Page 100 of Downpour

Nate and Christian tried to hide their guilty smirks. Before Cassandra knocked Christian on his ass, he made plenty of trips out there to blow off some steam. Nate, not so much. But he knew what went on at the bar.

Becks and Cass exchanged a look that was loaded with telepathic thoughts.

I hated that.

“Whatever you two are thinking, stop,” I said.

Becks looked innocent. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Cassandra inspected her manicure. “We’re gonna kidnap your girlfriend this weekend. Deal with it.”

“Leave her alone.”

“Saturdays are her day off, right?” Becks said with a smirk.

“Yeah,” Cassandra chimed in. “You can deal with not fucking your employee for a few hours.”

Christian broke out into an involuntary cough to hide his discomfort.

Nate pointed between Chris and me. “Pot, let me introduce you to kettle.”

I pointed at him. “You fucked Becks when you were deployed. Together.”

Becks pointed back at me. “Technically, I didn’t work for Nathan. We were embedded together. Not deployed together.”

“Am I the only one not fucking someone I work with?” CJ asked.

“You work with cattle. I’d be concerned if you were fucking them,” Cassandra said.

“Glad you’re fine. I need to get laid,” CJ grumbled as he stomped out.

Christian took a seat, and Cassandra slid onto his lap. “Did y’all have a good time?” he asked.

I was distracted by Brooke again, watching her laugh with my nieces, and barely heard him. “Yeah. It was the most normal thing I’ve done in a while.”

As the chaos inside the house began to die down, Nate and Becks declared it to be Charlotte’s nap time and headed back to their house.

Christian looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. Fortunately for him, he was about to marry a woman who had no problem relieving him of that burden.

Cassandra got straight to the point. “Have you thought about what’s next? Or are you just going to keep her trapped in your house like Belle?”

Christian raised an eyebrow at her.

“What?” she snapped. “The girls and I had a movie marathon. We watched the classics.” She huffed and turned back to me. “When you want to discuss your offers, come down to the office and we’ll have a chat.”

That made me pause. Marty hadn’t mentioned anything about offers. Then again, I hadn’t exchanged more than a few sentences with my old manager since I told him I didn’t need him anymore.

“What offers?”

Cassandra let out a bitter laugh. “You really don’t know? I’ve been fielding phone calls and emails every day. Teams wanting you to coach other bull riders. Companies wanting you to be the face of their brands. Some public speaking gigs. A docu-series. Interviews. A book deal. You name it. Since you broke up withMarty, they’ve been flooding the ranch’s inbox and answering machine.”

I couldn’t wrap my head around it. “And... You didn’t tell me earlier because…?”

Cassandra leaned forward. “Rebranding means pivoting. It means going from what you were to who you are now. But that’s not what you have to do. You have to build something new from the ground up. We’re revitalizing the ranch. Honoring the past and confidently moving into the future with new ventures. And when you’re ready, you get to do the same. You just have to decide what it looks like.”

24

BROOKE

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