hindsight, they couldn’t have been more opposites of each other. It’s what had attracted him to her in the first place. She wasn’t a big city girl like Emma, but she was definitely suburbia. Dylan had made a name for himself training horses and he had set aside every penny he’d made, earning interest. When he’d met Lauren, she’d been divorced for a solid two years already. She had two kids—a boy and a girl, ages three and five. Sweet as the day was long. He loved those kids as if they were his own. And they loved him enough to call him dad. It made her leaving that much harder.
Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if their marriage had started on a ranch. If he had let her know from the beginning that this was the life he wanted. Instead, he had moved into her traditional four-bedroom home in Bozeman. The city was touristy, rugged and quaint all in the same breath. He had found work but felt suffocated living in their cookie-cutter housing development. The only time he had felt at home during their marriage was when he was working on someone else’s ranch. So, when Jax had presented him with the opportunity to partner in Silver Bells, he jumped on it.
Lauren had followed him faithfully, despite her protests. The day they sold her house, she bawled like he’d never seen before. That had been his first sign they may not last. Dylan hadn’t touched any of the money from that sale. His conscience wouldn’t allow him to. That decision had given Lauren the financial freedom to leave.
The kids had been seven and nine when they moved to the ranch. They had been excited at first, but had quickly grown bored of ranch life when they realized they couldn’t run down the street to play with their friends. Lauren missed her book club and Board of Education administration position. She’d accepted an office job in town, but she couldn’t relate to the other women and their laid-back country lifestyle. The connection just wasn’t there.
She had stuck it out for a year. An actual year to the day. And then that was it. He hadn’t tried to stop her when she left. There had been no point. She was better off without him. Happier, at least. And the last he’d heard, she had married a Bozeman businessman and had returned to living in a cookie-cutter housing development with manicured lawns and white vinyl fences.
He didn’t blame her. He blamed himself. He’d made her believe he was somebody other than he was. It didn’t make losing her and the kids any easier. Since he hadn’t legally adopted the children, he had no claim to them. He’d been their father for four years and he missed it as much today as he had when she’d left.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a real live cowboy at work.”
Emma’s voice startled him and he almost impaled himself on the shovel.
“Somebody has to do it around here since you ran off my men.” Dylan blew out a hard breath. “I didn’t mean that.”
“Yeah, you kind of did. But I get it. No harm, no f—What is that smell?”
“Manure.”
“Does it always stink so bad?”
Dylan started laughing so hard he had to brace himself against the stall door. “It’s pretty rank, but I think it might smell stronger because you’re pregnant. But don’t throw up in this stall, I just finished cleaning it.”
“I’m way past the morning-sickness stage. Thank God,” she mumbled while trying to hold her breath.
A gentleman would have offered to walk away from the manure-filled wheelbarrow so she could breathe again, but he wasn’t feeling very gentlemanly. Maybe she would hate the smell enough and wait for him in the stable office until he could find someone to drive her back to the lodge.
“What can I do for you, Emma?” He purposely walked close to her as he passed so she could get a good whiff of him, knowing he wasn’t playing very fair. “How did you get out here, anyway?”
“Your brother gave me a ride.”
“Wes is here?” Dylan tugged off his gloves and yanked his phone out of his pocket. “That son of a— He should be the one doing this, not me. Did he come in with you?”
Emma shook her head. “No. He’s plowing the ranch roads. I don’t think he plans on working in the stables right now.”
At least his brother had decided to work after all. “I love how I own the ranch and I’m the one doing the grunt work. So, I guess now you’re stuck out here with me. I don’t have time to drive you back and I certainly don’t have time to entertain you.”
“I’m not asking you to entertain me.”
“Why are you out here, Emma?”
“Kindly lose the attitude. I realize I’m not your favorite person. All I’m asking for is a couple hours of your time to hear my proposal.”
“You have a lot of nerve, sweetheart.” He couldn’t believe her attitude. “I know all about your plans for the ranch.”
“No, Dylan, you don’t. You think you do, but you don’t. How do I know? Because I never pitched them to you, and Jax told me you didn’t want to listen to him. You might feel differently if we talked about it.”
“As you can already see, I don’t have a couple hours to spare.” Dylan tossed his shovel on top of the wheelbarrow and began pushing it down the stable corridor. “Honestly, I’m finding your insistence insulting.”
“I—I never meant to offend you.” Emma backed away from him and straight into one of the open stall doors.
“Be careful.” He sighed. “Listen, I know you’re just doing your job. I apologize for my attitude. You being here is bringing up some memories I would rather have kept in the past. And before you ask, no, I don’t want to talk about them.”
“Is this about your ex-wife?”
Dylan abruptly released the handles of the wheelbarrow, almost causing it to tip over. “How the hell do you know about that?”
“Jax told me your wife and kids left because you moved them out here and that’s a big reason why you didn’t want to sell the ranch.”
“You’re half-right. My wife and her kids. And there’s more to my not wanting to sell than that. Here I thought my uncle wasn’t much of a gossip. Turns out I was wrong.”
“Jax cared for you very much. Part of his reason for selling was so you could have your freedom again.”
Dylan tugged off his gloves. “Well, doesn’t that just beat all? This ranch was my freedom. My home. By taking it away from me, he was taking away the last breath I had. Did he really say that to you?”
Emma nodded slowly, closing the distance between them. “He thought if you had a fresh start on your own ranch without the debt and problems of this place hanging over your head that you’d be able to move on.”
Dylan recoiled at her words. “Oh, you’re good.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Your job is to convince me to sell and you’re using the information my uncle told you against me.” He had known she was a shrewd businesswoman; he hadn’t known she’d take it this far. “I already know my uncle’s final wish was to sell this place. Doesn’t mean I’m going to honor it, and your charms will not
