Just Once (37 page)

When Shane speaks, his words are slow and measured, like he’s trying very hard to keep his temper in check. “Why does your financial advisor need to speak with you? Urgently?”

“Just to go over some…financial matters.”

“Did you buy that place with Stanley?”

“No.”

“Then what?” He sighs heavily when I don’t answer. “Would you want to know if I was getting secret phone calls from Cassidy Reyes?”

I raise my eyes to his. I can feel the tears swimming, threatening to spill over. I nod weakly.

He frowns. “What’s going on?”

I open my mouth but can’t force out the words.

“Your financial advisor is calling you…at a ranch…about financial matters…now?”

I nod again. Then I wince when I see the realization dawn on his beautiful features, the way shock and disbelief and horror and anger and hurt swirl together.

“You bought this place?” he utters.

“Yes.” The tears slip down my cheeks. I shouldn’t feel guilty about making a business decision—one that’s good for us—but I do.

“Did you know they were going to sell?”

I want to tell him the whole story, that I didn’t have any intention of buying the ranch, that it was a surprise to me too, that the eco spa people were going to change everything, but the words lodge in my throat.

Shane slams a fist down onto the desk, making the phone jump, scaring me half to death.

“Yes!” I shriek, startled. Guilty, frightened, angry.

“And you didn’t tell me?” His voice is rising in volume, little by little. His cheeks are flushed, hands fisted.

“I wanted to.”

“But you wanted to buy this place yourself.”

“They told me you couldn’t afford it. Those people—the ones from Maryland—they were going to buy it and sell everything. You said so yourself. So I did the only thing I could think of.”

“Did it ever occur to you to tell me?”

“All the time. Every—”

Shane laughs roughly. “All the time, Kate, really? All the time?”

“It’s impossible to talk to you about this stuff!”

“About you buying my dream?”

“It’s a placeholder,” I say hurriedly. “You can buy it from me when you have the money.”

I couldn’t have shocked him more if I’d punched him in the stomach. “I’m sorry,” he says tightly, “did you think you were doing me a
favor?”

His face is like a car wreck, and I can’t look away. I’m as unlikely to describe this as a
favor
as I would a
charity
, but I suppose that doesn’t change the truth.

“I did the only thing I could. I didn’t plan it.”

“You own the ranch. You.”

“What’s wrong with that? I love this place, Shane.”

“Yeah. I love it too, Kate.”

“So what’s the problem? Nothing changes. You’re in charge. And in a few years…”

“You know why Brandon didn’t get involved with your friend? Because I told him not to. Because I told my guys that screwing around with the staff only leads to trouble.”

“This isn’t—”

“You’re in charge, Kate. Not me. This is your place now.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“On the contrary. I’m finally coming to my senses.”

“We can—”

“Thanks for a few good lays and one hell of a blowjob. You’ve got a great mouth.”

The blood drains from my face. “Don’t you dare insult me. This has nothing to do with sex. Nothing—”

“No, you’re right, Kate. It has nothing to do with sex. You’re in charge now, and I can’t fuck my boss.”

I swipe a hand under my eyes, but there are too many tears to make much difference. “You don’t have to be like this.”

“There are two weeks left in the season. You sign my paycheck, and I’ll do my job. That’s it, got it?”

I take a deep breath and set my jaw. “If that’s what you want.”

“That’s all I want.”

I look him in the eye, hoping I appear more confident and less heartbroken than I feel. “Then that’s what you’ll get.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

S
UNDAYS
A
RE
N
ORMALLY
A
WFUL
—spending a solid six hours cleaning cabins is never fun—but today is looking spectacularly bad. They probably couldn’t make out the words, but I’m certain absolutely everyone has heard our fight.

Shane storms out of the office and back into the dining room, telling everyone to “Meet the new boss,” and all eyes turn to me. No one seems to have taken the news of the ranch’s sale quite as personally as Shane, but they still appear surprised to learn I’m the one who bought it.

There’s nothing for me to do but stand here awkwardly, silently confirming that what Shane said is true. When I can’t take it anymore, I announce that I’m going to get back to work and hurry off to hide in one of the cabins, where I promptly bawl my eyes out. Eventually I regain some measure of self-control, mop up my tears, and get on with my work.

Three hours later I’m standing on the porch with Matt, Hailey, Lisa, and Pete—who we still call the handyman though he’s been working with us full-time since the beginning—smiling and waving at the arriving guests. Shane’s there, holding open doors and helping people out, but I keep my gaze averted. I can’t decide if I want to cry some more or rage against his stupidity, his infuriating ego, and the unfairness of the situation.

When I got out of the shower half an hour ago, Hailey was waiting for me. She understands why I didn’t tell anyone about buying the ranch and agrees that Shane is being unfair. “All ranch hands are jerks,” she declared, and I concurred.

The week passes in a confusing blur. As though to compensate for Shane’s coldness—he doesn’t even come in for breakfast—everyone else is really nice: Alec makes me special French toast; Mark saves me donuts; Lisa compliments my hair. Even Brandon is kind, helping me unclog the pipes in one of the cabins, a task I’d normally have to tackle myself.

I’m cleaning cabin nine on Friday when I hear a loud shriek. I rush outside to see Lisa racing out of a cabin, swatting frantically at her head.

“Lisa!” I shout, catching her attention. “What’s going on? Another wasp’s nest?”

Matt had had an unfortunate encounter with a wasp’s nest while sweeping spider webs from under the eaves one changeover day. For a while we were all extra paranoid, but the ranch hands went around with smoke spray and cleaned everything out, and we hadn’t had any more trouble.

“Bat!” Lisa heaves, skidding to a halt in front of me. “There’s a bat in cabin eight! It hit me in the head! It’s still in my hair!”

I inspect Lisa’s hair, but there’s nothing in there but her hands. “Your hair is fine,” I say. “No bat.”

“I’ll have to cut it all off!”

“You definitely won’t. Fill out a requisition slip and ask Brandon to come look at it.” I keep my voice deliberately calm so as not to further incense her.

We head into my “safe” cabin and I hand Lisa a form, watching her fill it out with shaky hands. “Now go deliver it,” I say. “He’s probably in the barn. If not, give it to Connor or Chase. Just hurry and get back to your cabins.”

“I can’t go back in there!”

I sigh. “Fine. I’ll switch with you. I’ll take Eight, you do Ten.”

Her voice trembles. “Okay.”

It’s all I can do not to roll my eyes. Lisa has come a long way since her first days as Janie’s minion, but watching her stand in the doorway, expecting to be dive-bombed at any second, is a little much.

“Lisa. Bats don’t attack people. You’ll be fine.”

She takes a deep breath and races outside. I watch her until she disappears around toward the front of the ranch, then brace myself for cabin eight. I prop open the door as I enter, remembering Shane’s advice that the bat will most likely fly out on its own.

Lisa returns to tell me she gave the requisition slip to Connor, and I gather her stuff from cabin eight and send her on her way. I finish cabin nine, clean up eleven, then walk back to eight, hoping the bat found its way out. The door is still propped open, so I leave it that way, assuming Connor hasn’t stopped in yet.

Cabin eight had a group of six men here on an annual boys-only getaway, and I have a fleeting moment of doubt about the whole bat situation when I see the state of things inside. It’d be enough to send me screaming too. I grumble about Lisa but get to work, gathering up the dirty towels—that’s every single one—and lugging them down to the laundry room.

When I return with clean towels, I can hear Connor in the bedroom searching for the bat. “I don’t know where it is,” I call as I enter the bathroom to restock the towels. “Lisa said it was flying around. I left the door open, so it might have flown out.” I place the bathmat on the edge of the tub and turn to leave, uttering a yelp of surprise when I see Shane in the doorway.

He is not pleased to see me.

“This is Lisa’s request,” he says, holding up the requisition slip.

“She gave it to Connor.”

“He gave it to me. What are you doing in here?”

“Lisa was too afraid to come back. Why didn’t you ask Brandon or Chase to come?”

“I guess they have better things to do.”

I push past Shane, though he doesn’t make it easy, and yank the crumpled sheets off the pull-out couch. “Don’t bother staying,” I say. “I’ll look for it myself. It’s probably gone, anyway.”

Shane’s silent for a long moment, and finally I look up at him. “It’s in there,” he says, jerking a chin at the master bedroom.

“Oh. Thanks.”

“It could be the same one, getting to be a nuisance.”

“I doubt it.”

“If it keeps coming back…”

“I said I’d take care of it. No one asked you to kill anything.”

“Aye-aye, boss.”

I inhale angrily, but refuse to give in to his pettiness. “That’s all, Shane.”

“Is it?”

“That’s what you wanted.”

“I guess it is.”

“Then why are you still here?”

“Why didn’t you tell me the ranch was for sale?”

I roll up the couch and slap the cushions back on top, keeping myself busy so I don’t have to look at him. Shane and I and a cabin are not a good combination. “When Hank and Mary told me it was for sale, I said you wanted it. They said they’d already talked to you, and you didn’t have the money yet. You’d be in debt forever. It was too much to ask.”

“So you bought it.”

“No. I already told you this. I asked them to tell me when they had a buyer and for some reason they didn’t, so when I heard about the eco spa, I found them and practically begged them not to sell. But they want to retire, Shane, and it’s not fair to ask them to stick around for ten years until you can afford it.”

He looks predictably pissed at my reference to money, but I cut him off.

“Deal with it, Shane. You don’t have the money, and I do, so I bought the ranch. I’m not going to turn it into an eco spa, and I know I can’t run it by myself, so you can stay on doing exactly what you have been, but I’m going to be here, and I’m not going to put up with your hissy fits. There are other foremen out there, and if I have to, I’ll find a new one.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You heard me. I’m rich, deal with it.”

He makes a sound that’s equal parts exasperation and anger. “Deal with it?”

“Yeah. I’m leaving in ten days, so you’ll have the winter to think about it. If you’re here when I get back, I’ll assume you’re in. And if you’re not, I’ll start looking for someone who is.” My chin wants desperately to quiver, and I keep my hands busy fluffing pillows so he can’t see them tremble.

His dark eyes bore into mine, and I refuse to look away. I can see from the tense set of his shoulders that he’s still angry, but it’s his ego at work. If he doesn’t know how to get past this, there’s nothing I can do about it. Like it or not, we’re adults, and I’m doing my very best to act like one. He needs to do the same.