Chapter Five
Cash
Same Day
As soon as the door slammed behind us, I rounded on Eric, my fists clenched. I hadn’t taken a swing at him since we were in school—even then it was mostly just us messing around—but I was highly considering laying him right on his ass, anything to wipe the smirk off his face.
“You wanna tell me what the hell is going on?” I demanded.
He grinned wider, which pissed me off more than I already was. “You see that blonde hair and those blue eyes?” He made an appreciative noise as he shook his head. “I didn’t know what she’d look like, but, goddamn, I never expected this.”
“Who the hell is that woman?” I asked. Eric tended to go off on tangents that could last entire conversations if you didn’t keep leading him right back to the point. It sounded an awful lot like the woman outside—Hailey Young, she’d said, her eyes shining like I should’ve recognized the name—thought she was staying here. No one stayed in my house, not even Eric, who was a damned slob. If he stayed late to help around the ranch, he might crash on the couch, but those times were few and far between, mostly because I had my way of doing things and didn’t want to compromise. This was my house, my ranch, and that was that.
“Your boarder,” Eric replied like it was so obvious any damned fool should know. “She seemed sweet as sugar when we were going back and forth via email. I had no idea she was going to be a knockout. That’s one hell of a bonus.” He whistled low through his teeth, and I wanted to draw back and punch him right in the middle of his face. Instead, I kept my clenched fists by my sides.
“I don’t understand what’s going on,” I said, shaking my head. I thought I did understand, but I couldn’t see how Eric would do such a thing without at least asking me first. This was my place, not his. He had no right to go renting out rooms. There was still a chance this was some kind of mistake. There were other ranches in the area.
“Remember when we talked about God delivering a woman to your doorstep?” Eric asked, lifting a sandy blond eyebrow.
“Yeah, I do, but it doesn’t quite sound like God had much to do with this. It sounds like this shit was all your doing.”
“Alright, listen,” Eric said, sighing and dropping the grin, which made me want to hurt him a lot less. “I put an ad online about renting a room in your house.”
The storm broke over my face, my features twisting with anger so suddenly, I wanted to put one of my fists through the wall. Eric hurried to continue his explanation, knowing full well that when I got furious like this, it took a minute for me to regain access to the words I wanted to say.
“I know you have the extra space. This place is built for a good-sized family, but it’s just you. I also know you took a big hit when all those animals fell ill. You need the money, and she’s willing to pay the rate I advertised. That’s a good chunk of change, and all for letting some sweet little lady cozy up in your place.”
I bit back most of the fury to speak, my words coming out in a deadly whisper. “I can’t believe you went behind my back to rent out a room in my own goddamned house without asking me first. Who the hell does something like that?”
Eric went on, a small smile curling the ends of his mouth like he hadn’t heard a word I’d just said. He was the one person my anger just couldn’t reach most of the time. I could sling the vilest threats, and he’d just keep on rolling, not bothered in the least.
“You haven’t come right out and said you need the money, but it’s obvious you do. You let go of your farmhands and work 16 hours a day to keep this place going all by yourself. It’s not healthy, Cash. I help you out as much as I can, but I have my own job in town. You’ve always been too damned proud to ask for help, and I’m tired of watching you struggle. I did this to help you.” He stared me in the face, the look in his dark eyes defiant.
It was only late afternoon, but I was too damned tired for this. I’d gotten up at 3:30 that morning to start working for a few hours before Eric showed up around 10. I’d done the same thing for the last several weeks, busting my ass because I couldn’t afford to hire help. If things didn’t start turning around, I was going to have to sell off a chunk of land, and that was the last thing I wanted to do. My grandfather left me this ranch, and I didn’t intend to lose even a tenth of an acre.
“I didn’t just bring out any old person,” Eric said, continuing in a softer tone after I didn’t jump to argue with what he’d just said. “I screened every applicant, even paid for a company to run credit checks to make sure Hailey was good for the money and then to run a background check to make sure I wasn’t inviting some criminal out here to stay at your place. I didn’t really mean for this to involve a gorgeous woman, but when I got Hailey’s email, I knew she’d be perfect.”
“I don’t even know this woman!” I whispered, not wanting to raise my voice. She could be standing on the porch, trying to overhear everything we were saying.
“She’s an author from New York City,” Eric said, and my face twisted at the mention of where she was from, but he just kept going. “And she’s got a book to write about cowboys living on a farm out West. But she doesn’t know anything about how a ranch is run or what real cowboys do. That’s why she’s out here, to do research.” He grinned, but I still felt stunned and pissed off at the intrusion. “Cowboys don’t get much realer than you, Cash.”
I shook my head, rubbing the back of my neck, where it ached from the day’s chores. “It’s not like you expect me to show this woman around for the day, which would be bad enough, especially considering you never asked me. She mentioned prepaying for three goddamned months!”
“Think of that money!” Eric replied.
“This isn’t even about the damned money. You keep trying to get me to go out on dates, mentioning girls from town and what they’re doing. Now you’ve gone so far as to invite some strange woman from thousands of miles away to live on my ranch for months at a time. It’s too much, Eric, and I’m tired of it. I like my life the way it is—simple. I don’t need the complications playing landlord will bring.”
“I don’t see how this is a problem. She has $3,000 cash to give you upfront for three months.”
My ears perked up at the amount of money. I’d lost more than 15 times that when my cows and horses died and was struggling to recoup what I could. A windfall like that would help me pay down some of what I owed the bank. I hated owing anyone a damned thing. The sooner I could pay that off, the better.
“This is really a win-win, Cash. You get a beautiful girl paying you to stay here. Most men would be over the moon about that.”
“I ain’t most men,” I grumbled.
He gave me a look like this was old news.
“And I like my space and my privacy. I don’t want some stranger around all the time. I don’t know her from Eve.”
Eric ditched the smile and suddenly looked more pissed off at me than I was at him, which was a fine turn of events, considering what he’d been up to for the last several weeks. “Goddamn it, Cash, she’s here to do some research on her story so she can get back to New York and write it. She’s not here to shack up with you.” His face lit up at that, the grin springing back onto his lips. Watching Eric’s expressions change during a conversation was exhausting work. “But if you’re any kind of man at all, you won’t let that sweet honey lounge around your place without doing something about it. She didn’t mention a boyfriend in the emails, and I didn’t see no ring on her finger.”
Leave it to Eric to notice a stupid detail like that. I was too busy wondering what the hell was going on to pay attention to the jewelry she was or wasn’t wearing.
“I have no interest in that whatsoever,” I snapped.
Eric swatted my comment away with a wave of his hand. “You’re interested in that three grand though, right? And there’s more where that came from if she has to stay a bit longer. She said so in the email. That’s for doing nothing but letting her stay in the empty guest room in your house. She knows she’s on her own for meals and such.”
As much as I hated to admit it, I did like the sound of that money. I had to give it to Eric—though never out loud, as that would only encourage him to keep pulling shit like this—because I never would’ve thought to auction off a stay in my spare room to the highest bidder. I still didn’t like the thought of a stranger hanging out in my house, but I couldn’t say no to three grand in cash.
“That money will help stabilize the situation here on the ranch,” I said, sighing, and those were the only soft words I planned to say on the subject. “I don’t want to go over how this happened in front of that girl, though.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“It’ll make the whole thing awkward if she thinks I didn’t know anything about what you were doing behind my back.”
Eric nodded too easily, a smile breaking over his face.
“But don’t think that gets you off the hook. You owe me a few days of hard labor for this shit.”
He laughed, and I couldn’t help joining in, even though all of this still made me uncomfortable to think about.