Page 53 of Snowed In with the Rancher

Chapter Seventeen

God, he was a fucking idiot.

To think that he deserved an amazing woman like Triss given how broken he was, it was honestly laughable.

And the only way he knew he could get her to leave was to push her away. So he’d done that and hated every second of it. His gut spun, his ears buzzed and his heart hurt as he forced out the words and told her to leave. To call a cab, book a flight and go.

But she didn’t deserve to deal with his shit. It wasn’t her job to fix him.

And he was the kind of broken that you just couldn’t fix anyway.

With his teeth chattering and his toes probably frost-bitten, he stayed in the shed until he heard a cab pull up in the driveway in front of the house. Then he waited until he knew that cab would be gone before he gathered his wits—or what was left of them—and his sorry ass and headed back into the house.

The place was cold, dull and lifeless and he knew precisely why.

Because Triss wasn’t there.

She was gone.

Anger clawed sharp talons in his throat making it difficult to swallow. He was developing a headache, his molars were so tightly clenched and as a form of punishment to himself, he didn’t bother fixing himself anything for lunch.

He didn’t really have an appetite anymore anyway.

He put on fresh, warm socks, and a sweater, then shoved his feet back into his boots and tossed on his coat. He was about to head back to the barn to go and get Macklin and Mercy’s wrath over with when he told them Triss left, when his phone started to warble in his pocket.

He put it to his ear. “Hey bro,” Nate said. “We just stopped to get gas, we’re about three hours out, so we’ll see you soon unless another snowstorm hits.”

“Don’t even fucking joke about that,” Asher grumbled.

“Where’s Triss, I want to talk to her,” Hannah said. “If she’s sucking your dick, never mind though.”

“Tell our niece to show her uncle some fucking respect,” Asher said to his brother, every word hurt to get out. And at the mention of Triss, a sharp spike of regret lodged itself in his chest, dead-center and he could already tell it wasn’t going anywhere.

“Asher says that they’re taking a break,” Nate replied to Hannah, a smile in his voice.

“She’s not here.”

“Where is she?” Nate asked.

“Left.”

“To town for more condoms?”

“No. Home.”

“What the fuck?” Hannah exclaimed. “Let me talk to him. I told him to hump away her heartbreak, not break her heart even more. Give me the phone, Nate.”

“Hannah, stop it. Let go.”

“Give me the phone.”

A commotion ensued on the other end for a moment, then the sound of a truck door slamming echoed through. “She can’t get to me out here, the brat,” Nate said with a chuckle. “Now, what do you mean Triss is gone?”

“She left. We parted ways. The fling is over.”

“Yeah, you definitely sound like a man who was done with her.” Asher could just picture his brother shoving his fingers into his hair. “Fuck, bro, what’d you do?”

“A lot of things,” Asher said on a sigh.

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