Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 57423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 230(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 230(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
She snorted. “I thought you were supposed to throw your body in front of anything that might come my way.”
“That was human predators,” he corrected. “Some nasty critter comes after you and you’re on your own. You should have checked your contract. I’m a people guard.”
She wished she didn’t like him so much. The kindness he’d shown her today hadn’t lessened the attraction, and she loved his snarky side. Over the last couple of days, they’d found a peaceful coexistence. They hadn’t really talked a lot, but he’d helped her work her puzzle, and he would turn on a basketball game while she studied her lines. It would probably be better to keep it there, but she couldn’t resist the temptation to learn more about him. “I thought you grew up on a ranch.”
His lips curled slightly. He’d changed into his gym clothes and settled a ball cap on his head. He didn’t look like a rancher. He looked like he could model. Or act. The fact that he wanted to do neither was part of his attraction. “That’s how I know to stay away from coyotes and bobcats. But honestly, the snakes freak me out way more. I hate snakes. When I was a kid, we would sometimes camp out, and I mean real camping. No tents. Just my brothers and the stars overhead and a sleeping bag. And one time a snake crawled in with me. I woke up, and there that sucker was, curled up right beside me.”
She shuddered. “I would have died. I’m now very glad my mom wasn’t into camping. I slept on a lot of couches, though. When my sister was working on her TV show, I would sleep on the couch in her dressing room when they worked late. Not a lot of snakes there. Well, not the slithering kind.”
“Were there other kinds?”
“There’s always some asshole who wants to take advantage of a young woman,” she explained. “I learned to lock the door if I was taking a nap.” She was misrepresenting the situation. Or not giving him a full view. Suddenly it seemed important that he didn’t think her mom had been terrible. “It wasn’t all bad. I got to see a whole lot of the world at a young age.”
“And I didn’t see anything outside of rural Southern Texas until I was eighteen,” West admitted.
“Really? Your family didn’t take vacations?”
“You don’t understand ranching families. You see when you run a ranch, the ranch is all that matters. The ranch is the sun, and everyone in the family revolves around it. My father basically worked himself to death. He had a heart attack when I was just a kid. My twin and I were the babies of the family. We were a big surprise to our parents. They thought they were done. They had four boys before us. Clint, Heath, Clay, and Wade, and then ten years later, oops. I don’t have a lot of memories of my father. My oldest brother had been planning on going to college, but when my dad died, he took over the ranch, and we all held on and tried to survive.” West huffed and turned her way. “I’m sorry. This is supposed to be your quiet time, and I’m giving you my life story.”
“The hour-long hike was good enough for me. I’m enjoying the talk. I know we started rough, but we actually have a lot in common.”
“We do?” The question was asked as though he didn’t believe he would like her answer.
But she was totally right about this. “Oh, yes. We both came from similar families. Your family revolved around the ranch. It was how you survived. Mine revolved around my sister’s career. My dad died when I was a baby. My mom was left with a substantial amount of debt. She’d been a model, but she was past her prime in that world and couldn’t get work.”
“So she put her kid to work?”
There was a ton of judgment to that question. “You didn’t work the ranch?”
He stopped, seeming to think the comparison through. “Okay, I can see where that might be similar. I missed school many times because my brother needed help with something. Money was tight, and losing the ranch wasn’t an option. I don’t like to think about everything Clint and Mom did to save the ranch.”
It was good he could make the connections. Too many people only saw her upbringing as privileged, but there had been so much uncertainty. “The only thing my mom had when my dad died was two young children and her connections. It was the only world she knew. When I was younger, I resented her for how much time she spent on Brynn’s career, but I wonder if I wouldn’t have resented her if she’d been a doctor or a lawyer.”