Page 5 of Hero Next Door
Moving into the house and knowing that it was mine, knowing that I finally had a place of my own…
That had been even more.
I snorted and glanced back at the view. The ranch took up nearly the entire valley, which was full of both crops and cattle, with the horse barn on the far side next to the stretching paddocks we used for turnouts, and the arena where we broke and trained the babies.
It was Heaven on earth. I had never doubted it.
But I didn’t have time to stand around daydreaming about it, no matter how gorgeous it was. I needed to figure out how the hell I was going to manage this place. I felt like a million bucks for having saved Mr. and Mrs. Wheating, yes, and I would do it again. Do it a million times.
But it had taken nearly every penny I had, and though they’d stayed on for the first year to help, they’d now moved into the city for better medical care and I was faced with a very important choice.
Figure out how to run the place or break myself trying. The Wheatings had set the place up for success and handed me their plans for the future, free of charge. If I could replicate their success, I’d make it and this would be home for the rest of my life.
If I couldn’t, it might ruin me.
No pressure.
The problem was, I was just a Marine. Sure, I’d invested wisely while I was overseas and come out of it with a nice little nest egg. That didn’t mean I knew how to run a place this big. And okay, the Wheatings might come home and catch me if I fell.
That didn’t make failing an option.
Failing had never been an option, as far as I was concerned, and I wasn’t planning to start now. I had to figure this place out and do it quickly. I needed everything to go exactly right, just until I got my feet under me.
Simple.
I was just turning to go back into the house, refill my coffee/milk/sugar cup, and get to work on the books when my eye caught on something. There, on the other side of the valley, sat the next ranch over. Butterfly Glen, though I’d never understood why it was called that. The place was on top of a hill and certainly didn’t qualify as a glen. The woman who’d owned it, though, had been a theater person.
Overly dramatic.
I’d never had much to do with her, though we shared a border, because she’d been an easy neighbor. She’d never developed most of her land and hadn’t worried when one of my horses—or any of the cattle—had wandered over the border. It had been the perfect situation for a new rancher like me. A neighbor who didn’t have any expectations and definitely didn’t have any intentions of selling the property.
Then she died. Not too long ago, but long enough that the property was probably in some sort of transition phase right now.
God, I hoped it sold to someone as easy as she’d been. I hoped they’d keep it open and natural. Maybe…
Maybe I could even buy it, I thought, my eyes narrowing and my earlier concerns about making it or not making it suddenly forgotten. Sure, I thought. More land, another house, more barns…
I could expand the operation. More cattle, more horses, more income. More for Mr. Wheating to teach me about managing, perhaps, but he was so excited about keeping his hand on the breeding program that I was betting I could count on him to expand it for me. Maybe they’d come back from the city to help.
The idea made sense. Have the Wheatings back on the ranch at least part of the time so they could help me with an expansion. Offer them a stake. Part of the profits or something.
That might be exactly the answer I’d been searching for.
Who was handling that estate? I tried to remember if anyone had told me, but couldn’t imagine why they would have. Still, someone had to be handling it. And surely I could ask people who would know.
I felt a grin start to grow on my lips, the path opening up in front of me, and pivoted on my toes, ready for that fill-up. I’d have to do another set of books to see how it might work out to expand, the way I was thinking.
And then, just as I was about to enter the house, my eyes caught on something else. An SUV flying up the hill toward Butterfly Glen, its tires skidding on the gravel and throwing dust up behind it. The vehicle came to a quick stop in front of the house and just sat for several long moments, as if the person behind the wheel was frozen.
“Out of towners,” I snorted, no doubt in my mind. The locals wouldn’t drive like that, and they didn’t spend time sitting in their cars when they’d arrived at their destination.
God, had she left the place to some big-city man or something?
Then a girl stepped out of the SUV, her brown hair shining in the sunlight, her gaze running up the house in front of her. She straightened her shoulders and hugged herself, looking to the left and right.
And I felt a thrill of recognition go through me. Something about the set of her shoulders, the way she tipped her head. No, I couldn’t see her face, but something about the way she stood…
Then she shaded her eyes and turned to the guy who’d just gotten out of the passenger door of the SUV, and the thrill fled my body. I couldn’t quite recognize her. But I did recognizehim. He was the same developer who’d been bidding on this very ranch before I stepped in to take it from him. He’d been offering twice what I was able to pay and had specific designs on the land.
