catch up on, so I’ll be workin’ in my office all night.”
“Oh. Okay.” She hid her disappointment and focused on stirring her soggy crackers. “I’m staying in Hank’s old room?”
“Unless you’d rather be downstairs in Celia’s room so you have your own bathroom.”
“I don’t mind sharing a bathroom with you.”
He checked the time. “Do you need anything else before I get to work?”
“I’m sure if my stalker tosses a Molotov cocktail through the living room window, you’ll hear it.”
“Funny. The doors are locked. I don’t have to warn you not to go outside, do I?”
She shook her head.
“See you in a couple hours.” He snagged a Coke and retreated to his office, locking the door behind him. While he waited for his computer to load, he unlocked the filing cabinet and took out his notebooks. He flipped through the loose papers until he found the assignment he’d finished after the last online class. Thank God he was only nine credits short of finishing his bachelor of science degree in agricultural business. Abe knew such stealth was ridiculous. But he’d been doing it for so long it’d become second nature. It was a miracle he’d kept his academic pursuits hidden from Celia, as well as Hank and Lainie while they’d lived here with him.
Abe had known at an early age his main responsibility would always be to the ranch, but he’d intended to go to college part time. Following his parents’ unexpected deaths, dreams of higher education became just that. He and Hank were left to raise Celia. To earn cash to keep them afloat, Hank had started bullfighting. Hank’s travel demands meant better money, but it also meant more work for Abe. With the weight of his ranch responsibilities, by the time he was twenty-three, he’d felt like an old man.
His friends always teased him about being so serious, working too hard. Heeding his brother’s advice to cut loose, he’d spent the weekend in Casper visiting his buddy Max. They’d gone to a fraternity dance, scoffing at the pirate theme, opting to wear normal clothes—jeans, boots and hats. The frat boys weren’t happy the ladies were clustered around the pair of cowboys, not the surplus of pirates, and tossed them out. Literally. Abe’s face had connected with several fists before his ass had met the pavement. A scrap of a woman, dressed as a serving wench, helped him to his feet, and fussed over him like she’d been personally responsible for his airborne ejection from the party.
It’d been years since he’d been the sole focus of a woman’s tender care and concern. He liked it more than he wanted to admit—and he milked it as much as he could. It wasn’t Janie’s unadorned physical appearance that’d immediately captivated him, although she masked her petite curvy body in formless clothes and hid her beautiful smile behind long straight black hair. Her thoughtful nature had drawn him in after she’d taken him to her efficiency apartment and patched him up. Those amazingly expressive purple-hued eyes and the hungry way she kissed him, and the no-holds-barred way she wanted him were just icing on the cake.
He’d hung out with the introverted, oddly compelling woman all weekend. And every weekend after that. He and Janie were inseparable, as inseparable as a couple could be, with him living in Muddy Gap and her living in Casper. The more he got to know her, the more he adored her. He wanted to spend his life taking care of her. He was so happy he’d found a woman who understood his ties to the ranch and his family. A woman who wanted the same things he did.
Or so he thought.
He proposed to her within two weeks of that first meeting. But Janie held him off for four months before agreeing to become his wife. She moved to the ranch, but continued to drive to the college campus to work on her degree. The first year they were happy. But as months went on, so did Abe’s frustration with Janie’s disillusionment about the life
“Oh. Okay.” She hid her disappointment and focused on stirring her soggy crackers. “I’m staying in Hank’s old room?”
“Unless you’d rather be downstairs in Celia’s room so you have your own bathroom.”
“I don’t mind sharing a bathroom with you.”
He checked the time. “Do you need anything else before I get to work?”
“I’m sure if my stalker tosses a Molotov cocktail through the living room window, you’ll hear it.”
“Funny. The doors are locked. I don’t have to warn you not to go outside, do I?”
She shook her head.
“See you in a couple hours.” He snagged a Coke and retreated to his office, locking the door behind him. While he waited for his computer to load, he unlocked the filing cabinet and took out his notebooks. He flipped through the loose papers until he found the assignment he’d finished after the last online class. Thank God he was only nine credits short of finishing his bachelor of science degree in agricultural business. Abe knew such stealth was ridiculous. But he’d been doing it for so long it’d become second nature. It was a miracle he’d kept his academic pursuits hidden from Celia, as well as Hank and Lainie while they’d lived here with him.
Abe had known at an early age his main responsibility would always be to the ranch, but he’d intended to go to college part time. Following his parents’ unexpected deaths, dreams of higher education became just that. He and Hank were left to raise Celia. To earn cash to keep them afloat, Hank had started bullfighting. Hank’s travel demands meant better money, but it also meant more work for Abe. With the weight of his ranch responsibilities, by the time he was twenty-three, he’d felt like an old man.
His friends always teased him about being so serious, working too hard. Heeding his brother’s advice to cut loose, he’d spent the weekend in Casper visiting his buddy Max. They’d gone to a fraternity dance, scoffing at the pirate theme, opting to wear normal clothes—jeans, boots and hats. The frat boys weren’t happy the ladies were clustered around the pair of cowboys, not the surplus of pirates, and tossed them out. Literally. Abe’s face had connected with several fists before his ass had met the pavement. A scrap of a woman, dressed as a serving wench, helped him to his feet, and fussed over him like she’d been personally responsible for his airborne ejection from the party.
It’d been years since he’d been the sole focus of a woman’s tender care and concern. He liked it more than he wanted to admit—and he milked it as much as he could. It wasn’t Janie’s unadorned physical appearance that’d immediately captivated him, although she masked her petite curvy body in formless clothes and hid her beautiful smile behind long straight black hair. Her thoughtful nature had drawn him in after she’d taken him to her efficiency apartment and patched him up. Those amazingly expressive purple-hued eyes and the hungry way she kissed him, and the no-holds-barred way she wanted him were just icing on the cake.
He’d hung out with the introverted, oddly compelling woman all weekend. And every weekend after that. He and Janie were inseparable, as inseparable as a couple could be, with him living in Muddy Gap and her living in Casper. The more he got to know her, the more he adored her. He wanted to spend his life taking care of her. He was so happy he’d found a woman who understood his ties to the ranch and his family. A woman who wanted the same things he did.
Or so he thought.
He proposed to her within two weeks of that first meeting. But Janie held him off for four months before agreeing to become his wife. She moved to the ranch, but continued to drive to the college campus to work on her degree. The first year they were happy. But as months went on, so did Abe’s frustration with Janie’s disillusionment about the life