LITMIR.BIZ

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out and pulled off a pair of driving gloves as she walked toward them. “Moving out?”

      “I am,” Jancey said with an upward tilt of her chin. “I got a job. It pays more than the job you messed up for me, and I’m working for people who know exactly what kind of a person you are, because I told them.”

      Taylor sucked in a breath, but before she could intercede, Miranda asked, “What about your horses and cattle?”

      “I’ve hired someone to feed them.”

      “Ah. Of course. Well.” Miranda smiled a bone-chilling smile. “Good luck with the future, Jancey. I’m sure it’ll be bright.”

      “No thanks to you.” Jancey gave Miranda a cool look. “Have you heard the term ‘cut off your nose to spite your face’?”

      Taylor frowned at Jancey’s use of a phrase that she hadn’t heard since her grandmother had died. Miranda didn’t seem to notice. She merely lifted her eyebrows in a silent invitation to continue.

      “That’s what I’m going to do. I’ll tell anyone who will listen not to stay at this place. It might hurt me, but I hope it hurts you more. Social media is a wonderful thing, Aunt Miranda.”

      The woman’s face turned to ice, and Taylor took hold of Jancey’s arm, intent on getting her out of there before more damage was done.

      “We’re leaving,” she said to Miranda. “Cole wanted me to tell you to stay out of his house. He means it.”

      She got Jancey into the SUV without any more salvos being fired.

      “Mission so not accomplished.” She gave Jancey a dark sidelong look. “What you just did was what I was supposed to prevent.”

      “Sorry,” Jancey said, but it was obvious she was not.

      “I understand why you did it.” The woman had screwed with Jancey’s life and Jancey very much wanted to do the same to her. “But maybe pouring gas on the matter isn’t the best solution.”

      Jancey let out a huff of air. “There is no solution, so I settled for a moment of satisfaction.”

      Taylor slowed as she crossed the cattle guard, then gave Jancey a quick glance. “Cut off your nose to spite your face?”

      “We had to do an English paper on idioms,” Jancey said on a sigh. “Damn it. That woman…”

      Her voice trailed off, and Taylor hoped Jancey standing up to Miranda wouldn’t cause that woman to seek yet another path of petty revenge.

      Later that evening, when Cole got back from Missoula, they walked the perimeter of the smallest field and Taylor told him about the confrontation.

      “No way to keep it from happening,” she said in conclusion.

      “Yeah. I get it.” Cole pulled a long weed as they walked and tossed it aside. “I just wanted you to keep her from going to the main office and telling off Miranda. Nothing you could do about Miranda showing up.” He gave a small snort. “Which she did just to upset Jancey.”

      “The woman is a classic bully,” Taylor mused. “You can’t reason with bullies.”

      “No kidding,” Cole muttered.

      “Have you ever considered selling the place?” The thought had worked its way into her head a number of times that day. Cole’s expression darkened. “Okay. No.”

      He shook his head, his mouth flattening. “I won’t sell. She won’t win.”

      “Sometimes winning isn’t all that great if it eats your soul in the process.” He looked down at her and she said, “Borrowing my mother’s dramatic term.” She frowned up at him. “It’s appropriate to the situation, though. That woman will suck the life out of you.”

      “Jordan won.”

      “How much did he suffer in the process?”

      “He’s happy now.”

      She turned and put her hands on his biceps, stopping him. “You belong on the land, but does it have to be that land?”

      “My great-great-grandfather homesteaded that place. Miranda’s great-great-grandfather did not. Why should she get what my family worked so hard for? Why should she be rewarded for psycho behavior?”

      “Why should you suffer when you don’t have to?”

      Cole brought his hands up to thread through her hair. “Because I want my ranch. I don’t want her or anyone else to have it.”

      “What if that’s not possible?”

      “What if you can’t get a job you want in Seattle?”

      “I will. It’ll take time, but I will.”

      He gave her a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “That’s my answer, too.”

      * * *

      AFTER TWO WEEKS of nothing, Taylor received a small rush of interest. She booked three interviews, and two headhunters contacted her with promising leads in Portland and Sacramento—both areas where she’d feel comfortable living. She was an urban girl, born and bred.

      An urban girl who got a kick out of driving farm equipment. The day before she’d swathed hay for Cole while he baled in an adjoining field. Jancey drove the retriever, and the three of them put in a full day’s work before eating dinner together. Her stay at the farm, which had started as a desperate survival move, had become more of an idyll. A temporary idyll, because she was not going to winter in the bunkhouse. The job market was picking up, and several of the people who’d been laid off with her had landed new positions.

      As to Cole…things were perfect because they weren’t dealing with real-life stresses a real couple would face. There was no jockeying for position. No compromises. Their paths were clearly laid out. They had the moment, as Cole had put it.

      Still, there was no getting around the fact that separating was going to sting.

      So she didn’t think about it.

      And if she did, she told herself that perhaps they could continue long distance…but she didn’t really believe that was a possibility. Distance made feelings fade. Different worlds exacerbated the process. They had the here and now, and she was enjoying every second of it.

      That night, when they walked the property after dinner, she told Cole about her job leads, then wondered if she was imagining the tension in the silence that followed.

      “That’s good,” he finally said, giving her fingers a squeeze.

      “I’m feeling encouraged. Two of my fellow Stratfordites have gotten jobs over the past two weeks. Things are turning around.”

      “Good.”

      And then…nothing.

      Taylor let the matter drop. She didn’t want to ruin the time they had left together.

      “Jancey’s loving her job at Culver Ranch and Feed,” Cole said as they headed back toward the house. “The old guys there have adopted her, and Jolie is giving her advice on how to battle Miranda. I’d appreciate it if you told her not to battle Miranda.”

      Taylor smiled a little. “I will.” She and Jancey did well together. She’d miss Cole’s little sister almost as much as she’d miss him.

      “Speaking of doing battle, I’m going to the ranch this weekend—probably on Saturday. Want to come?”

      “To keep you out of trouble?”

      He gave her a look. “Or maybe because I want your company?”

      She pulled in a breath and told herself there was no need to feel the small twinge of anxiety at his words. Or rather at her reaction to his words. Her heart shouldn’t jump at things like that. “Sure.”

      “Good.”

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