Hopeless (Chestnut Springs, #5)(29)

At where I have her trailer hooked up.

Because she’s not fucking living there anymore.

She refused to move into my house with me, so I made her my neighbor.

She stood there with her hands on her hips and her jaw hanging down to her feet while I took it upon myself to hook her trailer to the hitch of my truck and take it out of that hellhole.

Those dumbasses slashed the tires on her truck, but not on the trailer. And I used that to my advantage.

“Bailey, it’s fine. I’m going slow and it’s not far.” I have my window down, the sound of the plastic garbage bags fluttering in the wind as we drive.

“I’m sorry.” She faces the front again and slouches down into her seat.

“For what?”

“Being the most high-maintenance fiancée in the world.”

I snort at that. “You are so far from high-maintenance, it’s not even funny. You slept on the ground with me last night.”

A soft smile touches her lips as she looks out the window. “Yeah, I liked that, actually.”

I nod firmly. “Same. I wasn’t lying when I said it’s the best I’ve slept in months. No pills. No alcohol. Just hard ground, fresh air.”

And her. The only thing that’s come close to working.

Silence cloaks us as we pull into Wishing Well Ranch. I was supposed to be helping Cade today. Once I got out of the army, I planned to be his right-hand man. That’s what I told everyone I’d do.

Although I grew up here, I failed to realize something … I’m not a rancher. I don’t care about the cows. I don’t find joy in working the land.

My brother wakes up every morning dedicated to running the family ranch.

I wake up every morning dreading it.

But I hate the idea of letting them all down. So I get up and do it. Bailey and I are alike that way, doing things we don’t like to support our families the only way we know how.

My family is just a hell of a lot nicer than hers. A hell of a lot harder to let down.

“Alright, sugar tits.” I break the silence by cracking a joke. “Where should I build your castle? Facing the river?” I gesture out the same way my house faces. “East for sunrise? West for sunset? The world is your oyster.”

“But your house is right there.” She points at the modern house, probably a mere thirty feet away.

“Yep.”

“I told you I wasn’t going to live with you.”

“This isn’t living with me. It’s living adjacent to me.”

“It’s really close. Too close.” Her arms cross and her eyes narrow.

“I think it’s the perfect distance.”

Her jaw flexes as she bites down on her teeth. “It’s my house, and I say it’s too close. How about there?” She points at a copse of thin birches in the distance.

“Fuck no.”

“Why not?”

“It’s too far away.”

“It’s just far enough.”

“Why would two people in love live in separate houses that far apart from each other on the same property?”

It’s not safe is what’s really running through my head. In light of today? In light of last night? It would take too much time for me to reach her if something went wrong over there. I wouldn’t hear the noise. See the lights.

I might as well sleep at her front door like the guard dog I am at this point.

She stares at me, and it’s not in anger. It’s more like I can see her brain whirring a mile a minute. Then she looks away. “Fine. Facing the river.”

I grin at her before turning back to the wheel to line up the small trailer just right. It doesn’t matter, though, because I don’t think she’ll be living there for long. She’ll give in and move over to my place.

And then I won’t have to be alone.

“And stop calling me sugar tits,” she adds with a stubborn lilt to her voice.

I don’t mind at all, because it’s a hell of a lot better than hearing her cry.

“Sugar it is.”





11


Bailey


“Should we practice before we go in there?”

My hands freeze on the seat buckle, and I turn to stare at Beau.

The man who moved my trailer and helped me reorganize everything inside.

The man who stayed with me all night when I was scared, who walked through dirty water when I needed him. Who is way older, way more experienced. And who asked me if I was wet like we were just having a casual conversation.

The man who is my new fiancé and is about to introduce me to his family. His nice family who loves him and wants the best for him.

“Practice what?”

“Well, I don’t know. You’re looking at me like I terrify you.”

I scoff. “You don’t terrify me.”

“Why do you have that deer-in-the-headlights expression all the time, then? You could barely get through telling Gary. You gonna flinch when I touch you? Kiss you?”

“Why would you touch and kiss me at a family dinner?”

“Because we’re engaged?”

I shake my head rapidly. “No. Just tell them we’re not into PDA.”

Beau glares at me. “We’re going to have to convince them a little bit. This is going to blindside them.”