Aproblem.
Not that Cody ever had any issue with self-control, or choosing when not to have it.
That was part of the nature of the rodeo. Any vice that a man wanted was available, free and clear, without having to look hard for it.
He had heavily overindulged himself at first, and why not?
Because here in Mustang River, he had been nothing other than a poor kid with nothing to recommend him, and everyone had treated him accordingly. But when he had started winning in the rodeo? Yeah, then suddenly he’d been worth something.
Oh, not that the girls here hadn’t liked him, they had, they had just hidden him away as a dirty secret. They thought he was hot, and he didn’t think much of his looks, but he wasover six feet and always in shape from ranch work, so there was that.
Add something like bull riding to the mix, and that made getting laid easy.
He kind of liked it, if he was honest. Making those women who wouldn’t acknowledge him on a street cry out his name in bed. Proving exactly who they were, and who he was.
At least, he’d liked it when he was in his twenties. Now he just felt tired. Tired of all of it. Maybe that was the problem. He was building a business, he was doing something to prove that he wasn’t what any of his teachers, any of his peers had thought he was. That he could amount to more, to anything that he wanted to, honestly.
So, he’d been remiss in dealing with his libido. Which explained why that husky, feminine voice on the other end of the phone haddonesomethingto him.
And bydone something, he meant,got him hard in his sleepwhenever it came to him in his dreams.
Not that thinking of that now was a good idea.
Thinking of iteverwasn’t a good idea.
The farmhouse was up on a hill, and as he crested the top of it, he saw his sister, Lila, sitting there on the porch in a plaid shirt, denim jeans, and her boot pressed up against the railing as she sat rocking in a chair.
“Good morning,” he said.
“It’s morning,” she said. “I’ll get back to you on whether or not it’s good.”
The only person on the planet who was grumpier than he was, was his younger sister Lila.
Well, that wasn’t true. The winner of the award for grumpiest asshole on the ranch definitely went to his best friend, Nolan. When Nolan and Lila were in proximity with each other, it was like two angry cats circling.
That put him in half a mind to get them in the same room today, because Lila was clearly already in a state.
It would be entertaining, anyway.
Too bad he didn’t have any time for bullshit today.
“Don’t be surly,” he said. “We have new employees joining us today.”
“We have new employees joining us every day,” she said.
She wasn’t wrong. The operation was huge to the point that sometimes it felt unwieldy to him. How he’d gone from being a lone wolf — with the exception of his siblings — to managing a staff this size…
He had no one to blame but himself.
His bigFuck You, Dadambitions were bigger than his tolerance for humanity, but it turned out you needed humanity to make dreams a reality. So here he was.
The ranching part had a substantial staff at this point, and with the addition of the resort, it was getting even bigger.
Lila had been helping manage a lot of the construction, communication with foremen, contractors, and subcontractors. She was grumpy, it was true, but she was also direct and not afraid to tell people what they needed to be doing. Or where to go if they got off task.
That was why she was his operations manager. They’d had to put official titles on the loan paperwork they’d signed. Walker was the VP of Guest Experience and Marketing. Lila was the Operations Manager, which meant she got to use her ruthless and terrifying efficiency.
Lila had been management material from the time she was a little kid. She was more than ten years younger than him, and it had been his great burden, and his great pleasure to take care of her when she had been a little sprout.
