Are they back together? Am I a home-wrecker?
Everything feels blurry and hot.
“… visit La Pradera, maybe to take a pretty lady from there out on a real date.”
I finally turn to face Ben. He grins, eyes trailing down to my lips.
The roaring in my ears is still making it hard for me to focus, but I feel myself nodding, resisting the urge to turn and see if Sam is still watching us or if he’s too wrapped up in Keely.
“I think I’d like that,” I hear myself say.
I would like that. I would like to feel like a desirable woman who gets taken out on nice dates. I’d like to be taken out on thetown and have a guy look at me like he knows what he wants, which is exactly how Ben is looking at me now.
I’m done waiting on you, Sam Seymour.
8
SAM
When I get back to Moonlight Ranch late on Sunday night, the house is spotless.
“God bless you, Lolita.” I pause in the living room to send her double the usual amount with a hefty tip. She deserves every penny.
I drop my duffel bag of dirty clothes in the laundry room before making my way to the kitchen. She usually stocks the fridge and pantry for me with food, and I’m glad to see she knew to do that again. My stomach rumbles at the sight of homemade enchiladas, breakfast burritos wrapped in foil, and meal prep boxes with Mexican casserole for me to take out to the fields. I’m weeks behind on work at the ranch. My grandfather’s—shit,myranch—has a foreman and thirteen full-time hands, but they all need overseeing. Part-time day laborers come when we have big jobs to get done, like branding and vaccinating new batches of spring calves.
My grandfather didn’t like having hands living here, so I’m the only one who stays on the ranch, aside from the foreman. Billy lives in a small cabin on the far side of my property, where it actually backs up to the Redford Ranch. Moonlight Ranch is larger than Redford Ranch, but it doesn’t have as many naturalwater resources so I can’t run as many head of cattle as they do. The Redfords split the work and profits between all five of the kids, but I’m the only one left for Moonlight. I have more money than I know what to do with.
Well, I do now. I won’t for long if I keep neglecting my ranch, wallowing in a shallow pool of self-pity. I should go to bed and get a good night’s sleep to start early tomorrow, but instead, I pour myself a glass of bourbon and stand in the doorway of my grandfather’s office.
The rich brown leather of his chair has held up against years of use, with a faded indentation where he used to sit. The wall behind his oak desk is red brick, all the way to the ceiling, with oak bookshelves on either side.
Memories trickle into my brain as I study the worn spines. He used to bend Duke and me over his knee and spank us in this office for stealing his cigarettes and watering down his bourbon after drinking half the bottle. Duke’s dad, Pops, and my grandfather had an understanding that either one was free to whoop our asses when need be.
Pops has always liked me. He and my grandfather did business together for years, and Pops reassured him on many occasions that if anything were to happen to him and my grandmother, I’d have a room at Redford Ranch. When Duke’s mother died, my grandparents helped guide the Redford boys in their first few years of taking over the ranch. Pops nearly drank himself to death from grief. My grandfather is the one who stepped in and helped Cash keep things running when Holden went to prison for murdering Cain Dixon for trying to rape Dolly.
Even when I think back to that night, my muscles tighten. If Holden hadn’t put a bullet in Cain’s head, I would’ve been the first in line to enjoy the honors. I don’t know exactly how old Cain was, but he was in his thirties, and Dolly was only eighteen.
My phone starts buzzing in my hand. I look down to see Duke’s name. I swipe to answer it and put it on speaker.
“Yello?”
“Hey. Mark called. They have a fight coming up next weekend. Thought you might need the distraction.”
After the events of the night Holden killed Cain, Duke joined The Ring, the underground MMA-style fight club in Star City—a town a few hours away that’s filled with dirty cops and is the epitome of small-town politics.
I’ve always had a lot of rage to get out of my system, so I’ve been in The Ring since I turned eighteen. It seemed like the healthiest way to do it at the time without anyone recognizing me. Duke blamed himself for what had happened to his sister and for Holden going to jail.
He was the only one who knew Dolly and Cain had been talking, and he let it happen. He obviously didn’t know what kind of man Cain was, but he should’ve been more cautious.
“Yeah, I reckon it would feel good.”
He chuckles. “Well, I’m not fighting you again. My face was fucked up for weeks.”
“You looked better than ever.”
“Women loved it—that’s for sure.”
When he joined, we ended up going head to head at The Ring, beating the shit out of each other until the old cowboys who run it stepped in and stopped us. They were afraid one of us might die if they didn’t.
