Chapter Two
Ledger
The high plainswind in the dead of winter and back-to-back missed calls from a pissed off girlfriend: two things that can fuck right off today.
I bite the end of my middle finger, yanking off the leather glove with my teeth. The pad of my thumb swipes across my phone screen.
By some miracle, there are no voicemails from her. Still, the other notifications are racking up.
I want to care. But what I want more is to never get bitched at by this woman again. As I’ve learned in recent months, opposites do not attract. Not in my case, at least.
It’s shitty to break up with her over the phone. But it’s either that or wait until she storms onto this ranch with a red face and sharpened claws.
After clicking her name, I press the phone loosely to my ear.
“Well, I’ll be fucking damned,” she answers the call with no pleasantry. “So you’re alive, then?”
I have an overwhelming urge to hang up the second I hear her tone.
“Yes,” I grumble. “Hello, Katie.”
“Hi, yourself,” she scoffs. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of you about this weekend.”
“What about it?” I’m trying not to sigh, but it comes out anyway.
“I know you don’t like when anyone comes over to your place, but I’ve already talked to Morgan and everyone else. I thought we could invite some friends or maybe go over to Jace’s place? He has a sound system, and we could have a party.”
“Hell no.”
I throw my gloves into the cab of the enclosed side-by-side and slide onto the seat, slamming the door behind me. She curses through her teeth on the call as I put it in drive and do my best to avoid the deeper parts of snow in the pasture.
She’s using my best friend, Jace, against me. He works here at the ranch, and we’ve been buds since our school years. He knows better than to show up to my place with a bunch of people or host a party and invite me over.
Despite Katie’s incessant complaining, my heart rate suddenly slows to a more content pace as I distract myself with my mental checklist. The cows have extra hay, new calves on the ground have been tagged and accounted for, and all of the ice has been shoveled out of the water tanks. Mom’s green chili is waiting on me in the slow cooker at the ranch house, and I’m about to kiss this annoying woman on the other end of the line goodbye so I don’t have to buy ear plugs for a snowed-in weekend with her.
“Why!” Her voice cracks, heavy with annoyance.
“I’m not in the mood. I’m staying at my house, and I don’t want a bunch of people around all weekend.”
“But—but it’s soboring,”she whines. “There’s nothing to do. You’re no fun at all, you know that?”
I roll my eyes and steer to the left, driving over the cattle guard toward the maternity barn to give the cows that were moved there this morning one last check.
I spend about ninety percent of my time outdoors, and Katie complains about bugs or the cold. I meet up with a friend every once and a while but prefer to stay in at night, and Katie complains about the quiet. It’s never-ending, and it seems like there’s no choice I make that she likes.
“It’s probably best you don’t come over anymore at all, then.”
Git.
As my papa would say. I won’t go as far as to spit on the ground in her direction like he would, but the thought does cross my mind.
The line goes silent, and my thoughts spin over how to kick her to the curb without being a dick. She was a lot more chill a few weeks ago. When we hooked up and kept talking afterward, she started telling the whole valley I was her boyfriend, and I went along with it because I’m not one for confrontation and she was nice at that time.
“Fine by me!” She raises her voice to a shrill. I momentarily wince and pull the phone away from my ear. “You wouldn’t give me the attention I deserved unless I had four legs and a long black tail! I’m so done. I’m breaking up with you.”
Without seeing her in person, I already know that her nose is stuck ten feet in the air.
I chuckle. “You’rebreaking up withme?”
