Page 6 of The Rancher’s One and Only

“I’ll remember it.”

“I’ll write it down for you.”

“You really don’t have to.”

Well. He was going to. She couldn’t stop him. He knew that they had a notebook in the drawer in the little kitchen area.

He walked through the clean, well-organized living area and opened up the kitchen drawer. Then he took out a pad and a pen.

“It’s funny that you were very concerned that I knew you weren’t going to bypass the dead bolt, but also you didn’t listen to me when I said you didn’t need to write it down.”

He looked up at her. “I don’t want you to have to text me because you forgot the code. I don’t want you to show up at my house in the middle of the night because you forgot the code.”

“But I’m not going to forget it. I have an exceptionally good memory for numbers. I have an exceptionally good memory for a lot of things. I’m just like that.”

“Well, what if you get very distracted because you’re in the middle of the worst bone wars anyone’s ever seen since the Victorian era?”

“The Gilded Age,” she said.

“I don’t really know the difference.”

“Well, they happened in different years.” She tilted her head, and seemed to be taking in the measure of him. He couldn’t tell what the measure she took was. “I don’t know your name. Your partners are Rowdy and Dakota, but you didn’t introduce yourself.”

He sighed and put the pen down. “Jax Noble.”

“I like that name,” she said. She didn’t expand on it.

“Great. I’m glad. Do you need any…food? We are about thirty-five minutes out of town, but there is food in town. It’s just that most things close kind of early. Not the bar, obviously—”

“I have rations with me.”

“Rations?”

“Yeah. MREs mostly. They’re the most practical thing to bring out with you. Trust me.”

“Oh. I do.”

“Good. Anyway, I think I’ll probably just use those. That was kind of the plan. Mainly, I’m just going to do my digging. I’ll stay out of your way.”

“All right. We’re not really a full-service place yet.”

“I looked you up when I was going to ask if I could dig on the land. I saw that this place is going to open soon. And you’re pretty booked up.”

“Yes,” he said, tension building in the center of his chest. They were booked up, which was a good thing in theory. They were going to start making their money back, and quickly. Provided they could pull everything off without a hitch, and they didn’t get terrible reviews.

This was ridiculous. He had been a high-performing athlete for years. He’d gotten the shit punched out of him on TV—or mainly, had punched the shit out of other people on TV—and he was worried about this?

Yeah. It was just that it was kind of an attempt at a normal life. And if it didn’t go off without a hitch, he wasn’t exactly sure what he was supposed to be doing.

“I’ll leave you to it then, Ernestine. I wrote my number down on the pad. If you need anything.”

“Well. At least you gave me some new information too.”

He shook his head. “I guess I did.”

“Thank you,” she said. “Genuinely. For the hospitality and for letting me stay. You could’ve let me stay out in the tent—I would’ve been okay. But I do prefer this.”

“To a tent in the middle of the dust? I would hope so. When you leave your Yelp review, make sure you say that.”