Sucking in a cleansing breath, I gazed at the beautiful landscape and knew I made the right choice. I was home, back where I belonged. There were no cages keeping me in, and nobody was trying to kill me out here. I might not have love, but at least I was home.
“Come on,” Liam said, grabbing two pieces of luggage. “We’ll help you get settled in.”
“Uh…about that,” Michael winced. “I sort of rented out your house.”
My gaze snapped to his. “You what?”
“Well, it’s just that Blake’s brother Sam was living in that mobile house, and everyone kept moving it on him. So, I said he could live in your house.”
“In my house,” I repeated.
“Yeah, but not in your room. He’s in the guest room.”
“In my house,” I said again, sure I had heard him wrong.
He shifted uncomfortably, seeming to catch onto the fact that I was not okay with this. “I mean, I’m sure he’d be willing to move back into the mobile house.”
“I was gone a week,” I said slowly. “You had someone moved in before I had even unpacked my bags.”
“In my defense, I didn’t think you were coming back. You were so certain it was going to work with Rob. I mean, some might even say you didn’t give it a real chance.”
Liam wisely kicked the man, making him shut up. “We’ll take care of it.”
I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t even going to be able to mope in the privacy of my home because some guy was going to be there. I didn’t even know him!
“Hey, it won’t be that bad. Sam’s a very quiet guy. He’s recovering from an injury still, so he’s been spending a lot of time outside.”
I narrowed my eyes at Michael, hoping to convey just how pissed I was at him. “Well, as long as he’s outside.”
He flinched at my tone, but wisely said nothing else as he grabbed the rest of my luggage. I glanced back at the plane one last time, waving to the man who had annoyed me the whole flight, talking about his love of Funyuns and shawarma. I knew way more about both of those things than I ever needed to in a lifetime.
The ride back to the ranch was uneventful, consisting of me staring out the window the whole time while my brothers tried to fill me in on what was happening in town.
Sawyer, Josie’s brother, was dumped yet again, and currently in stage two of the grieving process.
There was a new principal at the high school, and Billie, Bailey’s sister, had the hots for him, which was bound to cause all kinds of problems.
Despite Ryder being one hundred percent infatuated with Ellie, Colt was still worried that Ryder would go after his baby sister.
And my personal favorite, the couple who lived across from the hardware store were upset about the amount of noise coming from the parking lot, and registered a noise complaint with the sheriff’s department, requesting the noise be kept down during the day while they were trying to nap.
We turned down the bumpy drive of Murky Falls Ranch, but my spirits didn’t rise in the least.
“We’re not going to stop by the main house, are we?”
“I told Ma we would stop,” Liam answered. “Sorry, but she was pretty damn insistent that she see her baby after you left her.”
I rolled my eyes in annoyance. “I was gone for a week. She wasn’t this concerned about me when I was on the run from the mafia.”
“Well, back then, she had your wedding to distract her. Now, everyone’s wondering if they should return their gifts.”
Jeff turned in his seat, grinning at me. “If it makes you feel any better, I smashed my finger the other day, and she didn’t offer to get me a bandage. It was like she didn’t care!”
“Were you bleeding?”
“No,” he frowned. “Does that matter?”
“If you weren’t bleeding, why would she get you a bandage?”