riding, I motioned to Ryan to go on ahead without me. We were rotating some of the cattle onto a different pasture and it wasn’t the kind of work you could do if your head wasn’t in the game. I always preached safety with my employees and held myself to the same standard.
Dismounting, I leaned a hand on the saddle. “I’ve got a crisis of my own to discuss.”
“Do you know what happens when the little asshole that works at the pet shop assures you that the hamsters he sold you are both female and it turns out they aren’t? No need to answer that because I’m gonna tell you––you end up with eighteen fucking hamsters in eighteen separate cages. They need constant cleaning, Scott. Constant. And I can’t put them together and risk begetting more hamsters. Hence, Cheddar Cheese and Chocolate Chip are now missing and probably fucking their brains out. I’m living the movie Gremlins and it’s terrifying.”
Chuckling, I pinned the phone between my ear and shoulder, took off my Giants cap, tunneled my fingers through my hair, and slapped it back on. “Why don’t you give them back to the pet shop.”
“They won’t take them!”
As much as I’d like to say that I felt sympathy for her predicament, my situation definitely trumped hers. “Have you spoken to Dad?”
“No. Why? Is he okay?”
“He’s fine.” I stared out at the landscape, the valley peppered with my cattle, and pride filled my soul. Everything I had was invested in this ranch, money I’d earned through stock trades. It had taken years to get in the black and I’d done it all on my own, without a penny from my parents. “He’s decided to blackmail me into marriage, but otherwise he’s fine.”
Devyn snorted. “Really? To whom?”
“That’s your reaction when I tell you I’m being blackmailed?”
“Yeah. Who’s he making you marry?”
A pause before I begrudgingly answered. “Sydney Evans.”
What started as quiet chuckling quickly gained strength. In between the laughter she gasped for air. Was it too much to ask for a little solidarity?
“I don’t see what’s funny about this.”
“She hates you,” Devyn barely managed to push out between a fit of laughter. “Hold on a minute, I gotta text John. He’s going to piss himself laughing.”
“I thought I was calling the last sane person in the family. Nice talking to you, Dev.”
“Aww, c’mon, little brother. Honestly, this may not be such a bad thing. It’s not like you would’ve gotten around to it on your own, and I like Sydney. It might even do you good.”
I’ve always thought of myself as a man of principles, even when I was acting like an asshole. And there were a few unequivocal truths I embraced with every cell in my body. One: I loved my country. Two: meatless burgers were a spawn of the devil. Three: the environment needed to be protected and preserved. And four: marriage to Sydney Evans would never ever “do me good.”
“Good luck with your rat infestation, Dev. Love you.”
Sydney
A text came in at 5 a.m. the next morning. I picked up the phone off the nightstand, glanced at the screen.
Scott: Vegas today. Be ready by 4.
I texted him back without having to think twice. It was now or never. Intuitively, I knew that if I stalled, it would never happen.
Me: I’ll be ready.
By the time the Blackstone jet landed in Vegas that evening I was a bundle of nerves and I didn’t understand why. Hadn’t I been the one who had insisted we go through with it? Now that the plan was put into action, however, I was feeling a strong urge to run and fast. My female intuition screamed that the price for this hoax was going to far outweigh the benefits and that’s what worried me most. In the past, it had seldom failed me. It also didn’t help that Scott’s brooding had hit an all-time high.
The short plane ride had been eerily silent as both of us worked on our respective laptops. As soon as the plane had finished climbing, he pulled it out and started typing. Floored, I couldn’t stop watching him, hiding my holy shit face behind my computer screen. Witnessing Scott do actual work was like catching sight of a unicorn among a herd of wild horses––as impossible as it was amazing.
“You didn’t invite anyone,” I said, finally breaking the silence. I couldn’t take anymore and coming from someone who’d learned to control all her emotional reactions to avoid getting beaten that was saying