Page 64 of Parading the Cowboy Billionaire (Bluegrass Ranch 4)

Cayden wasn’t going to do this. The kitchen in the farmhouse was huge, and all he had to do to get away from Trey and Blaine was back up. He did, going all the way until his back met the island behind him. “It was a great party.”

“Especially that cake display,” Beth said.

Cayden dang near rolled his eyes. Did they think ending things with Ginny was easy for him? He didn’t see how it was any of their business. When Blaine had finally broken off his engagement with his ex-fiancée, Cayden hadn’t asked him a single question. He’d waited for his brother to come to him.

Even then, Blaine’s pain had been heart-wrenching.

Cayden took a breath, his lungs shuddering with the effort. “I have to end things with her,” he said quietly, his eyes stuck on the glowing digital clock on the stove. “If she stays with me, she’ll lose Sweet Rose Whiskey.”

“She’s a grown woman,” Trey said. “I think she knows what she’s doing.”

“She knows what she wants,” Blaine added, smartly keeping his back to Cayden as he started rinsing plates.

“It makes no sense,” Cayden said, realizing they’d somehow gotten him to start talking. Sneaky. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t have time to talk right now.” He side-stepped Trey, who wouldn’t stop glaring at him, and strode along the length of the island and toward the wide, arched doorway that led into the front of the house.

As if Trey had any room to talk at all. He’d moved back to the homestead for a little while when he and Beth weren’t getting along. Everyone had hard times; the difference here was that Cayden couldn’t see a way for him to be with Ginny that didn’t require her to sacrifice everything.

Surprisingly, no one tried to stop him. Beth kept quiet, though Cayden saw something in her eye that suggested she had plenty to say. He was sure she did. She adored Ginny, as did everyone, himself included.

A great sigh filled his chest as he left the farmhouse, and his boots clunked down the front steps at a fast clip as he almost ran away from his family. Once inside the safety of his truck, he took another deep breath.

The scent of Ginny’s perfume came with the air, and he wished he could expel all the air right back out. Instead, he breathed in again, getting that bright citrusy flavor of her shampoo, with the undertones of flowers and soap.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said aloud as he backed out of the spot where he’d parked. “If someone would tell me how she can be with me and still keep her company, I’d do it.” Deep desperation lodged in his throat, and it wouldn’t budge no matter how he tried to clear it away.

Back at Bluegrass Ranch, he opened the mini-fridge they kept in the conference room and took out two bottles of ice-cold water. He drank half of one before he realized swallowing wouldn’t rid him of the panic and desperation either.

Perhaps work would. Cayden had drowned out other unpleasant things in his life by simply working hard enough for long enough. He entered his office, closed the door behind him, and locked it. He made sure all the lights were off before stepping over to the blinds and closing those too.

Completely sequestered in his office, he finally started to relax a little bit. If he didn’t go home tonight, though, Lawrence would know right where to find him. Everyone would.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, pushing everything out of his mind. “You need to get the menus tallied. Do that. Then you can do something else.”

He sat down behind his desk and swiveled in his big executive chair to get the expandable files from the counter behind him. With all the printed menus in his hand, he turned back to his computer. He loved doing things digitally, but with something this large, that needed to be done absolutely right, he set about printing any menus that had been emailed to him.

He printed the master list of who’d rented the suites that had optional catering, and he systematically checked off each one as he looked at their menu to make sure he had every single one.

Mariah and Lawrence had come through, and all the menus were accounted for.

Next, he printed the master list of meals, drinks, sides, and à la carte items that had been offered to their guests. With a pen in his hand, and his concentration only on the menu in front of him, he began marking each item that had been ordered.

When he finished a menu, he put down his black pen and picked up a red one. A check-mark went at the top of the paper, and it got put face-down in a separate pile.

He worked steadily, his mind wandering from time to time. He had enough mental strength to rein it in every time it did, though, and he got up from his desk after an hour had passed.

He stretched his arms above his head, left and right, and bent over to touch the floor. He’d been working behind a desk for long enough to know he couldn’t sit in one spot for much longer than an hour. His attention-span wouldn’t allow it either.

Stretched and hydrated, he sat back down and finished the menus. Chef Bryson would have a list of individual ingredients needed for each item on Cayden’s sheet, and he’d put in the food order on Monday afternoon once they’d met.

“What else?” Cayden asked, refiling the menus with his tally sheet. “Income from that.” He pulled the tally sheet back out and swung back around to his desk.

On and on he worked. When one task got completed, he immediately found another one that needed doing. He simply couldn’t have a single moment where he allowed himself to think too hard about Ginny Winters.

He hadn’t explicitly broken up with her, but he’d be shocked if she called or texted him in the future. “Other than business,” he muttered to himself. She was sponsoring the Smash, and Sweet Rose Whiskey had bought the corporate suite attached to the Bonfire Room on the second floor.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, lifting his shoulders up tall. He wouldn’t have to see her on race day. They’d already planned on him being extraordinarily busy, which was why she’d bought the suite and invited her family, friends, and employees.

She’d be welcome in the Chappell’s corner of the arena too, and Cayden found himself smiling when he realized how much everyone loved Ginny.

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