Page 64 of Rancher's Return

“I’m going to be okay.”

“Are you going to date other men? Are you going to go wild when I leave?”

“Maybe,” she said, trying to smile. “Probably not.”

“It would serve you right if you did. I’m very sex positive, Mom. It’s your body. You can do what you want with it.”

She tried to contain her grimace. “Thank you. I didn’t need to hear that.”

“Well, I don’t want to know about it. I’m just saying...

Times have changed and women are allowed to express themselves that way.”

“Thank you very much,” Marigold said. “Someday, I will regale you with stories about how I am a slut of the old ways, my child. But you’re not ready for that yet.”

That earned her a look of horror, which she decided to call her one win for the day. Well, other than the fact that no matter what happened, Lily loved her. And so all wasn’t lost. It couldn’t be.

But when she left Lily downstairs, Marigold threw herself across the bed and wept. Because all might not be lost, but a big piece of her heart was.

And she didn’t know if it was ever going to grow back.

He was trying to fix fences, but mostly, he was just hammering his thumb. He cursed and chucked the hammer across the field, and Colton picked it up and handed it to him. He looked up and saw that Reggie and Marcus were standing behind him.

“Here, you dropped this. Dumb ass,” Colton said.

Buck looked up at his oldest son, who was glaring at him like he’d just clubbed a baby seal. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Colton said, his eyes full of storm. “I didn’t stutter.”

“What did I do?”

“You broke up with Marigold,” Marcus said, stepping forward, even angrier looking than his brother.

Buck wasn’t about to be lectured by a half-grown piglet who’d never even touched a woman. “Yeah. I did. For her own good.”

Reggie howled. “For her own good! Do you hear yourself? You sound like a chump.”

“Listen,” Buck said, his voice hard. “Men and women are different and—”

“You sound like you have apodcast,” his youngest added.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Do you feel insulted?” Reggie asked.

“Yes.”

Reggie narrowed his eyes. “Then you know what it means.”

Buck stared at his boys. “I’m serious. She is an amazing woman. And she deserves somebody who... Who is better than me.”

The three of them exchanged glances.

“She does? But we don’t?” Marcus asked.

“That’snotwhat I said,” Buck said.

“It kind of is, though,” Marcus said. “A little bit. Why are you not good enough for her, butwe’resupposed to live with you?”

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