It’s grief.
It’s loss.
And it’s mine to own.
This can’t be the end.
I don’t have a plan—but I know I have to fix this. Not with words. I’ve already wasted too many of those.
With actions.
I need to be the man she needed months ago—not the one who finally showed up after the damage was done.
And as much as it terrifies me, it means tearing down the walls I’ve spent a lifetime building.
Because keeping them intact will cost me everything that actually matters.
fifteen
Sloane
Before Gage came into my room, I was fully determined to live out of my suitcase until a deal came through, so I could leave before the ink dried, but then he showed up.
He told me how he finally believed me, and I should have been excited—happy that after months of pushing for him to see the truth, he finally did.
But I didn’t.
All I felt was irritation. Hearing about how my father helped this place is what resonated with him, not me, and it’s like being back to square one.
How can someone go from hating your guts to being unable to keep their hands off you? He’s either up or he’s down, and I’m the one left dealing with the fallout.
It was a start, though, and I did stop packing.
The first step was getting him to see that something was wrong. The second was making sure it got fixed—whether he stood beside me or not. So, for now, I’m going to keep a distance between us and get to work dealing with these developers.
We are not helpful to the ranch with our emotions all over the place. Besides, I don’t truly know where his head is at, and I’d rather not get into it right now.
I drove into town as soon as the sun rose with all the paperwork I had left for Gage on the table the other night. I open the folder and make sure everything is still there, noticing the little note on the map of the ranch I printed.
Tell Sloane her organization is impressive.
I smile softly but immediately school my face again. I can’t be smiling like an idiot when I step into town hall, and I sure as hell am not going to smile simply because Gage indirectly complimented me.
I’m still angry with him, and he won’t be let off the hook so easily.
I step out of my car and walk into town hall for what feels like the tenth time since I’ve been here, seeing as I’ve tried relentlessly to go by the book on every discrepancy I’ve found. It’s how I was taught to do things because myfather always believed that doing good for good people would prevail over shady practices.
Call it optimism, but I still believe, even after all the runaround I’ve been through, his logic isn’t misplaced. I think it helps now that I finally have all the evidence I need to file a report on the issues and also have Gage’s support.
Should I have left it alone and trusted Gage to handle it? Maybe. That lingering thought—that my purpose on this ranch is bigger—fueled me more than my anger with him.
He isn’t privy to all the paperwork and legalities of everything that makes the ranch function, and that’s completely fine, but that divide-and-conquer mindset should have been in place from the very beginning.
When I step inside the town hall, I immediately seek out the property assessor, making sure to emphasize to the front desk that this is an urgent legal matter.
The uneasiness that settled over her face was as if she were responsible for the very thing I’m standing there to complain about. I know she isn’t, but Bell River doesn’t seem like a place that has too many legal matters.
If anything, it is so far removed from society that it may as well be a town off the grid. They keep to themselves for the most part, aside from their close-knit community, but even then, legal matters don’t stoke the fire often.
