The Mechanics of Mistletoe - Liz Isaacson Page 0,64
the single semi the ranch owned. Ranger had ordered ten more from a cattle transport company out of Amarillo, and they should be here soon. He just couldn’t remember what time he’d booked them.
He hadn’t found the email yet when he heard the growling of the engines. Turning, he started for the end of the cattle chutes, where four more cowboys waited on horseback with a whole heap of cattle.
They’d had a healthy birthing season last year, with over five hundred new cows on the ranch. They’d lost a few in the tornado, but with plenty of good grass all summer long, the cattle they had left should fetch them quite a bit of money.
He waved both arms to Cactus, who leapt from his horse and started directing the semis into position. They only had four chutes along the front of the corral, and the one at the back where Ranger was, but they should have these cows loaded up and on the road within the hour.
With things moving forward as they should, Ranger looked at his phone again. He hated that it had become something he didn’t want to check when it notified him. At the same time, he read the text he’d gotten a few days ago over and over. It was the first thing he looked at in the morning, and the last thing he read before going to bed.
“You’ve got to answer her,” he muttered to himself. He just didn’t know how.
He swiped with his thumb, his frown appearing as he tapped on the text from Oakley. I wanted to talk to you about something, she’d said. Might you be free for lunch one day?
“Might I?” he asked.
In all honesty, Ranger was free for lunch any dang day he wanted to be. He didn’t even have to check with anyone. But Ranger hadn’t answered, because the one person he had checked with hadn’t given him the green light quite yet.
“What is it, Lord?” he asked, tipping his head back and looking up into the sky. It was far too bright for him to do that for long, and he closed his eyes as they began to sting. “Why can’t I just say yes?”
He knew why, and he didn’t need the Lord to tell him.
It was because Oakley wasn’t his speed. She was fast where he was slow. Which made sense, because she’d driven a race car for a living. She loved life on the high adrenaline side, and Ranger wanted a slow day in the saddle and then an evening on the porch with his guitar and a glass of lemonade.
She dated multiple men at once, and Ranger hadn’t been out with a woman in any sort of romantic way in three years.
It was the dating non-exclusively that Ranger really didn’t like. He didn’t want to be her lunch date, only for her to dine with another man that evening.
He hadn’t exactly been cold to her lately—he’d spoken to her at the hot air balloon festival last month. She’d looked like she needed a reason to stop talking to whoever she was with, and when Ranger had seen the guy’s face when Oakley didn’t call him her boyfriend, he’d felt an immediate sympathy for him.
More than sympathy—humiliation. Bishop and Bear had helped him identify that emotion, and Ranger didn’t want to be humiliated by the gorgeous brunette who ran the dealership. He already only went to town for church and to buy the vehicles they needed, and he didn’t want to lose that.
Not only that, but something Bear had said had struck Ranger as the pure truth. You don’t deserve to be humiliated by this woman. By anyone.
Ranger worked hard around the ranch. He poured his blood, sweat, and tears into Shiloh Ridge, and he was happy to do it.
He showered and cleaned up and went to church as often as his circumstances would allow, and the only reason Oakley hadn’t seen him there was because she wasn’t looking. He hadn’t missed a Sunday all summer, even if he had sat in the back row so not many people saw him.
He’d just decided to admire Oakley from afar when her text had come in.
He looked at it again, once again debating whether he should tell Bear about the text. He’d be in the truck with Ward for a while, and his brother was his best friend and closest confidante after Bear.
Sighing, he shoved his phone in his pocket, determined not to answer until he had an