A Rancher's Love by Capri Montgomery Read Free Book Online Page B

sold her car because she wouldn’t need it in New York. She was thankful for that now because the extra money was going to allow her to change her 37

    A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery ticket with short notice. It cost her a pretty penny, but Dean was worth it. By the time she made it to South Dakota she felt her heart racing with fear. What if she wasn’t in time? What if he had died?
    Guy had swiftly squeezed her suitcase onto the rear seats in his truck. She noticed the supplies in the cab. She could marginally understand that. The ranch had to keep functioning, they needed supplies and he had to come into town to pick her up so why not pick up supplies too? On the other hand, he was Dean’s best friend and he should have had his behind by Dean’s side right now.
    “How is he?”
    “Not good,” he admitted. “You got here in record time.”
    “The time difference helped. And I paid a lot of money to get on that flight out. There were only two connecting flights. Are we almost there yet?”
    “The airport is almost two hours away from the ranch.”
    “We’ve been driving forever.”
    “We’ve been driving thirty minutes,” he turned his head to look at her, giving her a warm smile to soothe her worrying mind. “Calm down. He’ll be there when you get there.”
    She was impatient and worried and each minute felt like an hour. When the ranch was finally in sight she felt her heart pounding in her chest. Then she felt anger because he drove right past the main house. Couldn’t he drop the darn supplies off after she saw Dean?
    “We’re here,” he drove up to the barn. She saw the men working and then she spotted Dean covered in mud.
    “You said…”
    “He’s been sick since you left, Zoe. I swear.”
    She slowly got out of the truck. She could tell from the expression on Dean’s face that he was just as surprised to see her. He dropped the saddle he was carrying, hopped over the wooden slats and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tight. That was not the action of a man near death.
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    A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery
    “What are you doing here? Not that I’m complaining. Oh man,” he stepped back from her and looked at her. “I got you all dirty.”
    She looked down and realized her white pants suit was covered in mud. She didn’t care. She had been so worried about him that mud was the farthest thing from her mind right now. “I thought you were sick. I thought you were dying.”
    “Who told you that?”
    “Well you were sick,” Guy said swiftly. “You’ve been in a foul mood since she left. You won’t eat, you’re barely sleeping. The man we knew as our boss was slowly dying,” he slammed the truck door on his side shut. “But I never really said you were dying.”
    She laughed. “No, he just implied the urgency. I’m glad you’re okay.”
    “I’m glad you’re here. Come back to the house with me. We can get cleaned up. And since Guy deceived you he can take care of your bags too.”
    “I just have one bag.” She watched the solemn expression spread over his face. “I was supposed to go to New York tonight. I put my stuff in storage on the island and I just packed the one bag. When I got the call from Guy I just changed my ticket.”
    “So when do you leave?” His voice was so low she barely heard him.
    “I bought a one-way ticket so I’m open.”
    He smiled briefly. “But you did settle on New York?”
    “No. Not really. I was just going up. I figured I’d see if I could get things to work out there—find a place to live and a space to rent for the bakery. I didn’t have anything cast in stone other than my ticket and my reservations at the hotel. Both were easily broken for a fee.” She looped her arm in his. “Come on; let’s walk back to the house. And we better go through the kitchen area or Jasper is going to kill us.”
    “We better hose off first too or she’s going to kill us. I have two robes in the shed so you can wear one of them,