Good idea. If I stay in this house we’ll have a body to hide.
The steel Diamond Hart Ranch brand swings in the wind atop the massive ranch gate as I drive under it. I spent a lot of my childhood at this ranch, and I still do. Weekends, long summer days, and holidays are all spent here with the patchwork family the Harts have built. I’ve always had a twinge of jealousy that Kacey gets to call a place like this home.
It wasn’t just Kacey who befriended me in first grade. Her dad, Cody Hart, treats me like his own daughter. Flowers on my birthday, attending my college graduation, and now making sure to have family dinners together when I’m not working. He’s loved me the way a father should—the way mine never did.
Then there is Carson, the ranch hand—who’s more like a brother—who also took me in. I’m not sure it was willingly at first, but he came around. After all, nine-year-old Jessie was relentless, and since he’s ten years older than Kacey and me, that made him Cody’s built-in babysitter after Kacey’s mom passed. We followed him everywhere. He taught me how to ride a horse, drive a stick shift, and was even a shoulder to cry on the first time my heart got broken. We bicker a lot, and most people think he’s grumpy, but he and Kacey are the siblings I dreamed of on those lonely nights sleeping in the garage. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for them.
I’ve been here a million times, but this ranch still takes my breath away every time I drive onto it. They call it the richest ranch in Colorado, but to me, it’s justhome. This 45,000-acre ranch became my sanctuary. This is one place my father would never dare set foot on. I think that’s why Gran let me spend so much time here as a child. It was safe.
Gran doesn’t come out here much anymore, but she loves it here, too. With the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop to the stone ranch houses and matching brown and white barns, it’s something you would see in a magazine. In fact, it has been featured in multiple.
Several white ranch trucks with the brown DHR brand on the door are parked outside the horse barn. I know I’ll find Kacey there—she manages all the horses on the ranch—but it’s Carson I see first. He’s standing in the round pen while a saddled horse lopes circles around him.
I park and make my way to the fence.
When he spots me, he stops the horse. “Jessie.”
Man of few words, this one.
“Hey, how’s it going?” I prop one foot on the bottom rail of the fence.
“Be better when this year’s colts are broke to ride,” he says, pulling his phone out of his pocket, pausing the nineties country playing on a nearby speaker.
“Hm. I bet, but you love it.” My focus drifts back to my kitchen. And baby blue eyes.
He walks over to the fence and loops the lead rope around the post before focusing on me. His broad shoulders and six-foot-plus frame tower over me. “You okay?” Carson might be quiet, but he’s perceptive. I’ve never met anyone as attuned to others as he is.
“Yeah, I’ve just got a lot on my mind. Working through some life changes, ya know?”
“Not really. My life hasn’t changed in almost twenty years.” He’s dead serious, and it makes me laugh. One corner of his lips lifts. “Speaking of life changes, how’s living with the new roommate? Heard you’re lacking a kitchen floor.”
I groan. “Kacey told you about my naked kitchen floor? Trey’s fixing it as we speak. I think Knox went to help.”
He makes a choking sound. “Naked what?”
I ignore him. “He’s justso nice. He’s been helping Gran, fixing things at her house and mine. He built her new window boxes. It’s weird, Carson. Who does that? Now Gran’s in love with him, and he’s putting new tile in the kitchen that I didn’t ask for. And—get this—when I told him I couldn’t afford it, he said he would cover it.”
Carson lets me word vomit, scratching his short beard.
“Now my kitchen is naked because the nicest pain in my ass ‘doesn’t sit still well.’ Honestly, he needs ADHD meds, a hobby, and a financial advisor because he clearly has too much time and money on his hands. He’s paying me a ridiculous amount in rent and look at the truck he drives. It has every bell and whistle, with every off-road part you can think of. That thing had to cost a fortune. Meanwhile, my car broke down, and he let me borrow his truck while he fixed my car.” I suck in a breath of air.
I need a drink. Or ten.
I rest my head on the top rail of the fence. This is why I love Carson. I can let everything out, make no sense, and he justlistens. He lets me work through my thoughts aloud without interrupting or judgment. I might mess with him—bordering on torment—but when push comes to shove, we’d bury a body for each other.
I lift my head slightly, peeking up at him.
He stares down at me, his shaggy dirty blond hair falling into his eyes. He takes off his black cowboy hat and pushes the unruly locks out of his face. “Trey does that.”
“Huh?” I raise my head.
“You asked who does that. Trey does that. When he lived here at the ranch, he was basically free labor. Chet and I started to feel bad he wasn’t getting paid. He was always fixing something, building something, or helping us on the ranch.”
“Oh.” I blink. Carson’s serious. I knew Trey and Chet had become friends, but I just assumed it was because of living in the bunkhouse together. Chet is a total workaholic, but I didn’t realize Trey workedwithhim on the ranch.
“Do you want me to talk to him? Tell him to back off a bit? I could give him something to do out here.” He would, too. He’d drive to town right now if I asked him. Carson is protective and wouldn’t hesitate to tell Trey to back off, even though he seems to like him.
“No, it’s okay. I can handle it. But thank you.”
