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My heart thumps. Maybe we’ve become more than neighborly, in the best way. Maybe there’s something more than that in the future.
For the four of us.
I don’t see any of them around the house. It seems odd, given that they were so invested in security, but the new security cameras seem to be up and running, so…
Maybe they went back to Wild Spur.
I hop into my SUV, putting it in gear. I want to check on the horses, anyway. Obviously, in the Wild Spur barn, they’re going to get top-notch care, but I want to look at them all the same. Joan needs the vet to come. I’m pretty sure at this point she’s way, way too pregnant.
When I pull up to the Wild Spur, the guys’ trucks are all out front. Good.
I walk to the porch, but right as my foot hits the step, raised voices catch my attention. I pause, listening.
“We need to tell her.”
“Why? If she doesn’t know, it doesn’t change anything.”
“We need to tell her because we owe it to her to tell her,” Landon’s deep voice says.
“Even if we tell her, it doesn’t change the outcome,” Clint snaps.
My heart starts to pound, and my stomach clenches painfully. What are they talking about?
I creep forward, careful to keep my weight slow and evenly distributed across my feet so that nothing squeaks on the porch as I walk up.
“The ranch is doing fine. She and her dad are doing fine,” Shane says. “It’s not right, Clint.”
My heart in my chest, I open the door. “What do you want me to know?”
The silence that greets me is overwhelming.
My anger rises. “What do you want me to know, Clint?”
Clint’s eyes dart to the side. “There’s nothing to know.”
“We have a plan to lure your ex out,” Landon says. “But that’s not what we were talking about.”
“What the hell were you talking about then, Landon?”
Shane looks over at Landon, who looks at Clint, who looks away.
“Fine,” Landon snaps. The lightness that’s normal to his tone is gone, replaced by something that seems much darker and more serious. “I’ll tell her.”
“Tell. Me. What,” I say through clenched teeth.
Landon nods. “The reason that we gave you that rental contract was that originally, we had planned to buy the ranch from you.”
“Why did you plan on that?”
“We knew the ranch was failing. We knew that you had gone to the bank for a loan,” Shane says softly.
I feel like I’m going to be sick. “So, you forced me to sign the stupid lease?”
“No. You negotiated out of the worst part,” he says. “But… when the ranch did fail, we would buy it from you.”
When the ranch did fail.
I step back like I’ve been slapped. “What do you mean, when it failed?”
