Her Dirty Ranchers (Men at Work #6) - Mika Lane Page 0,2

As a gift.

“You’re still here,” I said.

“Mr. Maxwell was nice enough to keep me on.”

He sat back in his chair and smiled. I had to say he was quite the silver fox even though I wanted to throw the ugly paperweight on his desk at him, which my brother had made for dad one Father’s Day. Apparently, Mr. Maxwell was now the owner of that family treasure, as well.

He chuckled. “It was more like I begged her to stay, rather than kept her on.”

Neither of them was making sense. I gripped my armchair and the room began to move around me.

“Mary, could you get Ruby Lee some water?” Mr. Maxwell asked.

She brought her hand up to my cheek. “Oh my. You’re clammy, Ruby Lee. Hang on just a moment.”

Water would be good. While I waited, I just stared at my feet and took deep breaths.

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way, Ruby Lee.”

I realized I might never get anyone in Flood Creek to call me Ruby.

I was sure he could see the wreckage in my eyes. Although, I wasn’t sure exactly who I was wrecked by—Mr. Maxwell, my parents, or myself for not knowing a goddamn thing about what was going on in my childhood home.

I gulped the water Mary returned with and I was momentarily calmed. “I don’t… I don’t know why… my parents… didn’t say anything to me.” Shit. Now I was getting choked up.

My father hated Maxwell, and I was sure Maxwell hated him back. And now he probably thought his enemy’s daughter was a pathetic loser.

“Mr. Maxwell, what about your ranch?” I asked.

He sat back in my father’s chair, raking his hands through his thick hair. “I kept my ranch. I consolidated the two.”

Well. Goody for him.

I pushed myself to my feet. Mary hovered to make sure I didn’t fall over.

“I… I’m going to step outside for a moment to call my parents.”

Maxwell nodded, and Mary looked at me with sympathy.

I hated when people felt sorry for me.

As I headed for the front door, I grabbed the purse and duffel I’d dropped in the foyer not ten minutes before, when I really thought I was home, because if what Maxwell told me was true, I couldn’t leave my crap all over the place.

“Mom?” I snapped the second she’d answered her cell.

“Ruby Lee, honey! Good to hear your voice.” In the background, she told my dad I was on the phone.

“Hey, Ruby Lee,” Dad said when she put me on speaker.

“Um, where are you guys?” I asked.

Silence.

“Oh. Well, we’re… driving,” Mom stammered after a moment’s hesitation.

“Okay. But where, Mom?” I demanded.

She changed the subject. Or tried to. “Hey, your father and I have a surprise for you,” she said in a singsong voice.

It was nice that somebody was happy.

“Mom, I asked where you were.”

More silence.

“Well, where are you, Ruby Lee?” Dad asked.

I was so not enjoying this.

“I asked you guys first.”

Mom sighed. “We’re out for a drive. No big deal. What’s this interrogation all about, Ruby Lee?”

“Let me tell you, Mom. I’m at the ranch. Flood Creek Ranch. You remember that place? Your home. My home? Our home?”

She gasped and I could hear my father swearing under his breath like he did.

“Honey, how… how can you be at the ranch?”

“Easy, Mom. I drove here in a rental car. From New York. So I’m here. Right now. Sitting on the front steps. Looking over the valley. Which is lovely, by the way.”

I could see them looking at each other in a panic. Dad would probably pull over at the next rest stop so they could compose themselves.

“Well now, honey, your father and I are on our way to New York City to see you in our new RV. It was supposed to be a surprise.”

Un-fucking-believable.

Where to start?

I tried to calm my voice, but the truth was, I was inches from losing it. “You might have told me, Mom. Because I’m not there. Meaning you will get to New York, and not see me, because I’m in Montana to see you.”

“Shit,” she said.

In the background they bickered in muffled voices.

But I wasn’t done. “Mom, I just saw Roman Maxwell, who tells me everything here is his now because he bought it. What the hell is going on?” I asked shrilly, getting louder with each word.

“Oh, honey. We were going to tell you when we got to New York. Well, I guess we don’t have to continue there, now. Although your father and I really do enjoy a