Page 40 of Wild As Her

Tucker dodges, laughing. “Nice try, lover boy. How’s life at your new ranch?”

“It’s still Cami’s ranch,” I reply, not taking the bait.

Jenna shakes her head, clearly enjoying my misery. “Anyway, I also may have let the cat out of the bag about the show over at Steamy Sips this morning. Everyone in town knows now.”

I freeze and close my eyes. “Great.”

Jenna beams. “I told Maggie. Figured it was best to get people excited, make it a whole event.”

I stare at her, saying nothing.

“Now everyone is invested. This is what we wanted. We wanted the town to trust us and hopefully forget our father. This is the perfect distraction,” she says, looking excited.

“She’s right,” Tucker adds. “You should’ve seen the group of ranch wives down at the Harvest & Honey plotting ways to get their nieces and granddaughters on the show as extras. You’re a hot commodity, Jack. Who knew?”

I groan, rubbing my temples. This is hell. This is actually hell. I live in hell.

“Look at it this way,” Jenna says, grinning. “The whole town is rooting for us now, especially you.”

I drag my hand down my face. “Fantastic. That’s exactly what I wanted, to be the town’s damn entertainment.”

Tucker claps me on the back, grinning from ear to ear. “Come on, big bro. This is gonna be fun. There will be beautiful women, and you're making money for the ranch. Don't be such an ungrateful bastard."

I shoot him a withering glare. “You know what’s fun? Running a ranch without a camera crew filming me trying to find a wife. I don't need a wife. I need to get this ranch up and going. Why couldn't we have just made a reality show about that?”

Jenna grins wider. “Too late now, Jack. The contracts are all signed. Plus, no one wants to see how a ranch actually works. They want to see the highlights and the drama. And there will be drama with you, I have no doubt.”

I look around at my siblings, one too smug, one too entertained, and let out a long, slow breath.

I am so, so screwed.

“I don’t know, man,” Ollie says, scratching the back of his neck as we stand in front of Steamy Sips in the dead of night. “Moving my sister’s coffee trailer while she’s asleep feels like a dangerous game. She always wants to kill you. But I don’t want to be on that list.”

Walker smirks. “You’re just scared of her. She won’t want to kill me. I feed her dinner.”

Ollie narrows his eyes. “You’re damn right I’m scared of her.Have you met my sister? That woman holds grudges like an Olympic sport. I heard about what she did to Granger and Jace.”

Walker shrugs. “Those bastards had it coming.”

“Exactly,” I say as I tap the side of the trailer. “Which is why this is necessary. When she's out at the ranch with the trailer, she'll be safer. No one is going to fuck with her on the Jessop Ranch."

Ollie lets out a low whistle. “When are you going to admit you have a thing for her?"

I ignore him and start unlocking the hitch. “I am not admitting anything.”

“She’s going to kill you.”

“Details,” I say with a shrug. “She’ll be grateful we moved it for her so she doesn’t have to.”

Walker chuckles. “Just so we’re clear, when she sets you on fire in retaliation, I’m gonna say I told you so.”

I wave a hand. “Shut up and help me.”

Between the three of us, it doesn’t take long to secure everything and hook up the trailer and drive it straight out to Jessop Ranch, parking it right in front of the barn like it was always meant to be there. We even set up her picnic tables.

To top it off, we left a wooden sign in town where the trailer was:

"Steamy Sips has been temporarily relocated to the Jessop Ranch and is open for business. – Management"

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