Page 24 of The Rancher's Code

“Dylan, please, just talk to me!” I knocked on his door for the millionth time. “You don’t even have to come outside. We can just talk through the door?—”

My words were cut off by Dylan suddenly standing in front of me, holding open his door with one hand. He looked like he’d just gotten out of the shower, droplets of water still fresh against his shirtless chest, still clinging to his hair. “What do you want, Cole?”

“I shouldn’t have said what I said earlier. It all just came out wrong?—”

“I don’t care.”

“Dylan—”

“I’m serious, Cole. We don’t have to keep doing this. Let’s just end it here.” He sighed. “You could hook up with anyone you wanted to. And… I think as long as we can agree to at least be friendly around each other, so it’s not weird while I’m here?—”

“I don’t want to be friends with you.”

Dylan scrunched up his face. “Got it. Good talk, Cole.”

“Wait. Shit. That’s not what I—” Before I had a chance to finish my sentence, Dylan closed the door right in front of me.

“Shit. Shit!” I cursed underneath my breath, as I laid my head against Dylan’s door, desperately trying to think of the right thing to say.

What the hell is the right thing to say?

9

DYLAN

“Aw,honey. You didn’t take my advice, did you?” Jolene’s face was sympathetic. “Which idiot cowboy hurt you, huh? Give me his name and I’ll skin him alive, maybe mount his head on the wall.”

“Is it that obvious?” I sniffled over my breakfast. “Shit. I really need to get it together. I have a meeting with a potential partner in like thirty minutes.”

I took in a deep breath, doing my best to steel my thoughts. I’d hardly gotten any sleep last night, tossing and turning as I remembered the way Cole had been all over me… until he wasn’t. It had felt so natural with him, like puzzle pieces snapping into place. Even though I didn’t think it was going to be aforeverkind of something with him, I still thought I at least mattered to him.

But I didn’t. I was just a mistake.

Like pouring a cup of coffee into the wrong glass. Like printing two copies of the same file.

And soon, he’d forget all about me.

“They’re assholes, all of them.” Jolene sighed. “But they sure know how to draw us in, don’t they?”

“They sure do.”

“You want to go steal some of his stuff? If you take his hats and boots, we can burn them in a pile out back. I won’t tell a soul.”

“That sounds amazing.” I half-laughed, half-sniffled. “But… could we maybe do pancakes instead? A cartoonish stack of them if that’s okay.”

“Oh, honey. It’s more than okay.” Jolene gently patted me on the shoulder. “I’ll even throw in some chocolate chips. On the house.”

I mouthed the wordsthank youbefore pulling out my phone?—

There were so many missed calls from Cole.

So many texts too.

I grimaced at the sight of it, setting my phone down at my side. If he didn’t want to be friends and he didn’t want to touch me, I had a feeling that he wanted to shut me up. Maybe he was worried about Stratton Ranch’s valuation going down if they found out their next CEO had a crush on a male wedding planner?—

Had a crush?

I let out a pained laugh. I needed to get it through my head that I didn’t mean anything to Cole Stratton. I was the equivalent of a drunken hookup at 3AM. A last call kind of hookup.

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