Page 10 of Hometown Hottie

5

NOVA

After a long day of farm chores, I kicked off my boots on my little front porch and walked into my cottage by the creek, looking forward to a nice, cool shower. My muscles were aching, my skin was a little hot from all the sun I’d gotten, and my head was gloriously quiet.

Humming to myself, I made my way past my kitchen and across my living area before ascending the stairs to my loft-style bedroom. All the stress, the work, and the worry of a ranch was so worth it when this was what I got to come home to.

Dad and I had built my cottage with our own hands after I’d come back from Oklahoma, and not a day went by when I wasn’t grateful for my tiny slice of heaven when I walked in. It was nothing fancy. Most folks these days would call it rustic, but I loved my wooden sanctuary by the water.

Set in a grove of trees right up against the riverbank, I had a cozy deck overlooking the water and the mountains. I also had a fireplace, a living room with a small, round dining table, a bedroom, a bathroom, and all the privacy I needed even though my parents and my brother also lived on the same property.

Striding over to the sliding doors leading out to the deck, I opened them to let in some fresh air. The sound of the bubbling stream outside greeted me as the water flowed past. I breathed in the scent of earth and pine, feeling tension ease from my shoulders.

I heard an engine outside, moving closer until it cut off right in front of my door. The serenity of the moment was broken. I turned to see who it was, and Ryan’s heavy footsteps coming up the few stairs to my porch answered the question for me.

I groaned. So much for my long, cool shower.

I walked into my kitchen instead. Like everything else about my cottage, the kitchen was small, but it was open-concept with a country-style layout. A center island had my stove in it and my pots and pans hung from rails above.

Dad had mounted plenty of shelves. We’d left them open instead of installing cabinets, but we’d done it to save money, only finding out about a year later that open shelving had become a trend.

I grabbed a bottle of whiskey and swiped two glasses off a shelf just as the door swung open and my brother walked in. Ryan took after my father. They were both built as tall and as sturdy as horses, with dark hair and a constant five-o-clock shadow on their jaws despite how often they shaved.

I was the spitting image of my mother, with light hair and fair skin. She and I could’ve been sisters, but Ryan had gotten nothing except her eyes. My eyes. We’d also both inherited our father’s stubborn streak.

My brother didn’t stop walking until he could reach the bottle I was holding out toward him. Then he kept right on going, taking the glasses and the bottle with him as he strode out onto my deck. I followed, both of us kicking up our feet on the table outside after we sat down.

It was something of a ritual for us. We did it at least once a week, both of us looking out at the land we loved so much for a few silent minutes before we even said anything.

After he poured us each a generous drink, he finally glanced at me. “I heard Frank came by again.”

“Yep.” I leaned back against a cushion Mom and I had made ourselves for my chairs out here. Every inch of this cottage and everything in it was me. Mine. And Frank would tear it all down to build a resort or something. The very blood in my veins turned bitter at the thought of it. “He’ll go away eventually. We just need to keep saying no.”

My brother raked a hand through his thick hair, his head shaking. “We’re going to have to do more than just say no, Nova. It’s getting to that point now where we can’t just keep thinking it’s all going to work out in the end.”

“It will work out in the end,” I said. “As long as Dad lets us work it out.”

He barked out a dry laugh. “You know he’s not going to let us do that. Which is exactly why we’re in this situation.”

I couldn’t argue with that. Ryan and I both loved our father as much as we did the ranch, each other, and our lives, but the man was stubborn as a mule. A quiet moment passed between us until I spoke again. “Did you go check the eastern border fence today?”

“Yep. It’s coming down. Again.”

I groaned. “I really thought it was going to hold for longer than this. I just fixed it last month.”

“It doesn’t need fixing anymore, Nova. What it needs is to be replaced,” he said in a hushed voice, like he was scared even saying it out loud would make the fence fall down for good. Although with the state of things around here these days, he probably wasn’t wrong. “That entire section between Murphy’s Rock and the Ridge is fucked. You can only repair something so many times before it’s time to let it go, and it’s time to let that go.”

Worry formed a rock at the center of my chest as I did a few quick calculations in my head. “We can’t let it go. Do you have any idea how much it’s going to cost to replace even just that section?”

“Yep.”

“We don’t have that kind of money, Ry. It’s rocky over there, which makes it even more expensive. My best guess is fifteen thousand or up.”

“Up,” he said.

My stomach flipped. “We definitely don’t have that kind of money.”

“Nope.”