I”ve also never seen ice that thick before.
It was after that storm when we ended up getting generators for the house and the stables. Trying to keep everyone warm and safe was quite a challenge during that storm.
Leaning back in the squeaky, practically antique chair Dadhas always kept in here, I roll my head from one shoulder to the other in frustration, “Great.” I huff out a sigh. “Okay, I’ll keep an eye on it.”
Boots on the stone floor has Marley stepping back a couple of steps, when she looks out into the walkway, her face lights up, “Hey!”
Sloane, my brother Mason’s fiance, steps into view, her long black hair pulled into a ponytail and hanging between her shoulder blades. “Hey, I thought I would enjoy some of this sunshine before the storms come in tonight.”
She’s practically glowing as she looks between me and Marley, she’s a few months pregnant, but the glow is the only indication since she isn’t showing yet. Sloane came to work for us about a year ago, but when Mason came home when dad had his heart attack, she was able to do the one thing no other woman has been able to do; he fell ass over heels in love.
In a matter of a month, he not only talked her into marrying him, he managed to get her pregnant, too. He told me they are waiting for the weather to warm up so they can have an outdoor wedding here on the ranch.
“How are you and my nephew feeling?” Marley softly lays her hand on Sloane’s arm in true Marley fashion, she’s always gentle, and with certain people she’s affectionate. She also says she just knows it’s going to be a boy, she’s never wrong about the foals, so we’re taking bets.
Sloane’s green eyes light up under Marley’s attention and she puts her palm over her flat belly, “We’re good! I thought I would take a break and say hi to Mason, but it looks like he’s not in here.” She swivels her head to look up and down the corridor.
Lainey Rai’s voice breaks into the conversation as she yells from across the walkway, “He took Felix for a ride,” as she tosses the grooming brush into the bucket next to her stepstool and steps down to reach over and unhook thestallion. “He said Felix is getting fat and needs some exercise.”
“In other words, he wanted to get out and enjoy the sunshine?” Sloane asks, humor dancing in her eyes and she tilts her head to the side as she looks at Marley.
“Exactly,” I say and shake my head. It’s nice having my brother home. Before he met Sloane, he lived in Tennessee close to the off-the-books black ops team he works with, he used to be Delta Force with the Army but he got an offer he couldn’t refuse. Now he says he’ll just fly there when they need him for a job, but he sometimes needs to get out of the barn and get some air.
A low growl from Wilson and rapid footsteps in the corridor make us all look at each other, it almost sounds like dress heels on the concrete. Sloane starts to walk to the sliding door, but Marley grabs her arm and pulls her back before she looks at me.
Marley doesn’t care for strangers or surprise situations, ever since she was attacked the night of her senior prom she stays in the shadows.
Lainey Rai walks out of the grooming stall before I can tell her not to with the stallion in tow and Wilson by her leg. He’s positioned himself between her and the direction of the footsteps. Lainey Rai stops when she sees the owner of the shoes, her eyebrows pinch together as she stares at the newcomer.
“Oh, hi! I’m looking for Mr. Harlow.” It’s a woman’s very chipper voice.
I come around the door and stop dead in my tracks. A woman who can’t be more than five feet four, less without the heels, in a tight skirt that comes to her knees and high-heel knee-high boots, bundled up in a coat and scarf. She’s a slip of a thing, probably a hundred pounds soaking wet.
A jolt of something I don’t know how to name reaches through my chest, almost like an invisible tether leaving mybody to reach for her. I suck in a breath as I look at the small woman in front of me, and my heart skips a beat.
Her shoulder-length brown hair is in big waves, the part on the side has some of those waves falling across her forehead and down one side of her face, and her smile, good god, her smile, she’s beautiful. Even with my chest squeezing, I clear my throat as I look into those amber eyes and step toward her. “I’m Gray Harlow.”
She takes a deep breath, and excitement lights up her eyes, making them sparkle. “Oh good! It’s so nice to meet you.” She steps up to me and holds her hand out, “I’m Ellyot Royce, I’m with Royce Enterprises.”
Reaching out, I curl my hand around her small one and the warmth from her soft palm travels up my arm. Disappointment splashes over me like a bucket of ice water and for a second, I just stare at her, dumbfounded.
This is the Ellyot from the letter Royce Enterprises sent to us in December. The letter letting us know they plan to send someone to talk to us about buying our land.
Because of the name, I thought it was going to be a man with one of those stupid spellings they think is trendy. Of course they would send a woman, to disarm us, they think they can put someone pretty in front of us and we’ll fall over ourselves to give her anything she wants.
Her soft peachy perfume wraps around me, my hand still holding hers, but as soon as it registers in my head that she is behind the letters we have been getting, all pretense of hospitality falls away. I pull my hand back like she is the devil himself and take a step away from her, making the larger space between us like a big brick wall.
Disappointment dulls the light in her eyes but she doesn’t lose her smile.
She doesn’t give me a chance to respond before she throws her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the mainhouse, “I knocked on the door of the house but no one answered. But, wow! On the walk down here, I saw just how beautiful it is here, the landscape with the pond and stream is breathtaking! I see why you haven’t responded to our letters.”
Anger bubbles up as I realize she’s putting on an act and I slide my hands in my pockets, disingenuous people are high on my shit list. “We didn’t respond to the letters because we’re not interested in selling.” I tip my hat at her and turn back to the tack room. “I’ll let you see yourself back to your car. Have a nice day.”
“I get it! I totally get it, there is a lot of history here,” she keeps talking in her upbeat, cheerful way as I walk away from her, her heels tap on the floor close behind me.
Sloane is standing in the doorway of the tack room and is looking at her, but her glowing smile is gone. I glance at Lainey Rai, who looks confused, and I gruffly say, “Put the stallion up and take Wilson up to the house with Marley and Sloane.”
“But Dad…” Her eyes flick in my direction when she hears the cross tone of my voice.
