Now she could just be a bitch to him.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Micah asked his son.
“I wanted to get away from Texas. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of Mom. I wanted to find what you said was out here.”
“You can come work at my ranch,” Micah said. “You’ve never shown the slightest bit of interest in it.”
“This is different. This place is different. You said that... You said this was the prettiest place you’d ever seen. That it made your soul come alive.”
And Arizona turned her own off. She didn’t want to hear this. Didn’t want to listen to it, and the last thing she wanted to do was to be standing in front of him.
Unprepared.
That was the dream, right? To face down the one that got away, while you were looking better than you ever had. But she couldn’t do that. Because she didn’t look better than she ever had.
She supposed her saving grace was her face. Her face had been protected by that airbag. But the rest of the twisted metal had done things to her body that...
“You think you want to work here?” Micah asked.
“Yeah.”
Micah turned, but he didn’t address her, he addressed Landry. “You got work for him?”
“How many child labor laws would I be violating?” Landry asked.
“A few,” Micah returned.
“You’re not seriously going to let your kid stay in Oregon, and live away from you?” She had thought him to be a pretty callous dick, but that would take the cake.
“Oh hell no,” he said. “I’ll stay here. Work alongside him. While I prove to him that this is harder than he thinks. And he’s gone and made a romance out of something that’s just sweat and tears.”
Well, that sounded familiar.
“You expect us to train him just to let him go?” Landry asked.
“I’ll train him,” Micah said. “I’ve worked here before. I run my own place now.”
“No skin off my nose,” Landry said. “And we can use a little extra help right now anyway. I’m only paying for one of you, though.”
“Works for me,” Micah said. “Let’s see if you can last thirty days, kid,” Micah said to his son.
“I can last. What do I get if I win?”
“You can stay out here forever if you want.”
“Yeah. I’ll do that. Get away from you and Mom, have my own life.”
“Sure. If you can hack it after thirty days, you’re welcome to this life.”
Just like that, Arizona was staring down a thirty-day prison sentence with no way to get out of it.
CHAPTER FIVE
LANDRY SHOWED THEM to their quarters. There was a row of houses nestled in trees at the edge of King’s Crest. He remembered it well, because it was right in the same neck of the woods he stayed when he worked here the first time.
It wasn’t the only thing he remembered well.
There was Arizona.
And time had only made a more beautiful woman out of her than she’d been at eighteen.
She’d been pretty enough to knock his socks off then, to make him feel guilty about thoughts he had toward her. Made him feel bad that he’d encouraged any kind of relationship with her, even though it was mostly just friendship. But damn... She still did things to him.
That was a hell of a thing.
His ex-wife didn’t do anything for him anymore at all. Of course, her personality had soured that.
But he didn’t have time to go thinking about Arizona right now. He had to deal with Daniel.
He rounded on the kid as soon as they were in the cabin.
“What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking I was going to prove to you that I’m a man,” he said.
“I didn’t do anything to you, kid, where is this coming from?”
“You didn’t do anything to me, maybe, but you left me to rot out there in the city with Mom. I’m sick of it. Sick of all her boyfriends.”
“I didn’t leave you to rot, you little asshole, it’s called a custody agreement. It’s not my fault that the judge gave most of the time to your mom.”
“Well, how the hell did you make it so that she’s going to let you stay out here for thirty days with me?”
“I told her flat out if I was going after you, what happened when I found you was up to me. Given she’s liable to get charged with neglect for how she handled it, she was agreeable.”
“How did you sneak up on me this morning, anyway?”
“I flew and I had a car drop me off at the edge of the driveway. Apparently they even have rideshare services out here. But anyway, she agreed to let me deal with you as I saw fit if I came out here. I’ll let her know we are staying for the month.”
“She doesn’t care about me,” Daniel said. “Not at all. She just likes to use me to hurt you.”
Micah stopped, his heart freezing in his chest. “I don’t think that’s true,” he said. “Your mother might be a difficult woman, and she might show love in some different ways, but I do believe that she does love you. I do. I don’t think that she...”
“She doesn’t know what love is. That’s why she keeps hooking up with these idiots all the time. She doesn’t know that what she had with you was good.”
Micah appreciated his kid being on his team, but the fact of the matter was, Daniel couldn’t possibly remember how he and Lacey had been together.
“I thought you wanted to start a new life away from me too,” he said.
“No, just away from... It isn’t you, Dad. It’s Texas. It’s anywhere near Mom.”
“I’m sorry,” Micah said. “Of all the things I’m sorry about, that we couldn’t give you a home with the two of us is the biggest one.”
“Do you know that woman?” Daniel asked. Changing the subject. Because they both tended to be allergic to sincerity.
“Why?”
“I don’t know, just wondering if she was here when you were here.”
“Yeah. I know her.”
“Man, she’s hot. She’s got huge...”
“I will kick your ass,” Micah said. “You don’t talk about women like that.”
“I’m not being rude about it,” he muttered. “Or saying anything that isn’t true.”