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“Hey, where are you?Are you at the ranch?”
“Yeah, I’m out at the barn.Do you need me?”
“I’ll come to you,” I reply and end the call as I turn back to Will.“I’ll take you out to the barn.”
“What exactly does my daughter do here, and why is she living with you?”
I stop at the sharpness in his voice and narrow my eyes at the older man.Sure, I’m starstruck, but he’s on my property.“Erin took a live-in position as a nanny for my two young children.I can show you her room if you’d like.”
“Yeah, I want to see it.”
I lead him to the back of the house and open her door.“I won’t go in there because it’s an invasion of privacy, but this is her room.”
Will sighs and steps just inside the door, looks around, then comes back out again.“Okay, let’s go to the barn.”
With a curt nod, I lead him back through the house.
“We’ll take the Jeep,” I say simply and wait for him to get in with me before setting off to the barn.“I want to make it clear that I’m not holding her captive here or anything.My kids love her.”
“Of course, they do.She’s the best there is,” he says before rubbing his eyes.“She hasn’t been returning my calls, and I decided to come out here to make sure she’s safe.”
“As a dad, I get that.I promise you, she’s safe.You’ll see for yourself.”
I can’t blame him for being worried.If Holly stopped taking my calls, I’d do the same thing.
As soon as we reach the barn, Will hops out of the Jeep, and we walk into the barn, where we find Erin mucking out a stall.
“You have my daughter shoveling shit?”Will demands, and Erin’s head whips up, her eyes huge as she stares at her father.
“Dad?What are you doing here?”she demands as she leans her shovel against the wall.
“I have the same question,” Will replies.
I hang back, cross my arms over my chest, and watch the show unfold.
“I work out here,” Erin says with a scowl.“I mean, nothere, in the barn.I was bored and came out to ask if there was anything I could do to help.But I work at the house as the nanny for Holly and Johnny.I already told Mom all of this.”
“But you haven’t toldme,” Will replies with frustration.“And you won’t return my goddamn calls.”
Erin bites her lower lip and winces.
“So, I chartered the jet and came out here, only to find that you’re shacked up withhim,” he points his thumb at me, “and are out in a barn, shoveling shit.What in the actual hell, Erin?”
“First of all,” Erin retorts, anger rising in her cheeks, “I’m a grown woman.If I want to shovel shit for a living, I will.Besides, I’m mucking out a stall, not simplyshoveling shit.Second of all, Ilikeit out here.I’m grateful that Remington gave me the job because I needed it.”
That makes her shut up, and her eyes widen as if she didn’t mean to say that.
“What do you mean,you need it?”Will asks, his voice suddenly very quiet.
“My car broke down.”She tries to keep her voice nonchalant, but it only aggravates Will more.“It’s no big deal.I just needed a little extra income to pay for the repairs, that’s all.”
Without any regard for the fact that I’m standing here, along with Lucky and Bruiser across the barn, Will steps closer to his daughter and shoves his hands into his pockets.
“You have a trust fund with millions of dollars in it that’s available to you with the click of a fucking button,” he says, anger radiating through him.“You’ve made it clear how you feel about my money, but I will not have my daughter driving an unsafe car in a town where we havezerocontacts, all because of your goddamn pride.Buy a new car, Erin.”
Her chin lifts in defiance.“Remington lent me his vehicle until mine is fixed.I figured it out, Dad.Everything’s fine.”
“Everything’s fine,” he echoes and backs away from her.I can see the hurt in his eyes, and Erin must see it, too, because she rushes to him and wraps her arms tightly around him.He does the same, holding on to his little girl.“It’s not fine, baby.You don’t have to shovel shit to make ends meet.”
