’d been busy, but he’d said he didn’t mind.

  Adele realized that he’d reached the doors without looking back once. She hurried after him and caught him right as a cab pulled up to the curb. The driver and Carson got the bags in the back, and he slid into the car with the words, “JFK, please.”

  “We’re not going to breakfast?”

  “I don’t think we have time,” he said, adjusting his hat.

  Her nerves pranced around “What did you mean back there?” she asked.

  “About what?”

  “That you can’t wait to get back to the ranch.”

  “That I can’t wait to get back to the ranch.” Carson kept his gaze out the window.

  Adele didn’t know what else to say, and the drive to the airport didn’t seem to take long at all. After that, the time dragged on and on. The line at security took forever, and since they were earlier than she’d anticipated, they sat at the gate forever.

  Too late for breakfast, but too early for the airport. The whole day felt like a bust, and she wanted to crawl back into bed.

  No, she didn’t want to go back to the ranch.

  But go back she did. All the way across the country, out of the city, and past the robot mailbox that marked the entrance to Last Chance Ranch.

  She dropped Carson off at his house, where Hudson waited on the porch with Tony and Ted.

  “Hey,” Carson said, real happiness in his voice as he walked away from the car. The dogs barked and ran down the steps to meet him. Carson released his suitcase and bent down to scrub them, letting them lick his face hello, their tails going around like whips.

  Hudson joined them, and the two men shook hands. Adele watched through the windshield, removed from the scene and yet still fully a part of it.

  “When did you get back?” Carson asked.

  “Oh, just before my bi
rthday.” His gaze wandered to Adele, and she flipped the car into reverse and pulled out of the driveway. She commanded herself not to look back, and she succeeded.

  Her cabin felt lonely and empty, and she dragged her bag down the hall and into the bedroom. She collapsed into bed, fully clothed, and fell asleep almost instantly.

  Her life went back to the country kind of normal she’d made for herself at Last Chance Ranch. She worked with the goats, who seemed a bit stand-offish when she first went back. Scarlett had hired someone to oversee the animal adoptions at the ranch, and Amber Haws had been running the goat yoga, too.

  The blonde had long, gorgeous waves of hair, and big brown eyes that smiled all the time. The goats loved her, and Adele felt slightly abandoned by these babies she’d raised and trained.

  But they warmed up to her quickly, despite the fact that she wasn’t really running the program anymore. She didn’t lead the yoga. She’d taken over Carson’s job of standing at the gate and checking people off as they came in.

  She watched while a trained instructor from town did the session, then she and Amber cleaned up and got ready for the next session.

  Adele did enjoy getting back to her videos. She’d been inspired by the recipe creation in the city, and she did a week themed around appetizers, and one around soups before she admitted to herself that things between her and Carson were cracked.

  They saw each other, but the passion in their kisses wasn’t nearly the same, and he wouldn’t say anything about how he was feeling. One day near the end of August, she wandered down the road toward the part of the ranch where the horses, llamas, and pigs lived.

  Carson spent most of his days there now, only stopping by her place a couple of times a week for lunch. Of course, Scarlett had hired several more people, one of which included a woman who ran the marketing side of the ranch and happened to enjoy feeding a crowd.

  Karla Jenkins had taken up residence in the cabin beside Adele’s, and the white tables they’d set up for their Fourth of July picnic remained against that cabin perpetually now. She sent group texts to let everyone on the ranch know if lunch would be served that day, and what the menu was.

  Adele wasn’t jealous of her exactly. She simply felt like maybe she’d been replaced—in more ways than one. Scarlett didn’t need her as much anymore, not with her relationship with Hudson doing so well, not to mention all the new people on the ranch for company.

  “Hey,” she said to Hudson when she found him near the pasture.

  “Hey, Adele.” He smiled at her and continued doing something with a saddle to make it shine.

  “Have you seen Carson?”

  “Yeah, he’s over in Piggy Paradise today,” he said. “It’s rotation day.”

  Adele didn’t know what that meant, but she nodded, smiled, and left Hudson to his saddle. Piggy Paradise was several hundred yards past the stables, and Adele took her time getting there.

  She had a feeling her conversation with Carson wasn’t going to end the way she wanted it to. She found him pushing on the hind end of a huge potbellied pig while Sawyer pulled on a leash he’d put around the pig’s head.

  The animal wasn’t moving, and it didn’t seem that the two cowboys, as big and strong as they were, could do anything about it.

  She watched for a few more seconds, because it was funny, and then Sawyer caught sight of her. He nodded toward her, and Carson looked over his shoulder. He gave up trying to budge the pig, wiped his hands—though that didn’t do anything to improve the cleanliness of them—and walked over to her.

  “Hey,” he said over the fence, a quick smile gracing his face.

  “Hey.” She sighed and put her arms up on the top rung of the fence. “How’s it going out here?”

  “Not well. That pig is the most stubborn thing I’ve ever encountered.” He took his hat off and wiped his hair back.

  “You need a haircut,” she teased, reaching up and touching the long ends of his hair before he re-seated his hat.

  “Are you volunteering?” He hadn’t flirted with her for so long, Adele wasn’t sure what was happening for a moment.

  “Heavens, no,” she said. “I knew a lot of hairdressers, but I was not one of them.”

  He smiled and leaned against the fence too, bending down to kiss her. She held onto the feeling rushing through her, because it felt like the first time in a while that he actually wanted to be with her.

  Her heart pinched, and she wondered how in the world she could leave him here in California when she went back to New York City.

  In that moment, she knew she’d be going and he wouldn’t.

  She pulled away but stayed tipped up on her toes, in his personal space. “You’re not going to come to New York with me when I go, are you?”

  “No, Adele,” he whispered, the tip of his nose running up her cheek before he backed up further.

  She sighed and settled flat on her feet. Her mind was blank, and her chest felt like someone had hollowed it out and poured lemon juice inside.

  “So I guess that’s it,” she said. “Are we broken up, then?”

  “I don’t know, Adele.” He looked at her, right at her. “I sure do like you, but that city suffocated me. I can’t…I just…can’t go back there with you.” He held up both hands and backed up a couple of steps. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” she murmured, though it certainly wasn’t okay. Her heart wailed as it cracked, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

  Chapter 22

  Carson deliberately stayed home the day Adele was set to leave Last Chance Ranch. Scarlett and Hudson had told him she’d moved up her departure date, and he’d asked if he could just stay home so he wouldn’t accidentally run into her.

  Since their last kiss two weeks ago, he’d seen her a few times and it had been seven shades of awkward each time. Worse than the yelling matches in the parking lot and outside her cabin, because now he knew her. Now he couldn’t have her, and he knew it.

  He wondered if Last Chance Ranch was where he was supposed to be. The thought of leaving this pretty piece of country for the unknown had his stomach in knots, but he wasn’t sure he could stay here after Adele left.

  But that meant he’d have to leave tomorrow, and he had nowhere to go.

  He’d had friends in Montana, and a couple of them had offered him a place on their ranch. But Carson hadn’t been able to stay in the state if he wasn’t at Cobble Creek. But now, he wondered if he could go back.

  He’d been going to church, and trying to find his way back to God, and the thought didn’t quite sit right in his chest and mind. So Montana was out.

  Where else could he go?

  “Ho!” A voice sounded outside his house, in a place it shouldn’t have been—along the tree line. He moved quickly to the back door and pulled it open to see Cache waving his hat after a couple of errant cows that had obviously gotten out.

  Carson hurried down the steps and dashed across his lawn. “Where do you need me?” he called, drawing Cache’s attention.

  “On the right flank,” he said, and Carson ran behind him, fanning out to the right, dodging trees and hoping he didn’t go down on a hidden branch. He headed the cows—four of them—and turned them back toward the cabins in the Community, where Cache had found more reinforcements. Hudson, David, and Jeri were there with ropes, and they made short work of the errant dairy cows.

  “They love grass,” Cache said, panting between words. “They’ll eat and eat until they die. Stupid cows.” He slapped one affectionately on the rump. “Thanks, everyone.”

  Carson almost started walking over to the cattle pasture with Cache, then he realized he couldn’t get that close to the homestead or Adele’s cabin. Her flight wasn’t until that evening, and she was cleaning her cabin out that day. Taking things to storage, if he’d heard right.

  His heart flipped around backward, because he should be helping her. That would be the Christlike thing to do. Swallow his pride and his feeling
s and go help her. He kept walking with Cache, who started chuckling.

  “You’re good with the cows,” he said.

  “Yeah, well, I’ve had a few get out on me too.” He couldn’t help the way his gaze wandered toward Adele’s cabin. An idea hit him right in the middle of his brain. “Hey, do you think they need help at Shiloh Ridge Ranch?”

  “Shiloh Ridge?” Cache asked. “I have no idea. Why?”

  “I’m…I don’t think I can stay here,” he said, catching a glimpse of Adele’s house. “Me and Adele…you know.”

  “Ah, I see. Well, I can call my brother tonight. Or right now.” He kept a tight grip on the ropes leading the cows and dug in his pocket for his phone.

  “Oh, you don’t need to—”

  “Already dialing.” Cache gave him a big smile, and a moment later, he said, “Hey, Leo, it’s your favorite little bro.” He laughed, and Carson heard chuckles on the other end of the line too.

  They talked for a few minutes, and then Cache said, “Hey, what’s the personnel like there at the ranch right now?” There was a healthy pause before Cache spoke again. “Yeah, I got a guy looking for something. He’s really experienced. Owned a cattle ranch in Montana.” Cache cut him a look, and Carson tried to smile. But he hadn’t been doing a whole lot of that recently, and it felt strange on his face.

  “So I can give him Bear’s number? All right, bro. Gotta go.” Cache hung up a moment later, and said, “I’ve got a name and number for you.” They walked along the road, the gate only a few yards away now. “I’m bummed you’ll be leaving. I mean, I get it. But yeah.”

  “Me too,” Carson said, the first measure of sadness pulling through him as he moved forward to open the gate so Cache could walk the dairy cows back where they belonged. “But I’m just not sure this is where I’m supposed to be.”

  “Well, you can call Bear Glover. Find out if Shiloh Ridge is where you want to be.”