Page 45 of Wrangling Hearts
So I called Delilah, and she was here in fifteen minutes flat with a slew of junk food and a very large bottle of shitty wine. We spent the rest of the night working on the last touches of our final proposal, which was due at midnight.
But I couldn’t stop checking my phone the entire time we worked, waiting and hoping for Beau to respond to the texts I’dsent, apologizing and asking to talk. But nothing ever came, so I just kept chugging wine and stuffing my face.
“Just call him,” Delilah said. “It’s actually painful to look at you right now. You’re like a lost dog looking for its owner. A box of kittens left at the pound. A baby duck alone in a river. Just sad vibes all around.”
I massaged my temples, my brain fried from staring at my laptop. “I don’t think he wants to talk to me. He’s probably working on his proposal with Joseph anyway.”
“We should go over there.”
“Over where? To Circle M?”
She scoffed. “Hell no. Mount would shoot us in the ass with his twelve-gauge. To Anna’s.”
I straightened, my stomach twisting with unease. Or it might’ve been the pound of sour gummy worms and half a bottle of pinot I had consumed. There was no way to really tell. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked to Anna in ages. It’d be weird. And she has a toddler. I’d hate to wake him up.”
“You’re basically screwing her brother. How is it weird?”
I snorted, sipping more wine. “Um, well, that part for starters.”
“Y’all fucked?!” she yelled, and I slapped a hand over her mouth.
“Shhhh. You’ll wake up my mom.” I moved my hand. “No. We haven’t slept together. He just…God, I can’t believe I’m telling you this. He”—I looked around to make sure Emmett wasn’t wandering around the house since he never sleeps—“he fingered me in the barn earlier.”
Delilah’s jaw dropped. A face of pure excitement. “You dirty slut! I love it,” she whispered. “I didn’t know you had it in you. I always pictured you on your vanilla high horse, judging the rest of us.”
My shoulders dropped, surprised. “You’re not mad?”
Her eyes narrowed, head tilting. “Why would I be mad? Everyone deserves to get some.”
“Because he’s our competition? Because I should’ve been working on the proposal instead of getting finger banged against a hay bale?”
She giggled, kicking her feet. “Not the hay bale! That’s so hot.”
“It’s not funny!” I laughed.
My laughter faded, and I buried my face in my hands. “This is serious, Delilah. We’re drowning in debt. If Beau wins this partnership, the ranch is done. I’ll have no choice but to sell to that seersucker-wearing asshole, Hollis, and watch him turn my family’s land into whatever nightmare he has planned.” Just the thought nearly made me puke.
She pouted. “Well damn, way to kill my buzz.”
“Now you know why I’m so freaked out. He’s too big of a distraction. I’d never forgive myself if we lost this partnership because I was wrapped up in him.”
“You put way too much pressure on yourself, bear,” she said, taking a sip of wine. “Nobody is expecting you to be perfect or have it all together all the time. It’s okay to make mistakes, to fall for a hot ass man who fingers you in the barn, to live for you and only for you.”
I didn’t know how to respond, so I went back to my laptop. “Let’s just get this done. I’ll worry about it once this is over and I know whether or not I still have a ranch.”
14
Beau
Three days. That’s how long it had been since I laid eyes on Claire. How long I had been waiting to hear about the partnership.
Safe to say I was losing my mind.
“I actually don’t think I can take this anymore,” I said, throwing a rock into the creek. It didn’t bounce, just sank straight to the bottom.
Just like my fucking heart did when Claire ran away from me, when she told me she couldn’t do this—us. She had texted and called, but I didn’t have it in me to do the back-and-forth thing. I was too old for it. Too consumed by her for it. I was either going to be fully in with her or completely out.
“Me neither. You’re bummin’ me out,” Weston said as he cast his fishing line downstream. “Think you might actually be scaring the fish away with your shitty attitude.”
