Winning the Cowboy (Circle B Ranch 6)

Rowan pinches her lips together as if she’s holding back laughter. “Have you considered giving him a real shot? Whatever your issue with him is, it has to have been a long time ago. Why’re you holding a grudge?”

It’s a reasonable question, but without explaining the whole story, it’s hard to answer.

“Let’s just say…Grayson isn’t who everyone thinks he is.”

She narrows her eyes. “Like he’s living a double life or something? Wait, does he have a wife and five kids we don’t know about?”

I chuckle. “Not exactly, but when I’m ready to tell you, I promise you’ll never expect it.”

Chapter Three

GRAYSON

“Of course it’s raining again,” I grumble to Diesel, who’s covered in mud. We look like we went swimming in the goddamn pond with our clothes on, and we smell like it too.

“And that’s why we get paid more than minimum wage,” he tells me while pulling the old broken barbed wire from the wooden post. I carefully take the new from the roll and string it the best I can. Using power tools isn’t an option considering the weather, so we have to do it the old-fashioned way with pliers and wire cutters. It doesn’t help that the fence line is close to a ditch, which is holding water.

Thunder rumbles in the distance, so we pick up our pace. Being a ranch hand is a rain or shine type of job. It could be twenty or a hundred degrees outside, but the tasks still have to be done. Today, it’s fixing a broken fence in shitty weather. Tomorrow it’ll probably be something else. Regardless, I’d rather be out here, covered in filth, than sitting at a desk being forced to stare at a computer screen all day.

This right here is the life even though it doesn’t feel like it at this moment.

“I swear, it better not start lightnin’,” I mutter as the angry sky transforms from dark gray into black.

Diesel looks at the rolling clouds, then back at me. “So, heard you got tied up after the weddin’ last week.” He hadn’t said much about it since it happened, but it doesn’t surprise me he’d want more details. No telling what he’s heard.

I groan, thinking about how dirty Kenzie did me. It’s been a week, and I’ve only run into her once—when she kneed me in my balls. I’ve been avoiding her since. As soon as I figure out how the hell to get even with her, I will.

“She tricked me. Her acting skills are incredible.”

“No, you just let your dick do the thinkin’ instead.”

“I blame it on the alcohol. I should’ve never put an inkling of trust into Kenzie Bishop. Swear she was comin’ onto me, though. She offered to take me home. Probably had the whole thing planned now that I think about it.”

Diesel laughs. “She either hates you for real or wants to bang your brains out. After how she humiliated you, might be a little bit of both.”

“Did Rowan act like that?”

“Oh, we fought like cats and dogs, but I never gave up on her. Eventually, she came around and saw what was right in front of her.” A smirk hits his lips.

As soon as I focus back on my task, a string of curse words leaves Diesel’s mouth. I snicker when I realize his ass is on the wet ground.

“Don’t you say a damn word,” he warns, trying to scrape off the mud, but it’s no use.

While I want to rag him about being a clumsy ass, I keep it to myself. Diesel’s a jokester most of the time, but right now, with the clouds rolling in, his demeanor’s nothing short of serious. We attach five strings of wire in an hour, and after our mess is clean, lightning strikes a tree close by.

“Let’s get the fuck outta here. I ain’t trying to die today,” Diesel tells me with his arms full of extra supplies.

“Yeah, me either,” I say, throwing all the shit in the back of the ranch hand truck. The bottom of the sky falls out, and because it’s pouring so hard, we can’t see the trail we took to get here.

“You smell like shit,” Diesel mutters, turning down the radio. The windshield wipers are going full blast, but it does no good.

“And you’re a dumbass because…” I point, trying to warn him as he slams into an old creek wash. The truck feels like it’s sucked into the pits of hell as it hits rock bottom. Wheels spin, but we don’t move, and that’s when I realize we’re stuck.

I turn to Diesel and shake my head with annoyance.

“Time to get out and push,” he says with a chuckle.

“Hell no,” I snap.

With a raised brow, he gives me a stern look. “Last time I checked, you reported to me.”

I roll my eyes. “Sure thing, Cow Boss.”