by Maisey Yates
“I want to get a piece of land that belongs to me,” Luke said, tamping down the defensiveness that rose up inside of him.
He didn’t owe Wyatt Dodge his whole life. And if he wanted to leave his job, he sure as hell didn’t owe the guy an explanation. He was talking to him because Wyatt was like family to him, and it was a courtesy as far as Luke was concerned.
“I know you and Bennett have some shit going down, but I thought you could both deal with it. If this is about Olivia...”
And that did it. It just did it. It was one thing to call twenty years of loyalty into question and accuse him of abandonment, but it was another damned thing to bring Olivia into it.
“All right, you want to talk about abandonment and loyalty? Let’s talk about that. Because you don’t have a right to talk about Olivia, that’s for damn sure. If Bennett wants to come have a fight about it, he’s welcome to, but you need to keep out of it.”
“Fine, then,” Wyatt said, looking pissed now. “The why doesn’t matter. But this place is yours, too. You’re part of the family, Luke, and leaving now—”
“Yeah,” Luke interrupted. “It’s mine, too. Even though I’m the one who devoted every ounce of work to the place. The only one who didn’t have another job. The one who didn’t get married and get a job in town, or go to veterinary school or run off to the rodeo circuit. You want to talk about abandonment? How long are you here for, Wyatt? How long until you can’t stand the fact that living here means you aren’t a big deal cowboy anymore? How long until you decide that compressed disks and bum knees don’t matter if you can get just a little more glory? A few more buckle bunnies.”
“I’m done,” Wyatt said, his jaw hard, his brown eyes shining with a dangerous light. “I’m here now. And if you expect me to apologize for going away and earning more money to inject back into this place...”
“Oh, that’s why you did it?” Luke asked. To hell with treading gently. “For everyone else? This is the thing, Wyatt, I’m well aware I’m not family. If I were I’d have had a room in the house. If I were, I’d be the one running this place now, not you. I was the one who was here all those years, not you. No, I’m not family. And this place isn’t mine.”
“So what? Without a stake in the ranch, twenty years of friendship, of eating dinner together, celebrating holidays together...it’s nothing? Is that what you’re saying?”
“No. I’m saying it’s different. I refuse to take lectures on abandonment from the man who left his dad in the lurch to chase his dream and get trampled by bulls.”
“You don’t know jack shit,” Wyatt said. “And anyway, Dad needed money for the place more than he needed me.”
“Because I was cheap labor?”
“He had you. And it’s not like I didn’t come back in the off times of year.”
“Incidentally when there was less work to be done on the ranch,” Luke pointed out.
“I’m not looking for a lecture from you.”
“No,” Luke said. “You were looking to give one. Save it for your brothers. I could have just left, but I wanted to let you know my plans. I’m buying that piece of property owned by the Logan family, if all goes according to plan, and I’m going to establish my own ranch.”
“With what money?” Wyatt asked. “Like you said, you’re pretty cheap labor.”
Luke let out a laugh that was not at all filled with humor. “Everyone is so worried about my financial situation. And thank you,” he said, “but I’m good. I happen to be a grown man who isn’t an idiot. I know what I can afford.”
“It’s just,” Wyatt said, “I’ve seen the books. I know what we pay you.”
“And I’m telling you,” Luke said, “I’m good. I can pay cash for the place, thank you very much.”
Wyatt’s eyebrows shot upward, and Luke felt gratified by that. He also felt somewhat of a mix of gratitude and irritation that Wyatt didn’t press for details.
“What’s going on?”
Luke turned to see Bennett standing in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression combative.
“Luke is thinking about leaving,” Wyatt said.
“I’m not thinking about it,” Luke said. “I am. I’m buying that plot of land that Cole Logan has for sale on the outskirts of town.”
“You’ve talked to him?” Wyatt asked.
“No,” Luke said.
“You son of a bitch,” Bennett growled.
“What?” Luke asked.
“It’s a coincidence that you’re with Olivia now, and you want to buy a plot of land from her dad? Are you using her to get that land?”
“Fuck you, Bennett,” Luke said. “Is that the best that you think of me?”
“Why would I think better of you? Give me a reason,” Bennett said. “Explain this in a way that doesn’t look like shit.”
“I don’t need to explain this to you. Olivia has nothing to do with the land.” It was true enough. Yes, he had ended up talking to her about talking to her father, but it had nothing to do with their actual relationship. Had nothing to do with the fact that they were sleeping together. And giving out any of the actual reasons he had started hanging out with Olivia in the first place would be exposing her. And he wasn’t going to do that.
“I would think that knowing me for the past twenty years might help out,” Luke said.
“Do I know you?” he asked. “You’ve been around, sure. But you’re not a guy that people can actually know, Luke. You show up with a smart-ass smile on your face and kick along without making waves.”
“I’ve been here,” Luke said, gesturing to the space around him.
“Sure,” Bennett said. “Doesn’t mean we know you. Not really. You have just been here all this time, and suddenly you want to make a move, and that happens to involve my ex-girlfriend.”
Luke knew that at this point a smile would get him a better reaction than anything else. So he did just that. “Your ex-girlfriend involved herself with me, and that might bother you, Bennett, but it’s her choice. She’s not a kid. She’s a woman whether you want to know that or not. Hell, I’d say you didn’t know it. You treated her like... I don’t know. Like a brass ring. And she’s not.”
“No. I guess she’s the cosigner on the deed to your new ranch,” Bennett spat.
“I’m not having this fight with you. I’m not having a fight with you at all. The lady chose. Deal with it. I don’t have to justify a damned thing to you. Hell, I’ve been in bar fights with you guys, you ought to know me better than that.”
Luke turned to walk out of the room, and Bennett’s voice stopped him.
“Yeah,” he said, “you’ve backed us up in fights. But what do you fight for, Luke? That’s what I don’t know. You slide through things so easy. You don’t give a fuck about anyone. About anything. Sure as hell not about Olivia. So don’t stand there like I ought to give you credit, like I should know you, when you’ve never demonstrated what kind of man you are.”
“A man who backs up his buddies isn’t good enough for you?” Luke asked.
“A man who backs up his buddies is doing the easy thing,” Bennett said, “isn’t he?”
“I’ll remember that next time you’re about to get your ass beat down at the saloon.” He smiled. “I’ll remember that you think I should improve my character by doing the hard thing and get your teeth knocked out.”
He walked out of the living room, out the front door and was halfway down the steps when he heard Wyatt behind him.
“Hey,” he said, coming down the steps and moving to stand beside Luke. “Just give him time to cool off. He’s been bent out of shape since the breakup.”
“Well, that’s just too damn bad. I guess he should have figured out how to hang on to a woman,” Luke said, not feeling like giving Bennett any quarter at that point.
“You have your secrets,�
� Wyatt said. “We all do. I don’t want you to leave. But I understand that sometimes leaving is the only thing. I get that you’re pissed at me for getting in your business, but that’s what family does. So you’re just going to have to deal with it.”
“Still sticking with the family thing, are you?”
“This family has been through a lot,” Wyatt said, his expression grim. “We’ve lost enough. We don’t need to lose you, too. My dad doesn’t treat us all the same. And he’s...he’s not perfect, Luke, but he loves the hell out of you.”
“I know that,” Luke said. He did. It had been asinine of him to bring up the fact that Quinn hadn’t sold part of the ranch to him. That things had gone to Wyatt. He had never talked to Quinn about it. He had never asked Quinn if he could live in the house. And he had a pretty good sense of things, enough to know that Quinn pretty purposefully didn’t push to hand things to Luke. Because he knew Luke would reject them.
“Until the ranch comes together for you, you know that you have a place here. Hell, after, I would love to have you here.”
“Why are you being nice to me? I mean, why aren’t you on Bennett’s side?”
Wyatt shrugged and put his cowboy hat on his head, moving past Luke. Then he stopped and turned toward him. “I may not have seen what you’d choose to throw a punch for. But I’ve seen what you sweat for. This place. For us. For my dad, and for everything he gave you. That tells me enough.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“ARE YOU IN a philosophical space that allows you to visit Get Out of Dodge?”
Lindy’s sudden question shocked Olivia, and it sent her mind straight to Luke. Not that her mind had been far from Luke at any point during the day. An interesting change from when any mention of Get Out of Dodge would have put her in mind of Bennett, and no one else.
But, no. Her brain was completely fixed on Luke now.
Luke’s body, Luke’s lips, the way that Luke felt moving inside of her. Yes, she was having a full-fledged obsession, but really, a girl could hardly be blamed when she was twenty-five and had only just lost her virginity the night before.
“I am philosophically and physically able,” Olivia said, looking up from the spreadsheet she had been examining, trying not to sound too eager.
“Great. I’m taking samples over to Get Out of Dodge. Wine, and some Donnelly cheese, as well. Just trying to get Wyatt on board with this whole joint venture thing.”
“Yes. I can do that.”
“I find the whole thing with Wyatt difficult,” Lindy confessed.
“Why? Because he’s friends with your ex?”
“He hates me,” Lindy confessed. “I mean, he just really doesn’t like me. Never has. From the first moment I met him when I went on a partial tour with Damien years ago, we met in a bar and...he just took against me.”
“You want to partner with him why?”
“Because. Get Out of Dodge is the only dude ranch in the area, and he’s trying to revamp it. We are between Copper Ridge and Gold Valley, and I feel like we should reap the benefits of both.”
“I admire your avarice,” Olivia said.
“Thank you,” Lindy said. “It’s one of my best qualities. Okay. I have all the boxes loaded up in the back of the truck. Now we just need to drive down there.”
Olivia drifted behind Lindy, across the gravel lot. She toed some of the gray rocks with her brown ankle boots and looked around them at the towering pines, still defiantly green, even in the dead of winter.
Olivia wanted to be defiant in that way, suddenly. Wanted to weather these changes, this season, and maintain her color and life.
Or more honestly, get it back.
They both got into the truck and Olivia placed her elbow on the armrest and looked out the window as they drove down to the highway.
“You still seem awfully quiet,” Lindy said. “Is the whole thing with Bennett...”
“He asked if we could get back together,” Olivia said. “I refused.”
The words sent a little buzz through her. She really had refused him. And she had gone after Luke, who made her blood hot and her heart race fast. She’d satisfied herself for now, and who knew what would happen in the future. But she felt good. Resolute, if nothing else.
Lindy slapped the steering wheel. “Good for you. I don’t think he appreciated you.”
“Really?”
“Actually,” Lindy relented, “he always seemed like a really nice guy, and he treated you like a princess. But, there was something missing.”
“Chemistry,” Olivia said. “Which... I know I can’t ignore anymore.”
“I see,” Lindy said, carefully. “What brought about this change of heart?”
“I...” Olivia swallowed. “I slept with someone last night.”
“I see,” Lindy repeated, this time clearly not seeing at all.
“For the first time.”
“The first time ever with that person, or the first time ever?”
“The first time ever,” Olivia said.
She had felt very much like an outsider during the conversations her friends were having about love and sex over the past few months. Now she just wanted to talk.
“It was so much different than I thought it would be,” she continued. “And he’s so different than the kind of man I thought I’d be with. My feelings are...so complicated. I can’t stop thinking about him.”
“I’m having déjà vu,” Lindy said. “This is the second time someone has confessed virginity loss to me in my car.”
“Oh,” Olivia said. “Is that really a lot?”
“Considering it’s all been in the past couple of months? Yes. Which, more power to you guys. It’s been so long for me I can hardly remember what it’s like. Anyway, I would be too tired to have a relationship even if one presented itself. All this work on the winery. Every night when I get into bed I’m so sore I can hardly move. The other night I actually considered using my vibrator as a massager. For my shoulders. Because my predominant need is to relieve the aches and pains in my muscles, not anywhere else.”
Olivia’s face warmed slightly, but she found the line of conversation didn’t mystify her as much as it might have before last night. Or maybe even before she had kissed Luke in the back of the truck.
Suddenly, a whole lot more things made sense to her. Like why people made rash, impulsive decisions that would only hurt them when sex was involved. Like why it was difficult to go without once you started.
That specter loomed large in front of her, made her feel slightly terrified. Just because she’d had sex with Luke once didn’t mean it would keep happening. Or maybe it would happen a few more times, but then he would get bored and it would end. And then what? She would have to find someone else. Someone else that she felt this way about. It had taken her twenty-five years to find a man she felt this way about. She didn’t want to wait twenty-five more.
“Was it Luke Hollister by any chance?” Lindy asked gently.
Olivia’s head whipped around to look at Lindy’s profile. “How did you know?”
“Because I saw you with him that morning he brought you to work. And I know you said there was nothing going on, but, Olivia, the way he looks at you...”
“How does he look at me?” Olivia asked, suddenly desperate to pry apart every detail about the way Luke might see her.
“Like he’s starving and you’re food. Like he’ll die if he can’t touch you.”
Olivia felt like her breath had been sucked right out of her. “You got all of that from a look?”
“And more. Men are not very subtle. And he really isn’t.” Lindy laughed.
Olivia frowned. “I was such a virgin.”
“Nothing wrong with that. But that man wanted to eat you alive. I’m glad he finally got to.”
Olivia’s face went hot at that. Because
it put her in mind of a very literal interpretation of what Lindy meant metaphorically. Which had happened. And shocked her at the time. But delighted her in hindsight.
Okay, it still shocked her a little bit, too.
“Luke is probably going to be at the ranch,” Olivia said, trying to sound casual.
“Well, as long as you don’t take off on me when I’m trying to deal with Wyatt.”
“I promise I won’t.”
They turned into the drive that led to Get Out of Dodge and Lindy parked the truck right in front.
Olivia went around to the back with her and lowered the tailgate, taking one of the boxes of wine, while Lindy took the other.
“Right now they’re probably in the mess hall,” Olivia said. “It’s time for their midmorning coffee and carbs.”
“You’re going to have to show me where that is,” Lindy said.
“Follow me,” Olivia said, pleased at least to feel like an authority on one thing. The rest of the world felt like a big endless mystery all of a sudden. Which was funny, because she had labored under the assumption that she had it all figured out for the last twenty-five years or so. That plans and control were all she needed. And all it had taken was that wildfire attraction to Luke Hollister to prove to her that she had been laughably wrong.
Suddenly, she saw so much more nuance in life. So many more variables. Understood why people made bargains with themselves about certain things and why they committed grave sins in the name of pleasure.
For a moment she wondered if it were the same with drugs for some people as it was with sex. If it all felt worth it for that momentary high.
It was so much easier to stand in judgment. She had liked her moral high ground.
But now that she had proven herself human, too, it was difficult to get back up on it.
She paused in front of the door to the mess hall and knocked gently. And a moment later Wyatt flung the door open. He looked at her, and then his eyes settled on Lindy. And Olivia suddenly understood what Lindy had meant only a moment before.