Page 22 of Rancher's Return

“You don’t need an alias. I just don’t want it spreading around before I figure out how to approach it with my parents. Louisa is new to town, though. Your name won’t mean anything to her.”

That was a novelty. Not being notorious to somebody in this small town.

Being back the past month hadn’t been as rocky as he’d thought it might be, but it had still been athing. Some of his brothers were easier on him than others. Boone was still pretty angry and stood by the punch he’d thrown when Buck had first arrived.

Some people in town recognized him right away. Some didn’t. Some genuinely just thought he was one of his brothers from a distance and waved like they knew him. He always waved back.

The principal of the high school was a guy he’d graduated with, which had made him feel desperately old. But the man had been friendly enough to Buck when they’d talked about the boys and their individual situations.

This small town was a mixed bag. And he didn’t hold it against the people who didn’t quite know what to do with him.

“All right.”

“Sorry,” Louisa said, turning back to them. “Childcare. I had to make sure everything was okay. You know, the day care calls and your heart stops.”

“I do know,” said Marigold. “Even though it’s been a while.”

“Of course you do. Anyway. I’m going to go ahead and give you a tour of the inside. It’s in great shape—it has been completely gutted, with new flooring, new walls, new electrical and new plumbing. It’s a complete blank slate.”

“Perfect,” he said. She looked over at him in censure. “What? I mean, it’s up to you, but it seems perfect.”

“But it’s up to me,” she said.

“Of course,” he said. “It’s up to you.” Gradually, over the course of their inspection, he realized Louisa was treating them like a couple. But why wouldn’t she think that? And, since Marigold didn’t want him to make a big deal out of their business partnership, he thought it was probably for the best that he not go making pronouncements. He didn’t know if Marigold was noticing the subtle tone of everything. He supposed it didn’t matter.

They finished the walk-through without incident, but he kept his eyes pinned closely to Marigold’s face.

“We’d like to make an offer,” he said.

She looked at him, and he thought she might want to scold him again for making the decision, but he knew she wanted it. That he could see plain as day.

“Yes,” she said slowly. “We would.”

He didn’t see the point in offering under the asking price, so when they got the paperwork to make the official offer, he went ahead and put it in as it was.

“I’ll take this to the seller,” the agent said.

“Thanks,” he replied.

They walked out of the building, and that left him and Marigold standing on the sidewalk.

“Thank you for that,” she said.

“Not a problem. Do you know of any good contractors around here?”

“Yeah. I do. There’s a couple that seem to have a really good construction business, ones that I’ve only heard good things about.”

“Excellent. Then once the offer is accepted, we’ll line that up.”

“We have to, like, get permits and stuff?”

“That too, but we’re going to need a concrete plan, and the contractor will pull those permits for us.”

She squinted. “So you’ve done this before.”

“I helped with some renovations at the ranch years ago, so I’m familiar with the logistics, yeah.”

“I guess I needed a partner more than I realized.” She looked at him for a moment, and it felt like their eyes locked together, for just a moment. His gut went tight. She looked away quickly. “Okay. I guess we’re doing this.”

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