Page 20 of Rancher's Return

“I can pay with cash.”

“It’s expensive.”

“Do you not realize that my dad’s rich, right? My siblings and I all have huge trust funds.”

She did sort of know that, but Buck had been gone and she’d assumed he’d been cut out of the cash flow.

“He still gave you money?”

“Yeah. I guess he always hoped I would come home. But I hadn’t spent a penny of it. Not until I bought the ranch here.”

“You already bought the ranch, and youstillhave money left over?”

“Yes. And I don’t intend to live a life of excess. I intend to send these boys to college. I intend to get my ranch up and running. But I’m investing in your business. I’m not just dumping money into something.”

“I don’t know that it’s going to earn much back.”

“It will.”

They walked down the street until they arrived at the vacant building. It was large and empty, once housing a department store when this street was a thriving thoroughfare during the gold rush. In recent years, the economy had picked up because more and more people were moving to Bend and pushing tourism out into Eastern Oregon, an area which had been desolate all the years before. And the town of Lone Rock itself was growing. Bend was so trendy it had become expensive, so moving to an outlying area that wasn’t terribly faraway was seen as a great compromise by a lot of people. That meant the odds of her growing her business were good, and the real estate market was still competitive without being overinflated.

The building was still a mint green color with gold trim, and she loved how cheerful and old-fashioned it was all at once. It was easy for her to imagine different workstations where people could prepare their food. And a big commercial kitchen for her.

“This is it,” she said.

“It’s great,” he said. “Really great. I love it.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. I think you could really sell people on the community aspect of coming in and preparing meals together. Instead of it being drudgery, it would be a fun night out with your friends.”

She loved that. She hadn’t even really thought of that direction. She could furnish drinks, cocktails, coffee. She really liked the idea because for so much of her adult life she had been isolated. She’d had a daughter at a much younger age than anybody else she knew, and she was consistently a baby next to the other parents at Lily’s school. And while she was relatively friendly with a few of the moms, most of the mothers of graduating seniors were ten to fifteen years older than her. The idea of community really appealed to her.

Maybe because it had been elusive for so long.

Maybe because she’d felt outside of it even before she’d had Lily.

Back when she’d been the sad girl whose brother was dead. And then the slut who would go with any guy that asked.

“Listen, if you want to, I wouldn’t mind if you added me to your meal prep rotation,” he said. “I’m dying trying to cook for these kids.”

For some reason that made her stomach get tight. Made her heart throb. “I...yes. I’d like for that to be one of your investment perks.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Maybe not, but it’ll be a while before this is making enough money to cover what you’re proposing to put into it. So let me at least make food for you.”

“Fine. But I’m paying for the groceries.”

“Okay. I want to do this. I mean I really do. I said yes because I didn’t want you to change your mind, and not really so much because I felt totally on board. But now I do. I mean I really do.”

“Good,” he said. “I’m glad. I’m glad that you’re on board for this.”

“My parents....”

“Right. Shit. You want me to talk to them?”

“Not right now.” She wished she was brave enough to talk to them. About Jason. About Buck. About Lily dating Buck’s son.

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