A Wife in Wyoming by Lynnette Kent

Author:Lynnette Kent
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-09-20T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

With his breath almost normal, Nate hurried past the ranch house, using the cover of the trucks parked out front to screen him from the windows. It was a little after 4:00 a.m., but somebody might be up already. Or be having trouble sleeping. And he for sure didn’t want to be seen.

At the bunkhouse, he took off his sneakers and silently slipped past the door. He would have loved a glass of water after his run, but that would make noise. He’d have to wait till morning.

He could relax now, anyway, because his mom had said his dad would be staying at the Donnelly Ranch during the week for his new job. Maybe, having a job, he wouldn’t be drinking so much on the weekends, and things would settle down. They could always hope.

Of course, she’d yelled at him, too, for leaving the ranch and going home. She’d made him promise not to do it again. And she hadn’t let him run all the way back, but had loaded a sleeping Amber in the car and driven him to the ranch entrance. The jog from there had been easy. Now he could slide into bed—

“Well, well. What’s happenin’, dude?”

The lamp beside the sofa came on. Nate jerked around to see Marcos sitting up. “Nothing,” Nate said. “Just went for a walk. Couldn’t sleep.”

“Pretty long walk. You left about three hours ago. Where ya been?”

“Around.” He swallowed against his pounding heartbeat. “Watching the horses.”

Marcos went to the bathroom, peed without shutting the door and then came into the living room again. “I don’t think so. You met one of the girls, right? You and Lizzie, doin’ it in the barn?”

Nate frowned. “No. Just forget it, Marcos. Go to sleep.” He headed toward the bedroom door, trying to bluff his way through this.

But Marcos wrapped a hand around his arm and jerked him around. “Hold on, dude. I bet the fools running this place would be interested in finding out that you were wandering around in the middle of the night.”

“Come on, Marcos. Leave me alone. I’m not bothering you.”

“You bother me by just breathing, dude. What are we gonna do about it?”

Nate blew out a breath. He didn’t remember a time when he wasn’t being bullied by somebody. His dad was the worst. “What do you want?”

“Good question. Let’s see...what do I want?” He pretended to consider, rubbing his chin with his fingers. “I want these losers to stop bugging me about cooking and cleaning.”

“I can’t do anything about that.”

“Sure you can. You can take my place.”

Nate stared at him. “You don’t think they might notice I’m not you?”

“As long as they got the right number of slaves, they won’t care. So from now on, you show up to do my job. I’ll keep my mouth shut about your little adventures as long as you do.”

“Your name’s on the chart.” Nate tilted his head toward the bulletin board. “They read, you know.”

“I’ll take care of it. You just do the work.

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