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Because that wouldn’t be creepy or anything.
“Hey, Cody! Are you in there?”
“Hmmm. What?”
I glance back at her and her blond brow lifts. “I’ve been talking to you but I think you were a million miles away. What is wrong? I can help you if you just let me.”
I shake my head, glancing back out the window again, my heart aching. I will never have Heather as anything more than a friend and I’m about to lose the only home I’ve ever had.
Nobody can do anything for me. I’m fucked.
“My dad took out a huge loan last year before he died and then blew all the damn money on one of his stupid ideas. Now there’s a balloon payment coming up in two months and I don’t have even a small portion of it. I’m gonna lose the ranch to the bank.”
She sucks in a breath and then lets it out in a huff. Her hand touches me lightly again and she sighs. “I’m not going to let that happen, Cody. I’ll figure this out. Just give me a couple of days.”
I don’t even turn to watch her curvy body walk out the door. I just can’t do it. Can’t watch her walk away again. Not when I’m feeling this low. This defeated.
This fucking turned on for a girl that doesn’t even know that I have these feelings for her. That wants to be a good friend.
I swear, I don’t think my life can get any fucking worse.
CHAPTER2
Heather
My shoulders hunch as I sit in the office of my little cottage in town. My finger keeps scrolling through money-making options but I can’t find what I need. What Cody needs.
Anger lashes at my insides as I picture his father, ripping off the family legacy for all his stupid little pet projects that never turned a profit and always sank them into a deeper hole.
His mom was lucky that she decided to cut loose from him and run away with another man, divorcing him so long ago. Cody was only ten and from then on, he kinda hated women.
So it’s funny that I’m his best friend. At least…I think so. But even if I’m not, I’m still his only friend that’s a woman.
I sigh and set my head in my hands, my eyes aching with strain. I’ve been staring at this damn screen for hours and I just haven’t come up with anything.
I see a construction company in Wildwood, Colorado that’s got a whole website devoted to their calendar, a money-making venture that’s dragging their family business out of the red. I flip through the outtake photos of the shoots and laugh at some of the funny shots. These guys are hot as hell and the pictures with puppies are adorable. The one poor guy is pictured with an exotic kitten from a zoo though and he looks terrified in those shots. It’s hilarious.
But I don’t think that Cody will go for something like that. This needs to be something a little different. Where every Susie, Sarah and Shelly can’t just buy his photo to hang on the wall. It needs to be something that screams the ranch. I know that Cody has always dreamt of a horse rehabilitation ranch and he just started working on that project when his dad died. He’d been in the hospital for a couple of months after a massive heart attack that left him in a coma.
So on top of whatever idiocy Harvey got them into, he also gave Cody a stack of hospital bills to pay for. The man did whatever he could to fuck up Cody’s life for him.
My full lips twist and I search through pages of information about how to make big money for your business.
Then for some damn reason an online dating app pops up. Probably because I had been considering something like this last week. When I thought I could move on from Cody. I’ve loved the grumpy, blind idiot for so long that it feels like second nature to me now.
Which is why there’s no way in hell I’m failing him now. If he needs money, I’m gonna find it for him.
A little niggling thought crosses my mind but it doesn’t catch so I’m not sure what I was thinking.
Then another site pops up in front of me and I gasp, shocked. This site gives you online bidding options on a date with someone.
Then a lightbulb goes on over my head and it’s so strong that I swear you can see it floating in the air above me.
First things first though. Cody needs help with the bank and my aunt happens to work at the bank in account management. I think I might be able to get him a little extension on that loan and a little bit of help getting some working capital to make this plan work.
All I have to do is convince her that this is going to make money for the bank and that it’s good for the community as well. Because if they can subsidize Cody’s new business then the town will have a shot at keeping a big employer afloat. And Ruby doesn’t have a whole lot going for it right now. Maybe this will put our little town on the map.
Hours later, I head back home with a smile on my face. I put forth a business projection that met with my aunt’s approval and pending Cody’s agreement then this is going to be the best and quickest way to get him out from under his dad’s messy problems.
