The Rancher's Second Chance Read Online Free Page B

sex.”
    He squeezed his eyes shut. He needed to erase those words from his mind.
    “Who’s paying for sex?”
    Cole’s head shot up, and he glared at Gage as he sauntered into the kitchen.
    “Come and sit down, darling, I’ll fix you up a plate,” Mrs. H said, pushing her chair back with her knees.
    “Thanks,” Gage said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek as she jostled over to the stove. He entertained the idea of telling Gage it was time he found his own damn place to eat. He couldn’t, obviously, but right now he was tempted. Gage had been like part of the family ever since he’d started working at Tall Pines when he was sixteen. He had no family to speak of and whenever any of them would ask him about it, he’d shut down and not say a thing. The closest Cole had ever gotten him to open up was one night after Sarah died. Cole had been determined to drink enough that he could forget Sarah was dead, and his buddy stood by him and matched him, drink for drink.
    During that night, both of them spoke about the past and feelings and things neither of them would ever contemplate sober. Mrs. H and his sister found them passed out the next morning. He’d been sprawled out on the sofa and Gage had been lying on the coffee table. That was the last time either of them got drunk in the house. The lectures they endured about alcohol poisoning the next morning were worse than the hangovers.
    “So, what’s this about paying for sex?” Gage asked, digging right into the food on his plate once Mrs. H had settled into her seat.
    Cole dragged his hands down his face. “No one is paying for sex.”
    “I was just telling Cole here that it’s time he found himself a woman.”
    “Agreed,” his friend said, his mouth full of food. “Listen, buddy, you don’t have to pay for it. I’m sure I can find some woman, somewhere who’d be willing—”
    “Shut up.”
    “You gotta get a life and stop hanging around Mrs. H all the time.” He looked up at her and grinned. “No offense.”
    “None taken, my dear,” she said, patting his hand.
    He shoved his plate of food aside. “Thanks, but I had a good woman once. Not looking to replace her.”
    Gage leaned back in his chair. “Of course you can’t replace her. No one is talking about finding another Sarah. What about Hot Mel?”
    “Her name is not Hot Mel,” Cole said. He didn’t like that one bit. Hot Mel.
    “Well, she’s hot and her name is Mel.”
    “She’s not my type. Too high maintenance.” That was one of the reasons he couldn’t entertain going out with her. He’d thought up that reason at 2:01 a.m. It was a good one. He knew from Cori that her family was extremely wealthy, extremely highbrow type of people. Nothing like his family. They may have had money, their business was extremely profitable, but there wasn’t one day that went by that was without hard labor. Right from when they were old enough to help out, their father had them out there like any other cowboy the family employed. Even their mother, who’d been petite, had had the kind of strength that could rival someone twice her size. And that’s what you needed out here. Strength.
    “She’s not,” Mrs. H said. “I’d say spirited.”
    He quickly scrambled for a rebuttal. “Spoiled.”
    “Now I never had you pegged as the judgmental type, Cole. You might be surprised by her. Not everything is as it seems.”
    “Did she or did she not go to private school with Cori?”
    Mrs. Harris gave him a terse nod. “Correct, but so did your sister. You wouldn’t ever say that Cori is high maintenance or spoiled.”
    “True. But the only reason Cori went to that stupid school was because our parents decided she needed a better education because of her learning disability. Not for prestige. And she didn’t board there; she came home every day.”
    She crossed her arms. “Well still…”
    “Melanie comes from old money. She wouldn’t know the first thing about life out here.”
    Gage