LITMIR.BIZ

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to turn this into a competition. His whole livelihood depended on him besting a two-thousand-pound bull.

      Emma’s strangled sigh was filled with exasperation, and a tinge of remorse lit in Jace. He shouldn’t have engaged with Mackenzie at all. Certainly not in the lodge lobby, where guests could walk through at any second of the day.

      “Feel like you two could use a mediator. Or some workplace counseling. Is that a thing?” Emma beamed, finding her own joke amusing. Jace’s lips twitched, because the idea of Mackenzie and him sitting on a couch, trying to figure out how to work together when she couldn’t stand the sight of him, was funny, but he couldn’t let Mackenzie win the third-grade angry-staring contest they’d somehow begun.

      “Um, so...listen.” Emma was made of velvet—a stark contrast to Mackenzie’s most recent tone. “I need people to get along. I can’t handle all of this.” Her nose wrinkled, and she waved a hand, encompassing them. “What can I do to help you guys? Because I get the past mattering and all that. Trust me—I understand how much that affects things. But you two have to figure out how to work together and not do this—” another hand motion “—anywhere guests or staff can see you.”

      She was right, of course. But Jace had been trying. For the most part.

      “Maybe we could schedule in special argument time after everyone else has signed off for the night. Or get up early and duke things out.” Jace let the retort slip, hoping it might earn the faintest shadow of humor—like the old Mackenzie would have offered up.

      New Mackenzie released a growl/wounded-animal screech of frustration. “Actually, Emma, the best scenario would be for Jace to realize he’s not welcome at Wilder Ranch and leave.”

      Emma’s mouth formed an O shape as Mackenzie made a U-turn and strode toward the front office, her boots pounding as strong and fierce as she was.

      Attraction swallowed Jace up. Confounded woman.

      “That is not true.” Emma’s light brown ponytail and silver hoop earrings bobbed back and forth with her shaking head. “Of course you’re welcome here. You always have been. I’m sorry for her—”

      “You don’t need to apologize for Mackenzie. I’m not surprised. And I deserve everything she’s throwing my way.”

      The woman only seemed to reserve direct hits for him. Jace had learned that the Wilders had extended the paycheck advance to the girl asking for it. They were gracious like that. Even Mackenzie was. Just not with him.

      “Oh, Jace.” Emma softened. “It has been a long time. I was never sure exactly what happened between you two, but I didn’t believe things ended well, like Mackenzie tried to spin it.”

      Mackenzie had kept the way he’d left under wraps? Sounded like something she would do. The woman was too tough for her own good. She needed to let people in. But then again she’d let him in, and he’d bailed on her.

      “Over the years I kept thinking you’d contact her. Make things right.”

      “But I never did.” He scraped his noncasted hand along the hair at the nape of his neck. “It wasn’t like I didn’t want to. I just didn’t know what to say. How to say it.”

      Emma offered him an understanding smile. At least she didn’t consider him a varmint. But then he hadn’t left her high and dry. And Emma had always been homemade apple crisp with ice cream melting into the nooks and crannies, while Mackenzie was the kind of spicy dish that tore up your taste buds and still managed to leave a person wanting more.

      If only a little of Emma’s sugary demeanor would rub off on Mackenzie. Maybe then she’d actually hear him out. But Jace couldn’t deny that the challenge of Mackenzie was exactly what had attracted him to her in the first place.

      Which could turn out to be quite the problem this summer. Since he planned to go back to riding. Since he was an invalid, with all of these sidelining injuries. And since no matter what he did, Jace couldn’t tame his attraction to the woman who wanted nothing to do with him. All because he refused to leave like she wanted him to... All because, the first time around, he’d left when she hadn’t wanted him to.

      But Kenzie Rae wasn’t the only one who had issues and wants and demands. Jace had a few of his own. And if he didn’t occupy himself with something useful this summer—like working at the ranch would provide for him—then he’d lose his mind even more than he already had when it had been demolished by the Widow Maker ride.

      He’d worked hard this week to make himself useful, to stay busy, to help things run as smoothly as he could from his limited knowledge of the ranch. And Mackenzie refused to recognize that. All she could see was the trail of dust he’d left behind seven years ago.

      Emma was studying the front office door Mackenzie had disappeared through, and Jace couldn’t help wanting to ease the turmoil creasing her face. She wasn’t in charge of fixing his and Mackenzie’s past or current issues.

      “I heard a rumor that the reason I haven’t seen much of you is that you keep running off to spend time with your fiancé.”

      Just like that, her demeanor flipped and she turned all sparkling Emma, hands racing to cover pink cheeks. “It’s true. I’m crazy about him. Can’t seem to get enough. Thankfully, Mackenzie and Luc have been turning the other way when I keep sneaking off to meet him.” Her lyrical laugh bubbled up. “That makes it sound so untoward. But it’s not! I’m just...”

      “Crazy in love.”

      “Exactly.”

      “I’m happy for you, Emma. If anyone deserves to be noticed and appreciated and cherished, it’s you. Love looks good on you.”

      “Aw.” She playfully shoved his arm. “You always were a sweet-talker.” Her attention bounced over to Kenzie’s wake again. “She’s probably going to lose her mind if she comes back out here to find me consorting with the enemy.” Her hand paused on his arm. “Be gentle with her, Jace. After you left...” She faltered and grew silent, her head shaking. “Did you know Luc left, too, shortly after you did?”

      Oh. That wound opened up again. “I did not know that.”

      “He moved to Denver and came back eventually, but between the two of you, I wasn’t sure what to do with Mackenzie.”

      Jace had so many questions. Like whether Emma thought Mackenzie would ever forgive him. Not to restart their relationship. He really couldn’t do that when he planned to leave again. But he wouldn’t mind getting along with the girl he’d once thought he’d marry.

      “I really can’t say more.” Emma’s hand squeezed his but dropped away. “Hang in there. If I know my sister, you’re in for a fight if you plan to stick around.”

      Fight, he could do. And Mackenzie was worth it. Even if Jace was only here to right the wrong of their past. She deserved the truth from him—whenever she’d finally let him say it. His earlier doubts vanished. While his arm—and the rest of him—healed, he didn’t have anywhere else to be.

      * * *

      Emma dropped into the chair across from Mackenzie’s desk. The front office was surprisingly empty this afternoon, with everyone out with the guests, and Mackenzie had hoped to buckle down and get some work done—especially now that she didn’t have Jace trailing her every move.

      She’d only managed to train him Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and then she’d cut him loose. It wasn’t enough. Of course, she should have done more for the sake of a well-run guest ranch.

      But Mackenzie couldn’t bring herself to continue.

      She just kept hoping and praying that Jace would give up on his outrageous idea to work here for the summer and leave already. Preferably yesterday.

      “How’re you holding up?” Emma’s question was soft and caring, but Mackenzie wasn’t willing to go anywhere near the meaning behind it.

      “Fine.

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