Sunrise Ranch - Carolyn Brown Page 0,17
prenup agreement, which was ten thousand dollars.”
“Did you know I had two half-sisters?” she asked.
“Of course, I did,” Vivien sighed. “He never mentioned them, but that’s a small community down there in the canyon, so I knew.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Bonnie could feel anger rising up from her toes. “I had a right to know that, don’t you think?”
“What good would it have done? I didn’t know where they were living or even what their names were,” Vivien answered. “And I damn sure didn’t want to know their mothers. From what I heard, they were both on the hoity-toity side.”
“Why didn’t you ask for half the ranch?” Bonnie tried to push the anger down, but it didn’t work.
“I signed a prenup. If I didn’t produce a son, then I got ten grand and a bus ticket out of the canyon,” she answered. “Figured I had a fifty-fifty chance, and I lost the bet.”
“So I’m just the by-product of a bet?” Bonnie’s voice went all high and squeaky.
“I know that tone, and I don’t like it, so goodbye.” Vivien ended the call.
Bonnie wanted to throw the phone at the wall, but she shoved it into her hip pocket and stood up so quickly that she knocked her chair over. She stomped across the kitchen floor to the back door, didn’t even look back at the chair or the remainder of the toast and her half-empty cup of coffee on the table.
She’d wanted to talk to her mother about these feelings she had for Rusty, but the conversation had sure enough taken a different path. “So, Mama, the ultimate love ’em and leave ’em married Ezra for money and security, not love,” she fumed as she got into her old truck and drove out to the hay field. “She hasn’t changed much, except she’s given up on security, and now it’s a good time she looks for. Even at her age now, she’s always looking out for thrills, and when she gets bored with whoever is providing her with drama and fun, she goes on the prowl for another one.”
Rusty was in the adjoining field, and although she couldn’t see his face, she wondered if he was as angry as she was. Or maybe he was using his man powers and simply putting it out of his mind, like brushing a piece of lint from the shoulder of his jacket. Sweet Jesus! She had to persuade him to stay throughout the summer and fall at the very least.
Bonnie parked her truck, rolled down the windows, and was still mumbling to herself when she opened the door to the cab of the tractor. A blast of heat that had the faint aroma of sweat and the smell of dogs hit her in the face. She hopped up into the driver’s seat, turned on the engine, and adjusted the air conditioner.
“He can go if he wants to. I can hire another foreman and the summer help will be here next week, but he’s damn sure not takin’ the dogs,” she declared as she put the tractor in gear and started raking the hay into windrows. She wiped tears from her cheeks. She didn’t want him to leave, and it had a helluva lot more to do with her feelings for him than it did with finding another foreman. There she’d admitted it—she wanted more out of the cowboy than just having him as a foreman or even as a friend.
* * *
When Bonnie stormed across the distance between her truck and the tractor, Rusty could tell by her body language that the woman was still angry. Women were such strange critters. He thought she’d be happy that he was leaving the ranch.
All of the sisters had been fast learners, but Bonnie had been the one who’d caught on to everything the fastest. Maybe it was because she’d had a hardscrabble life, and hadn’t ever been handed everything. Abby Joy had showed up with her stuff in duffel bags, and Shiloh with monogrammed luggage. Bonnie had arrived with her things packed in plastic Walmart bags, and not once had she let her older half-sisters intimidate her.
She could run the ranch standing on her head in ashes, Rusty thought, and do a fine job of it. She don’t need me anymore. In the last six months she’s learned plenty enough to do the job until she can get a foreman.
His phone rang, and he grabbed it without even looking at the name on the screen.