Hometown Hottie Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

NOVA

My hands curled into fists at my sides.

What the hell was Frank Louison doing, not so discreetly, taking pictures of my family’s land on his phone? He turned the device horizontal, lifting it up to get a panoramic shot of the ranch with the majestic mountains as a backdrop. Red Stone Ranch had been in my family for three generations. From the serrated mountains that made up our border, to the grasslands where the cattle grazed, and the river that flowed gently through it all, there wasn’t an inch of it I didn’t know.

I knew its secrets, where to find its treasures, and most importantly for the situation I was in at the moment, I knew how to protect it. As I strode through the colorful tents in the parking lot on the edge of the property, I waved hello to some of the vendors who were setting up for our Saturday market, but I didn’t stop to chat.

Later, I would check in with everyone, but right then, I wanted to set Frank straight. He could keep his grimy hands and his greedy eyes off my family ranch.

“This is private property, Frank.” I snatched the phone right out of his hand, scrolled through the pictures he’d taken, and deleted them all. “You’re not supposed to be here. You’re trespassing.”

The developer spun to face me with a charming and almost disarming smile on his face. Key word almost. He splayed his hands wide in a show of innocence before extending one to reach for his phone. I pulled back, and he arched an eyebrow.

“Give me my phone, Nova. You want to talk about private property rights?”

I glanced down at the screen one more time to make sure all his photos of my home were gone. Then I smacked the phone into his waiting palm and met his gaze directly. “Here. Take it. And don’t get any ideas going and taking more pictures. You don’t have permission. Now,” I added, nodding toward the parking lot, “please leave.”

He pouted, turning on the playful charm. “Don’t be like that. I came for the market, and the view from here is so beautiful, I couldn’t resist. I’m hardly the only one.”

Inclining his chin toward the shoppers starting to arrive for the day, he pointed out a few different groups of people pausing for selfies before they hit the stalls.

I sighed and turned my gaze back to him, my eyes narrowing. “Those people are here to buy fresh local produce and handmade goods. You’re here for the ranch, and that’s not for sale.”

Frank reached for the sunglasses hanging in the V of his shirt and slid them over his squirrely eyes. “There’s nothing like the smell of fresh bread in the morning. How is that little bakery of yours doing? It seems to have become a popular place for the people around here.”

“It has. Thanks for asking.” I lifted my chin a little higher in the air.

Frank had a few inches on me, but he was a big-city boy with shiny shoes and manicured nails, a transplant who’d smelled the development opportunities in Wyoming and had moved to Silver Springs with the intent to put up high-rises and condominiums.

In other words, he was here to threaten our way of life, and any man with shinier nails than mine didn’t belong anywhere near here. He didn’t intimidate me, and his false charm and idle flirtation weren’t going to fool me into convincing my parents to sell our property to him.

Not. A. Chance.

“I’ll have to come check it out some time,” he said conversationally, that supposedly charming smile back on his lips. “I hear the coffee’s good. Maybe I can buy you a cup and we can talk.”

“You want to buy me a cup of coffee in my own shop?” I arched an eyebrow and scoffed. “No, thank you. Besides, unless the talk you want to have is you telling me that you’re leaving town for good, you and I have nothing to discuss.”

He slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans, lowering his head slowly to one side as if trying to size me up. Good luck to you, asshole. They don’t make me in your size—or in any size you can handle.

“You know, Nova, I’m not the bad guy here. In fact, there are a lot of folks around these parts that think of me as something of a savior. Times are changing, and if you refuse to change with them, you’ll get left behind.”

“Yup. I guess I’m just an old fashioned country girl.” I flashed him a tight smile. “If there are people who think of you as a savior, then go bug them and leave us alone. I’m sure they’d trip over their own feet to worship you.”

He turned away from me and waved toward the sprawling land that reached the base of the mountains in the distance. “I can’t leave you alone. What you Murphys have got here is prime real estate. The kind that can fetch your parents the money they need to retire comfortably and to leave a little behind for your kids and your brothers.”

“My parents will retire comfortably right here, thank you very much, and my kids and my brothers will grow up on this ranch just like we did. Stop wasting your time and go find some other rancher to harass. Preferably four or more counties over.”

For the first time today, that suave facade gave way to the real Frank. He yanked his mirrored sunglasses off his face and narrowed his eyes at me, haughtiness written all over his ordinary features.

“You can’t bullshit me, Nova. I’m not one of you simpleton townspeople. I know how business works and I know yours has been trending down for years because your father is stuck in the past. At this point, there’s no way you can even pay the taxes on this place, and I have a client who’s just waiting for your folks to go bankrupt trying to keep it afloat. Your stubborn pride is going to ruin what your family built.”

I bristled. He wasn’t wrong about Dad being stuck in the past. My father was a good man and a better rancher, but he didn’t believe in modern tricks like marketing or even something simple like these Saturday markets.

Frank had struck a chord, but that didn’t mean I had to admit it. My teeth ground together and I held his gaze without flinching. This man with his pretty nails and expensive shoes would never get my help convincing my parents to sell, and that was all he was here for.

“Now I’ve tried being polite, Mr. Louison. Us simpleton townspeople are brought up that way, but since it’s not working, let me try it in fancy, big-city language, shall I?” I pointed toward his cherry-red pick-up with the brand-new tires that had probably never even seen proper dirt. “Take your pansy-ass truck and get the fuck off my property before I go fetch a gun.”

He eyed me like he didn’t believe I would do it, but when I shrugged and started back toward the building, he scoffed down a disbelieving laugh and threw his hands up in front of him, palms out as he walked backward. “Okay, Nova. I’m leaving, but I will be back. That’s a promise, not a threat. Your days on this ranch are numbered and you know it. I kind of wish you’d have taken the easy way out.”

Not giving him the courtesy of a reply, I planted my hands on my hips and watched pointedly as he marched to his truck, slammed the door, and finally sped off, throwing up a cloud of dust and gravel behind him. My heart was racing a million miles a minute, my palms sweaty as I wiped them on my jeans.

I might have won the battle, but the war was coming. I felt it in my bones as surely as I felt the sunshine beating down on my bare shoulders. The ranch had been struggling for years. What we made from the bakery, coffee shop, and market offset that some, but even combined, those businesses didn’t do nearly well enough to make a real dent in the growing expenses on the farm.

Frank, our own personal vulture, had positioned himself perfectly. All he needed was for the ranch to go belly up and he’d be picking at our bones with those shiny white teeth of his. Veneers, probably.

Ugh.

Dread sank like a stone to the pit of my stomach, weighing me down, but I forced smiles and small talk on my way back to the bakery. Six years ago when I’d come back home from college, it had taken me four months to convince Dad to let me turn one of the old storage sheds into a little bakery.

The business had grown from there and I was damn proud of it, but at this rate, Frank would be the one kicking meoff the property in a couple years.

I breathed in deep, trying my best to act calm as I chatted to people who sold their wares here every weekend. I had known them all my life. Seeing their smiling faces helped ease some of the worry weighing down on me.

When I finally made it back into the privacy of my kitchen, sweltering heat enveloped me, but I shut the door behind me anyway. My best friend and fellow baker, Cassidy, looked up when I walked in, smiling as always until she saw the look I had on my face.

“Girl, you need to get some sleep.” She blew out a low whistle between her teeth. “You look like hell. What time did you get in here this morning?”

“Four, but it’s not that.” I rocked back on my heels and jerked my head toward the parking lot. “I saw Frank out there.”

Her nose wrinkled like she smelled something rotten. “Your gun is under the counter.”

I snorted a laugh. “He left before I could shoot him for trespassing.”

“Oh well.” She sighed dramatically. “Maybe next time.”

“There better not be a next time,” I muttered.

Sympathy softened her kind brown eyes and a furrow appeared on her freckled brow. “Did he bother you about selling again?”

“Doesn’t he always?”

She walked out from around the worn wooden table we used to roll out the dough. “Come here.” She pulled me into a tight hug and rubbed my back as she held me. “It’ll be okay, doll. I know it doesn’t feel like it, but we’re doing well here. You’ll figure it out, but not if you keep getting no sleep and working yourself to the bone. I’ve got it from here. You head on home.”

“I can’t.” I squeezed her back and ran through my mental checklist of things to do on market day. “I’ve got too much work to just crawl into bed in the middle of the morning.”

“Yeah, but you’ve always got too much work,” she said, backing away from me and grabbing the rolling pin she’d been holding when I’d walked in. “I’ll clean up. You really need to get some rest. Especially after dealing with that snake.”

A dry chuckle escaped me and I shook my head. “I can think of better words than that to describe him, but sure. Let’s go with snake. There are kids outside, so I better not start flinging around the more creative insults I’ve thought up.” Like he’s a shit-munching twat waffle who would sell his own mother’s kidneys to make a buck.

I inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to gain control of my hammering heart and simmering temper. If I let him upset me, he won, and I refused to let that bottom feeder win.

Frank first appeared in town a few years ago. Everyone thought he was just another developer passing through, but it soon became clear he was a scavenger, and a merciless one. He dug in his heels and started snatching up businesses and properties all over the area.

Despite plenty of opposition from the folks in town, myself included, he wasn’t going anywhere and he wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted.

And now, he has his sights set firmly on Red Stone Ranch.

Nausea rolled through me and the anger gave way to feeling just plain sick. For years now, I’d barely had a moment to slow down and I never relaxed. My brother Ryan and I had done everything we could think of to try to help our parents, but it wasn’t enough. It was never enough.

“Do you remember Carson Drake?” Cassidy asked suddenly. “He went to school with us back in the day. Played with the NFL until he retired last season? I think he might’ve been in Ryan’s year.”

My eyes snapped open and my mouth went dry. Not even my worries about the ranch were enough to keep my body from reacting like I’d stuck my finger in an electrical outlet. “Uh, yeah? Sure, I think so.”

Did I remember Carson Drake? That was like asking if the sun had remembered to shine this morning. If the moon would remember to rise tonight.

For as long as I lived, I would remember that name, and not just because Carson had, in fact, been in Ryan’s year at school. He’d also been his best friend and teammate—as well as my one-time summer love. Cassidy had zero clue that we’d had a thing, though.

The mere thought of him made me tense. I cleared my throat, trying to sound casual. “Why do you ask?”

She shrugged, arms full of stuff she’d gathered from the table. Then she took everything to the sink and gently lowered it in. “I heard some people at Moe’s talking about him the other night. Apparently, he’s been investing in the town ever since he got drafted, like, a million years ago.”

Ten years ago, but who’s counting?

Unaware of my mental correction, she turned to look at me over her shoulder. “The hospital expansion, the new wing at the high school, a couple parks, and the new library are because of him. Maybe you should try to get in touch. A guy like that might be able to do something to help you stop Frank from taking your property.”

“Yeah, thanks. I’ll think about it.” But I’m never, not ever, going to ask Carson for help. “I should get back out there. Make sure everyone is happy and that they don’t need anything. We need to keep ‘em all coming back.”

She smiled. “They will keep coming back, babe, but sure, go on. I’ll handle everything here.”

“I know you will.”

Cassidy Markus was one of the few people in this world I trusted completely. I returned her smile with a grateful one of my own, then spun around and went to make sure nothing had gotten wildly out of hand since I’d come to hide in the kitchen.

For the rest of the day, I had my hands full with customers of my own as well as those who were visiting the market. Once the parking lot had cleared out and I’d done the cleaning up after, the sun was starting to paint the sky in orange and pink pastels and it was time to go up to my parents’ house for dinner.

  I trudged inside and looked around for my brother to talk to him about Frank, but he was nowhere to be found. I sighed. He hadn’t been much help lately with trying to keep the ranch afloat.

“Where is he?” I asked Mom when she came around the corner, carrying a casserole dish in her hands and wearing a big smile. “Also, hey, Mom. How was your day? Do you know where Ryan is?”

“Oh, he’s not joining us tonight.” She pressed a quick kiss to my cheek before she continued to the dining room. “He’s out with some friends from high school who just moved back to town or something. Either way, you’re stuck with us old people for dinner. Go wash up. I’ll grab Daddy.”

Alarm bells sounded in my brain as she grinned at me. Ryan only had so many friends from high school, and definitely only a few who had left town.

So who exactly is he meeting with tonight, and why is this the first I’m hearing about any of ‘em moving back here?