Page 11 of The Rancher’s Bride
Damian goes still. “Nineteen’s too young to lose your parents.”
I keep my eyes on the stall instead of looking at him. “I went to school for a while, then dropped out when tuition got too expensive. Eventually I ended up in Ohio.”
“What happened there?”
“The company closed our branch. Then my boyfriend decided our relationship was too much effort once I didn’t have a steady paycheck, and the lease was in his name.”
Damian’s face darkens. “He threw you out?”
“He gave me a week to find a new place.”
“Asshole.”
“He’d already found someone else.”
“That makes him a bigger asshole.”
“Everything just kept snowballing,” I continue. “I couldn’t find steady work, I didn’t know anyone, and every plan I made seemed to fall apart. Then I saw the agency advertisement.”
“And decided marrying a stranger in Texas was your best option.”
“I decided it was an option.”
He watches me for a long beat, his usual smugness nowhere to be found. Finally, he says, “Sorry you went through all that.”
We finish the stalls without another argument. By the time Damian leans his pitchfork against the wall, my arms ache and my clothes are coated in dust.
“Food,” he says. “Before you fall over.”
“I’m not falling over.”
“You’re swaying.”
“I’m standing.”
“Badly.”
I wipe my forehead. “We should probably avoid cooking anything complicated.”
His mouth pulls to one side. “Agreed. I don’t think it’s safe for us to be in the kitchen together.”
“I could make sandwiches,” I offer.
“Thought you weren’t here to wait on me hand and foot.”
“I offered to make lunch,” I point out. “That isn’t the same thing.”
“Just reminding you what you said.”
“I don’t need reminding.”
“Fine. I’ll make the damn sandwiches.”
He walks out of the barn before I can answer. I stand there with aching arms and dirt coating my clothes, wondering how a conversation that almost felt productive managed to leave us exactly where we started—at odds.
Apparently, that’s the one thing Damian and I are good at.
The next several days settle into an exhausting routine. I wake early, find Damian somewhere outside, and help with whatever needs doing. I clean stalls, carry feed, collect eggs, scrub buckets, and spend an afternoon helping repair a fence while Damian insists I’m holding the wire wrong.
