Page 68 of The Banker and the Blue Collar Man

Ideserved Jake’s condemnation. His silentFuck youto accompany the disaster my life had become. Except that condemnation never came.

To be honest, my job at Hadley & Maine had been so-so from the start. Until Logan Cotterhill showed up, and then it became hellish.

But even before that, apart from leaving Lucas behind, it was a job I’d have been happy to walk away from. So why, at the moment when I was fired, had I felt so desperate to hang on to it?

Because it was stable. It paid well. I was good enough at my work that I didn’t really have to think about it. It was a known quantity.

I’d thought about quitting all the time. Handing in my two weeks, and then not serving those two weeks, just to be petty. But to have it taken from me? The thing I’d not wanted being ripped out of my hands? Felt like holding onto razor wire.

And standing there, watching all of it, was Jake.

Being there with Jake, having brought him with me, I’d experienced a moment I’d never dreamed I’d have.

Logan had been at me, the way he typically was. Intimidation by bluster and forward motion. Those stabs in my chest.

I’d experienced this before. Remembered feeling like I wanted to crawl under a rock when he’d drag me over the coals. Not because I’d done something wrong. But because the office had so many windows, everybody could see.

I’d often thought that they were glad it was me and not them. This time. Their time would come.

Then Jake strode into that office, eyes blazing, fire inside diamonds. He was taller than Logan, all muscle and sinew. Pissed off. Nothing to lose.

He’d stepped between me and Logan like a knight on a fiery steed. Like a one-man cavalry coming over the hill at the last minute.

His arrival mirrored the end of every Saturday-morning Western I’d ever seen. All that was missing was the sound of bugles, though hisThat’s enough out of you, directed at Logan, was plated with gold and louder than brass.

I’d never been rescued like that before. And now I had been.

He was the kind of guy where I could see the hope in his eyes—that since I’d lost my job, my logical decision would be to make myself at home at Snow Creek Ranch.

And then, when I got nasty and said I wasn’t staying, his response was to offer to go with me to set up a new life for myself outside Scottsbluff. A half-assed ranch on a dusty, empty bend in the road, consisting of twenty acres and no water.

Even if he was sure the land had water, deep beneath the surface of the earth—and who was I to doubt him—Scottsbluff was the last place I would ever want to live.

Sure, it was pretty in the pictures. All Oregon Trail this and westward expansion that. I could see how it would probably be peaceful to settle there. But it’d be far away from those stars Jake had pointed out to me. And it’d be far away from Jake.

He’d even mentioned that he’d be willing to leave those stars behind and find new ones. For me, which brought up memories of that first night. When we’d met in the cool darkness, and he’d given me his jacket, and then scolded me for going barefoot.

That’s how he was: a bundle of contrasts. Stern but kind. Silent, but saying volumes with his actions. Dependable, but his own man. All of this was because of where he’d come from. All those foster homes. Those sorry excuses for mothers and fathers. A world where he’d learned to depend on himself. Even I could see that, having known him only a short while.

As we sat on those boulders, his very presence soothed me. Not to mention the cool, shaded peace he’d brought me to without a word. And, once my tension eased, my body moved without me asking it, getting up and settling in his arms on a slanted boulder that was barely big enough for him, let alone the two of us. But he didn’t seem to mind that I didn’t ask permission to make myself at home on his lap.

I would never want to take him away from his beloved stars. How could I, when he’d shared them with me in a way that made them feel like they belonged to me, too?

Everything about what I needed to decide seemed to be wrapped up in Jake. How he made me feel. How he looked at me as though I were the answer to every hope he’d ever had.

I opened my mouth to say something. To tell him I just needed time to figure things out. And, selfishly, I needed more nights with Jake, in his bunkhouse, while the bonfire flickered outside the windows, making it seem as though we were in a secret cave, just us two.

But I heard shouting and saw Cameron thundering down the short path to the bridge. He must have seen us go off together and was now looking for us.

“Mr. Dalton, Mr. Jake!” He held his arms out wide as he skidded to a stop at the bottom of the path.

Jake didn’t push me away as though he was worried about being seen holding me. I didn’t pull away, but I had to get up, though, because Cameron, usually pleasant and cheerful, was having a meltdown. His face was flushed, and his panting breath made his words hard to understand.

“They took Daybreak!”

Jake’s beloved truck.

“We were talking about how we wanted to go to Dairy Queen, only nobody was free to take us. And Dillon said the keys were in the truck, and then Xander said he’d drive, so he got in and started the engine. I didn’t think it was right, but I didn’t know who to tell without getting them both in trouble.”