Page 78 of The Banker and the Blue Collar Man

“Just do your best.” Jake’s voice was low, like he was talking to a wild thing. “Do what’s asked of you on the ranch. Ask questions if you don’t understand something. Pay attention. You’ve got a chance here, and I don’t want you to let it slip away from you. Understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Just Jake,” Jake said. “Or Mr. Jake, if that suits you better.”

“Okay, Mr. Jake.”

“Bed now,” Jake said to him. “It’s late.”

Jake came up those stairs holding two flashlights and took mine from me.

“Bed,” I told him, echoing his tone. “It’s late.”

“Yes, it is.”

He guided me inside the bunkhouse with his body. With a clunk, he placed the flashlights on the table and, with the light off, pulled me to him. Cupped my face in his hands and kissed me. Kissed me again.

“Thank you for the date,” he said. His fingers were in my hair, and I got the biggest hug. “Didn’t realize you were in charge of me taking time off.”

“Everybody is,” I said, half laughing. “Because you never do otherwise.”

Those were all the words we said to each other as we took each other’s clothes off and tumbled into the bed, never turning on the lights, not even once. Kisses followed. More kisses. Touches. Sweetness. Warm skin wrapped in soft, tumbled sheets.

I woke to sun coming in through the windows of the bunkhouse. Sounds from outside. I checked my phone, which Jake had plugged in for me. It was breakfast time. Jake had probably already been at work for an hour, and I needed to get something to eat and tackle the pile of work that awaited me.

I showered alone, quickly shaved and got dressed, and ate breakfast, all in under half an hour. When I got to the office, Lucas was leaning against the desk, looking bright and chipper, talking on his phone.

“So,” he said a moment later, putting his phone in his back pocket, “when are you going to make an honest man out of Jake?”

“What?” I’d not been expectingthatto be the first topic of the day.

“People saw you kissing at the saloon,” Lucas said. “And you moved into his bunkhouse, so are you going to ask him to marry you or not?”

“Only if you’re my flower girl,” I said, floundering in a sea of irritation and confusion.

“Fuck you, and yes,” he said. “But seriously, like I warned you before, people won’t like it if they find out you’ve been using Jake as Mr. Right Now.”

“UsingJake?” My voice rose, and then I realized this reaction had been Lucas’ intention. We’d often helped each other out of confusing situations and crossroads with no easy solution. He was just rattling my cage to get me to face facts.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” I began, and then I covered my face in my hands as if that would help me lay out what I meant. Brushing my hair out of my face, I looked at him. He hadn’t moved. Patient as always. “I thought I’d get here, drop off the kids, and then go back to my ordinary life.”

“And that’s not what happened, huh,” Lucas said, not sounding at all surprised. “The same thing happened to me when I got here. Word, chapter, and verse.”

“It’s just—” I paused, shaking my head, holding out both hands as if that would help me capture all my feelings about Jake. “Every day, he’s more and more perfect. I can’t imagine leaving him, but I’m not sure how to figure out the rest of my life with him in it.” As always, it was hard to articulate how I felt about Jake.

“Like what?”

“Like a job. I know I could work here for you, but—but I can’t see myself living the rest of my days in a bunkhouse with no real bedroom. Can you?”

“No.” Lucas shook his head, agreeing with me. “What about that land in Nebraska you inherited?”

“Twenty dusty acres and a well that doesn’t work.”

“Well, Jake and Jesse have been talking, it seems, and Jesse told me Jake is right. If you get that windmill fixed, you’ve probably got something there.”

“Something like what?” I did my best to hide my surprise that Jake and Jesse had been talking about that land. Jake had said he’d follow me there, though I didn’t figure anyone would be happy about me taking Jake from the ranch.

“Income,” he said, which didn’t surprise me. We both had banking backgrounds. Our conversations had started off revolving around money, and that trend had continued. “Get the property assessed. Then you decide what you want to do: live there, sell it, rent it out, or lease it.”