Heiress and the Cowboy by Ella Goode

Author:Ella Goode [Goode, Ella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-11-29T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

TUCKER

It’s all working out. With a smile, I tap the ash off my cigar onto the grass. Cam is inside exploring the house, making lists of everything I need to turn this place into a home she can live with, and I’m out on my porch drinking a fine whiskey and enjoying a cigar while watching lightning bugs chase each other over the pasture. Echoes of the cattle bellowing softly to each other as they bed down for the night are the only sounds besides the crickets. I’ve always enjoyed sitting out here on my rocking chair. The other boys said I was growing old before their eyes, but I didn’t give a shit. No one loves the Justice land, like I do.

I was born to work this ranch. My palms were callused from handling rope and riding horses before I learned my alphabet and how to do sums. I learned all that I could about the ranching business, studied agricultural science and business administration in college but all the deals we make in mineral rights and future tech and green energy are for the sole purpose of protecting this land.

Once Cam gets pregnant, my world will be perfect.

I don’t know why I didn’t move before. The curse seems like a distant memory, a made-up illusion that I used to avoid getting attached to someone who would make me choose between the ranch life and her. Selfishly, I wanted to have it all—Cam, a family, the Justice ranch.

It feels dumb and foolish to have clung to the curse for so long, no matter how many Justice women died before the age of thirty. It was all a coincidence. The thud of hooves in the dirt break through my thoughts. I rise and arrow in on a dark shadow moving close.

Sterling pulls on the reins and hops off the horse before the four-legged beast comes to a complete stop. The kid has more energy than a litter of puppies.

“What’re you doing out here at this time of the night and all alone too?” Sterling is usually followed around by a gaggle of girls. If he’s lost, you just look for a cloud of glitter and perfume. He’ll be at the center.

He picks up my snifter of whiskey and drains the last bit. “I'm hiding from them. Had a little too much of them today. Mary-May Bowen actually grabbed my package, and Diane Mendez locked me in the girls’ locker room to show me how she was shaving downstairs.” He shudders.

I let out a low whistle. “There’s more whiskey inside.”

He grins. “Nice of you to offer, but I actually came out because your phone is off and so is Cam’s. Someone called the main house looking for her. Said it was a big deal that she shouldn’t miss.”

A sour feeling stirs in my gut. Sterling needs to get on his horse and ride back to the main house. “Right.”

He gives me an uncertain look and then his gaze shifts over my shoulder as Cam opens the door and joins me on the porch.

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