Page 46 of The Rancher's Heart

“Are you ready for school tomorrow?” Clara nodded and yawned. Sloane went around, turning off the lights. “Off to bed with you, then.”

“Good night.” Clara paused before hugging Sloane. “I had fun today. Will you tuck me in?”

“Of course.” When she had her sister sandwiched in like a burrito, Sloane kissed her forehead. “Good night, sweetie. I’ll see you in the morning.”

The house quickly went quiet. It’d been a long day. Tomorrow would be even longer, with the teen starting school and the busy schedule at the garage. Her dad had easily been roped into picking Clara up after school.

Thinking about closing her dating profile—she just didn’t have the time, or the inclination, to keep dating right now while having to learn parenting skills and before she broke off her pretend engagement with Jonas—she decided tonight was the time.

Booting up her computer, she pulled up her profile. About to delete her page, she noticed she had a message from someone named Jonas. Her heart skipped a beat before she firmly put her foot down. There had to be more than one Jonas in the world, and even in Colorado.

She clicked on the message.

I like lengthy conversations over dinner, long walks in the mountains, and spending time with family. Would you like to meet at Aaron Park at the food cart that sells pizza by the slice? You name the date and time, and I’ll be there. ~Jonas

Her breath caught. Sloane stared at her screen for a long time before moving her hands to the keyboard, then pulling them back again. At the ranch, she vowed never to speak to the man again. That included chatting with him on a dating app.

She clicked on his page and fell into Jonas’s intense hazel gaze. Swallowing hard, she went back to his message.

She stared at the words on the screen.

What did it say aboutherthat after she’d spent years pining for the guy with no acknowledgment of anything personal from Jonas other than friendship, she was now his pretend fiancée, so he could convince the other woman he wasn’t available? She’d been dreaming about him for so long and what it would be like to go on a real date with Jonas. Could she say no? She wasn’t ready to stop being mad at the dude. So, yeah, she could say,no thanks!

She quickly typed the words.

With her cursor hovering over the delete button, for some crazy reason, she couldn’t click the mouse and be done with it. Closing the app instead, she shut down her computer without deleting her profile.

The next morning, still wondering what she was going to do about Jonas, she took a nervous Clara to school, where they found Andee and Reece waiting for them at the front of the school. Her sister’s nerves wore off while Malorie’s kids stayed with them through the enrollment process and then promised to meet up with her for lunch.

Relieved, she put all the craziness behind her and went to work. It was good that Dean was there to help with the overflow they’d packed in from the day she’d taken off.

She was almost done replacing a faulty starter in an Explorer when he tapped her elbow. “Sloane, there’s a lady here who’s insisting that she knows you. She wants to talk to you.”

Sloane put her tools down, and pulling the rag from her back pocket, wiped her hands. She had a feeling and hoped she wasn’t right... “Where is she?”

“In the customer reception area.” He leaned under the hood. “I can finish this up for you.”

“Thanks.”

She found Julieann where he’d left her. The socialite was like the proverbial bad penny that kept coming back. Sloane tried for polite interest, but her words didn’t come out that way. “Weren’t you heading back to Denver? Dean says you want to talk?”

Julieann held out a cup of coffee. “I’m headed back today. My brother wants my help with his pet project. Is there somewhere private we can talk?”

Thinking about the line of vehicles waiting for repair, Sloane looked at the roomful of waiting customers. The sooner she got Julieann on her way, the sooner she could be done with Jonas’s silly charade and get her life back to normal. Whatever that looked like these days.

“Come into my office. It’s not much, but it is private.” Taking the coffee Julieann held out, Sloane led the way, then cleared the spare chair so her visitor would have a place to sit. She leaned against the door after closing the noise from the garage out. “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry for barging in on your engagement party and to offer my congratulations.”

Sloane straightened. “Thanks.”

Before she went through the door, Julieann took Sloane’s left hand and rubbed her ringless finger before she could snatch it away. “I’m surprised Jonas is engaged. You don’t seem like his type.”

“Why? Because I’m a mechanic and he’s a lawyer?”

“No. It’s nothing like that.” She let go of Sloane’s hand. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but he likes his women sophisticated and on the fast track.”

“I see.” Okay, that wasn’t her. She’d never metone of his women, so she couldn’t judge his type. “Thanks for stopping by.”

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