Her eyes widened. Usually, I didn’t raise my voice, but I didn’t remember being so furious. She was it for me. My girl. I took her to my bed, which I hadn’t done with any woman before.
“I don’t tell anyone that,” she replied.
“Talk,” I said again.
“Like I said, my mother and father divorced when I was four. I lived here on Two Rivers Ranch until then. I don’t really remember any of it. When they split, Iwent with my mother. My brothers stayed here with my father.”
“Rocky and Chase.”
Colt came in the back door, followed by Buck and Pops.
Cassidy’s eyes widened like Colt would handcuff her and haul her off. I’d wanted to talk to her privately, but maybe it was better they were here. I was mad. Furious, even, and I needed backup so I didn’t lose my shit. I wouldn’t hurt her physically, but… fuck.
“Cassidy’s telling me about her family,” I told them, then shifted my gaze back to her. “Go on.”
“I lived in Denver with her, my mother, until she died.” She wiped at a tear that slid down her cheek. “Car accident. I was at soccer practice when it happened.” She cleared her throat, swallowed hard. “I, um, was told that I would live with my dad since he was the only adult relative I had, but instead, I got sent to boarding school in Vermont. In the middle of the school year. I’ve pretty much been there ever since.”
Colt crossed his arms over his chest. Buck leaned against the counter. Pops stood back and observed.
“You came back though, for breaks?” I asked.
I nodded. “The first few summers, yes. Winter break. But it wasn’t all that great.”
I imagined her at ten and eleven here for the summer. I’d been here too, home from college. We may have crossed paths at the grocery store or rodeo and I’d never have known. She’d been a little kid.
“What do you mean, not all that great?” Colt asked.
She looked at him as she answered. “As I’m sure you know, my father is self-involved. He did his own thing.”
“Meaning you were left on the ranch by yourself,” Colt added.
“My brothers were around but I avoided them. They’re… not nice.”
Chase had fucked with Cammie at school last year and was in jail for dealing drugs to kids. Rocky, I knew, but barely. He was a jackass. Always had been. But he was closer in age to Shep and I was sure he had a lot of stories.
I remembered how she’d freaked when I told her I was taking her home. She’d gone pale and started to cry. She hated the place that much.
“I hung out with the help. I’m close with the foreman, Kyle and his family. They had me for dinner every night when I was home those summers. Then, I stopped coming home.”
I couldn’t imagine choosing to stay at boarding school because you hated your family so much.
“You lied when you said there wasn’t money for college,” I said. “Your family’s loaded.”
She untangled her fingers, flicked a glance at me, then to the counter. She fiddled with a twist tie from a bag of rolls. “You’re right. They’re loaded. But I don’t want anything to do with them. I came back after graduation because I had nowhere to go, but it wasn’t great. My father and Rocky are worse than ever. The things they said. Planned.”
I spared Colt a glance and he didn’t look happy. My anger was slowly fizzling and I was starting to get furious at someone else. The fucking Trouts.
She snapped the twist tie in half. Fuck, what had it been like stuck with them?
“Like what?” I asked, knowing I wasn’t going to like the answer.
“My father… he, um, said he wanted to marry me off to one of his friends.”
I sighed. Colt and Buck glanced at each other, clearly unhappy.
“What?” she asked.
“Your father paid off Ellie’s father’s debts in exchange for her hand in marriage.”
