Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
“Uh, Seth is hot as hell. I mean seriously, he’s glorious. I should know. I’m a connoisseur.”
He was, but Chloe wasn’t simply looking at Seth’s hotness level. “I mean in a business sense. She’s known for a long time that she’ll take over Lodgecorp and her mom’s business one day, and she wants to present the right image. Apparently a super-hot guy with a guitar isn’t it.”
He shook his head. “We are getting off topic.” He looked up as someone approached their table. “Hey, when was the last time Olivia had hot sex with a random, gorgeous man?”
“Bobby,” she admonished. He was usually so discreet, but something about making the decision to be open and honest had caused him to throw all his caution straight to the wind.
Miranda McNamara-O’Malley’s pretty face lit with a grin. A mischievous one. She was the daughter of one of the members of the Barnes-Fleetwood Collective, a group of independent cattle ranchers who worked together to get the best prices and deals. They found they had far more power in negotiations when they worked together. And when they sent in a shark in heels and a business suit. That would be her. One of the blessings of her job was getting to make friends all over the country. Miranda was a good one. “Well, she had the chance a couple of months ago. She came up to teach my parents how to use the new accounting software and my brothers tried to seduce her.”
Olivia couldn’t help it. She rolled her eyes. It wasn’t that Tanner and Kade weren’t hot. They were gorgeous, but they were also way too young for her. They were young bucks doing all kinds of things with the oats they were supposed to sow. “I remember them as toddlers. I can’t. Same with all the Harper boys.” She looked to Bobby. “You know you could have been a way more protective fake boyfriend.”
He laughed. “Oh, I think most of the younger set has figured me out. I tend to go to Hell on Wheels when I come home. Naturally my parents think I’m at church functions or helping the sheriff with his Internet. It’s a weirdly good place to pick up guys. Unless you’re with Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood, and then she scares them off.”
“Do not.” Except she kind of did. She was starting to worry that she wasn’t capable of love. She had grown up around so many beautiful, beat-the-odds love stories, but she had never felt for anyone the way she did Bobby. It might be that fate or the universe had screwed up, and she hadn’t found a way to settle for less.
Not that they’d ever had a physical relationship.
She’d had them. He’d had them. But never together. Bobby wasn’t one of those guys who needed to try sex with a girl to see if he was truly gay. Nope. He’d always known.
Olivia had a couple of boyfriends over the years. In high school she had dated a football player. She thought he was brave and crazy about her since her family was still known as the town scandal. Then she overheard him talking about how her parents were rich and he didn’t care that his momma called Jack Barnes the devil. He wanted to cash in. Marrying Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood was the ticket to an easy life, and he wanted it.
She dumped him before the championship game and the Willow Fork Tigers lost. Then she was the child of the scandalous family who also cost them the state title.
Then there was the college math major. They had a good time, but when he left for his graduate work she hadn’t been heartbroken.
For a little while she thought she might try with a rancher who had joined the collective a few years back. He was perfect on paper. They had a lot in common. He knew about her parents and wasn’t worried about it. He got along with Josh and Grim. Then she heard him talking about how hard it was to work with a woman.
It was the last straw, and now she was done with all things romantic and she was barely thirty.
“Oh, no. She’s thinking about all her other relationships and coming to the conclusion that she should be a nun.” Gigi Dawson sank onto the seat beside Miranda, who looked their friend’s way and nodded her agreement. She wore a yellow cocktail dress that clung to her every curve. Her glorious, naturally curly hair was in a halo around her head.
“I don’t have a look,” Olivia insisted.
“She does, and I’m pretty sure she is contemplating living the rest of her life alone, concentrating only on business and being everyone’s weird aunt,” Bobby agreed and then leaned forward. “I think we should find her a hot, random dude to celebrate her brothers’ keeping up the family tradition of two guys marrying one woman.”