Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
JB gave a shake of his head. “Chase him, huh? He lives in Ohio.”
“So talk him into moving here.”
JB frowned. “It’s not that easy.”
Owen huffed what sounded like a bitter laugh. “The best things in life never are. You fight. You convince him to move here. If not, maybe you think hard about moving to him.”
“What? Leave the ranch? Again?” JB’s heart sped until it felt like it was going to break out of his chest. Leave home? The ranch was his life. But then Cole was quickly starting to feel the same for him. Could he live without Cole and be happy?
Could he live with Cole and be happy somewhere else?
No easy answers.
“JB, there ain’t a man here who wants to see you leave, but there also isn’t a man here who wouldn’t give up everything he had for a shot at the happiness you’ve found,” Owen said softly. “If Cole has something that’s keeping him in Ohio, maybe you bend and go with him. We’ll always be here. We’ll figure it out. That’s what love is about. Compromise.”
JB’s head popped up and his heart jerked in his chest for an entirely different reason. “I never said anything about love.”
“Being terrified he’s going to leave? What does that tell you?”
JB fell silent, his mind reeling. Was this love? He’d loved Noah once, but that love had built over time spent together. He hadn’t known Cole a month.
But the way Cole had touched him last night. How they’d held each other, whispering nonsense and random thoughts until they both drifted off to sleep. It had all felt like more somehow.
“Well, shit,” he muttered as goose bumps prickled his arms.
Owen’s deep laugh filled the small room before it faded, and he frowned. “Don’t let him get away. Trust me, you’ll regret it.”
JB raked his hands through his hair. “It seems impossible right now, but you’ve definitely made me think. I’m sorry you lost someone, Owen.”
Owen dismissively shrugged like it was no big deal, but his words proved otherwise. “Not a day goes by where I don’t think of him at least once. Don’t be like me.”
Their conversation turned to everyday matters, but JB couldn’t help that one part of his mind was stuck on this new revelation. He was in love with Cole. Fully and completely. And that love felt different than what he’d felt for Noah.
With Noah, he’d always known the man’s heart had been with someone else, and a lot of what he’d felt had been kind of sad and maybe a little desperate.
This felt so different. Yet in a way, it was the same. He still felt that edge of desperation, but this was about time. He didn’t have enough time with Cole. There wasn’t enough time to win Cole’s heart, to convince him to stay, to convince him to take a huge chance and change his entire life to suit JB’s needs.
With Noah, he’d known that even more time wouldn’t change the way he had felt about him. But with more time with Cole, could the man love him back?
And how could they make that work with Cole living so far away?
Fuck, it felt hopeless. He struggled to speak with Owen because inside he was a tangle of emotions threatening to overcome him.
“You okay, Boss?” Owen asked suddenly, his dark eyes shrewd.
“I’ve told you not to call me that.” JB scrubbed his hands over his face. “But yeah, I’m okay. Just having trouble focusing today, that’s all.”
“I can understand why.” He leaned forward again and started to say something, but Cole came barreling into the room.
JB pushed away from his desk and stood, alarmed by Cole’s anxious demeanor. “What? What is it?”
“I’ve got news.” He halted when he realized JB wasn’t alone. He was in jeans and one of his button-down shirts, the sleeves pushed up.
“You can share it with Owen here,” JB said.
Cole politely greeted Owen, then turned his blue gaze to JB. “We got it. Gidget found where that poison can be purchased. You can’t get it in the U.S. any longer. Just Europe. I managed to track down who bought it.”
His heart picked up beats. “Seriously? Do we know who it is?”
“Wayne Baxter.”
JB crashed almost as quickly as he rose. He didn’t recognize the name. Turning his gaze to Owen, he found the man already shaking his head.
“Never met him,” Owen said.
“That’s okay. I know where he works. A llama farm about thirty miles from here, and get this—that farm is owned by the Dillinger Group.”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Owen breathed. “The Shama-llama Shit Farm?” Not the formal name of the place, but it was what all the ranch hands called it. Owen smirked at JB. “You know who came after the cattle now.”
The instant fury was like fire in JB’s gut. His hands closed into fists, and every muscle in his body went taut. No doubt Dillinger was behind this now and there was also no doubt he’d hurt the Jenkinses’ herd as well. All to get that damn resort built.