by Claire Adams
Maybe I just wasn’t dating the right girls, though; that was entirely a possibility. If I took Kelsi as an example, she worked hard, and I doubted she was going out on the weekends to dance clubs or with random guys online. Meeting a girl like her would be nearly impossible since they are happy and content in their lives and not out prowling around for a man. That was the double-edged sword of dating; happy women aren’t out prowling for a man, and happy men can’t find the women if they are at home being content with their life.
“So, this property connects to both my family’s ranch and your family’s ranch? That’s pretty cool. I guess I never realized they were so close.”
“It doesn’t actually connect to my land, we rode through the neighbors’ property, but they don’t mind. And by close, do you mean 20 miles?” She laughed.
“Wow, that’s farther than I thought.”
“Yeah, from the back of my property to yours would be 20 miles. With about a half of a mile through the neighbors’ property, but the Andersons don’t mind if I ride back there. They haven’t been using their land for the last few years.”
“Can you imagine what an amazing ranch you could build if you connected all the way from your ranch to ours? Wow, you could do summer programs, long trail rides, maybe even training horses for people and other camping programs. It could be a top-notch horse ranch facility.”
“You mean like the Everett ranch?”
“Better than that beast. They are corporate owned. They don’t know about this town and these people, and they certainly don’t know about marketing. I could help you, and you could build an empire around here.”
“Wow, look at you getting all businessman on me.” Kelsi laughed as her hand gently touched my arm. “It’s a fun fantasy, though, isn’t it?”
“You’re a fun fantasy,” I said softly. “Let me take you out on a proper date. I don’t know how long I’m going to be in town; we should spend some time together.”
“Tyler, I’m glad we made up and there aren’t any hard feelings between us, but no good can come from the two of us getting together. I think we should call it even and move on with our respective lives.”
Ouch, she really didn’t even want to go on a date with me. This had turned into more than just the bet. I liked Kelsi, I trusted her, and I was going to be in town for a while. It made sense for us to see each other again, even if it wasn’t on a date.
“Okay, let’s take the date off the table, for the time being. I would still like to visit with you, and I know my family would really like to see you. Please say that you’ll consider that at least?”
She paused for a minute and then made her way to the horses as she checked their hooves and didn’t answer me. I waited for what seemed like forever as she walked around each of them and considered my proposal.
“I’m not sleeping with you,” she said.
My heart sank as if she knew about the bet. It was a stupid bet, and I shouldn’t have made it, but how on earth did she know about it.
“Um…I’m sorry, I…” I stumbled as I started to defend myself.
“I’m just making that clear. I don’t mind catching up, but this thing between us isn’t going to happen. All right?”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” I said in relief. “I get it. We live in different worlds.”
We rode back toward her ranch and continued our small talk. All I could think about was how I was going to win this girl over after just agreeing that I didn’t want to win her over. Even if our time together was limited to the weeks I was at home, that seemed useful enough to me. I certainly wasn’t going to spend two months at home without any female company. And if I was going to have a woman in my bed, it had to be Kelsi: there was no other woman I wanted at the moment.
“It was good seeing you; take care of your father,” Kelsi said as she gave me a hug goodbye.
“I will, and I’m going to call you so we can arrange for you to come visit. I know he’d like to see you.”
“All right, well have a nice day,” she said stiffly as she pulled away from me.
There was more in her eyes than she was giving in to, though. I could see she wanted more; I could see the desire as she looked up at me and then quickly back toward the ground. It was as if she didn’t feel like she could trust herself not to give into her desires. But I had a surprise for her: I was going to make sure she gave in to those desires for me.
As I drove back to my parents’ house, I tried to think of any way I could get more time with Kelsi. She obviously didn’t want to go on a date, and when she did come to my family’s house, it wasn’t going to be romantic as we talked about my sick father. No, I needed something else, something that she couldn’t say no to.
Then it dawned on me. Kelsi had a profile on Dating the Rich; no matter what she had intended the profile for, she still had it. I could go through the Blind Date option and request a date with her! Maybe, if she didn’t know it was me, she’d consider going on an actual date?
It was a long shot, and I knew it. Kelsi could very well just deny the invitation without a single word or explanation. I’d have to be extremely charming and probably put my location a little further away so she didn’t realize it was me, but there was a high possibility she would agree.
I smiled at the idea of getting her to agree to a date with me through the Blind Date section of the app. The owners had been trying to get me to use it for months, and I didn’t want to bother with it. It was unnecessary for me to hide who I was because that was exactly what got me all the dates. But it was now exciting to think of Kelsi’s face if she agreed to go on a date with this mystery billionaire and it ended up being me.
Before I even walked into my parents’ house, I clicked through the app and sent Kelsi an invite for a Blind Date. It was easier to send the invitation than I thought and the app showed me exactly how my profile would look to Kelsi when she saw it. I changed my location to Fort Worth, Texas, which was just a few miles down the road but a big enough city that Kelsi wouldn’t automatically think the invitation was from me.
The Blind Date feature hid my age and only listed an age range; it also hid my profession, but I noticed it still showed my profile, so I quickly rewrote some of the description. It was still describing me, but with a little more of the rounded qualities that I had, like enjoying the theater and volunteering with children. I even took the time to hide my profile from others so I wouldn’t have to navigate new inquiries while I was at home.
I jumped up onto the steps of my front door as excitement rushed through me. This was the most alive I’d felt in months. I was going to get Kelsi Sullivan in bed, and she was going to like it. The funny thing was, I probably wouldn’t have chased after her if Bryce and Mike hadn’t made the bet, but I was kind of happy that my friends were still immature children who made stupid bets because now I might get a chance with Kelsi again.
“That is one big smile,” my mom said as I walked in the door. “Only a girl could put a smile like that on your face.”
“He was at the Sullivan ranch visiting Kelsi,” Maryanne said as she busted into the house behind me.
“Really? You’re just going to put all my personal business out there like that? What are you, 12?”
“I’ve missed this so much,” my mom said as she grabbed the two of us and forced a family hug. “The house is so quiet without your sibling fighting.”
My mother had to be the only woman in the world who actually enjoyed hearing her children fighting. It was as if the noise brought her peace.
Chapter Eight
Kelsi
“So, did you fall madly in love with him, again?” Kendall asked later that week as we drove into town for supplies.
“Like I told you before, I’m not falling for anyone. Not Tyler or anyone else.”
“Ever? You’re just going to stay a lonely, single mom for the rest of your life? That doesn’t seem like the best idea you’ve ever had.”
“Kendall, I need to concentrate on my
own life and Clyde, I don’t have time for self-absorbed men who think their lives are so much better than everyone else’s.”
“Can I play the devil’s advocate here?” Kendall asked but then didn’t wait for me to answer. “What if you dated a guy who turned out to be awesome? What if he loved how hard you worked and loved Clyde like he was his own? What if your relationship with this person made everything else in your life easier?”
I started to laugh at the fairytale ideas that Kendall was spouting off. Did she actually believe all the love nonsense she was spouting? Guys weren’t like that. They didn’t want to date a woman who already had a kid, and certainly they wouldn’t want to be a father figure to someone else’s child. I was just fine being single for a while and I could always find a man when Clyde was older or after he went off to college.
“Kendall, so in this imaginary world of yours, have I married a billionaire or just some regular guy from the neighborhood?”
“Why does everything have to come back to marrying someone for you? Like we talked about before, you can sleep with someone without having a big relationship, but yes, I was talking about a millionaire or billionaire or whatever. You’re on that app now; why not just go on a date with one of the guys? There have to be men who have contacted you.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because you’re cute and funny and they are surely going to want to take you out.”
“Kendall, just because I’m decent looking doesn’t mean some rich guy would ask me out,” I said and then trailed off as I remembered Tyler had, in fact, asked me out, and I had logged into my Dating the Rich account and seen a few messages from guys the other night. “It doesn’t matter, I’m not interested.”
“Let me see your app. I’ll help you decide if you’re interested,” Kendall said as she reached for my phone.
“You’re driving! No.”
“Fine, when we get there, I’m looking at your phone.”
Kendall was younger than me, but she was just as pushy as any sister could possibly be when it came to my love life. She always had an opinion, and there was no telling her she was wrong. Sometimes I really felt bad for her boyfriend Robert and all he had to deal with, but he certainly seemed to love Kendall, so that was all I could hope for.
“I’ll look at it now. Geesh, you’re so pushy.”
“Yes, I’m a horrible sister because I am trying to help you find a decent man to love you. It’s horrible, you should disown me. Go find one of those sisters who doesn’t care at all about your happiness or if you die an old, lonely spinster.”
“Yeah, where can I find one of those sisters?” I laughed.
When we pulled into the store parking lot, Kendall grabbed my phone just as I finished typing my password into the Dating the Rich app. It was exhausting having her as my sister, but I loved her.
“You told all these guys no?” Kendal said as she scrolled through my messages.
“I wasn’t interested.”
“This is ridiculous,” Kendall complained as I went and grabbed the things we needed.
It wasn’t ridiculous; I genuinely had not been interested in any of the men who sent me messages. Money wasn’t all that important to me, and I definitely didn’t have time to go flying around the country to meet men for dates. My profile had been set up so anyone could find me and message me, so I had guys from California to New York sending me messages.
“Are you ready to go?” I asked as I pushed the cart toward our truck. “Please don’t message any of the guys back.”
“I’m just looking at their profiles. Why don’t you drive? I’m reading an interesting one,” she said as she climbed into the truck and let me finish loading our supplies.
“No worries, I’ll just lift all this heavy mulch and supplies by myself. Don’t mind me. Why don’t you just take it easy?”
“Okay.” She laughed.
“You can stop gawking at all those guys and put my phone away; I’m not going out with any of them.”
“Did you see you got a blind date invitation on here?”
“What’s that?”
“Come on, Kelsi, I know you’ve been out of the dating market for a while, but even you know what a blind date is.”
“I’m not stupid; I just meant what is it through the Dating the Rich app? I mean you can’t really go on a blind date if you know what the guy looks like and they all have profiles.”
“I know, I was just teasing. His profile shows his description but no pictures. He’s located in Fort Worth; that’s not too far away.”
“How old is he?”
“It doesn’t say, just gives an age range of 30 to 40.”
“What does he do for work?” I asked, not because I was actually considering going out with the guy, but just to keep Kendall occupied so she wasn’t replying to any of the messages that I had in my inbox.
“It doesn’t say.”
“Wow, why would anyone agree to go on a blind date? It doesn’t show you a picture or say anything about the guy.”
Kendall clicked around on the app as I drove us home. I was getting nervous as I tried to watch her out of the corner of my eye. She really wasn’t that good at listening when I told her not to do things.
When we arrived back at the ranch, there was a big F150 sitting in our driveway that wasn’t ours. It was brand new and shiny as hell. We didn’t know anyone who went around buying their ranch trucks new, they were just too expensive.
“Who do you think it is?” I asked.
“No idea. Maybe someone from Everett’s came to visit with Dad?”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said although I had a sick feeling in my stomach that there was something else going on that we didn’t know about. “Why would Dad be visiting with Everett’s ranch? He hates them,” I added.
“I don’t know. Maybe they need his help with something?” Kendall said unconvincingly.
Hannah came running up to us and pulled us into the barn before we could even unload our supplies. Something was going on, and by the fear in Hannah’s face, it wasn’t something good.
“It’s a man from the bank, I overheard him saying he was the loan manager and we are several months late. Oh no, I need this job. I’m not meant to work in an office. I can’t live with that kind of confinement. I don’t want to lose my job.”
“Calm down, Hannah. What exactly did you hear?” I asked.
“The man said that your dad should consider the buyout offer. He said we were behind several months and it was getting to the point that the bank would have to foreclose soon.”
My stomach sank as I listened to Hannah relay the information she heard. My parents had never even mentioned that things were tough for us. Sure, we had cut down on the number of ranch workers we had, but that wasn’t unusual; many other farms were doing the same thing. Plus, Kendall, Hannah, and I were really efficient and could get almost everything done on our own. It was crazy to think that we owed so much money to the bank that they were actually considering foreclosure. I had to assume Hannah had misheard something; there just wasn’t a way I thought it could be true.
We waited patiently for the man to leave the house, but he was in there forever. It was torture to sit in the barn and not know what was going on.
“Hannah, don’t you think Kelsi should go on this blind date with a millionaire from Fort Worth?” Kendall said to break the silence.
“Kendall, our family’s livelihood is at stake here; we don’t need to be talking about my love life at a time like this.”
“Actually, yes, I do think she should go,” Hannah said without even looking at the profile that Kendall held out. “Even more so with the uncertainty of the ranch. Kelsi, you need to make your own life. What would you do if your parents decided to sell the ranch and just retire?”
The thought had seriously never crossed my mind. I always thought they would just hand the ranch down to me when they were ready to retire. I knew Kendall didn’t want to stick around town forever and I
was going to be the one to live and work on the ranch.
“Um, I’m not going to date some rich guy just because I might need a job,” I snorted back at her.
“She won’t date anyone,” Kendall added. “She’s afraid of men.”
“I’m not afraid of men! I just don’t want to waste my time.”
“So, you’re afraid of dating? Okay, now I understand,” Kendall said as she handed me back my phone.
“I’m not afraid of dating. Stop trying to twist everything I say. Aren’t you worried at all that Mom and Dad might be losing the ranch? You work here too, you know.”
“It would be just the thing I needed to motivate myself to move to New York. I’m only staying here to save up enough to move and help them out. I’d just move if I didn’t have to worry about you guys being mad at me for leaving you without enough help.”
“How does Robert feel about this plan?” I snarled back at her.
“Robert was ready to move last Christmas. I was the one who convinced him we should stay. We have almost $5,000 saved up. We could leave right now and get a room to rent and find some jobs. I’m not worried.”
Listening to the confidence in Kendall’s voice was annoying me. How could she not be worried at all about our family losing our ranch? We were raised here, we grew up working this land, and our parents might lose it all.
“I can’t even talk to you,” I screamed.
I started to pace the barn floor as we waited for the man from the bank to leave. It was crazy that my parents had kept such a secret, but it was over now. The second that bank employee left, I was going to storm in there and demand to know what had happened. We worked hard, we brought in the same amount of money each year, how could we not be making ends meet? I didn’t see it, and I really needed them to explain it to me.
“Sit down already,” Kendall said after I had been pacing for a good 10 minutes. “You walking back and forth isn’t going to make the man leave any sooner.”