Page 51 of The Rancher's Heart

There had to be something unremarkable about her that had Jonas keeping her in the friend category. She wasn’t about to magically become stylish, and she’d never been a fast-climbing kind of gal. Those were things about herself she would never change.

“Your next customer’s here,” Dean said as she closed the hood of the Wrangler.

She moved the Wrangler out of the bay.

So much had happened. Signing up for Perfect Match. Dating. Getting the sister she’d always wanted—it had taken two seconds for Clara to burrow into her heart. Dealing with social services. Getting engaged, even if it was for a nefarious reason on Jonas’s part.

She pulled in the next car, a Ranger whose owner brought the truck in like clockwork for routine checkups.

She had everything she wanted, excluding a man she could grow old with. When she signed up for Perfect Match, she’d set out to find... well... her perfect mate. For so long, she thought that guy was Jonas. She was wrong on both counts.

Perfect Match was a bust. She would be old, old, old before she found a love match there, even though Jonas had left her a message requesting her to meet him for lunch. That didn’t count, even though putting his profile on the dating app hadn’t been his idea. It was embarrassing that his brothers thought they needed a push in the direction of matrimony, but Jonas didn’t.

Cleaning her hands, she grabbed her phone from her pocket and texted her pretend fiancée.“You have to tell your family you’re breaking off our engagement.”

“Not yet.”He responded so quickly, she was certain he must have been waiting to hear from her.

She dialed his number. When he answered, she demanded, “Why not?”

“It would be suspicious if we were only engaged for a couple of days... that we’d made a mistake.”

Sloane couldn’t believe Jonas. “Says who?”

“Are you planning to tell Clara we’re not engaged?”

That was not playing fair. Her sister had been so excited about themsupposedlygetting married, she’d talked about nothing else. Sloane didn’t know if she could break Clara’s happy bubble. Not without Jonas being there to back her up.

“I’ll tell her after you tell your family. And you have to be there too.”

“Let’s meet after work and we’ll talk to her together.” Before she could agree that would work, he said, “I’ve got to run. See you tonight.”

When she got home earlier than she expected, dead beat from chasing her thoughts and wondering what Jonas was really up to, her dad was in the kitchen with Clara, scrambling a recipe the teen wanted to make. Dinner hash. She used to make it for Tracy, so Sloane made sure she had all the ingredients on hand.

“There you are.” Her dad gave her a long hug. “Clara tells me congratulations are in order—”

Sloane looked over Clara’s shoulder as she stirred the hamburger in the pan.

“I told Dad you and Jonas got engaged.” The kid practically did a two-step in her excitement.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right away.” How did she get into this crazy mess? Jonas didn’t really want to marry her. “Things got a little out of hand.”

He pulled her into the living room. Sloane glanced over his shoulder to make sure her sister’s attention was adequately engaged with the meal she was preparing.

“I figured you’d tell me when you got a chance. I ran into Nathan and Izzy at the hardware store. They told me the good news.” Grinning, he cupped her hand in both of his. “So, the boy finally proposed. It took him long enough.”

“Not exactly.” About to tell her dad the whole story, she was interrupted by a knock on the door. “That’s Jonas. He said he would stop by.” She opened the door. “Uh, hi.”

“Look who I found pulling up at the curb,” Jonas said, ushering in Nora.

“I’m here for a home visit.” Nora left her bag on the couch. “Is Clara here?”

Sloane led the way to the kitchen. “Did we have an appointment?”

“No. I just stopped by to see how you two are getting along.”

Surprise.Great. Sloane didn’t think she would tell Nora about Clara disappearing the other day. Her sister’s intentions had been innocent enough.

Clara put the lid on her skillet. “Jonas and my sister just got engaged,” she said, grinning from ear to ear.

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