Page 11 of Live, Ranch, Love

I suddenly notice how her chest swells and falls with deep breaths, and I realise what I’ve just done.

“Shit, sorry,” I sputter, finally ripping my hand away. I take a good few steps back to create a comfortable distance between us. “I don’t, um, usually grab women like that.” Or freeze when I do touch them…

“I should hope not,” Aurora half laughs, her British accent particularly strong as she speaks. Her eyes look like they’re about to bulge out of her head, though. They’re so wide, I can see for the first time how her irises are mottled with different hazel shades, some honey-like, others closer to brown—

“What was that all about?”

“I…” Letting out a groan, I swipe off my hat and run a hand through my hair.

I fucking panicked, that’s what happened. I’m on edge—more than I’ve ever been in my life—because I don’t know when my time on this ranch is going to end. Nor do I know how to stop my freedom from being taken away from me. And the last people I need to be responsible for that is fucking Crestland.

I can live with Aurora’s presence for the next however many weeks she’s planning on frolicking around here. But to stay in Willow Ridge knowing that a company like Crestland has made their mark here, I’m not sure I can handle that.

Hands now firmly placed on her hips, Aurora pins me with her hazel stare. She’s rolling her strawberry lips together, waiting.

I sigh, shoving my hat back on. “Please don’t sell the ranch to Crestland.”

“Oh.” Aurora’s lashes flutter as her stance softens. “Why not?”

“Because they’re a big corporation that doesn’t give a shit about what this land means to people, or what ranching means to our town.” I don’t hold back from raising my brows at her, as if to say, a little like someone else I know. She barely rolls her eyes. “I know a place a few towns over—Crestland bought the ranch, promised they’d keep it going for the community, then bulldozed everything. Put a stupid mall down instead. We don’t need that happening here.”

I don’t like the way I’m laying all my fears bare for her, especially when she’s blinking up at me with something like pity behind her eyes. I clench my fists at my side. “And if you knew anything about this place, what you’ve gotten yourself into, then you’d understand that.”

That makes her eyes narrow, and she shakes her head. “Um, you can’t be mad at me for not knowing that. You could’ve gone through everything with me, but instead you shoved a folder in my hands and rode off.”

I press my tongue against the inside of my cheek.

Aurora lets out a deep sigh. “Sometimes change can be good,” she says, but it’s somewhat mumbled, like she’s almost trying to convince herself of such.

“I doubt it.” I need to get back out in the fields. On the back of Dusty probably too given how tense my whole body has felt since the second I grabbed Aurora’s arm. I’m wasting time standing around with her, thinking she might actually give a rat’s ass about Sunset Ranch’s future now Grace is gone. “If you gotta sell the ranch, just… at least try to choose someone who cares, yeah?”

Pressing her lips together, Aurora nods and opens the back door.

I turn on my heel and—

“Wyatt,” Aurora calls over her shoulder, something scarily gentle in the way she says my name. I hold her hazel eyes. “I’ll cancel the meeting with Crestland.”

Relief washes over me like a crashing wave. I give Aurora one nod before heading down the stairs, not looking back. Even though I can feel the first flowers of hope faintly blooming in my chest, I know full well that whatever the future holds is only a few steps away from trampling them.

five

Aurora

“Oh, say it again,” June, the sweet-faced elderly lady behind the counter of Willow Ridge’s thrift store, Nifty Thrifty, coos at me.

Luckily for her, I’m still on a high from mustering up the courage to take Auntie Grace’s old truck into town, despite it being seven years since I last drove on the opposite side of the road, so I happily oblige.

“I’m from London.” Yep, that’s literally all she wanted me to repeat, but apparently it’s like music to her ears because she gasps animatedly, clapping her hands together in front of her face. Just like she did when I first started talking.

It definitely beats the stares I got from the locals when I first parked up and started walking along Main Street. Auntie Grace always did say it took Willow Ridge a while to get used to her moving here—a symptom of being a small town, I guess.

“Oh!” June exclaims with a big grin, beginning to pilfer through the bags of Auntie Grace’s old stuff that I’d put together earlier in the week. Though, now that I’ve had a good look around the thrift store, I’m pretty certain my great aunt got most of her clothes from here, and I’m probably just returning them. There’s several gaudy throws and rugs in here that I’m sure she would’ve adored too.

“I just love a British accent, you know? I remember when Grace first moved here—we couldn’t get enough of her accent. The men especially liked it.” June wiggles her brows at me. “I’m sure you’ll have them quite enraptured soon too.”

I have to force my smile out this time, aware that she doesn’t quite realise that firstly—Auntie Grace was in her forties when she moved here, so unless I’m looking for a silver fox, I don’t think I’d be attracting the same men she was, and secondly—I’m currently knee-deep in post-heartbreak self-depreciation, meaning meeting someone is the last thing on my mind.

What’s actually on my mind right now is the fact that I’ve only got one scheduled social media post left before I have to start making up content again. One more post to carry on this façade that I’m still the happy, self-assured woman I’ve always claimed to be. And the biggest joke of it all is that it’s one I made ages ago on manifestation techniques to attract the perfect partner. Maybe I should give it another read myself. Clearly I didn’t do a very good job of it last time.

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