Goodbye Girl (Hidden Lane Ranch) (3 page)

“What’s wrong with you today, man?”
Wyatt asked me as we walked back to the main house for dinner.

“Nothing’s wrong, why?” I asked
defensively. I’d been distracted all day, trying to get glimpses of Rachel as
Eliza showed her around the ranch. I was annoyed I didn’t get to be the one to
do it, but there really wasn’t any reason Eliza couldn’t. I just wanted to
spend more time with Rachel.

I was thrilled she was coming to
work here. Today she had covered it up better, but I still noticed that bruise
on her cheek. Here I could protect her from whoever had done that to her. I
clenched my hands into fists; if I ever got my hands on the person that hurt
her, they would be begging for mercy.

“You’ve been distracted all damn day
and don’t think I haven’t noticed you checking out that fine piece of ass we
just hired.”

I stopped and grabbed my brother’s
arm. “Don’t you ever refer to Rachel like that again, got it?” I said through
clenched teeth. My brother wasn’t going to treat her like he did the other
girls in this town.

“Whoa, big brother,” Wyatt muttered,
holding up his hands. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

I released his arm and continued
walking inside. I’d never been very good at hiding my emotions and I’m sure
everyone would know by the time dinner was done that I had the hots for the new
girl.

As I approached the main house, I
was happy to see Rachel’s car still in the driveway; Eliza hadn’t scared her
off yet. Butterflies started working overtime in my stomach and I felt like a
teenage boy again, seeing the girl I had a crush on. It was a long time since a
girl affected me like this, not since Hope. But even with her, I don’t think I
ever had such intense feelings so soon.

I caught a glimpse of my reflection
in a window. I was a sweaty mess and there was no time for a shower before
dinner. I lifted my arm and took a whiff, wincing at how I smelled. Rachel
probably wasn’t used to guys coming to dinner smelling like a cattle farm after
a long day’s work. She was going to have to get used to it, but I’d been hoping
not quite yet.

Wyatt brushed past me and headed
into the house. I was going to have to apologize to him later; I’m not sure
what had come over me. He meant his comment innocently enough, but where Rachel
was concerned, I had this overwhelming urge to protect her, even from my own
brother.

I followed behind him and was
greeted by the smells and sounds of dinner on the ranch. Ma insisted on
remaining the ranch cook despite my efforts to hire someone else to do it. At
least she let me hire an assistant for her. I was glad she still cooked though;
it kept her busy and I loved her cooking. She was easily the best cook this
side of the Mississippi.

This was always my favorite time of
day. Unless we had an emergency, everyone stopped what they were doing and met
here for dinner. There were about ten of us, including the family and the
employees. It was noisy and chaotic, but I loved it. Everyone was talking at
once and it was hard to get a word in, but we were a family.

Rachel was helping Ma put the food
on the table. I was happy to see she seemed to be at ease. She looked over at
me and I caught her gaze. She smiled widely at me and I grinned back. She ended
up sitting at the opposite end of the table by Eliza and Wyatt and I couldn’t
help but watch her throughout the meal. She laughed and joked with them and she
rolled her eyes at Wyatt quite a bit. She was too smart to fall for his charms
but at least they were getting along.

“She’s pretty, huh?” Ma asked,
interrupting my thoughts with a nudge of her elbow.

I pushed my food around on my plate,
embarrassed at having been caught staring at her. I grunted, acknowledging her
question. There wasn’t much that got past Ma though.

“Clint, you can’t fool me. I saw the
way you looked at her when she showed up this morning and she was looking at
you the same way. Did anything happen between you two?”

I shrugged, not sure what to say. “Nope,
we just met at the diner the other night but there was something between us. Sure,
she’s attractive and that was a big part of it, but there’s more.”

“I noticed the bruise on her face,”
Ma mumbled softly so the others around us couldn’t hear her.

The muscle in my jaw twitched as I clutched
my fork and nodded. I had zero tolerance for anyone that laid a hand on a
woman, especially if it was her boyfriend.

“Just be careful with her,” Ma said
softly, reaching out to touch my arm.

“Ma,” I said, the tone in my voice
warning her that this conversation was over.

I ate the rest of my dinner in
silence, listening to her laughter from the other end of the table. Maybe I
could get her alone after dinner.

When we were done, we all helped
clear the table and I found myself standing next to her at the counter. “Your
mom is an amazing cook,” she said, brushing a stray strand of hair from her
forehead. “I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a meal so good.” She patted her
stomach. “I think I might burst.”

I chuckled and nodded. “She is for
sure.” I turned around and leaned against the edge of the counter. I crossed my
arms across my chest. “So what do you think?”

She looked up at me, her blue eyes
bright in the light of the kitchen. “About?”

“Working here?” The stray strand of
hair fell again and I had to fight the urge to reach out and brush it from her
face.

“I love it, honestly. Never in a
million years did I think I’d be working on a ranch, but it’s perfect for me
right now. It’s beautiful here. Thanks for the job,” she said softly. Our eyes
locked and for a minute I forgot about all the people around us. I wanted to
kiss her so bad but the middle of the busy kitchen was not the place for it.

I smiled at her and was about to say
something when Eliza came over to break the spell. “Are you ready to head to
town to get your stuff? Maybe we can stop at the saloon for one or two and see
if there are any cute guys?”

“Maybe Rachel just wants to get
settled here,” I stammered, hating the idea of men flirting with her. I was
sure she had to fight guys off with a stick.

“Actually, that sounds fun,” she
replied. “I’ve never really had a girlfriend to do those things with, so one or
two might not hurt.”

“Awesome!” Eliza exclaimed. “I’ll
get my purse and keys and meet you outside. We’ll take my truck.”

Wyatt perked up at their
conversation. “I’m going out too; maybe I’ll meet you guys out somewhere. I
have to meet a few friends first and then we’re heading downtown.”

I didn’t usually go out, but fuck
that if I was going to let her hang out with my brother and his friends for a
night or let God-knows-who touch her, much less look at her.

“Maybe I’ll go out too. Sounds fun,”
I interrupted their chatter.

The whole kitchen got quiet and
everyone looked at me. Eliza put her hand on her hip. “Are you sick, Clint?”

I shook my head. “No, why?”

“Cause you never go out. You’re
usually working too hard to ever want to have fun.”

Wyatt came walking over to me,
inspecting my face carefully. “She’s right. What’s wrong with you?” He reached
out to feel my forehead and I slapped it away before he had a chance to touch
it.

“Nothing, asshole.” I glared at him.
“Can’t a guy go out for a few without getting the third degree?” I glanced
nervously over at Rachel. She was busy cleaning off dishes, but she had to have
heard our conversation.

Eliza shrugged and waved her hand,
dismissing him. “Whatever, big brother. Just don’t act stupid if I’m talking to
some guy.” She walked to the door. “Let’s go, Rachel.”

Rachel wiped her hands on the
dishtowel. “Let me grab my keys.” She turned back to me before she left and
smiled. Yeah, I was heading to the bar later for sure.

The kitchen cleaned out quickly as
we finished with the last of the dishes and soon it was just Ma and I. I was
about to go back to my room to take a shower when she put her hand on my arm.

“You have it so bad for her, don’t
you?” she teased.

“Ma, I hardly know her,” I insisted.
She was being ridiculous; it was just attraction plain and simple. Rachel was a
gorgeous, healthy young woman; who wouldn’t be attracted to that?

She shook her head and smiled. “Sometimes
you just know, dear. I knew the minute I saw your dad. I told your Aunt Julie,
‘I’m going to marry that man.’

Ma had told us this story a million
times, but I humored her. “I don’t think people fall in love like that today.”

She hung up the dishcloth on the
sink. “We’ll see, son, we’ll see. Now shower and get out there to meet the girls!”
She shooed me out of the kitchen.

I laughed and walked back to my
room. As I reached to open the door, I noticed a few of Rachel’s things on bed
in the room next to me.
She was going to
be in the room next to me?
My mind started going a million miles a minute,
thinking about all the late night rendezvous we could have; my cock got hard at
the thought.

My phone beeped and I pulled it out
of my pocket. It was a text from Wyatt asking where I was. I typed back a quick
reply that I had to shower and then I’d be on my way.

Even though Rachel had only left an
hour ago, I was anxious to see her again. Maybe I could get her alone to talk
and learn more about her. Who knows what might happen? Ma was wrong though; I
didn’t have it bad for her. Or did I?

Eliza and I ran back to my hotel and
got my bags from my room. I was able to check out and get my money back for the
second night. As the friendly lady at the front desk gave me my money back, I
had a moment of panic, second-guessing what I was doing. Was it smart to move
to this ranch after knowing these people just one day? Was I being too
trusting? I liked to think I was fairly street smart and I had a good feeling
about them, but was I wrong?

“All set?” Eliza asked me, coming in
from outside. She’d been on the phone with a friend, trying to figure out our
plans for the rest of the night. I was exhausted, but looking forward to going
out. It’d been a hell of a couple of weeks and maybe having a few drinks and
letting off some steam would be good for me.

I shoved the money into my purse and
nodded, swallowing my apprehension. I felt safe with these people and it
wouldn’t hurt to stick around for a bit. I’d just have to keep my guard up and
not get too close to anyone.

We went back out to the truck and
headed downtown. “I talked to Wyatt and he’s at the saloon already. I guess
Clint is going to be there soon too. I don’t know what’s up with him going out.
He never wants to go out to the bars,” she muttered and rolled her eyes.

The butterflies went into overdrive
at the mention of his name. He may make it hard for me to not get close to
anyone. Whenever I got near him, the sexual tension between us was so thick you
could almost cut it with a knife. I started thinking about him lying back in
bed in those jeans, smiling at me. I took a deep shaky breath. Yeah, staying
away from him was going to be a challenge for sure.

“So where are you from?” Eliza
asked, her eyes on the road in front of her and putting an end to my fantasy.

“New York,” I really didn’t want to
give any more details than I needed to; it was just better for everyone that
way.

“Where were you headed?”

“Not sure,” I shrugged. “Somewhere
out west.”

Eliza got quiet then, but I had a
feeling she wanted to ask me more but I was glad she didn’t push for more
information. Maybe one day I would share more about myself, but I wasn’t ready
yet.

We turned the corner onto the
quaintest little downtown I’d ever seen. It almost looked like something out of
the movies. It was a little hard to tell since it was dark and the only light
coming from the street lights,
but, I could see that the buildings were
well taken care of even though they were quite old.
It was clean and there were no harsh
brightly lit signs from clubs like I was used to in the city.

Eliza parked the truck in front of
one of the buildings. I couldn’t help but snicker at the name - ‘Saloon’. I had
thought that’s what they called it instead of calling it by name but I guess
that
was
the name of the bar.

She turned off the truck and turned
to me with a grin. “Ready?”

I nodded, a little intimidated by
the thought of hanging out with everyone and meeting more new people. We jumped
out of the truck and headed for the door. I could already hear the faint sounds
of country music blaring and I had to fight back a laugh. If someone had told
me even week ago I’d be living and working on a ranch, I would’ve told them
they were on crack; yet, here I am at an actual saloon full of people with cowboy
boots and that plays country music. Total craziness but it felt totally right.

Eliza opened the door and we walked
in. The place had an old rustic feel to it. The floors were made of wood and I
had to look down when I felt a crunch under my sandals; there were discarded
peanut shells all over the place. The walls were covered with the heads of
various dead animals. Country music was blaring from the speakers.

It was busy, but not packed; not
like the clubs I went to where you were shoulder to shoulder with people and
had to weave your way through the crowd. The crowd was filled with an eclectic
group of people; there were young people like Eliza and me and older people. Almost
everyone had on cowboy boot or a cowboy hat though; some even had both. I felt
a little out of place in my strappy sandals.

“Rachel! Eliza!” Wyatt was waving to
us from the corner of the bar. He was with a couple other guys that looked like
they came out of a Wrangler or truck ad. This place was full of hot-ass man
candy and I was surprised Eliza was single with all the opportunities running
around.

“Hey,” he said when we got to the
table. He offered to get us a beer and took our orders before heading up to the
bar.

He came back to the table with a few
beers. Eliza grabbed hers and took a drink before looking at him with a grin. “So,
where are the girls from last night?”

Wyatt’s face turned a shade of red
I’d never seen on another human being before and his eyes darted over to me. I’d
heard some rumblings during dinner how his mother had caught him with two girls
last night.

“Um, I don’t know,” he stammered.

Eliza shook her head with a smirk. “Ma
told me you brought two girls home last night. Seriously, Wyatt…Under the same
roof as your mother?” She shuddered. “Did she even say anything today?”

He shook his head sheepishly. “No,
and I kept waiting for her to all day.”

“No fair,” Eliza mumbled. “If I
brought home two dudes she’d have a fit, but because you’re a guy, she lets it
slide.”

Wyatt’s friend Steve perked up. “Well,
you could bring Jackson and me home tonight and see what she does.”

Eliza looked at him with horror. “What?
Are you crazy? No way! I’ve known you boys since we were five years old. Ick.”

Jackson pretended to look
heartbroken as we all laughed. Maybe that was why Eliza was still single. It
was a small town and her choices were probably limited.

“So who’s the new girl?” Steve
nodded at me and took a drink of his beer.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” Eliza
turned to me. “Rachel, these are two of my brother’s asshole friends, Steve and
Jackson.” She fought back a grin despite the look of horror on Jackson’s face. “Guys,
this is Rachel. She’s my new assistant on the ranch.”

The boys took turn shaking my hand. “Don’t
listen to anything Eliza says about us,” Jackson warned me.

“Well, if you’re friends of Wyatt’s,
I have to say I probably will have to believe her” I teased and winked at
Wyatt.

We continued laughing and drinking
as we sat around the table. Everyone was so nice and I couldn’t believe how
they accepted me into their group with no questions asked. Back home everyone
was so weary of any outsider.

I found myself watching the door for
Clint; Eliza had said he was coming, but maybe he’d changed his mind. Why
couldn’t I get him out of my head? If I was going to keep my distance from him,
the less I saw him, the better.

“Want to dance?” Eliza asked me. I
glanced towards the dance floor; there were about ten people out there dancing
to some country song I’d never heard before. Who was I kidding? I hadn’t heard
most country songs before.

“Yeah, let’s dance!” Wyatt said,
grabbing my hand and dragging me out to the dance floor.

I’d had a couple of beers by now and
was feeling more relaxed so I didn’t put up much of a fight. Eliza and Jackson
followed us and we danced like crazy, working up a sweat. They tried to teach
me some line dancing, but I wasn’t the most coordinated and ended up in a fit
of giggles. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had so much fun.

A slow song came on and I was about
to get off of the dance floor when Wyatt grabbed my arm. “Let’s dance. I
promise I won’t bite.”

I couldn’t resist the boyish grin he
had on his face and Eliza was slow dancing with Jackson, so I agreed. It was
just a slow dance anyway, not marriage.

He wrapped his arms around my waist
and I had to admit, his strong arms felt good. I seriously loved the way the
men in Wyoming were built. With all the hard work they did, they were all
muscle.

We swayed to the music, each lost in
our own thoughts. I thought about Seth back in Buffalo and shivered. Thankfully
Wyatt didn’t even seem to notice. I wasn’t ready to tell anyone here about him.
The bruise on my face was getting better and I was able to pretty much hide it
with make-up, so hopefully I would never have to speak of him.

The slow song ended and I was about
to exit the dance floor when Wyatt spun me around and begun dancing again. “I’m
going to teach you how to two-step.”

I laughed and shook my head. Despite
my protests, he started instructing me and we made it through the song with me
only stepping on his feet a few times.

“I need a break,” I said, brushing a
strand of hair from my forehead.

“Fine,” Wyatt agreed with a grin. “My
feet are getting sore anyway.”

We turned to leave the dance floor
and almost ran right into Clint. He’d been watching us on the dance floor and I
swore I saw a muscle jumping in his jaw. He had his arms crossed over his black
t-shirt and he didn’t look too pleased.

“Hey big brother! It’s about time
you got here!” Wyatt greeted him.

“Looks like it,” he mumbled.