“Hey,” I called out, glancing over my shoulder as Hope walked into the kitchen.

The sun was barely up. It was just peeking over the mountains; still a half globe of a glowing orange ball of light that was surrounded by pink swirls in the sky. There were still a few stars visible from the night’s sky.

“You’re up early today.”

She hummed, drifting over to the table. “Breakfast smelled too good.”

I smiled, hesitating a bit before I turned back to my cooking, taking a moment to admire her. She was dressed in loose cotton track pants and an oversized t-shirt that hung off of one shoulder.

Her messy hair looked perfect. I knew that if I told her that, she’d never believe me, but I thought it was a beautiful look on her.

Even with her baggy clothes and messy hair, I thought she looked sexy as she slid into her seat at the dining table. I could get used to seeing her like this every day for the rest of my life.

“The food will be done soon,” I said as I continued cooking.

I think doing small things like making her food made her happy. It was written all over her face. She had a little smirk on her face.

“I didn’t expect to find you cooking. I thought that you’d be working on the ranch.”

I shrugged my shoulders without turning around again. “I don’t mind helping out now and then. And I don’t do it all that often, so I thought that maybe I’d change my ways.”

She hummed behind me as if she was expecting me to say something else to her. I didn’t have a trick up my sleeve. I was genuine with my words and even more with my actions. As the saying goes, ‘Actions say more than words.’

I finished up and carried both of our plates to the table, setting hers in front of her.

“Tired?” I asked, placing our silverware on the table.

She was lying on the table with her head buried inside the crook of her arm, and I couldn’t help smiling.

“Come one, princess,” I murmured, nudging her once I’d put the cup down. “You need to get up. There’s coffee here for you.”

Hope groaned. I went to search the fridge, then the cupboards and was back at the table with milk and sugar.

“You take milk and sugar with yours, don’t you? I have it all here. If you don’t get up now, everything will get cold.”

She groaned again, but her eyes fluttered open, and she sat up. “Thanks, Curt,” she muttered, voice hoarse.

I watched, amused, as she added milk, then sugar, and took a sip of her coffee, half asleep. Then she sighed, her eyes slipping closed as she took a second sip.

“Do you and the coffee need some time alone?” I teased.

She opened her eyes to mock glare at me, and I chuckled. “How about we both just shut up and eat, huh?”

“Oh, but honey, there’s no fun in that. Besides I’m trying to make an effort. Is it so hard for you to do the same?”

She tried to put up a front and ignored my comment, but I knew that it had got to her as she twitched her lips. It immediately brought a smile to mine. We were closer than I would have thought, not quite ‘sleeping in the same bed every night’ close, but we were getting along and starting to develop a real relationship—at least, that’s how I felt.

I was just about to ask what tasks she had for the day and if she would need help, only to be interrupted by a chime. I was annoyed as I arched an eyebrow and she pulled out her phone from her pants pocket.

“You were half asleep, but you remembered to pick up your phone?”

She shot me a look. “I don’t go anywhere without my phone. I have a dependent, remember?”

Her little brother; I’d met him a couple of times back when he was in high school. I was pretty sure I would recognize him, but only because he looked so much like Hope.

“How is he doing, anyway?”

She typed on her phone as she spoke, “He’s doing okay, but I want to send him to college. I need funds for that, though, which is why I was hoping Ben would have left me something when I went to the will reading.” She looked up at me with a wry smile. “I never expected this, though,” she added, waving a hand to encompass the both of us and the house.

“Yeah,” I muttered. It hadn't been my plan to come home to stay, either. “Is that what he wants, to go to college?”

“Very much so; he’s excited about going to school. Thanks to you, I’ll be able to send him now and get him started. Ever since I told him about the news, hasn’t stopped talking about it. He’s been going on for weeks.”

She beamed at me.

I knew what she meant. She was talking about us getting married to get half the land and selling our horse to get things moving in the right direction.

I returned the smile. “We helped each other, Hope, don’t forget that.”

She gave me another smile, this one more grateful, and that familiar warmth came back into my chest as I looked into her twinkling eyes.

Hope returned her attention back to her phone and started pecking away at the screen before gasping and covering her mouth as her eyes lit up.

“What is it?” I asked.

She glanced up at me for a second before going right back to her phone. “Oh! Trent is on his way here. He goes off to school today. I need to shower and get dressed. He’s early.”

She jumped up and rushed out of the room before I could say a word. I frowned at her plate. She’d barely touched what I made. I sighed.

I could just leave it in the fridge, and she could warm it all up later. I couldn’t eat it all, and there was no point in wasting food.

Not long after, the doorbell rang, and I left the kitchen to open the door, stopping when there was the sudden noise of feet running down the stairs, and I looked to see Hope already dressed and rushing for the door before I could get to it. She flung the door open and screamed as she threw herself at whoever was on the other side.

I waited patiently for her to greet her brother before introducing us again. It had been so long since I’d seen him that I hardly recognized him. He’d grown so much and was more muscular than I’d ever imagined him.

“What the hell are you doing, Hope? Get off before we both fall,” her brother teased.

Hope’s laughter filled the house as she invited him and closed the door.

“Trent! It’s so good to see you.”

“You too,” Trent said. “I can’t wait to check out all of my new classes.”

He turned to Hope and hugged her again. “Thanks for everything you’ve done, in. I couldn’t go without your help. It means so much to me.”

“I’m happy for you,” I said to him. “I think you’ll do just fine with your classes. Hope was telling me about your school before you got here. I wish that we had more time to hang out.”

“Likewise,” Trent replied. “Are you ready to go? I wanted to get an early start on the road; it’s why I’m here so early. I was almost too excited to sleep last night.”

Hope laughed, sounding incredibly happy, a lot more than I’d heard from her before. “I just need to pick up a few things. Why don’t you go wait for me in the car?”

After a last crushing hug, the boy left. Hope stood there watching him go for a moment, then turned back inside. She saw me and jumped a little.

“Curt! I didn’t know you were still there.”

“Of course, I’m still here. Where else would I have gone?” I laughed.

“Ah, sorry” she chuckled a little. “I’m taking my brother to his school, so I can help him settle down. He said he'd be okay and all, but this is really important to him—to us. It means so much to both of us that he’s finally going to get to start college.”

Her eyes flitted closed as she gazed at the floor as she began fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. She suddenly seemed nervous, but I couldn’t tell why.

“There’s something else that I wanted to tell you,” she started. “When I go to school with my brother, I’ll be staying with him for a while to make sure he gets settled in. I don’t know if or when I’m coming back.”

Of course, she’d do something like this just when I thought things were going right. It’s just my luck. My lips tightened as I felt bitterness rise in my chest. “In other words, you got exactly what you wanted, right? Your brother in college? The money that you needed to get him started?”

She smiled a sweet smile, acting innocent as if this was great news. “I did, and it’s so amazing. I couldn’t have done it without—”

“My grandfather giving you part of the inheritance,” I finished for her.

The smile dropped from her face, and her eyes widened. “Uh, well, yeah.” Her hands fluttered around a little before clasping together as she tilted her head slightly at me. “And, part of it was you helping me out, of course. I’m not all that knowledgeable about running a ranch, so without your help, I would have been out of luck.”

“And you’re leaving?” I asked quietly. “Just like that?”

She cleared her throat, her expression growing uncertain as her fingers twisted in a knot. “Yeah. I wanted to help him out, and I thought I could stay at a motel nearby, in case he needed my help for something.”

I laughed sarcastically. “Well, have a safe fucking trip then,” I muttered. “But how about this? Your brother is probably going to need you, and you got everything you wanted, so you don’t need to come back.”

Her fingers froze, her entire body straightening as she gaped at me with widened eyes. “What?”

“I said,” my voice came out slow and cold. “Leave, and don’t bother coming back. I can run the place just fine. If you need money, you can access it whenever you want.”

I turned my back to her to head back to the kitchen, so I could clean it. I was tempted to toss her share of the food in the trash, but I didn’t. What was the point? I sat in the kitchen and listened to Hope’s feet rushing around, after a slight hesitation. She didn’t once come near my direction, though, and when she went out the front door, slamming it closed so hard I was pretty sure people out in the field could hear it, I got up.

There was no way I was going out there, but beside the front door was a window with a perfect view of our front yard and the driveway, and she was there. I watched as she tossed a bag into the trunk of the car, before circling it to get in the shot gun seat.

She had changed into a pair of tight jeans that molded perfectly to her ass and thighs and matched it with a black top that had a low neckline, far enough to reveal ample cleavage. She looked sexy as sin. And, instead of sticking around so she and I could have some fun, she was running off with her brother.

If she was going to be sticking around his campus, I could only think of all the college age boys going after Hope, married woman or not, because her hot little body was so damn tempting.

I knew better than anyone else.

I had told her not to bother to come back, and if I found out later that she had taken one of those boys to bed, I was pretty sure I couldn’t take the news and not be affected.