CHAPTER FOUR
LUKE HAD NO clue what the hell he’d been thinking. But then, that was the theme with Olivia. She brought out the devil in him, and he had no interest in holding it back.
Still, touching her like that to get a rise out of Bennett was not the smartest. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, tension crawling over his shoulders and down his back. Damn. He was wound tighter than he could remember being in a long time. It was because last night he’d ended up talking to Olivia instead of hooking up with someone, counter to his plan.
He let out a long slow breath as he watched the scenery fly by. It was clear out, sunny, though he knew that the air was as cold as—if not colder than—it would’ve been if it had been cloudy. Those crystal clear mornings had a way of cutting straight through you with no mercy. Maybe they were just worse because you could see the sun, and you expected that it might offer some warmth. But no.
Still, it looked nice. And if he pushed thoughts of Olivia Logan aside, it was almost soothing.
A shaft of golden light cut through the dense trees as he rounded the bend in the two-lane road, right at the spot where the property was. The property that was currently for sale by owner.
For sale by Cole Logan.
The Logans owned a fair amount of land in town. After all, they had been the first family to settle the area and large swathes of the countryside still belonged to them. And this one had famously been for sale for a very long time. Cole Logan had no need to sell it to just anyone, and he was particularly choosy about who he wanted settling, and what he wanted settled there.
Clearly, the man was much like his daughter. A control freak.
Without thinking, Luke pulled off to the side of the road, his truck idling. And he stared at the sign. That sign that he looked at every morning on his way to the Dodge ranch.
He was happy with his life working on the ranch. Although, with the changes, the focus returning to taking in guests and all of that, he questioned his place. And he hadn’t done that since he was sixteen years old.
At the same time, sometimes that money felt like it was eating its way through his bank account like acid. Just sitting there. Sitting there for nearly twenty years useless and dead.
He knew why she’d taken out that life insurance policy. Because if anything happened to her, she had wanted to make sure he had a future. He could make something of himself.
But with the way it had happened...
It had to be the right thing. It had to be the right moment.
He stared at the sign, red and white and sticking up out of the ground, with a damn sunbeam shining on it.
He shook his head, putting the truck back in Drive and pulling back out onto the highway.
He turned the radio up, blaring a country song about being back roads legit, which turned his thoughts to things he liked. To drinking. Ranching. Women. Everything that made life worthwhile.
That carried him the rest of the way down the road and all the way to the Dodge ranch.
He parked his truck in the gravel lot that Wyatt was considering having paved over, and looked around. It was bare now, but he knew that Wyatt had landscape plans. Knew that Wyatt had a whole host of modernization schemes up his sleeve. He supported them. He did. He just wasn’t sure anymore if he wanted to be an active part of it.
He frowned, killing the engine on the truck and getting out, walking slowly down the path toward the house, where he had a feeling he would find Wyatt sitting at the table in the dining area, his makeshift office, even though he had a real office. He claimed he preferred the one by the coffeemaker.
He opened up the front door without knocking, as was his habit. He had lived on the property for so many years, the entire place had eventually been opened up to him like a home. Quinn Dodge had been more of a father to him than anyone else ever had been. Surely more than the man who had been responsible for knocking his mom up and leaving her depressed and fragile, never to fully recover.
“Morning,” he said, knocking his boots against the welcome mat and stepping inside, calling out the greeting to whichever of the Dodge brothers—or sister—might currently be in residence.
He found Bennett and Wyatt at the small kitchen table that sat in the corner of the modest room. A large thermos of coffee sitting at the middle of the table, both of them with full mugs in front of them.
“Good morning,” Wyatt said, not looking up from the paperwork in front of him.
“What do you have there?” he asked.
“Looking over some different opportunities. Gabe Dalton has been doing some work with retired rodeo horses. And as crazy as it sounds, he swears that they would be perfect for the trail rides here. He has a few animals for us to look at.”
The Daltons were another big ranching family in the area, and Luke knew that Gabe and Wyatt were pretty tight from their days riding on the rodeo circuit. Gabe had spent a fair amount of time hanging around the ranch too, and as far as Luke could see he was a stand-up guy, honest and definitely trustworthy when it came to his opinion on animals.
“Sounds good,” Luke said.
“I’ll definitely want to take a close look at them,” Bennett said.
“Look under the hood?” Luke asked, moving through the kitchen and grabbing a mug out of one of the cabinets. “Kick the tires.”
“Hey,” Bennett said, “you wouldn’t buy a used car without a mechanic having a look. Might as well have the resident vet take a look at your used horses.”
Wyatt chuckled. “Fair enough.”
“What else are you looking into?” Luke asked.
“Well, I had a talk with Dane Parker about the potential of doing some joint venture stuff with Grassroots Winery. I’m not sure. It might all be a little bit fussy.”
Bennett shrugged a shoulder. “People like to drink.”
“I’m not sure this is a wine place.”
“People staying here might want to go on wine-tasting tours,” Luke pointed out, even though he agreed that wine was a hell of a lot fussier than anything he wanted to deal in. He preferred beer for casual drinking and hard stuff for serious drinking.
Wine didn’t fall anywhere on that spectrum.
“I don’t know,” Wyatt said. “I like Dane. But might be a lot of drama to step in the middle of. You know, seeing as Damien Leighton’s ex-wife now owns the winery. I was pretty good buddies with him when we used to ride bulls.”
“Sounds like you have a lot of options,” Luke said.
And frankly, he wasn’t really all that interested in any of them. He had liked the place the way that it was. Simple. Rustic. Appealing to the kind of people who wanted simple and rustic. At the same time, he also understood that you were going to catch a much broader base of people if you expanded the amenities.
But he wanted to get back to ranch work. Real ranch work. He wanted to dig postholes for fences. Wanted to wrangle cattle and ride horses.
He wanted a place of his own. His own land to work as he saw fit.
“How was Olivia?” Bennett’s question jerked Luke out of his thoughts. “You talked to her at the bar.”
“Yeah. I helped her out with her car, remember?”
Bennett nodded slowly. “Right. So you said.”
“If you want to talk to her, go talk to her. She asked me about you, too. But I’m not a carrier pigeon for the lovelorn. So, if you guys have something to work out, go work it out.”
Bennett’s jaw firmed, a stubborn expression crossing over his face. “She’s frustrating the hell out of me, because she’s manipulating me. I don’t understand why she doesn’t get that I just want to wait until I have some things in order before I marry her. I didn’t say I wouldn’t marry her. I said not yet.”
“Not a carrier pigeon,” Luke said. “I’m not giving this information back to her.”
Luke couldn’t understand why the hell either of them were being so stubborn. If they wanted to be together, they should just be together. He didn’t understand why Olivia felt like she needed a ring so badly, or why Bennett felt like he needed to wait. But, he wasn’t going to get into the discussion. Because it wasn’t his fucking problem.
He poured himself a measure of coffee, left it black and decided that he was going to get to work. “See you both later,” he said.
“You just came in here to steal coffee and pass judgment?” Bennett asked.
“Yep.”
He walked back out of the kitchen, across the stone floor that led to the front door of the large ranch house. He heard Bennett’s footsteps behind him. Luke kept on walking and shut the front door behind him just to be difficult. He heard it open just a couple of seconds later.
“Something going on between you two?”
Luke turned around. “Me and this coffee? Yeah. Seriously red-hot love affair. I crave it. It’s all I think about. I need it to survive.”
“You and Olivia,” Bennett said, his tone stiff. “I don’t know how...”
“No,” Luke said. “But, she’s a grown-ass woman and apparently single.”
“She wants a commitment,” Bennett said. “And we both know you’re not the guy to give that to her.”
Luke’s stomach tightened, and he chuckled past it. “Yes. We do both know that. I’m not giving a commitment to anyone. But you’re apparently not giving one to her, either.”
“It’s complicated,” Bennett said.
“How is it complicated? Either you love her or you don’t.”
“None of it’s about love.”
Luke stared at him. “Then what’s it about?”
“I care about her. But sometimes she looks at me like...” Bennett shook his head. “I told her father that I would take care of her. After he had his heart attack, I promised I’d look out for her.”
“Does Olivia know that?”
“She knows that her father wants us together. Hell, the whole town wants us together.”
Luke couldn’t deny that. They were definitely the golden couple of Gold Valley. The entire town took great delight in the idea that they would someday get married.
Like they were watching a favorite soap opera, using real people as characters.
“True enough,” Luke said. “So why aren’t you with her?”
“She wants things I don’t think I can give. I’m not sure I can put her through any of that.”
“Bennett Dodge, I’ve known you since you were ten years old. I don’t know why the hell you wouldn’t be able to give Olivia exactly what she wants. Exactly what she needs. You’re perfect for her.” For some reason the words burned a little bit on their way out. But they were true.
“You don’t know everything about me, Luke,” Bennett said, shaking his head and walking past him.
“You want to talk about it?” Which was the world’s most ironic question since nobody knew everything about Luke, and he aimed to keep it that way. But Bennett was truly like a brother to him.
“No. If I talk to anybody about it, it has to be Olivia.”
“Then talk to her, bonehead.”
Bennett gave him a strange look. “Stay out of our relationship, Luke.”
“You asked me into it, Bennett. You asked me what I knew, I gave you my opinion.”
The expression on Bennett’s face turned hard. “I asked you if there was anything going on with her.”
“You did. That doesn’t mean I owe you an answer.”
He shook his head and turned and walked away from Bennett. He wasn’t going to get in a fistfight with the guy over a girl he had barely ever touched.
He figured he would go muck some stalls. At least that would clear his head. Shovel shit to clear the shit and all that.
He walked into the barn and grabbed a pitchfork from the hook on the wall.
As he started on the first stall, he kept thinking of the comment Bennett had made about Olivia’s father. About how Cole Logan was the one who wanted them together. Not exactly a declaration of passionate love, but Olivia said she loved Bennett, though as far as Luke could tell they didn’t have enough chemistry to light a birthday candle.
But if Cole Logan wanted them together...
He shook his head, and shoveled another pile of manure up out of the stall, chucking it into a wheelbarrow.
He had some decision making to do.
He really hated change.
But it was starting to look like it was time to make one.
* * *
IT WAS LATE and Olivia was tired and cranky, feeling more than a little burned out after a long day at Grassroots. She missed having Bennett come pick her up. It had made her feel important, that she had a boyfriend who would come get her after work. That he was so solicitous and protective of her.
She missed it a lot.
She had missed it especially today when she had gotten into the car feeling exhausted and put upon, with the drive back to Gold Valley ahead of her. And now she had to make a stop at Get Out of Dodge.
Lindy had checked that it was okay. But Olivia hadn’t seen the point in being difficult about it. It was late, and Bennett probably wouldn’t be at the ranch anyway. He would either be at home or off on some veterinary emergency. Or, out at the bar. But it was very likely that the only person at the ranch would be Jamie. Even though things with Jamie were a little bit awkward, they weren’t insurmountable.
Lindy wanted pamphlets dropped off, and for Olivia to nudge Wyatt about what he was thinking about the partnership with Grassroots. Once Lindy got something in her mind, she was headstrong. She was incredibly independent. In Olivia’s opinion, the way that Lindy had left her husband and taken control of the winery, started from scratch, was admirable.
Not something that Olivia was certain she would have been able to do. She valued security and the opinions of other people too much.
She knew that Lindy’s divorce had impacted how people thought of her. Which wasn’t fair. Her ex-husband, Damien, had been cheating on her with one of the winery employees; it was hardly Lindy’s fault.
But people were hard on women. Exceptionally hard.
Olivia took a deep breath as she turned into the familiar drive that led up to the ranch. She had been up here countless times. As a family friend, and then as Bennett’s girlfriend. And it felt different now. Because it didn’t feel like it was part of her anymore. Didn’t feel like it belonged to her in any way.
It had. Like she was going to be part of this family. Part of this ranch that they had here. This legacy.
She felt sad about that.
There was a light on in the barn, and she stopped there. Jamie was probably putting the horses away.
She grabbed the pamphlets that Lindy had sent with her, clutching them in her hand as she headed into the red building.
When she saw who it was inside, she froze. It was not Jamie. Instead of her feminine, wiry frame, it was a masculine, broad-shouldered body. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, dark blue, and those sleeves were pushed up, which was providing her with quite an interesting show. He was bent down, the muscles in his forearms flexing with each pass of the push broom over the cement floor.
There was a black cowboy hat hanging on a hook, over the top of a bridle and lead rope.
She knew exactly who she was looking at. Because she had been fixated on those hands last night.
Her throat was dry. She couldn’t remember why she had come in here in the first place.
She looked down. Right. The pamphlets.
“Luke,” she said, his name coming out scratchy.
He stopped, midsweep, and then looked up at her, his green eyes hitting her with the force of a punch to the stomach. At least she assumed it was a similar sensation, though she had never been punched in the stomach before. But then, she had never felt anything quite like this before. Not since the last time he had looked at her, anyway.
“Are you looking for Bennett?”
“No,” she said. “I was looking for Wyatt.”
“I think he went out. Trying to drag Grant out of his hermitage, or something.”
Olivia nodded. She worried about Grant. But she also wasn’t surprised that he was still alone, even after all this time. She couldn’t imagine him with anyone other than Lindsay. They had been together for so long. She had been the love of his life. She didn’t know how you moved on from something like that.
She frowned. Was Bennett the love of her life? What if she didn’t get him back? Was she also never going to be able to move on? Well, it wasn’t like Bennett was dead. He was just not her boyfriend. That wasn’t the same thing.
“What did you need?”
Luke’s question dragged her out of her swampy thoughts. “Oh. I just... Lindy asked if I could bring these by.” She thrust the pamphlets out toward him.
He just looked at them. “Okay.”
She took a couple of steps toward him, with the pamphlets still held out. “Because she thought Wyatt might want to see these. You know, because I know that Lindy’s brother had mentioned to him that Lindy was interested in doing some kind of a... You know, mutual promotion thing...”
“Wyatt mentioned as much,” Luke said, propping the broom up and leaning against the handle. “He also said he wasn’t sure about working with the ex-wife of a friend.”
“Is he still friends with Damien? Because Damien is a cheating louse.”
“Bros—”
“If you say bros before hos, so help me God, Luke, I will give you a paper cut with one of these pamphlets.”
His green eyes glittered with wicked humor. “I wasn’t going to say that.”
“You were.”
“I will take your pamphlets,” he said, reaching his hand out, but not making a move toward her. She swore he was trying to be agitating.
She closed the distance between them and placed the pamphlets in his outstretched palm, her fingertips brushing against his bare skin.
She ignored the little zip that raced down to her stomach. “Thank you. Just make sure Wyatt gets them. For the record, I’m not sure that Lindy is thrilled at the idea of working with a bull rider.”
“Why is that?” Luke asked.
“Pretty sure she hates everything associated with the rodeo, given her husband works PR for them, and also, bull riders specifically since he used to hang out with them. And, more specifically, Wyatt.”
“Fair enough. Now, I don’t know that I’m the best person to judge, considering I don’t know that I’m a candidate for fidelity myself. But I’ve also never tried. And never promised it.”
“Great. Congratulations on being slightly less disgusting than my friend’s cheating husband.”
He looked around as if he were searching for something. “Is there a badge for that?”
In spite of herself, Olivia laughed. “I’ll have one made.”
“I’ll hold you to it.”
“See you later, Luke,” she said, turning on her heel and taking a deep breath as she started to walk back toward the barn door, trying to get a handle on her electrified nerves.
“Hey,” he said.
She gritted her teeth. “Hey?”
“Yeah.”
She turned around again. “What?”
“Your dad is still selling that plot of land out of town?”
“I guess. He turns down offers all the time. He has some very particular idea about who should have it.”
“I’ve heard that,” Luke said. “I want to buy it.”
Olivia blinked. “How are you going to buy land?”
As long as she had known Luke, he’d lived modestly. Until he had been in his midtwenties he’d lived at Get Out of Dodge. Now he lived in some ramshackle cabin way out of town in the middle of the woods. He didn’t scream financially sound.
“Don’t worry about the how, kiddo,” he said. “From a financial standpoint I’m not concerned at all. It’s that purity testing he seems to be so fond of that worries me.”
“My dad is rich enough that he doesn’t need money. And that makes him a little bit eccentric.”
“So it seems.” Luke looked down at the pamphlets for a second, then back at her. “He really wants you and Bennett together.”
“Why do you say that?” His assessment made her feel uncomfortable. She didn’t even know why it bothered her, just that it did.
“Just saying. I doubt you would have been with Bennett if your dad didn’t approve. You don’t seem like the type.”
Those words, so unerring, so accurate, sent icy little pinpricks down the back of her neck, all the way down her spine. She had no idea how a man who really didn’t know her seemed to know her so well.
“Okay. So, say that my dad does want me to be with Bennett. What does that have to do with anything?”
“You want to be with Bennett, too,” Luke pointed out.
“Obviously. I told you that. I told you that I loved him.”
“And I told you that you didn’t care, but you’re sticking with your story. I respect that.”
She gritted her teeth. “Because I know my feelings better than you do.” Given her observation from a moment earlier she felt a little bit like she was lying, which was ridiculous. But it also made her feel guilty.
“What if I help you with Bennett? And you put in a good word with your dad. How about that?”
“How are you going to help me with Bennett?”
“He didn’t like us talking last night. He didn’t like me touching you. I have a feeling it’ll only take a couple things like that to force him into making a decision. The problem is he’s too certain of your feelings. Not certain enough of his own.”
“Did you talk to him?” she asked, her stomach sinking. The last thing she wanted to hear was that Bennett had made it plain that he didn’t know how he felt about her.
“Yes,” Luke responded, giving absolutely no quarter to her fragile feelings.
“Oh,” she said.
“He was asking about you. You and me. And he wasn’t happy.”
Heat streaked through her. “How could he possibly...” It didn’t make sense. Bennett knew her. In the year they had been together they hadn’t done... Anything. They had kissed, of course, but she had been holding out for a ring before they took things any further. He thought there was something going on with Luke? As if a guy like Luke would have any patience for her wanting a commitment before sex.
And that derailed her thoughts. Absolutely. Completely. Because thinking about Luke and sex in the same sentence turned her brain inside out and backward.
“Because he’s jealous,” Luke said. “Jealousy doesn’t require logic.”
“I don’t...” She cleared her throat, blinking. “He really thinks you and I might be...”
“He’s worried.” Luke took a step toward her and her pulse sped up. “I think it’s in your best interest to keep him worried.”
The idea of tricking Bennett—tricking everyone—felt wrong. It made butterflies take flight in her stomach. Made her feel a strange, dull ache down low. Adrenaline. Excitement.
She didn’t like it. She didn’t like it at all.
Mostly because part of her kind of did like it. And that wasn’t right. It wasn’t who she wanted to be. It wasn’t who her parents needed her to be.
Bennett was her goal, had been for a long time. And maybe, just maybe, if her end goal was good, the method to getting there didn’t exactly have to be. Maybe.
“What do you have in mind?” she asked.
A smile curved his lips. “I hear you’re damn good at playing darts.”