Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 89170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
“Are you really going to ask me that?”
I felt my cheeks heat. “I’m sorry I accused you of planning this. I don’t know why I said that.”
He stared at me for the longest time before he finally said, “I’ll start looking to see if I can find you a bed and breakfast in town.”
My stomach suddenly roiled. Even though I had talked the talk, I didn’t really want to leave. Staying at Blayze’s house would give me the privacy I longed for, as well as access to the ranch. If I stayed in town, I’d have to travel back and forth, and I didn’t even have a rental car yet.
“What?” I whispered.
“It’s pretty damn clear this isn’t going to work.” He mimicked my action from a few seconds ago, pointing between us. “I’ll see if I can find you a place in town.”
I stood there, speechless, as I watched him walk out the door. When I heard the soft click of the latch, I stumbled back and sat on the bed.
Why did that hurt so much? Why had I even made that stupid comment? I needed to get my emotions under control when it came to Blayze.
Dropping back onto the bed, I let out a groan. “Shit. That spiraled out of control.”
Now it was going to be impossible to get Blayze to talk to me. When Doug—the new editor for the special assignment I was working on for Sports Monthly—had called me in the car while Blayze was driving us to the ranch, he had made it clear that they wanted Blayze to be the main focus of the article. That hadn’t been what my father had said. Yes, he’d told me they’d wanted an exclusive with Blayze, but the piece was a where are they now article. So when Doug told me to focus on Blayze, then dropped the damn bomb on me to find out why Blayze had walked out on his own wedding, I had been thrown for a loop. I could hardly even think straight after I hung up. I decided to talk to my father because clearly Doug was mixed up. I was not writing an article about Blayze, especially when he hadn’t wanted to be a part of any article, period.
I slammed my hands on the bed and forced myself not to scream.
My phone rang, and I got up to see it was a call from Brock. I drew in a deep breath and answered.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Georgiana. How was the trip?”
Forcing myself to sound cheerful, I replied, “It was great. Except for the rental car thing, everything else was perfect. They said they’d deliver me a car tomorrow if all goes well with returns today.”
“Oh, great. Otherwise, I was going to tell you that we have a few ranch trucks you could drive.”
“That’s so nice of you, Mr. Shaw.”
“Georgiana, I’ve known you since you were a baby, do not call me Mr. Shaw. You’re like family. Call me Brock.”
I chewed on my lip as guilt hit me like a sucker punch. Like family. Doug had made it clear I needed to dig up as much information on Blayze Shaw as possible. Why wasn’t he following in his father’s footsteps? What made him pick ranching over bull riding? Oh, and at the same time, I was also supposed to interview the whole family and dig into their personal lives so millions of strangers could get the dirt on the Shaw family.
This was not good. Something was wrong. Something was off. I had never even spoken to this Doug guy before. He’d sent me an email introducing himself earlier this morning. I had even tried to contact Kathleen Marker, who was editor-in-chief of the magazine. My call had gone to voicemail. I needed to call Dad and talk to him about all this.
“Brock, it is,” I finally said, trying not to feel like I was suddenly betraying him.
“Blayze texted and said you made it to his place safely. I’m sorry to bunk you up with him, but we didn’t have any extra room here at the house, and my folks’ place is being remodeled. Blayze mentioned looking for a bed and breakfast for you in town. If you’re not comfortable staying with him, we can maybe have you bunk with Ty and Kaylee, or Tanner and Timberlynn.”
I cleared my throat. “I wonder if it would be best if I stayed in town? My father just figured with our past and all, I should stay here. Since I’ll be interviewing mostly everyone for the article, I think I should maybe try and keep it a bit more professional.”
“Nonsense, Georgiana. You’ll stay here on the ranch with us. It’ll be the perfect way for you to see the ins and outs of it. There’s a guest house on the east side of the ranch if you need more privacy. It’s a bit tucked into the woods, and Morgan and Rose Marie swear it’s haunted. We’ll just need to clean it up for you first.”