Page 17 of Rancher's Return

He bought the sticky, bright red apple for her, plus one for himself, and it was like being in an out-of-body experience. This strange kind of small-town moment he had never really experienced before. By the time his family had moved full-time to Lone Rock, he’d already been destroyed by the loss of his sister. So he had never really...done anything like this. Had never walked down the street with a pretty girl eating a candy apple.

He shouldn’t be thinking of it that way now.

“So, what are your plans once Lily leaves home?”

“If you expect me to sayget a date... Well. Maybe. It’s not off the table. But the other big thing would be that I want to open a storefront for my business.”

“What do you do?”

“Meal prep. I would really like to open a facility where people could come in and use it to do their own meal prep. I make the plan, they do the preparation. And I’d have a place to store more prepared meals so people could buy them for the week rather than being on my regular rotation. Which is what I do now—there are a certain number of families in the area who have me make their dinners for the week. I deliver them at a set time, and they don’t have to worry about it. They just have to cook.”

“That’s pretty clever. I’ll tell you, when I lived on the ranch for troubled kids, there was a cook. Three square meals a day, and I didn’t have to think about buying the food, preparing the food, or what the food was going to be. That has been one of the harshest realities of adopting these kids and taking them away from the institution. I have to figure out what to cook for them.”

“A lot of people hate it. I love it. I like figuring out how to work on a budget, how to make it as cost-effective and affordable as possible.”

“That’s great. So you’re looking for a building?”

“Yes. I... I mean, that’s what Iwantto do. Because I need to do something with my time once Lily is away. But it’s going to take... I don’t know. A pretty substantial loan, and that scares me. When Lily was younger, I never wanted to get into anything like that because it would mean putting our house at risk. I would never do that, not when she was little. But I feel like I can maybe branch out now. Take more risks.”

“You have a place in mind?”

She shrugged. “There’s a building, just up the street. It’s been empty for a while. I would have it completely gutted and renovated, and it would be so expensive—”

“You need an investor.”

“Okaaay...”

“Yeah. Somebody to assume the risk up-front, and help you get this going.”

“That sounds like a great idea. I have no idea how I would go about finding one.”

“I could be one.”

She blinked. “What?”

“Yeah. Why don’t you let me be your investor?”

Chapter Five

Marigold was astonished. And thirteen-year-old Marigold wasappalled.

She could not take this man’s blood money. His guilt money. Under no circumstances. Her principled younger self was outraged. Her older self was trying to figure out if it was the therapy, if it was coming to believe that things were more complicated than she’d previously believed, or if the real issue was that she just really wanted to say yes. Because if he would invest, then she could do what she needed to do with the business. Without risking her house or any of the other things she had built. She wouldn’t have to worry so much about Lily’s scholarships covering absolutely everything. It was just...a miraculously good offer at a moment when she needed it most.

But he was Buck Carson.

You’re eating candy apples with him.

She was. And if she was totally honest, when she had asked him if it was a date, it had felt a little bit like flirting.

He wasveryhandsome.

Which felt like a psychotic thing to think—given everything. But she’d always thought he was hot, and also, the man standing in front of her didn’t bear a resemblance to the boy she’d vented her grief on all those years ago. Not that he physically looked entirely different, but he was different inside. She knew it. She could feel it.

He had kids now. Recently adopted kids. He’d saidyesto taking on all the trauma they might have. He was trying to actively parent Colton in this situation with Lily and...

It was far too easy to simply detach this older Buck Colton from the Buck she’d known back them.

Maybe because she was so different too.

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