Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 47222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
One night, I casually asked Darcy about the family that lived on the surrounding farm, interested to know if she really hated my family or if it was just an inherited emotion from her father’s experiences. It was even worse than I thought.
She told me that she knew the two younger McLaughlins, Cole and Zane, from school. It turns out that she and Zane were the same year, and that there was no love lost.
When I probed a little further, Darcy confessed that my brothers tortured her at school, but wouldn’t provide details, brushing it off as ancient history. But she spoke with much more vehemence when she told me about their threats against her father: the ruined truck, torn down fences, and the ‘anonymous’ calls to the house. When talking about the abuse her father endured, Darcy had started crying tears of rage and I knew in that moment that a known McLaughlin would not be welcome in her life.
I twist around on the bed, my thoughts making it difficult to find a comfortable position. I move around until I’m lying on my back, staring up at the dark ceiling into nothingness.
My own family has had our issues with Darcy’s. I guess I was spared from the details for a long time, first because I’d been sent away to boarding school but then because I’d been occupied with the Lazy M’s finances. I was what you called “back-office,” with little thought as to actual operations. But on more than one occasion, my brothers had called me complaining about old man Fields, and I admit that their grievances had negatively colored my impression of his family.
‘The old curmudgeon won’t sell,’ Cole grunted over the phone. Sam had suggested, ‘We just go ahead and take care of him ourselves.’ They’d vandalized the truck, yes, and even went so far as to hold a gun against old man Fields’ temple. But the worst – and I thank god over and over that Darcy doesn’t know this – was when Zane, the unstable one, had shown up on the property with kerosene and matches, ready to torch the crops.
Fuck. How do I deal with this?
I have to protect her, obviously. But from my own family? That sounds like a tall order.
If I leave Darcy now, not only would we both be heartbroken but she would be even more vulnerable than she already is. And my brothers, villainous assholes that they are, would sweep in and destroy her life.
I grow rigid thinking back on the threats my brothers have made over the years. Thank god Dad called me to intervene when he did. But dammit, why did he put me in this position?
I’m not a fool. I’m the businessman of the family, in charge of farm finances and I control of the cash flow.
My damn brothers can call me a city slicker all they want, but I’m the one who keeps the damn family as wealthy as it is.
In the past, I wanted the Fields Farm to merge with the Lazy M just as much as anyone because it’s a pain in the ass to own all the land around this one tiny place when we really need a monopoly on the farmland in this part of the state. But now? I’m not so sure. I’ve interacted with the curvy girl myself. I’ve seen how Darcy struggles, how she works her fingers to the bone, and how much she loves this property. Am I really ready to pull the rug out from underneath her?
It’s a nasty business, Ranger, I console myself.
And it’s not all my fault that things have ended up like this. Immediately upon getting to know a little about Darcy during that first week together, I knew that the forceful businessman act would never work on her. Nor would intimidation. No, this is a girl, no, a woman who needs to be cared for, tended to, and wooed into submission.
So you fucking lied, you pig. That is my fault.
I want to feel bad about the lie, but I can’t, at least not completely. On the one hand, I’m avoiding telling her who I really am, and it’s not going to go over well when the truth comes out. Maybe if I get her a really big ring, she’ll take it better. That’s got to be better than her thinking I’m some poor ranch-hand who can barely afford cheap wine.
But the deeper truth, the one I keep trying to suppress because it complicates everything, is that I’ve fallen in love with Darcy: her infectious laugh, her delicious cooking, and her sassy body.
I haven’t quite uttered the three words yet, but they’re on the tip of my tongue. I think I’m protecting myself because if I say it out loud it’s only going to destroy me, too, when she finds out who I am. And then everything we’ve built together will be over.