Restless Rancher

by Jennifer Ryan

  The way she wanted him patched up the broken pieces of his ego and gave him the confidence to prove to her she’d made the right decision coming back and giving him a second chance.

  “Are the contractors here?”

  He handed her one of the cups of coffee he’d brought with him and took a sip of his own. “Setting up outside to get to work on the stables. The painters should be here soon. I’ll help you move in the furniture for the guest room and office as soon as they’re done in there.”

  “That would be great.” She took a sip of her coffee, then grabbed the zippered bag on the counter. “Let me clean this up. I’ll meet you in there so we can decide how we want to set up the furniture.”

  Lotion, hair spray, her brush, toothbrush, toothpaste, and some other miscellaneous stuff sat spread around the sink. “Why are you putting that all away if you’re just going to pull it all out later when you shower again?”

  She dropped the floss container in the bag, then glanced at him and looked away again.

  “Sonya?”

  “I don’t live here, Austin.”

  Ah. She wasn’t sure where they stood as far as them working together and being together. He hadn’t given it a lot of thought. He’d had a lot of other things on his mind last night. And her in his hands, which shut off his mind to anything but making her want to stay in bed with him.

  “You had no problem sleeping here before last night.”

  “Sleeping in the back of my truck or on your porch isn’t the same as sleeping in your bed.”

  “In my bed is a hell of a lot better, I can tell you that.”

  “The house is livable now. I’ll have it finished by end of tomorrow. I can get a room in town or stay with Roxy.” She nodded to herself in the mirror like it was settled.

  “Why?” He liked rattling her and putting that confused and hopeful look in her eyes.

  “Because you didn’t bring me back here to be underfoot every second of the day.”

  “Why do you think I brought you back here?” He hadn’t really thought about it past the fact he wanted her with him.

  Overall, it seemed simple. The details were complicated.

  “You need me to help you finish getting this place set up.”

  “What happened to the woman who came home with me last night and knew exactly what she wanted and had no trouble telling me? I’d like her back.”

  Sonya picked up the lotion, then let it drop on the counter. “Austin, I don’t know how to do this.”

  He gave her a break. “Do you want to stay here with me while we get this place up and running, or do you want your own space?”

  “I want to know what you want.”

  He cocked an eyebrow and waited for her to answer his question.

  “I’d like more of last night.” She spoke to her bare toes sticking out the bottom of her jeans.

  After all they shared last night, he didn’t like that she couldn’t look him in the eye and say what she wanted to say. “It’ll make it easier to give you that if you stay.”

  Her head came up. “Do you want me to stay?”

  “Yes.” He set his mug on the counter and closed the distance between them. “I don’t know how to do this either.” He’d never lived with a woman. He wasn’t thinking that’s what this was. He just didn’t want her to leave.

  Yeah, he copped out on that thought. But this was new and he didn’t want to think too hard about it. “Leave your stuff on the counter. Or put it in the cabinet. I don’t care. You and me, we work together. And that has nothing to do with business. As long as we work, stay. Because if you leave, I’m coming after you until I convince you to come back again.” And that was new, too.

  He let his relationship with Kelly fall apart without a fight. He and Sonya had only been friends a short time and he’d crossed several states to get her back.

  He thought of how bad Noah had it for Roxy and recognized it in himself. That driving need to protect Sonya the way Noah had done for Roxy. The way Noah had seen Roxy in a way no one else did.

  After seeing Sonya with June, he understood her on a deeper level than he’d ever known any other woman.

  The sultry smile he remembered from last night spread across Sonya’s face. “So you don’t care if I mess up your bed, your bathroom, or your life?”

  “You’re beautiful and a dream come true in my bed. I could give a shit about the bathroom. As for my life, you made it infinitely better when you walked into it and dark as hell when you left.”

  He snaked his arm around her waist and drew her close. His words and the move had taken her by surprise. He kissed her long and deep, telling her without words that he meant it. He ended the kiss with a brush of his lips, pressed his forehead to hers, and stared into her bright hazel eyes. “Stay with me.”

  Part of that plea came from deep in his heart because he lost the only two people who had really loved him: his mother and grandfather. But it mattered a hell of a lot more than not wanting to lose another person who cared about him.

  He didn’t want to lose her.

  “Austin, I don’t know what to do with all that.”

  “Let it sink in. Hold on. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly enough to nearly choke him. He didn’t care. He held her close. He didn’t know what happened next, how long she’d stay, or if this thing would last or fizzle out, but right now, he had everything he could ever want.

  She let out a heavy sigh, then sucked in a deep breath. “My old company called this morning and offered me a job.”

  Austin went still. He’d just convinced her to stay, and now she was telling him she might leave again. “What did you say?”

  “Nothing. They gave me a couple days to think about it.” She unhooked her arms from his neck and stepped back, but not out of his light hold on her hips.

  “Are you going to accept? Is that what you want?” He barely got the words out of his tight throat. He didn’t want to lose her, not when they were so close to having what he thought they both wanted.

  “I thought it was.” Yet she hadn’t snatched the opportunity the second it was offered.

  Because she wanted a life with him more? God, he hoped so.

  She laid her hand on his chest, over his thrashing heart. “I want what we have and more. More with you. And more for me. Does that mean taking the job, or finding something else?”

  Maybe she’d find something here that satisfied her need to be productive, in charge, and challenged.

  “I don’t know right now. Everything seems so up in the air.” Frustration lit her eyes. She wasn’t used to being indecisive. Sonya went after what she wanted.

  He liked that about her. He would never stop her from doing what she wanted, but he hated the idea of her living in Nevada instead of here with him. “You and me, we’re solid again, I hope.”

  “Yes, we are. I want to be with you. That is perfectly clear.”

  That made him feel a thousand times better.

  “How we do that going forward remains to be seen.”

  That made his confidence falter. “You’ve got time to decide. Think about it. We can talk more about the job later. Right now, just know that I want you to do what makes you happy. If that means taking the job, it doesn’t mean you lose me. We’ll find a way to make it work, because I want you in my life.”

  Sonya found a halfhearted smile. “Are we going to have all our deep conversations in the bathroom?”

  “I’m too busy worshipping you in bed to talk,” he teased, gave her another hug, then set her away, but not before he kissed her one more time.

  “Okay, I’ll stay and think about the job, but you need to remember one thing.”

  “What’s that, sweetheart?”

  She picked up her coffee and sneered at it. “I like milk in my coffee.”

  He laughed and tugged her ponytail. “I know that. The fridge is empty.”

  She walked out of the b
athroom with him, headed for the living room. “Once I get the painters working, I’ll drive into town for groceries and the other things we need here.”

  “Want me to go with you?”

  She shook her head. “I know you’re dying to get started on the stables. The auction is only four days away. We need to be ready to bring the horses back.”

  Austin rolled his eyes. “I’ve got to get to the south hay field, too.”

  “You do that. I’ll take care of the house.”

  “You sure?”

  She nodded. “Everything is moving forward. We’re on track.”

  He hoped she meant between them as well. He didn’t know what she’d decide about the job, but he’d already decided he wanted to keep her even if that meant he had to take a plane to see her. He kissed her again. “Yes, we are.”

  They parted ways on the porch. She waited for the painters to haul their gear inside. He walked across the yard and up the drive to the stables where the contractors unloaded new beams and piles of wood.

  He set aside his worries about her taking the job she wasn’t even sure she wanted anymore. Right now, she wanted to be with him, here on the ranch. He rode the buzz from that thought, which echoed the one he’d woken up with this morning and had nothing to do with drinking and everything to do with the woman lying down the length of him in bed.

  He could get used to a high like this.

  He liked being drunk on her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sonya stood in front of the refrigerated dessert case and tried to decide among the triple chocolate cake, éclairs, or creamy New York cheesecake. Or all of them. She’d earned the extra calories working on Austin’s house and in his bed last night. The memory of it sent a hum of anticipation through her body. Her heart melted all over again when she recalled his words this morning and how much he wanted her to stay at his place.

  “He hates chocolate, and if you put strawberries on the cheesecake he’ll end up in the emergency room.” The familiar voice killed her Austin buzz.

  Sonya stood taller and faced Kelly standing on the other side of the case holding a shopping basket filled with fruits, vegetables, and a bag of chocolate chunk cookies.

  Sonya tried to be polite and play it off that it didn’t sting when Kelly knew those things about Austin and she didn’t. “Good to know. Thanks.”

  Austin walked out of the aisle behind Kelly and stopped when he spotted them. Sonya wondered how he got here and why he came at all instead of calling her if he needed something. She’d left him working with the contractors in the stables.

  “So, not the chocolate cake or éclairs.”

  Austin shook his head.

  “Cheesecake with raspberries?”

  Kelly didn’t blink at the way she posed it as a question for Austin, who stayed out of sight behind Kelly.

  Austin nodded and she put the dessert in the cart and started to walk away to get the raspberries in the produce section.

  “What is it about you?”

  Sonya stopped and turned back to Kelly.

  Austin eyed Kelly and went very still.

  Okay, polite went out the window. They were doing the whole jealous ex-girlfriend thing. Well, she could do snark, too. “Maybe he swore off blondes after dating you.”

  Kelly cocked her hip. “The whole Snow White thing is cute, but come on . . .”

  The comparison didn’t surprise her. She did have dark hair, red lips, and pale skin. What could she say, she stayed out of the sun. Not for vanity, but because she’d spent the last few years in a classroom or office.

  “You’re stick thin.”

  Austin shook his head.

  Kelly glanced down at her chest. “He likes curves.”

  Austin’s gaze roamed over Sonya in an appreciative sweep. He looked her in the eye and nodded his absolute approval of her modest attributes.

  “Austin likes a hell of a lot more about me than what I look like.”

  Austin smiled broadly.

  “I don’t know what it could be when all I see is an inbred slut.”

  Austin moved so fast she couldn’t stop him before he spun Kelly around to face him. “Apologize.”

  “Austin.” Kelly pressed her hand to her chest. “I didn’t see you there.”

  “Is that why you think it’s okay to say something so vile to my girlfriend?”

  Sonya put her hand on Austin’s shoulder and tried to make him take a step back, but he wouldn’t budge. “Let it go.”

  “No one talks to you that way and gets away with it.” He pinned Kelly with his glaring gaze. “Apologize.”

  “Why? It’s the truth. She admitted it herself.”

  “She didn’t have a choice in who her father is, but you have a choice whether you take the rape of a child and use it against Sonya. I thought you’d hit a real low when you tried to use me to get pregnant and steal my child from me, but this . . . To use what happened to her poor mother to hurt Sonya because you’re jealous . . . You disgust me.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “No? You didn’t mean to hurt her with that slur? Or you didn’t think about what you were saying because you didn’t think about your words and what they mean? You’ve got no compassion or empathy for her, her mom, anyone, because you only think about yourself. What you want. What you think you deserve. Fuck everyone else.”

  Kelly’s eyes filled with tears.

  A small crowd of people stopped in the bakery area and stared.

  Sonya put her hand on Austin’s back. “That’s enough. Let’s go.”

  Kelly looked up at Austin with watery eyes. “How could you say no to me and choose her?”

  “Because you continue to prove I made the right decision. You don’t really care about me.”

  “I love you.”

  “You loved what you thought we could be and what we could have, but it was just an empty dream because the second I had nothing to offer you but myself, you walked away.”

  He glanced at Sonya. “You know what the house and that piece of land mean to me. Why it’s important I hold on to it. I have nothing else to my name.”

  Sonya ran her hand up and down his arm. “I have my own things, Austin.”

  He turned back to Kelly. “Things aren’t what keep people together. Why her? She’s everything I ever wanted in my life that I can’t buy or touch or define and explain. I woke up happier than I’ve ever been because she was beside me. I know I can talk to her about anything and count on her to have my back no matter what. If I’m lucky, I’ll wake up every day feeling that way and knowing those two things.

  “Can you say the same about the man who put that ring on your finger and ordered you to get knocked up by his son? If you think so, you’re a fool. When you can’t give him what he wants and he tosses you aside, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “Austin.” Sonya tugged his arm. “I know you’re angry, but that’s enough.”

  Kelly dropped her basket and ran for the exit with her hand over her face, shielding her tears and embarrassment.

  Austin glared at the onlookers, who quickly dispersed, leaving them a semiprivate moment to regroup.

  Austin pulled her into his arms and held her close. “Are you okay?”

  “I kind of feel bad for her.”

  He held her away at arm’s length. “Why? After the horrible thing she said to you and trying to steal a child from me . . .”

  “She’s lost, Austin. Obviously your father’s influence in her life has changed her.”

  “That’s for sure. I actually can’t believe she fell for him.”

  Sonya didn’t want to think about Kelly saying she loved Austin. He didn’t seem to believe it, but Sonya saw it in Kelly’s eyes.

  Sonya didn’t sense any jealousy from Austin. He didn’t like Kelly seeing his dad, but he didn’t want her back either. After the fast one she’d tried to pull on him, he was over her.

  “I have a feeling your father targeted Kelly. He played
up the fact you couldn’t give her what she needs and deserves, but your father could and then some. She wants a baby. He used that against her, too, and humiliated her in the process by taking what she wants most and making it so the only way he’d give it to her was if she seduced you back into her bed and left you and handed the child over to him.”

  Austin stared down at her. “Can you believe those words came out of your mouth?”

  “No.” She laughed under her breath. But she sympathized with Kelly. She must have been really desperate to do what she did. “But I wonder if he really wanted the child, or if he just wanted to torture you with the fact he married the woman who was once yours and left you wondering if the child was yours on top of it. It’s not enough for him to fire you and kick you out of your home. He wants to take everything away from you. That’s some truly reprehensible psychological torment.”

  He squeezed her shoulders. “If he thought marrying her would hurt me, he’s wrong. That’s why when she came to me, I didn’t fall into her trap. I was over her already. If she can’t see he’s using her, then I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to see her get hurt. But if I keep trying to get her to see reason, I’m afraid it will only give her false hope there’s still something between us.”

  She put her hand on his chest to reassure him she didn’t believe that. “I think you made it clear there isn’t.”

  “Everything I said was the truth.”

  She brushed her hand up his arm to his shoulder and stared up at him. “You make me very happy, too.”

  “Good. Let’s be happy together, finish up here, and go home so I can show you again how much I want you.”

  Before she went back to her cart, she snatched the éclairs from the display.

  “I thought you were getting the cheesecake.”

  She pointed to the cart. “I did. But I think it’s a two-dessert night.”

  He eyed the chocolate-covered éclairs. “I only get one.”

  She smiled up at him. “You get me.”