Jeremiah (Stud Ranch 5)

I leaned in, ready for all the gossip.

But Melody was annoyingly retrospect. She just shook her head and grinned. “These are my boys we’re talking about here. I came to get to know y’all.”

Charlie arched an eyebrow. “To make sure I’m good enough for him?”

Melody kept her easy smile but didn’t say no.

“But Charlie’s the best!” Olivia said, eyes wide. “Everybody thinks so. I bet even Jeremiah is bummed his brother snatched her up first.”

“Ew, God, no,” Charlie said, tossing a napkin at Olivia, at the same time I shuffled in my chair, sitting up straighter.

I know people had fantasies about twins and all, but I was glad that Reece and Jeremiah were the kind who kept strict boundaries when it came to their love lives.

Though apparently that wasn’t the case of everyone who lived back at the ranch they’d come from, because as the hours went on, we all opened up, even Mel.

“So wait,” Olivia said, eyes wide. “There’s a woman that lives on your ranch and she’s got two fellas…”

Mel nodded wryly. “Two partners, yes.” It had become apparent throughout the evening that she liked shocking Olivia.

Olivia sat back and fanned her hand at her face rapidly, her cheeks getting pink. “Well, I can’t say as I ever thought about that.” She was quiet another moment, staring out into the crowd before muttering as if she’d forgotten we were even there. “But I guess with the right guys, it doesn’t sound half bad…”

Charlie let out a bleat of laughter. “Honey, you can barely handle it when you have one guy on the hook. Imagine trying to handle two at once.”

Olivia shuddered. “Oh my God, you’re right.” Still, by the look on her face, I could tell she was still thinking the idea over. I just shook my head. It wasn’t like I was one to talk. No, I wasn’t taking on two lovers at once, but sneaking around with Jeremiah—it was certainly playing with fire.

I couldn’t rid myself of the feeling that Mel had her eyes on me all night, like she could sense something was going on between me and Jeremiah. It was clear she’d taken on a sort of motherly role toward all the men who’d lived on her husband’s ranch even though she was barely in her mid-thirties. I guess when you had little ones running around, maybe it came more naturally?

Mel seemed like a superstar to me. She had her shit so together, she was this superstar mom, and it was clear she and her husband were still disgustingly in love even after all these years together…

God, in comparison, I was a total mess. I bet when she was my age, she had things so much more figured out.

I was twenty-five and still barely had a direction in life or an idea of what I was gonna do when I grew up, much less any roots down anywhere. I’d be starting all over from scratch when I moved to Fort Worth. And yeah, sometimes uprooting and moving worked out like it had for Charlie, but I knew those were rare odds. And as the daughter of a gambling addict, I knew better than to bet on long odds.

And suddenly, in the middle of this bright, loud party, I felt melancholy.

All this would be going away. The camaraderie. The friends. Being able to go to a bar where I recognized faces and names. Where I had a place.

I’d been telling myself this was all a bonus of moving on—because people recognized me back, and here I would always be Ruth Harshbarger, the girl whose dad fucked up royally and screwed over half the town by running up debts.

In a new place I’d have a blank slate, something I’d never experienced before.

But blank slates were exactly that… Blank.

You had to build everything from scratch. And making friends as an adult was hard. During the period where everyone had cut me off before I’d been able to pay people back after selling the ranch, I’d been friendless and it had been a cold and lonely time. I’d always just taken friends for granted. But then they suddenly weren’t there anymore… except for Olivia. She had a busy life of her own, though, and there had been a lot of cold and empty nights alone on the ranch until the boys and Charlie came, bringing life with them.

But before that—I hadn’t known a loneliness quite so empty as being on that ranch in winter without a soul to talk to and no one to call. And with nowhere to go where I’d be welcome.

It would be different this time, though. I’d get to know people. I could be social and come out of my shell with people I didn’t know.

I looked over at Charlie, grinning and taking slow sips of her vodka, which was again running low. She was listening to Mel tell another story about the guys on the ranch, how apparently one of them, a guy named Liam, just loved playing pranks on everybody else.