I hesitated, glancing over my shoulder at Mom. “She’s grouchy when she wakes up hungry.”
“I’ll bring you dinner after my shift. Anything you want.”
“Ice cream?” I asked hopefully.
She laughed. “Ice cream would melt before I got it here, sugar. How about French fries and a burger? Some pie, too.” She tweaked my messy ponytail. “Cuz you’re so sweet.”
She needed me. It was a powerful feeling, one I didn’t want to let go of quite yet. “And five dollars.”
“Five dollars? That’s a lot of money.” She bit her lip like she was hiding a smile.
I took that as a challenge and folded my arms. “So don’t smoke for a day.”
She burst into a raspy laugh. “Damn, sugar. You got fire. You keep hold of that, you hear me? In this world, you’re gonna need it.”
She wasn’t wrong.
I popped out my earbuds and stretched. Maybe I’d go down to the animal barns and pet a horse or something. Mercy River Ranch had a lot of animals. There were the horses, of course, and chickens, goats, two pigs, and a llama. Supposedly there were cows, although I hadn’t seen a single one.
It was warm and sunny as I ambled down the dry, brown path that led to the barns. The daily temperature fluctuation definitely took some getting used to. Frigid mornings, hot afternoons, and in the distant mountains, I could see blinding white patches of snow. It took my breath away. Sure, New York had trees and grass, and Central Park. But there, nature was polite, like it had been wrangled into submission. Trees grew only where allowed.
Nature was sopresenthere. So wild.
And also kind of a bitch, because it stabbed me in the toes. I winced and pulled the twig out from where ithad lodged in my shoe. Sandals were probably a mistake on a ranch, but the only other shoes I’d brought with me were a pair of three-inch heels and two-hundred-dollar designer sneakers that I couldn’t afford to replace right now. The sandals had cost me twenty bucks at Target, so sandals it was.
Even with its wide entryways allowing sunlight to spill inside, the stable was darker than the day, and I had to blink a few times for my eyes to adjust to the sudden dim.
“You all right, ma’am?” a concerned male voice asked.
I blinked again. A ranch hand stepped out of a shadowed stall, pitchfork in hand. The same one whose gaze had lingered a little too long outside the lodge on my first day here. Logically, I knew he hadn’t recognized me. Cam girls were a dime a dozen, so even if he spent time on that part of the internet, it was highly unlikely that my naked cooking and floral arrangements were his particular kink.
But I still didn’t like the way he stared. Not then, and not now.
So I gave him my brightest smile, like he didn’t bother me in the slightest. “I’m fine, thank you. Just wanted to say hello to the horses.” I glanced around at the empty stalls. “Apparently, I came at the wrong time.”
“The horses spend most of the daylight hours working,either ranch work or trail rides for the guests. If they’re not working, they’re in the pastures. We don’t keep them inside when the weather is nice.” He moved closer. “I’m Brian Carpenter.”
“Lennon Graves. Nice to meet you.” I pivoted away from him on the pretense of investigating a stall. I peered over the chest-high door.
“I know who you are.”
He stepped closer, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I could feel his body heat invading my space.Ugh. I knew his type, and I hated it. Harmless when it came right down to it, but they got off on giving women the impression that they weren’t. Scaring women made them feel powerful.
I gripped the stall door like I was wringing his neck, but I glanced over my shoulder at him with a smile still firmly in place. His gaze was glued to my ass. He didn’t even try to hide it. Just slowly dragged his gaze upward to meet my eyes. My skin crawled.
I wouldn’t give him what he wanted. I wouldn’t show fear.
But I wasn’t going to poke at him either. So much of staying safe came down to one simple, infuriating rule:Don’t antagonize them.
And right now, I was a little scared. This man, knowing who I was? Knowing why I was here? I shuddered to think how he would wield that power. How he would twist and abuse it to make me do things I didn’twant to do. I could leave if I absolutely had to, but Hector had paid for my stay here. Finding new living arrangements would eat into my savings, and if things went south with Benny, I was going to need those savings to restart my life.
So I let my smile ride the line between curious and flirtatious as I said, “Oh? Have we met?”
He smirked. “Nah. Not officially.” He paused just long enough to make me wonder, and then added, “We don’t get a lot of women staying here, for whatever reason. Maybe the work doesn’t affect them in the same way. Maybe the really hard shit, the stuff that leaves scars, a man does it for them. Equality, am I right?”
What work? What the hell was he going on about? I’d kept mostly to myself and the kitchen since my arrival and hadn’t seen more than a glimpse of the other guests. But from the ranch’s website, I would have thought that women were their target market. I masked my confusion behind my smile. My cheeks were starting to hurt.
“You’re right,” I placated. I’d gotten good at that. I hardly even tasted the vomit anymore.
