The Rancher's Untamed Heart

At that, he did the last thing I expected.

He laughed.

“Why would I bother falling in love with you?” he asked. “A self-centered workaholic who can't carry on a conversation to save her life?”

I gasped.

It felt like he'd punched me in the stomach. I wanted to throw up everything I'd eaten that day.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.

“You,” he said. “I'm talking about you. As always. It's all you ever want to talk about. Your job, your coworkers, your promotion, your sexist bosses.”

“That's not true,” I said. “You never answered many of the questions I asked you. I guess now I know why, you couldn't keep your lies straight between me and... and... whoever that was last night.”

“Lisa,” he supplied.

“Right, you never bothered making up stories for me and for Lisa,” I said.

“It is true, though. You love your job too much, Naomi. You haven't left room for anything alive, anyone to make you human.”

“That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard,” I yelled. “Why the hell would you say something like that?”

“Getting louder doesn't make what you say more accurate,” he said, in a maddeningly calm voice.

What a cold man. What a cold, petty, unpleasant man. How could I have spent so much time with him?

He answered the question I didn't know I asked.

“You liked being my girlfriend,” he said. “You liked the attention, the sex, the restaurants you couldn't afford. You don't have to give all that up. I'll still take you out this Friday. You'd like Dirty Dancing, I think.”

“And then go to your apartment and have sex with you?” I asked.

“Pretty much,” he said.

In that moment, I missed the phones my mother and grandmother had had in their house when I was growing up. If I could have slammed that phone on a wall, I would have done it.

Unfortunately, all I could do was press 'End Call,' gently, with an unsatisfying little beep.

He didn't even bother to call me back.

I told Sarah all about it the next day over our lunch break, at the little cafe where she'd told me she was pregnant.

“You told me he was too flirty,” I said, miserably. “I'm sorry I didn't listen to you.”

“I'm sorry I was right,” she said. She reached across to squeeze my hand, and smiled at me in a sympathetic way. “Are you going to date someone else? Charlie at the office is pretty hot, and he's asked about you a few times.”

“No way,” I said. “I don't think I'm up to dating anyone else for a while. Maybe a year or two. I don't know if I can trust my own judgement after failing so badly.”

Sarah grinned.

“Oh, you say that now,” she said. “I bet some long, tall drink of water is going to sweep you off your feet.”

"You've got to be shitting me, little lady," the man said. "I'm not taking time I don't have to drag your pasty ass around this ranch." He grinned around at the men standing with him.

I squared my shoulders and raised my chin. I was standing by the little work van I was given, and I'd already shown him my badge. I couldn't get much more professional and legitimate than that, but some men always had to know better.

Before I spoke, I looked up into his face, very calmly. I spoke loudly and clearly. This man was almost a foot taller than I was, and I couldn't let him intimidate me with his size.