Your Ranch...or Mine?

“I’m sorry to hear that about Ben. I know the two of you became pretty good friends after you won half of the Lucky Ace,” Ryder said, his tone sympathetic. “But you don’t sound all that thrilled about being in the ranching business with his granddaughter.”

“We’d be just fine if she’d go back to California where she belongs and leave me alone,” Lane admitted. “She’s decided that she is going to take up residence here and actively run the ranch.”

“Oh, this sounds like a story I’ve got to hear,” Ryder said, sounding a little too happy about Lane’s predicament.

“You’re not going to let this go, are you?” Lane asked, already knowing the answer.

“Hey, Freud, you didn’t let things go when I was being a stubborn jackass before I finally asked Summer to marry me,” Ryder shot back.

Lane should have known that the intervention he and his brothers staged when Ryder had decided he wasn’t good enough for Summer would come back to bite him in the butt. “There are absolutely no similarities between the situations,” Lane said, shaking his head at his brother’s erroneous comparison. “You were head over heels in love. I’m not.” He snorted. “Hell, I’m not even sure if I like her. She’s stubborn, opinionated and about as prickly as a cactus patch.”

“In other words, she’s a challenge and that makes her all the more attractive to you, doesn’t it?” Ryder asked knowingly.

Lane gritted his teeth. “Have I told you lately what a smart-ass you can be?”

“No. But whether you wanted to or not, you just answered my question,” Ryder said, sounding quite smug.

If he could have reached into the phone and got hold of his brother, Lane would have cheerfully throttled him. “Goodbye, Ryder.”

“Later, bro.”

Ryder’s laughter echoed in Lane’s ear long after he ended the phone call. He loved all of his brothers, but sometimes they irritated the life out of him. Ryder was reading way more into his partnership with Taylor than was there. And before the sun cleared the eastern horizon, the rest of his brothers would know all about it.

Lane groaned. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that along with announcing the birth of his daughter, Ryder was already spreading the word that Lane was living under the same roof with Taylor. And once his brothers put their spins on the facts, the next time they all got together, Lane’s life would be a living hell from all of their good-natured ribbing.

But they’d have it all wrong. Any attraction he felt for Taylor had more to do with his long dry spell of being without the warmth of a woman than anything else. She was beautiful and had a smoking-hot body. He was a healthy adult male who had neglected his basic needs. And they were stuck in a house together because they were both too stubborn to give on the issue of who was going to live on the ranch. It just stood to reason that until he released some of his built-up tension he was going to find her desirable.

Confident that his perspective had been restored, he rose to his feet and walked straight to the kitchen. “Taylor, I won’t be home for dinner this evening. I have to make a trip over to Beaver Dam.”

* * *

Lane parked his truck next to Taylor’s little red sports car, switched off the lights and muttered a word he reserved for the direst of situations. His trip to the Broken Spoke over in Beaver Dam had turned out to be a huge waste of time. And it wasn’t because there weren’t any interested women present. There was one cute little brunette in particular who’d made it crystal clear she was available for an evening of no-strings-attached fun. But he hadn’t even been able to work up enough enthusiasm to ask her to dance.

What the hell was wrong with him? He still felt edgy enough to jump out of his own skin. The woman had been more than willing and he’d made the hour’s drive over to the watering hole specifically for just such an encounter.

But as he got out the truck and slowly walked up the porch steps, he decided that he wasn’t going to do any kind of self-analysis in an effort to understand his reaction to the situation. He had a feeling that he wouldn’t be overly happy with what he discovered about himself if he did.

“I didn’t expect you back this soon,” Taylor said when he entered the kitchen. Sitting at the kitchen table, she had a laptop set up in front of her. She quickly closed it as if there was something on it that she didn’t want him to see. “Would you like a cup of coffee?” she asked.

“Why not?” he muttered. It wasn’t as if the caffeine would prevent him from sleeping. The woman staring at him had taken care of that ever since her arrival. When she started to get up, he shook his head. “I’ll get it.”