| |
Roarke
Turning toward my left didn’t help.
Lila—or is it Jade? No. I think it’s Lila—giggled and moseyed around me. She slid over to stay in my field of vision, tracing her fingertips over my back as she moved.
This isn’t a game of hide and seek. I sighed heavily, wishing I could get a view of the scores on the bottom. There wasn’t a point. My 49ers were doing terrible this season, but like a glutton for punishment, I had to remain loyal and stay on top of how terribly they were playing.
“Roarke...” Lila drawled my name in what was likely supposed to be a sultry purr. It came out too whiny. Too needy. Too cajoling and demanding, which resulted in yet another reminder of my ex-wife. Toward the end of our ill-fated and shitty marriage, she’d used a sterner, grumpier version of that same nagging tone.
“Why are you ignoring me?” She pouted, sliding up against my side to wedge herself in my view. Between the stool I claimed at the bar and the vacant one next to me, she refused to understand the concept of personal space.
No, she understands it. She just wanted to share it with me. Intimately.
Been there, done that. Moving on.
“I’m trying to watch the game.”
A commercial cut in, depriving me of catching the score. She brightened, seeing the same screen playing on a TV over my shoulder. “It’s not on right now. Can’t you spare a couple of minutes and talk—”
“Talk?” I shot back, exasperated as I lifted my beer to my lips. “Cut the shit, Lila. You’re not interested in talking.”
Her pout morphed into a frown. “It’s Jade.”
Fuck. “Sorry.” I wasn’t careless about women’s names. I really wasn’t, but it’d been a while. Jade and I slept together three years ago, right after I moved to Burton for a job at the Grand River Ranch. I made it clear then that we were just scratching an itch, a one-night stand. The only problem with that was how she tried to make it a two-night stand, or more, ever since.
“Look, Jade. I’m not interested.”
“In talking?” She brightened and raised her brows, as if any reply from me could count as the attention she craved.
I rolled my eyes, grateful that I wouldn’t have to fend her off on my own any longer. Gavin, my friend and fellow coworker at the ranch, finally returned from the bathroom and reclaimed the stool next to me.
“Aw, come on, Jade. Not again.”
She huffed as she sat, slipping away from the spot between us. “What do you mean, not again?”
“You tried to get him to take you home last week. And the week before that. And before that.” Gavin shot me a smirk, crinkling the lines around his mouth. Just like me, he sported the visible signs of wear and tear on his face. All the years of ranching and working under the sun were catching up to us. He probably didn’t care about looking fresh-faced and youthful for his wife, who was practically his high school sweetheart and knew what he looked like before he got older. I didn’t give a shit either—even though I wasn’t tied to any woman. I had four more years until I hit forty, and I was satisfied with being an old bachelor.
Or a hermit.
Either life of solitude suited me just fine.
“Give it up. Or at least give us a night to just watch the game in peace,” Gavin said as he pulled his beer bottle closer.
Lila growled lightly and sulked off.
I chuckled and patted him on the back. “Thanks.”
“Damn, dude.” He shook his head and laughed a bit. “They flock up to you every damn time we come here now.”
I sighed, not bothering to argue. Through no effort of my own, I was a magnet for the ladies. I wasn’t smug about it. I wasn’t cocky either. I did, however, realize that I was one of the few unmarried, single men in this same town and the pickings were slim for the ladies looking for a good time. A good time without trying to piss off a wife or girlfriend. Some of them did that just out of spite. Drama had to be orchestrated around these parts, but I supposed boredom was like that. A curse or a blessing.
“If your house wasn’t so full of babies and kids, we could watch the games there...”
“Yeah. Right. We’ve got my sister’s kids staying with us for the rest of the month yet while they rebuild from the tornado over there.”
“Then drink up.” I held my beer to his for him to clink his against it in something like a toast. “And relax here while you can.”
“Relax?” He eyed another woman checking me out from the other end of the bar. “With all the chicks coming to try with you?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ve already slept with everyone I would want to.” And that was only on my terms. As flings. Nothing attached, nothing permanent. The last time I thought I’d have something permanent with a woman didn’t end so well. Veronica and I divorced four years ago, and it had been hell ever since.
“Ah, the freedom,” Gavin taunted dryly.
I shrugged, dismissing his teasing. He was happily married, but I didn’t envy his situation. As far as I was concerned, marriage was a hex. A damnation. I wasn’t in any mood to try it again. Nor was I in the mood to have a second taste of someone I’d already sampled. That was all sex was at this rate. A physical release. A bodily reaction. Being a bachelor was a simple lifestyle for me, and I was damned protective of my privacy and solitude.
“Maybe you should just make up some bullshit about having a girlfriend somewhere. So they all stop bugging you for a while.”
“That sounds like a lot of work.” I drank my beer, wishing this commercial break would end.
He scoffed. “Hell, we’ve gotten plenty of that lately.”
“You can say that again.” We’d pulled twelve-hour shifts today.
We’d only gotten here an hour ago, but I was already beat. Once halftime hit, I’d head home. The days were long and hard, and lately, with this insomnia, the nights were too. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d enjoyed a solid night of restful sleep, but staying out here at the only local bar in town wouldn’t be a wise way to try to get some decent shut-eye.
“And with all those miles of fencing we still need to—”
Gavin shut up, turning his head in unison with me toward the front door. Despite the chill clinging in the air with the October weather, the old wooden panel was pushed to stay wide open to the bar. It helped with the sometimes too-warm air in here with the body heat and temperamental furnace.
Shouts cut through the noise of people drinking and chatting. Accusations sounded loud and clear over the general din in the bar. No one heard the sports commentators. Nobody seemed to care about anything but getting an earful of the commotion outside the door.
“I just got here,” a woman shouted outside the bar. It sounded like it came from in front of the bakery next door.
“What’s that all about?” I asked Gavin.
He shook his head, furrowing his brow as he stared at the open door. No one showed in the opening. Just the darkness of the night was visible. Lights flickered from the streetlamp on the opposite side of Main. Regardless of not being able to witness this fight out there, my curiosity was piqued.
“It’s your place now,” Jerry yelled outside.
“How can it be my place?” the woman asked. “I just got here and haven’t signed a damn thing yet.”
“Oh. I see. You think you’re some fancy city woman. All proper and legal with special documents and shit.” Jerry snickered.
“A rental lease isn’t a special document,” she snapped back. “It’s a standard agreement for any rental.”
“What rental is this woman talking about?” Gavin asked. With a glance at me and one last long pull on his beer, he stood. “Come on, let’s go see.”
I winced, not really caring about whatever crap Jerry was trying to pull now. He was Burton’s local conman. A scammer. The nicest thing I could call him was a weasel, always out to make a buck wherever he could find a loophole. By day, he called himself a landlord of several rundown properties in town, too stubborn to ever fix them up. At night, he gambled online, boosting of “big” wins.
Gavin was already heading out there, and I felt obligated to follow. Sure, I was curious, but I hadn’t seen the score yet. If Gavin left, I’d be too exposed for women hitting on me.
Eh, fuck it. It wouldn’t kill me to see what the commotion was about. Then I could head home.
It wasn’t ingrained in me to want to know everyone’s business, but in a small town like this, it became a natural force of intrigue.
“I don’t care, Heather.” Jerry stood there, his gangly arms crossed over his chest as he held his chin up. As if that would make him look intimidating and taller. He resembled a weasel, thin, sneaky, and lacking muscles to suggest he was strong at all. But that didn’t stop him from trying to lord over the woman glaring at me.
“This apartment is yours.” Jerry gestured at the door hanging ajar, the hinges and doorknob damaged. “And it’s your responsibility to pay for the damages in there.”
“It’s not mine.” Heather set her hands on her hips, setting a sharp green-eyed glower on him. Long black curls tumbled out of her ponytail, making her look that much more wild and furious. As though she’d yank her hair off her scalp with how mad he made her. “I just got here, dammit. I haven’t been here to be responsible for anything. I didn’t sign any lease—” She pivoted to scowl at Eric James, another coworker at the ranch. “You didn’t sign anything, did you?”
“No.” Eric shook his head then frowned back at the busted door that led up to one of Jerry’s rentals. “No. I didn’t sign anything. I just asked around and Jer said he had this apartment and that you could have it.”
“See?” Jerry sneered at her.
“See?” Heather shouted. “See what? This is your apartment. Not mine.”
“Hold on. Hold on now.” Gavin stepped closer, intervening. Having four daughters, a couple of them almost tweens, he was becoming a hell of a mediator. “Eric, what’s this all about?” As he approached, he glanced at the raven-haired woman. “Heather?”
“Save it for later, Gavin,” she bit out. “Yes, I’m back. Spare me the fake welcome-home spiel.”
“Damn.” I laughed once. Talk about an attitude.
Turning slowly, as if she needed to pace her movement to better prepare for a scathing attack, she locked her pissed glare on me.
“She’s supposed to rent the apartment up there,” Eric told Gavin. “But when I walked over to meet Jer and get the key for her, I saw that the door was busted open.”
“Someone broke in?” Gavin asked.
Even though Burton was a small town, crime happened. It happened any and everywhere, no matter what.
“Yeah. Busted up the place real good, too,” Jerry complained. “It’s gonna cost a fortune to fix back up.” He shot Heather a nasty look. “Gonna cost you, I mean,”
“I am not legally responsible for this place.” She flipped him off. “Try to screw over someone else, weasel boy.”
I huffed another short laugh. He does look like a weasel! Once more, she glared at me.
“Jer, I think this your problem,” Gavin said. “Not Eric’s.” He glanced at Heather. “Or hers.”
“You’re damn right it’s not my problem this place was broken into before I got here,” she said. “My only problem is not having a place to stay now.”
“Nah.” Gavin shrugged. “There’s plenty of places to rent around here.”
Heather cringed. “Yeah. You can count on high turnover in places like this.”
“If you don’t like this place, why are so set on being here?” I asked.
Gavin held up his hand, warding me off from speaking.
I wasn’t sure who the hell this woman was, but I could guess enough from her appearance. Posh. Designer clothes that cost more than my paycheck. Manicured nails and expensive skincare crap that ran women into bankruptcy. Looking like a model, she had to have come from the city.
She fumed, staring at me like she had just as low of an opinion of me. Raking her gaze over me, she curled her pink lips in disdain.
“Hold on now.” Gavin repeated his most frequently spoken phrase of peace. “Heather, if you just need a place to stay for the night, I’m sure there’s an older rental unit at the ranch.”
I furrowed my brow at him, wondering where in the hell he’d lost his common sense.
An uppity woman like her wouldn’t belong at the damn ranch with all the dust and cobwebs.
Are you nuts?
She looked down her nose at us all. Eric, Gavin, and lastly, me.
The idea of a woman at the ranch’s rental cabins was a joke. They weren’t rustic or charming on a good day, and if any of them had been empty for a while, they were downright filthy.
I smiled, relishing the thought that a high-maintenance brat like this woman wouldn’t last there for a single night.
At least I won’t have to worry about this one bothering me.
She wouldn’t last.
