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“At this point, I can’t do worse.”
“Fuck. Off,” I snarl. I shove the USB in my pocket and start stomping back up the stairs.
“You get to tell Clint!” Landon yells back after me.
The whole situation makes me growl with irritation.
In the attic, I slam the door to the stairway shut. I stomp around, well aware that my footsteps are going to echo through the whole house.
Good. I hope they do. I hope Landon is trying to take a fucking nap or something, and this drives him absolutely batshit.
I huff before sliding back in front of my computer. I could open up my trading apps and get going. Make some money with the large sum my parents left me. I don’t have to. But sometimes I do.
I used to be very into day trading. Back after my parents first died, and I wanted to make it feel like their car accident wasn’t just a random act of violence. When I wanted to make some kind of connection. Like they’d approve of me making all of those trades, and like they died to make me better, somehow.
Stupid fucking idea.
I sigh, leaning back and massaging my temples with my hands. The truth is, now that the ranch is doing well, I feel kind of… lost. When we were getting up and running three years ago, I was on top of my game. Landon and Clint needed my connections, my degree, my business acumen. And I needed them to run the place.
Now that we’re so successful? I don’t have anything else to do.
Bored.
That’s definitely it. I’m bored. I could use another challenge…
My eyes drift to the window, where I see a cloud of dirt still from where Nora tore out earlier.
May the best man win.
I grin. Challenge accepted.
CHAPTER 7
Nora
The nerve of those freaking guys. I think about it the whole way back to my house.
While I agree that it’s probably outrageous to think that Landon tampered with the gas auger, I also wouldn’t necessarily put it past them. I definitely think that sitting me down and essentially shoving a contract down my throat for a lease feels like a dick move. Even if they weren’t behind the malfunctioning tool, they definitely saw an opportunity.
Well. I guess I shouldn’t say ‘they.’ Landon seems like he’s less of a… problem. He strikes me as a true cowboy. There for a good time, not for a long time, kind of thing. I agree with the other one, Shane, that Landon probably didn’t do that shit on purpose.
Shane, however, saw the opportunity. He seems smart. It feels stupid to say, but he reminds me of a CEO or something. If he wasn’t sitting there in Wranglers and a faded pearl-snap button-down, I’d expect him to be in a suit behind a conference table somewhere in a high-rise. That’s what he seems like he’s more suited to.
I pull up at my house, sighing. They’re both insanely handsome guys. Shane’s big. He’s built in ways that Landon isn’t, just taller, broader. The kind of muscles that Kendall and I used to joke were ‘gym muscles,’ but I have a feeling that Shane is just as strong as Landon, who looks wirier, like the cowboys I’m used to. Shane’s broad face, along with his big brown eyes and brown hair, are pretty sexy, though. He kind of reminds me of a bear, in a way.
I snort. Stop turning them into animals, Nora.
I like animals. I don’t like these jerks.
Slamming the door shut, I notice that my dad’s truck is back. Good. Maybe I can get some more information out of him.
I hop onto the porch, opening the door. “Dad, you’ll never believe what happened…”
Once I get inside, I pause. My dad is sitting at the kitchen table with a piece of paper in his hands.
My heart sinks. I walk the rest of the way in, not bothering to hide my approach. I pull up to the kitchen table and look at my father. His eyes look red. Has he been crying?
“Dad,” I say slowly. “What are you reading?”
