Renie watched Billy stomp away from her. She spent a lot of time watching him walk away. She’d been in love with Billy Patterson her whole life. No one, not a single living person, knew how she felt about him. The only one she ever talked to about him was her horse, which was stabled in the barn Billy now owned.
It didn’t seem as though much had changed at the ranch since Billy bought it. In fact, her mom left most of the furniture in the house when she sold it. She and her new husband, Ben, hadn’t needed it at his place in Crested Butte.
With Billy home infrequently, most of the house looked exactly the same as it always had. The master bedroom was the one room Renie was sure was different. She hadn’t set foot in it though. It was almost as though the bedroom was the only place in the house Billy lived. It seemed wrong to invade his space.
When her mom decided to sell, she asked Renie first if she wanted to keep it, live there herself, but Renie told her to sell it to Billy. With four years of school still ahead of her, she didn’t have time to take on the ranch.
She thought a lot about whether she’d regret her decision later, after she graduated and started a practice. Even then, she knew she wouldn’t be able to live the rest of her life next door to the Patterson family. The heartache of seeing Billy come to visit his parents with the wife he would he eventually marry, and the children they would eventually have, was more than she’d be able to handle. You didn’t love someone the way she loved Billy and ever truly move on from it.
Something didn’t feel right between them tonight. It seemed as though Billy was mad at her.
She’d planned to stay here for the weekend, ride Pooh, and study. Maybe she was making too much of it, but if he really did have a date, she didn’t want to be here.
Can I still stay this weekend? She texted him.
He answered within seconds. Of course.
Thanks. See you tomorrow.
William Prescott Patterson, Jr. was eleven years older than Irene Louise Fairchild. Her first memory of him was when she was ten, right after her grandfather died, and she got Pooh. Renie and her mom were out riding in the meadow. It was wide open, and a great place to let the horses run. Billy waved them over.
“Who’s this, Renie?” he rubbed the horse’s nose.
“This is Pooh,” she said proudly. “She’s mine.”
“Great name,” he answered as he slowly walked around her, running his hand over the horse’s body. “She’s solid. You pick her out yourself?”
“Mom helped.” Obviously Billy didn’t think Pooh was a boy’s name, like her mom did.
“‘Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That’s the problem.’ You hear that before, Renie? Remember that. Talk to her, but to listen too. Will you do that?”
He must be a very good bronc rider if he knew how to listen to horses, she thought at the time. From that day on, Renie spent as much time listening to Pooh as she did talking to her.
She must’ve read the same page over at least twenty times when she put the book down and turned off the light. Billy either wasn’t coming home tonight, or he planned to get back late enough that she’d already be asleep.
Whatever happened between them tonight, made him stay away. Where had he gone, and who was he with? She had to stop thinking about it too much or she wouldn’t get any sleep at all.
Telling Renie to stay at the house had to have been the stupidest thing he’d ever done. On the other hand, he loved having her there. Hell, he couldn’t make up his damn mind what he thought about it.
When she touched him today, he wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her. Since then it was the only thing he thought about. But, it was more than that. His mind drifted to the other things he wanted to do to Renie Fairchild. He tried to shake it out of his head. Thinking about kissing her was bad enough. More than that, it was…incestuous—or something.
It might have been a fluke. He’d see her tomorrow, and it would be as though nothing happened today. If it were that simple, he’d be inside his house, not sitting outside in his truck.
He told her he had a date. It was a lie, but at that moment, he had to leave, and the last thing he wanted was take her with him.
He went to the brewery first, then next door to the movie theater, and then he went to the bowling alley. All in all, he’d killed about four hours. He drove around for another hour, wasting gas until he decided he was being ridiculous.
Once he got home, he put off going inside. He’d been sitting outside in his truck for twenty minutes, and it was damn cold. It was January after all, and Monument, sitting at seven-thousand feet elevation, was colder on average than the surrounding towns and cities.
“Ah, to hell with it.” He got out of the truck and went in the back door of the house. One light remained on, in the kitchen. Renie told him she and her mother left that light on whenever someone would be getting home late. He decided it worked for him, too. He liked it. It made him feel as though somebody waited for him. He left it on even when he was at the house alone.
Renie was gone the next morning when he got out of bed. It wasn’t unusual for her. She was always running off somewhere, meeting up with that friend of hers.
Blythe. That reminded him, he needed to hire somebody to take care of the boarding stables.
He drove to his parents’ place and talked to his dad, William Prescott Patterson, Sr., whom everybody called Bill. His mom, Dottie, was like a grandmother to Renie. Which meant Billy was practically Renie’s uncle, and for the last twelve hours he’d been fantasizing about what it would be like to kiss his niece. Yep, he was fucked up all right.
His dad recommended the same man who ran the stables for Liv last year, after an accident kept her away from the ranch for a couple of months. Steve Sookan was his name, but everyone called him as Sookie. One of their more reliable hands, he’d worked for the Pattersons for a several years.
“You gonna let him stay in the house, Billy? That way he doesn’t have to come up from the bunkhouse,” his dad suggested.
“Why is he living in the bunkhouse?” Typically it was only used during busy times of the year, like calving season.
“Divorce. He’s trying to get back on his feet.”
Billy thought about it for a minute. “I’m not sure, Dad.”
“Why not?”
He didn’t want to tell his dad the real reason he didn’t want Sookie staying at the house, but he couldn’t come up with another reason off the top of his head.
“I guess it would be okay, but I told Renie she could stay at the house if she wanted to come down and see Pooh on the weekends.”
“Sookie’s harmless, but I would understand if Renie felt uncomfortable staying there alone with him.”
Sookie’s reputation with the ladies was the main reason he’d gotten a divorce. Billy didn’t want Renie within a hundred feet of the man.
“What did he say?”
“It doesn’t look good, Blythe. He said he didn’t want to hire someone who doesn’t have any experience with horses.”
“I don’t care that much about the job. What did he say when you mentioned me?”
“He didn’t say anything, Blythe. Oh, and he had a date last night. It might be somebody he’s serious about.”
“Serious? Billy Patterson is serious about someone? That I’d like to see. I’m not talking about forever, Renie. I only want to have some fun. I mean, God, just the thought of him…” Blythe swooned, rolled her eyes back in her head, and made a noise that sounded like an elk during mating season. Renie thought she might be sick to her stomach.
“I wouldn’t get your hopes up.”
“Let’s hang out at your house tonight.”
“I told you not to get your hopes up. And, it isn’t my house anymore.”
“He won’t care if you invite me over.”
Renie told Blythe that she had a midterm she had to study for that night, which was the truth. Not the whole truth, but enough of it.
“What
about Sunday? I’ll come over for breakfast.”
If Blythe Cochran didn’t let this go, Renie would kill her.
Billy hadn’t texted Renie all morning. Before yesterday, he hadn’t thought about how often they texted each other. But now that he thought about it, he sent her texts all the time. He told her everything; important stuff, trivial stuff, and jokes. He even said good morning and goodnight to her almost every day. Except today. He hadn’t said good morning to her today, he realized as he scrolled back through his texts to her.
Hey
Hey
What r u doin?
With Blythe.
When will u b back?
Why?
Typical Renie. Couldn’t she just answer the damn question?
Because I’m asking.
Planning on bringing a girl home tonight?
He’d never known anyone better at answering a question with a question than Renie Fairchild. Maybe he wouldn’t answer her, let her stew for a bit. Or he’d answer yes. But, if he did that, she wouldn’t come back to the house, she’d stay at Blythe’s, or go back up to school. He didn’t want that. More than anything he wanted to hang out with her as though everything was normal between them.
Answer the question.
An hour.
Wanna have dinner with me?
Who’s cooking?
You are.
It was one of those relationships. You see them all the time. The girl in love with the hot guy who didn’t realize she was alive. She’d do anything to be with him, and he took her for granted. The girl would never tell the guy she was interested in him because then he’d be uncomfortable and stop hanging out with her. That described her and Billy perfectly.
She parked near the barn, and went in to see Pooh before going in the house. She had things she needed to talk over with her horse before she saw Billy again.
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Dance with Me
Want more from Heather Slade?
Keep reading for a short excerpt from
The Promise,
the first book in
the Butler Ranch series.
The Promise
She closed the car door, and zipped her jacket. The blue sky and bright sun were misleading. This close to the ocean, the wind could be fierce, even on the sunniest days.
From where she stood in the gravel parking lot across the street, she saw a man walking toward her small town’s only supermarket. There was something familiar in the way he held himself. His worn barn jacket was taught across his shoulders, but hung loose over his narrow hips. Although his jeans were more metro than ranch, his boots were all cowboy, and so was his black, felt Stetson.
Peyton took a deep breath. It wasn’t the first time her mind played this particular trick. She looked left and right once she got inside, but didn’t see the man who’d probably been a figment of her imagination anyway.
Growing boys needed milk and orange juice, so before she’d even left the first aisle, her cart was half full. She was reading over her shopping list, on her way to the produce section, when her eyes met a pair of hauntingly familiar deep, blue eyes—eyes of a man she thought she’d never see again. Her disappointment was palpable as she scanned his face. The eyes were familiar, and maybe even the way he held himself that had her heart skipping a beat. But the man standing in front of her, whose eyes took in every inch of her in the same way her gaze traveled from his face to his hands, was not who she thought he was.
He raised and lowered his chin, “Hey.”
Peyton nearly closed her eyes. She knew the deep timbre of that voice intimately. “Sorry, you look so much like someone—” What could she say? Someone she used to know?
“Yes,” he murmured.
“Get that a lot?” She tried to laugh, but the pain she felt whenever she allowed herself to think about Kade Butler brought her closer to tears than laughter.
“No, I don’t.”
“I’m sorry, you don’t what?”
“Get that a lot.”
“Oh…uh…well.” Her hands gripped the shopping cart handle, but before she could move it forward, he grasped the wire basket.
“I’ve been looking for you.”
“Excuse me?”
“Name’s Brodie. Brodie Butler.”
Peyton closed her eyes just long enough that the tears she thought she held at bay flooded over her lids, and down onto her cheeks.
“I’m sorry, Peyton. I didn’t mean for it to happen this way.”
“But you meant for it to happen?”
“As I said, I’ve been looking for you.”
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The Promise
Fall for Me (Cowboys of Crested Butte Book 1) Page 25