Page 47 of The Rancher's Heart

“Good luck,” Julieann said, and left.

Sloane sighed heavily. Troubles typically came in threes, so she shouldn’t be surprised by Julieann’svisit. First, it was thinking that Clara had run off. Then, Jonas pretending they were engaged. And now Julieann, doing... what? Trying to warn her?

Jonas likes his women sophisticated and on the fast track.

No wonder they’d only been friends all these years.Sophisticatedandon the fast trackwere not words that anyone ever used to describe her. And if the worst that anyone could say about her was that she wasn’t sophisticated or on the fast track, that wasn’t so bad.

She might have feelings for the man, but that didn’t mean she had to try to be someone she wasn’t. Between Julieann and Perfect Match, she was definitely batting zero.

So what? She had a life to live with her dad and Clara, and live it she would, without apology.

No more dreaming of what it would be like to marry Jonas. No more thinking they would be perfect together. Her heart was NOT broken.

From now on, she would start living life on her own terms.

The next day, she got a message from Jonas on her profile.“Change your mind?”She didn’t answer, hoping he would get the hint and go away.

The day after that, after school and when she was done at the garage, her dad cornered her in the kitchen as they watched Clara planting the strawberry plants in the backyard he’d helped her pick out.

“She’s settling in nicely,” he said, laying his arm across Sloane’s shoulders. “But you’re not happy. What’s going on?”

“I’m fine,” she said, leaning her hip against the counter. Her gaze lingered on her sister, and she wished she could find the same peace of mind Clara seemed to have found after coming to live with her in Strawberry Ridge.

Her dad turned her to face him. “Fine isn’t good enough for my little girl. Talk to your old man.”

“I’m not your little girl anymore, Dad.” It was nice to have him worrying about her, even though he didn’t need to. She would figure this out. “I love you, Dad, but there’s nothing to talk about.”

“Okay. I’m here if you need to use me as a sounding board.”

That was the problem, wasn’t it? The only sounding board she wanted was the one man she’d decided she couldn’t have. She’d spent the last few days trying to figure out how to get past the fact that Jonas hadn’t offered her the real thing. There was only one way to deal with that. His announcing their fake engagement only confirmed what she already knew.

After her dad left and Clara had gone to bed, she pulled up Perfect Match and answered Jonas’s second message.“Sorry, I have too much work at the garage, and there’s Clara too. Oh, and by the way, Julieann stopped in at the garage. She’s going back to Denver, so you can break off our engagement. See you around.”

She hit send, then deleted her profile and went to bed, pretty sure a good night’s sleep was completely out of the question.

Chapter Thirteen

Unable to shrugoff his disappointment or make sense of Sloane’s“See you around,”Jonas stared at the computer screen. What if he didn’t want to break off their engagement? Okay, supposed engagement?

He’d been momentarily out of his mind and rash when he’d taken the bull by the horns and announced to everyone that he and Sloane were engaged without first asking the lady if she would be willing to play along. His excuse—not a good one—had been to get Julieann to accept there was no him and her. Thinking back on his reckless action, the only thing on his mind was keeping Sloane... and Clara... close and under his wing, so he could take care of them.

Sloane was so independent, she wouldn’t have gone for that. The only time she’d let him help her was when they thought Clara had run off.

He loved Sloane, but if he told her that, she was mad enough after his stunt not to believe him.

Jonas focused on the screen. She couldn’t possibly mean she didn’t want to see him at all. If that was true, how could he change her mind?

Frustrated, Jonas stepped away from his computer and went down the stairs to grab a soda from the fridge. He couldn’t risk losing Sloane. For the first time since the sixth grade, it felt like they weren’t on the same page. Had he missed something along the way?

A note waited for him on the kitchen counter by the coffee maker.

Blake is joining us for breakfast tomorrow morning to talk about our plans for the rodeo. It starts in a week. He’ll be here at eight. ~Nathan

He tossed the piece of paper back on the counter. If he wanted to maximize every reasonable opportunity to save the ranch, he had to keep to the plan. If they could pull off a win in the barrel racing event, Duke would make a name for himself, and they could count on getting other ranchers raising Rangerbred horses to show an interest in the Triple L’s breeding program.

After all this time, it had to be Sloane who made his heart ache. How could he have not known that she was just as important as the ranch?

He rifled through the mail Nathan had left next to the note, checking to see if he’d gotten a response from the DNA lab, and came up empty. They couldn’t register Duke with the Colorado Ranger Horse Association without DNA proof that he was a direct descendant of one of the two foundation stallions, MAX#2 and/or PATCHES#1. And without his sire, Duke’s Pride’s, pedigree papers, the only route of proof open to them was the DNA results.

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