Page 11 of Bull Rush

“You notice she didn’t say no,” I mutter under my breath, smiling as I hear the door to the stables slams shut in her wake.

FIVE

Hazel

“This is insane.I can’t believe he’d fucking come out here and suggest it. I should kick his ass for even mentioning it to you.” Curtis looks like a vein might pop in his forehead as he rants from the bathroom doorway before bed, and I just nod my agreement. I glance out the window where the RV is parked in the distance. What else can I say? If his ex-wife appeared and offered the same deal, I’d probably burn something down.

“Itisinsane,” I say softly. There’s just one problem. “But the alternative could be worse. If he draws out the divorce… It’ll cost me money I don’t have, and I could very well lose the inn and the ranch to him. We’d be out a home. I’d be out a business…”

“You never told me it was still his.” Curtis looks at me like I’ve betrayed him.

“I didn’t know. As part of the divorce settlement, he agreed to pay all the property taxes for five years, so I wasn’tdue to take them over until next year. His family accountant was handling it like always.” I’m trying to explain, but I’m embarrassed that I could have missed such a glaring mistake.

My ex-husband occasionally bubbled up as a sore subject whenever we got into a tiff over the way I liked something done around the house, or the occasional comment when he thought I spent too long watching the Queen City Chaos on TV. He definitely wasn’t a fan of the Rampage-Chaos game I attended last year in person—but in my defense, it’s not like Ramsey knew I was there. Besides those little squabbles, we’re pretty good together, and I have no idea how much of a mess this news is going to make of us.

“It seems like a thing that should have come up before now. Our wedding date is only a few months away. Were you going to tell me about him paying the taxes before that?” I’ve never seen Curtis this riled before.

“I don’t know. I suppose if it came up, I would have. I honestly didn’t think you would care. It’s not like it changes anything.” I give him a sheepish shrug. I’ve been so focused on the inn and the improvements we need to make that I’d barely considered the issue myself.

“Well… it does now, doesn’t it?” he mutters.

“Unfortunately,” I mumble in return.

“It’s a nightmare.” He stares into the distance.

“It is,” I agree. I’m not usually in the position of being this wrong about something, and I can confidently say I hate it.

“How is it even possible that you didn’t know you were still married?” His tone belies his otherwise calm demeanor.

I’m desperate to make it clear that I know I fucked up—that I’m trying to fix it. The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach with anxiety. Ramsey could destroy everything important to me with very little effort, and I can’t believe I allowed myself to end up in this position. I’m used to being the one incharge, giving the lectures, and making sure everyone else has things in order. Being on the receiving end of this makes me feel like the walls of this ranch house are closing in on me, stealing my breath and suffocating me. I’m half tempted to make a run for the stables to take a late-night ride.

“I thought I filed the paperwork. After the divorce, everything was such a mess. I was just trying to tread water and keep things going around here. It never came up as a question. But I remember the day I sent it. IknowI sent it,” I insist.

I’d been terrified to file the paperwork. I talked myself into and out of getting in the car and taking it to the post office half a dozen times, but then, on the seventh try, I grabbed my keys and charged ahead. Drove the whole way with my hands shaking. Opened the creaky, blue metal door to the mailbox with the rust patch on the upper left corner that I stared at for long minutes before I slipped the manila envelope inside. Even when my heart still hurt. When my lungs burned from the crying. Even though it felt like I was going to die without him.

So IknowI sent it.

“So you sent it and what, they just never filed it?” His question snaps me out of the memory.

“I guess? Or they never received it. That’s what they’re claiming.”

“You never checked to make sure?” His questions feel like accusations.

“No. I sent it. That was the big thing. We signed on the dotted line. The divorce was uncontested. We didn’t even involve lawyers. Just us agreeing, signing, and me sending it in. I didn’t think to check. I assumed as long as we did our part, they’d do theirs.”

Curtis shakes his head and glances at me, his face twisted with scorn. I’m not sure whether it’s for me, Ramsey, or both of us.

“If you’d changed your name or done anything else at all, it would have come up.”

“I know. I should have.” I have a feeling that’s going to be an even bigger regret once Ramsey realizes I never went back to Briggs.

“You should have,” he repeats.

“It seemed like more work than it was worth. I just wanted to forget everything, not spend more time on it.”

“Well… I’m sure you feel differently now.” He says it without malice, but it still cuts. “Fighting this will cost a fortune.”

“I have no idea where we’ll get the money.” I shake my head, trying not to cry. I don’t want to give any more tears to Ramsey Stockton.

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