Page 3 of Red Hot Rancher

Apparently, he’d been a busy boy, because yesterday he’d called with the news that he’d cut ties with the rental house. All the papers were in his name and she needed to leave. Now.

Oh, and Vanessa and I will stop by and get the car. Leave the keys in the mailbox.

Brigit’s car was also in his name. That had been the deal. He had a good job and had secured the financing and she’d bought the furniture with her parents’ help. The engagement ring went with him as well, as if he’d sensed she would’ve been first in line at Moore’s pawnshop the next day. She should’ve done that immediately. Then maybe she could’ve skipped him blaming her for yet another issue between them.

This won’t even cover everything I’ve done to get you through school.

Guess the ring wasn’t a symbol of his deep, abiding love for her after all.

So, he’d dissolved the rental agreement and was selling her car. It was like he was punishing her for outing his affair.

She turned to see what Caleb was doing, still lost as to what she should pitch in with. Her pulse jumped. He was swaggering up the walk, the brim of his hat shading his eyes. She abruptly spun away from the door.

Yes, it was pretty fucking rude. He was using his day off to help her, but there was only so much emotional turmoil a girl could take. She’d have to give him a cold shoulder or she’d be hiding in the bathroom for half the day.

“Hey, Bridge.” God, that voice. Deeper than Oliver’s, but always with a ray of positivity. Caleb was an eternal optimist, and she hadn’t met anyone that made her laugh more since they’d broken up. “Hope you don’t mind that I invited myself along to help.”

“It’s your back.” She tried not looking at him but failed. His mouth tightened but not with irritation at her. Sympathy brimmed in his warm brown eyes. Her commitment to aloof bitchiness wavered. “But thanks. You didn’t have to.”

“You shouldn’t have had to find a new home on such short notice.”

She smiled sadly, the last of her intentions to stay icy melting away. “You had to with even less notice.”

He grimaced at the reminder of the tornado that had destroyed his house a few months ago. “Both shitty events. Good thing we have Justin to crash with.”

Her lungs seized. In her mental state, she hadn’t put the two together. Justin was coming to grab her things and store them in the shop at his place. And while she knew Caleb was staying with Justin until he could finance the build of a new house, she hadn’t paired that information with the fact that she’d be moving in with Justin until she found a job.

She’d be living under the same roof as the one man she’d been avoiding.

A shadow crossed Caleb’s face. “Don’t worry. The house is big enough that I won’t bother you.” He stalked past her, his jaw tight.

She scrubbed her face with her hands. Had she looked that upset at the prospect? She was, but she hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings, and not just because he planned to haul all her quality-built furniture.

He’d lost his grandmother’s hundred-year-old house in a tornado. He literally had no home, but he still had a ranch to run and a full-time job. She had poor taste in men and had stupidly given Oliver too much control over their finances. The only smart thing she’d done was go to that coffee shop and eavesdrop on him. Otherwise, this might have been her life, only getting divorced with nothing to her name but a china hutch she’d never wanted to buy.

But it’s a statement piece. Mom had loved it and she’d been buying, so Brigit had acquiesced.

The guys disappeared into her bedroom. A flush ran up her neck to her cheeks. Caleb was in her bedroom again, only under tragically different circumstances. At least she’d gotten up early and stripped the bedding, tossing the mattress cover. She was keeping the bed—she wasn’t trashing a pillow-top king-sized bed just because Oliver was a douche.

Her eyes burned with the threat of tears as she scanned her furniture. A living room set, dining room set, bedroom set, artwork, decor. All of it sturdy, none of it made from particleboard. Each piece was large and heavy. Good thing the house was old and small and she hadn’t furnished the basement.

Her shoulders sagged as a wave of fatigue washed over her. Between all the crying and the late-night packing, exhaustion was her best friend. How convenient that spot was open, since she’d been glued to Oliver’s damn side for the last three years. She no longer had a bestie.

And that was the real reason she hadn’t had anyone to call but Justin. She was alone, except for her two new roommates: her brother—and the ex-boyfriend no one knew she’d ever dated.

Chapter 2

Caleb set the painting on the top of his boot and watched Brigit hip-check a dresser into place between the box springs and mattress. He hadn’t seen her dressed so casually in years. Not since the days he’d hung out with Justin on his farm, when she’d be out on the riding lawn mower, her hair in the messy bun at the top of her head. Then, he’d had such a huge fucking crush on her. She’d been the cutest girl alive.

She’d gone from cute to sexy. Her curves had filled out, making his mouth water at the woman she’d become. For a while he’d wondered if she’d grow taller than him. But she’d stopped before reaching six feet, and he’d managed to squeak past.

It didn’t matter, their height. At one time, they’d fit perfectly together. Until he’d endured a teenage boy’s worst nightmare—being busted by her mother.

You will get dressed and you will leave and you will forget you know my daughter’s name. None of the fires he’d been in scared him as much as Joan Walker’s voice undulating with rage.

He’d been allowed to stay friends with Justin and that was only because it would’ve attracted attention otherwise. Justin might’ve known Caleb was hot for his sister, but he didn’t know that he and Brigit had crossed any lines. Or that he’d snuck into her room and out to meet her in the fields all summer to make out and experiment the way kids that age do.

She brushed a few strands of stray blond hair out of her face, shaking him out of the past and into the present. While she looked sexier than ever, she still had dark crescents under her eyes and a perpetual frown.

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