Tragic Secrets E-Book

Michelle Love

• Herausgeber: Michelle Love
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

She’s dodging me like I’m trouble, but I’m a billionaire cowboy—I don’t back down.
She’s untouched, never known a man’s touch, and figures I’m just some slick bastard out to ruin her.
She’s off the mark. I asked her to dinner; she shot me down, preaching about real love like a dreamer.
Cute, I thought, until she rolled up with a picnic, all shy and defiant.
Now I’m in deep. She loves the wild like I do, but there’s a twist—a secret baby buzz. If it’s mine, it’s checkmate.
I’ll make her crave me, prove I’m her man.
By Thanksgiving, she’ll be in my arms, my world. This island’s just the warmup.

Keywords: Guaranteed HEA, no cliffhangers, happily ever after. billionaire, bad boy, office romance, steamy romance, contemporary romance, love books, love stories, new adult, alpha male, romance, action, adventure, steamy romance, small-town secrets, hot, alpha hero. free book, free novels, romantic novels, and sexually romantic books.

Leseprobe

Tragic Secrets

A Secret Baby Cowboy Romance

Michelle Love

Island of Love 2

Contents

Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Series: Island of Love Box Set

Blurb

1. Pitt

2. Kaylee

3. Pitt

4. Kaylee

5. Pitt

6. Kaylee

7. Pitt

8. Kaylee

9. Pitt

10. Kaylee

11. Pitt

12. Kaylee

13. Pitt

14. Kaylee

15. Pitt

16. Kaylee

17. Pitt

18. Kaylee

19. Pitt

20. Kaylee

21. Pitt

22. Kaylee

23. Pitt

24. Kaylee

25. Pitt

26. Kaylee

27. Pitt

28. Kaylee

29. Pitt

30. Pitt

Preview of The Billionaire’s Maid

31. Ariel

32. Galen

33. Ariel

34. Galen

35. Ariel

36. Galen

37. Ariel

38. Galen

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About the Author

Copyright © 2022 by Michelle Love

All rights Reserved

In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights are reserved.

Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

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Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Series: Island of Love Box Set

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Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Series: Island of Love Box Set

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Blurb

I wasn’t supposed to fall for the billionaire cowboy.

But he sure knew how to heat things inside me…

I know he was older than me, but he made my mouth water the second I saw him.

Even though calloused from hard work, his hands moved over my skin like silk.

At first, I only wanted him as a friend.

But my heart and body wanted so much more.

I needed real love if I was to give this bad boy my v-card.

The passion we shared was beyond anything I’d ever dreamed of.

Until I got a phone call that knocked us off our path.

It wasn’t my intention to leave him.

Epecially since I was 2 months pregnant and expecting his baby.

1

Pitt

Mornings at the ranch never failed to amaze me. Pinks, yellows, purples, and blues mixed with the snowy white mountain peaks of the Rockies that surrounded our land; that’s the view that greeted my eyes each sunrise.

Nestled between those mountains, our two-thousand-acre spread was home to six-hundred cattle, fifteen horses, three dogs, five cats, twenty chickens, and our family.

Leaning on the horn of my grandpa’s saddle that had been handed down to me, I gazed at the horizon as the cattle began their day of grazing in the back pasture. Old Pete, one of our oldest geldings, had greeted me in the horse barn that morning, and his soft neigh persuaded me pick him to be my companion and coworker for the day.

“Pete, would ya’ look at that?” I always talked to our animals like they were people. When you grow up surrounded by them, they have a tendency to become friends. “Five minutes ago it was dark and cold out here. Now look how beautiful and light it is. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in this whole world, Pete. How ’bout you?”

He softly neighed his agreement; I understood him completely.

“Yep, I thought that’s what you’d say.” Sighing as I took in all the grandeur, I watched as the sun’s light began to fill first one crevice in the mountains and then another and another until the whole mountain range lit up. “This never gets old. Does it, Pete?”

The horse blew out through his nostrils, letting me know he once again agreed with me.

“Time to head to the lodge for breakfast. Cookie will have the coffee and hotcakes ready for me and all the other guys. I’ll get you a big ol’ cup of oats and some fresh water, too.” Moving my right leg a bit to put slight pressure on his ribcage, I pulled the reins to turn him around so we could head home for a couple of hours before coming back out to check on the herd.

My mind always wandered during the ride back home, and like so many other mornings, it settled on thoughts of my father. We’d lost him to lung cancer a little over a year ago, and I was beginning to wonder when it would stop hurting.

Mom seemed to be doing better with the loss than I was. Not that I was bedridden with grief or anything like that. Working on a ranch didn’t give a man much time to wallow in sorrow. Cattle still needed to be fed, watered, doctored, and watched, after all.

Dad hadn’t been a rancher—a fact my grandpa, my mom’s father, didn’t much care for. In the beginning, he didn’t care for my father much at all, so the story goes. Dad married Chester Brewer’s twenty-one-year-old daughter, Fannie Brewer, behind the rancher’s back.

At first, Grandpa had disowned Mom, who’d already been warned of such an eventuality if she went against his wishes and married Jody Zycan. My father had been an inventor even then, though he hadn’t yet struck it rich. He made a modest living working for his uncle as a car salesman. His passion was engines, though, and he revised and reworked them until he could make one purr like a kitten while being as powerful as a lion.

For two years my mother and father lived in a small house inside the Gunnison, Colorado, city limits. Chester Brewer’s ranch, Pipe Creek, lay on the outskirts of town.

I was born in that little house thirty-two years ago. One day during my childhood a young man showed up to meet my father. Galen Dunne had heard word of my father’s knack with engines and asked him if he’d like to collaborate on a marine engine he wanted to make.

Dad agreed. One thing led to another. The engines he helped create were sold to the United States military. Galen Dunne had helped make my father into a billionaire.

Jody Zycan had finally earned Chester Brewer’s respect—and a place on his ranch, the place my mother felt most at home. Dad and Mom built a sprawling ranch-mansion, as my grandpa called it, in the southernmost corner of the two-thousand acres. They also had three more babies—my three little sisters—two who followed the ranching side of the family and one who followed my father’s inventing ways.

Lucy took care of the chickens, Janice took care of the dogs and cats, and we all took care of the cattle. The youngest, Harper, was in town attending Western State Colorado University, studying physics. We didn’t see much of her as she kept her head in the books or was at some lab doing experiments most of the time.

As I approached the barn, I saw that everyone had converged there, putting horses away and getting ready to head in to eat breakfast at the original house my grandpa had built. Janice came out of the feed room, dragging an enormous bag of dog food behind her.

“Mice have taken over the feed room from my dogs and cats, Pitt.” She blew a chunk of dark hair out of her blue eyes. “Think you can help me set out traps after breakfast?”

“I think I can do that for ya’, sis.” I climbed off Old Pete and led him into a stall to give him his breakfast. “So, this mornin’ ain’t been too good to ya’, huh?”

With a roll of her eyes, she huffed, “Not at all. First, I opened the barn door and out ran a raccoon. He scooted right over my boot, and I jumped fifty feet into the air, screamin’ like a banshee.”

“Fifty feet!” I teased her as I filled Old Pete’s water bucket. “I guess we got us an Olympic star on our hands now, don’t we, Pete?” Patting him on the head, I swore the old gelding smiled at me.

Janice tugged the heavy bag outside while snarling at me. “It was very high, I can promise you that, Pitt. And ain’t it about time to retire that damn straw hat you got on? Dad threw that thing out three years ago. How’d ya’ even find it?”

Pulling the hat off, I looked at it. “I found it in the toolbox in the back of the four-wheeler when I took it over to Grandpa’s this morning. I figured I’d wear it today and think about Dad.”

“Don’t you think that’ll make you sad, Bubba?” Janice asked, looking a little concerned. “You don’t want to cry out there in front of the cows, now do ya’?”

“Nah,” I said with a grin as I put the cowboy hat back on top of my head. “Big strong cowboys like me don’t cry, little sis. And I like to remember Dad.” I walked over to her, taking the bag out of her struggling hands, then draping it over my shoulder. “Where is it you want this?”

She smiled and pointed at the back of the four-wheeler she’d driven over. “On the back of that, please, and thank you very much.”

The other three ranch hands came up to the barn, heading inside after tipping their hats to my sister. “Mornin’, Miss Janice,” they all said in unison.

“Mornin’, boys,” my little sister called out to them. “See y’all at the breakfast table.” She nudged me with her shoulder. “Beaux Foster certainly is growing up to be a handsome man, isn’t he?”

Tossing the dog food onto the back of the four-wheeler, I nodded and said with mock enthusiasm, “Oh, girl! He is, right?” I made a high-pitched giggle, then tossed my little sister over my shoulder. “You are such a freak, Janice. Those boys should be more like brothers to you, not potential boy toys.”

“I’m only a year older than him. He’s already twenty-four, you know.” She pounded my back with her little fists. She may twenty-five, but she’d always been a tiny thing. “Pitt, put me down! I don’t want them to see me like this.” Her cowboy hat fell off, and I put her back on her feet so she could retrieve it to cover up the mop of dark curls that had spilled out from underneath it.

“Shit, Janice,” I said as I laughed. “Did you even brush that hair before you put that thing on and came on out here?”

“Hush up, now.” She tucked her unruly curls back under her hat, then hurried inside.

The cowhands came out of the barn, surrounding Lucy, one of my other sisters.

“Let me get that bucket for ya’, Miss Lucy,” Joe Lamb said as he grabbed the bucket she’d used to carry the chicken feed.

“Thank you, John,” Lucy said as she batted her green eyes at him. “Such a gentleman, you are.”

The youngest of the hired hands at a tender twenty-years old, Rick Savage shoved his hand through thick blonde hair after taking off his hat and using it to swat the nearby Beaux on the ass. “There’s a lady present, Beaux. Get that hat off your head.”

The three young men all had eyes for my way-too-old-for-them sister. At twenty-nine, my sister had yet to find Mr. Right. It was my opinion that all three of the much younger men who hovered around her didn’t have a chance in hell. Lucy had never been the easiest to get along with—but maybe that was part of the appeal to these young pups.

Lucy wrinkled her nose as she looked at me. “Pitt Zycan, where did you find that awful hat?”

I took the stained, bent, and somewhat holey straw hat off and held it out to her. “I found it in the toolbox on the back of the four-wheeler I drove over here this mornin’. It belonged to Dad.”

“Well, that doesn’t mean you should be wearin’ it. You look like a damn fool.” Lucy walked past me as Rick opened the screen door for her.

John moved fast to get right behind Lucy. “Thanks, Rick.”

“You dick,” Rick hissed as he went in behind him, leaving Beaux and me with a slamming screen door in our faces.

Beaux grabbed the handle before it closed all the way. “Jackasses.”

“I agree.” I followed him inside, stopping to hang my hat on the hat tree just inside the door.

The smell of coffee led me like a cartoon character into the kitchen, which bustled with activity as Cookie moved around, trying to get everything on the table as everyone helped themselves to coffee, juice, or milk.

I stood back for a moment to take everything in. My life had been so full with work and all these people that I’d had little to no time to do much grieving over my father.

The truth was that I’d shut down, emotionally speaking. For the most part, I was there for my family, but I’d lost myself along the way.

Trying to maintain a happy-go-lucky attitude for Mom and my sisters, I never took the time to reflect on how my father’s loss affected me. I’d stopped dating. I’d ended things with my long-time girl, Tanya Waters, only a month after my father found out he had cancer. That had been two years ago.

For two years, I’d been alone. No dating. Nothing.

Man, what the hell happened to you, Pitt Zycan?

After breakfast and a short nap, I woke up to a knock on my bedroom door. “Pitt, it’s Mom. Galen Dunne is on the phone for you.”

Getting out of bed, I went to the hallway to pick up the landline phone, my mother nowhere to be seen. “Hey Galen. How’re things goin’?”

“Well,” he answered me in his lilting Irish accent. “Look, I don’t want ya’ to be gettin’ mad at your mother, Pitt.”

“What would I be gettin’ mad at her for?” I replied, confused.

“For callin’ me and tellin’ me that you’re in need of some time to get your life back in order.” He sighed. “It’s been over a year since your father passed. I wouldn’t be much of a friend to the man if I didn’t try to help ya’ get on with your life, now would I?”

I wasn’t opposed to figuring out how to get back to being myself. “And just what do you suggest I do, Galen?”

“Come to my island resort, Paradise. Be my guest for the next three months. It’s all on the house. I’ll take care of all the arrangements. All you have to do is pack and get on your jet. Have it take you to Aruba, and I’ll take it from there. And I’m not really askin’ ya’. I’m tellin’ ya’. You’re coming for a long visit. Your dad would want you to do this.”

I was silent for a moment, thinking it over. What there anything holding me to the ranch for the next few months? “I found an old cowboy hat of his today, Galen.” I thought that might’ve been an omen. I wasn’t usually one to look for meaning in small things, but something felt different this time. “I’ll head out tomorrow.”

“Good,” he sounded happy that I’d agreed so easily. “See ya’ soon, Pitt.”

Well, this should be interesting—a cowboy in Paradise.

2

Kaylee

“If I told you that you have a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?” I rolled my eyes at the wannabe Lothario as I placed his fifth beer on the bar in front of him.

I pointed over his shoulder. “Isn’t that your girl over there, cowboy? I doubt she’d like the question you’ve just asked me.”

“Oh?” He looked back at the blonde who sat at the table he’d been sitting at all night. “She’s not my girl. She’s my…cousin. Yeah, she’s just my cousin. I felt sorry for her ’cause she was home all alone, and I asked her if she wanted to tag along with me. I’m free.” He winked one pale green eye at me as he shoved a meaty fist through his auburn curls. “So, back to the question I asked. Would you?”

I’d been working at the same bar on Sixth Street in Austin, Texas, for the last two years. The Dogwood was best known for our creative cocktails and attracted all types of customers. I’d heard every line imaginable and had prepared smartass comebacks for most of them.

“If I tied you up and put you in the trunk of my car and left you there, would you hold it against me, cowboy?” I looked at his beer. It would be the last I’d be serving him; he’d already downed four of them in a matter of two hours. “And that’s the last one of those you’ll be getting from me. Now go on,” I waved my hands at him as if I was shooing an animal away, “Scat.”

Picking up his beer, he rolled his eyes. “You’re missing out.”

“Oh, I know what I’m missing out on.” I turned away from him and headed to the back, badly in need of a short break. “Jake, I’m taking ten. The bar’s all yours.”

“Take twenty,” he called out after me. “I heard that exchange you just had and think you need a little more time to regain your usual charming wit.”

“Bite me,” I hissed as I left the bar through the swinging door at the back of the room.

Tammy, our assistant manager, looked up at me as she tapped away at her computer. “Why are you wearing such a foul expression, Kaylee?”

Flopping down on the chair in front of the desk, I shook my head. “I’m not sure. This dumbass gave me a stupid line, and I just thought about how much I’m over listening to drunken men feeding me pickup lines from the eighties. I mean, can’t they come up with anything new?”

“I heard one the other day I hadn’t heard before,” Tammy said as she grinned and leaned forward. “He said, and I quote, ‘I’ve lost my number, can I have yours?’ How cheesy, right?” She laughed, and I joined her.

“Did you give it to him?” I asked, as she’d been known to fall for some of the dudes who frequented the bar.

“Not that night, no.” Her cheeks went pink. “But he came around the next night, apologizing. And then I did give him my number, and we went to eat at Denny’s after I closed up the bar for the night.”

“And after that?” I knew she’d done more than that. Tammy had a rep for being a little free with her charms.

She went back to tapping away at the keyboard. “Mind your business, Kaylee.”

“I see,” I said with a smile, my suspicions confirmed.

We were silent for a moment as she continued to work at the computer, and I let my mind wander. “Do you ever get tired of this? Is this where you imagined you’d be at this point in your life?”

Hearing the seriousness in my tone, she looked away from the screen and up at me. “What do you mean? I don’t mind this work. I’ve never been one to be able to sit in an office all day, so this is as good as anything in my books. Why do you ask?”

I nodded my head, understanding where she was coming from. With a big sigh, I let her in on how I’d been feeling lately. “I just wish I could find a calling is all.” I’d never been drawn to anything in particular, but I knew working in a bar wasn’t all I was meant for. “I took two years of college right after high school to get the basics out of the way. I thought that some career would start calling out to me during that time, and I’d go on to get a degree of some kind to help me get to that career. Only one never called, and I never went on with college. I ended up here. At this bar. Serving assholes.”

Shaking her head, Tammy argued, “They’re not all assholes, Kaylee. You just never give any guy a chance to show you who he really is.”

“Because there’s nothing to show.” I threw my hands in the air. “I see them out there, Tammy. They go from one girl to the next until they find some poor sucker who believes their shit. Well, I’m not falling for any of it.”

With a roll of her eyes, she laid it out for me. “First off, you know this isn’t the best spot to be looking for your future spouse; no one’s at their best when they’re drunk at a bar at last call. Besides, you just need to get laid, girl. That’s your biggest problem, and we all know it. And you know Jake would be glad to pop that cherry for you.” She winked at me. “He’s said so at least a million times since you started working here.”

“What?” I could feel my face heat at that information. As if the night could get any worse; now I had to go back out there and work with the guy. “I really need to get a new job. I’m going crazy here.”

Pausing, Tammy looked up at the ceiling for a second before looking back at me. “You know, my cousin called me the other day. She asked me if I wanted to work at one of the bars at this resort she manages.”

I leaned forward with anticipation. “And you haven’t taken her up on the offer yet?”

“No.” Her blonde bob bounced around her shoulders as she shook her head. “It’s in the middle of the Caribbean on some remote island. I’m still in school working on my MBA. I can’t drop out now.”

I could feel the wheels spinning in my head. A job on an island resort? Sounds like paradise to me!

“Well, what about me?” I asked as I stood up and started pacing. “You know I’ve got nothing holding me here; I could totally go do that.” I stopped and looked at her. “Wait. What kind of job is it? Just a regular serving job? And where would I live? And how would I get there every day? And—?”

“Chill,” she said as she got up and took me by the shoulders. “And take a seat. I’ll tell you what she told me.”

I took my seat and waited for her to sit back down in her own. “Okay, okay. It’s just that it sounds like the exact change of pace I need right now; I’m excited.”

“I can see that.” She pulled up a website then turned the screen around. “This is The Paradise Resort. You know Galen Dunne, the billionaire? He owns it. And my cousin Camilla runs it for him. She told me that they would pay for airfare to Aruba and then send a yacht to get you from there. Employees stay in staff housing, which is like a hotel room with your own bed and bathroom. There’s a central living area and kitchen for everyone to use. And the pay is generous. Plus, there’s medical and life insurance as well as a retirement plan.”

“A career!” I hopped up again, clapping my hands as I jumped up and down. “A real career, Tammy.” Looking at her with hope-filled eyes, I asked, “Would you tell her about me?”

“And tell her what?” she asked as she pulled her glasses off and laid them on the desk. “That you’re a great employee until a customer starts flirting?” She shook her head again. “The resort caters to the upper-class—and they would never accept rude behavior, Kaylee.”

I knew that the kind of people who would be guests on that island would never be as crass as the drunks who frequented our bar. “I can act like a normal, nice human being when I’m around other normal, nice human beings, Tammy. And you know that I’m a pro when it comes to making cocktails; hell, I’ve come up with all the best sellers in the past year.”

“Sit down,” she said, pulling up an application on the site. “I’ll help you fill this out and put myself as a reference. In the morning, I’ll give Camilla a call to see what she thinks. That’s all I can do, Kaylee. But I agree that you need a change. This place will never work out for you in the long run. I can see that. These guys aren’t going to change.”

“I know it.” I sat back down, and we got to work on the application, a grin on my face he whole time.

Later that night I went home to my apartment and dropped onto my twin bed. This might not be my home for much longer. In a few weeks, I might be making drinks for the richest of the rich—movie stars, socialites, CEOs—who knew?

The sound of an island breeze filled my head. The smell of sweet ocean air filled my nose. I closed my eyes, imagining the entire beautiful scene.

The pictures on the website had been gorgeous: swimming pools, overwater bungalows, swaying palm trees, and so much more. The perks for employees ranged from two days off each week to free meals at the resort’s restaurants. Food and drinks were even provided at staff housing.

Everything was within walking distance on the island, so no car would be needed. I wouldn’t have to bring anything other than my clothing and personal effects. I could sell my furniture and my car, then jump on a plane to Aruba and start a real career in a genuine island paradise.

I fell asleep with all these exciting thoughts filling my head, and the next morning I woke up to the sound of my cell ringing. Rubbing my eyes, I realized I’d fallen asleep with my clothes on. “Damn, girl.” Tammy’s name glowed on my cell, and I sat up, feeling butterflies swarm my tummy. “Tammy?”

“Yeah, girl,” she said. “You up yet? I know it’s a bit early, but I thought you might want to hear this right away.”

Crossing my fingers, I asked, “Hear what?”

“That Camilla will be calling you in an hour to do a phone interview.” She laughed. “She said she’d take my word on you. So, you better not fuck it up by being rude to anyone there. You hear me, Kaylee Simpson?”

“Oh, my God!” I shrieked. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I swear I’ll be on my best behavior! I’ve gotta get ready for the call.” I hopped out of bed. “I need to shower and brush my teeth. Oh, and put on something nice.”

“The interview is over the phone, Kaylee.” Tammy laughed. “But I get it. Let me know how it goes, and if we need to start looking for your replacement at the bar.”

“I will.” I tossed the phone on the bed then ran to get myself ready.

At precisely eleven, my cell rang. I picked it up. “Kaylee Simpson. What can I do for you today?” I thought I sounded nice and helpful.

“Hello, this is Camilla Chambers.” She hesitated. “You can call me Mrs. Chambers. My cousin Tammy told me about you, and I saw the application you filled out on our website. Tell me why you want to work here and what makes you think you will make a good fit for the resort, Kaylee.”

Straight to it, then.

I stood up tall, as if I was actually standing in front of the woman. “I can make excellent cocktails and have memorized most of the Bartender’s Bible. I love experimenting with new flavors and can make a delicious drink out of pretty much anything. Career-wise, I’m not looking for anything short term. I would give you all I’ve got to give, and that means making this job my career. I would make a great fit because I would make the island my home and treat my coworkers, management, and the guests like family.”

Silence hung in the air for a moment, “Excellent answer,” she finally said, and I exhaled a sigh of relief. “How would you like to be the day-shift bartender at our most popular bar, The Cantina Cordova?”

“I would like that very, very much, Mrs. Chambers,” I said, hardly able to contain a squeal of delight.

“I’m glad to hear it. I’ll get everything arranged and send over an e-mail with the new employee packet, and as soon as you send back the signed documents and accept the salary, I’ll send you the travel arrangements. I’ll be seeing you very soon, Kaylee Simpson. Bye now.”

“Bye,” I said as I hugged myself. “And thank you so much, Mrs. Chambers.”

Looks like I’m going to Paradise!

3

Pitt

I hopped on our private jet early the next morning. I’d always been an early riser—that’s just a rancher’s life—but even still I set off a lot earlier than Galen had thought I would. He was surprised when I called him, telling him I was in Aruba. He sent a yacht to pick me up, and I arrived on the island before daylight.

Galen greeted me personally at the dock that morning. “Welcome to Paradise, Pitt.” He clapped me on the back. “It’s damn good to see ya’.”

“It’s good to see you too, Galen.” I walked with him as the steward grabbed my luggage from the boat and followed us to the place I’d be staying the next three months. “I haven’t seen you since Dad’s memorial. And Mom said to tell you hi, too.”

“I’ll give her a call later.” Galen pointed to the row of cabins that sat out over the water—I could barely make them out in the night sky. “The first one is yours. I’ve got a personal hostess for you. She’ll see to your every need.”

“No, thanks.” I wasn’t into being taken care of. “You know I’m not that kind of man, Galen. I wasn’t raised like that.”

“Well, it’s protocol here, Pitt. She’ll be able to make your stay here very pleasant.” He seemed insistent. “Any questions you have, any activities you need organized—she’ll be able to help you out.”

I had the feeling he might be trying to set me up. “Galen, that’s nice of you. No, thank you, though. You know how it is with me and women. We don’t exactly mesh well. I’m not much of a talker, and I’m pretty used to silence. Women don’t always understand that. If I need something, I’ll ask for it. Don’t you worry ’bout me.”

With a nod, Galen let the hostess thing go. He knew me well enough to know that when I said no thank you, I meant it. “Okay. You’ve got my number if you need anything, and I’ll show you around myself.” He opened the door. “This is your bungalow for the next few months. Make it your home away from home, Pitt. It’s already been stocked with all sorts of things. Now, I’m going back to the comfort of my bed for a few more hours.”

“Cool.” I stepped inside, then turned to take my bags from the steward. “Here, let me get those.”

“I can come in and put your things away for you, sir,” the man said as he held the bags tight.

“Nope.” I nodded at Galen. “Tell him I’ll be just fine, will ya’, Galen?”

Galen laughed and patted the man on the back. “No need to help this one, Jack. He’s not one to be catered to.”

“Yes, sir.” He let go of my things, then the two of them turned and left me.

Not bothering to turn on any lights as I made my way through the dark place, I left the baggage on the sofa and found the glass doors to the patio already open.

Walking out onto the deck, the inviting sound of water lapping underneath the bungalow was instantly soothing. I took a seat on one of the two lounge chairs, then laid back to check out the stars. “Hey there, old friends. No matter where I am, you’re always right there, aren’t ya’?” Yeah, I talked to the stars, the sun, and the moon like they were people, too.

When you grow up on a ranch, sitting alone, watching over your cattle, you tend to talk to things most people wouldn’t even consider having a conversation with.

The quiet comforted me. It eased my mind more than I thought it would.

I hadn’t come to meet hot chicks. I hadn’t come to fraternize with billionaires. I’d come for one reason.

To finally grieve for my father.

But as I laid there on that lounge chair and looked at those stars, I could practically hear my father’s voice. Boy, you are not here to mourn me. You know damn good and well that I’m fine where I am. Just like I’ve always been.

“I know that, you stubborn man,” I said out loud. “But I miss you, believe it or not. I miss you, and I miss your stubborn ways.”

It’s time to start living again, Pitt Zycan. You’ve been grieving in your own way this whole time.

I couldn’t tell if the voice in my head still sounded like my father or if it started to sound more like myself.

Hell, I’d started grieving for Dad before the Lord even came to take him home with him. From the moment I found out he had lung cancer, I mourned.

The only good thing that came out of that was that you quit that Copenhagen habit.

“Well, tobacco killed you, Dad,” I remind him—or the him I’ve been talking to in my mind. And then I felt kind of silly for talking out loud. “I hope no one else is up, sitting on their decks and thinking a lunatic has moved in next door to them.”

I closed my eyes, wanting to shut out the sound of his voice. My life had changed drastically the moment my father was diagnosed and even a year after his passing I still hadn’t found my footing.

It was time to get on with my life—to break through this fog that had descended over me and get back to living. I wasn’t a kid anymore—thirty-two years old and not getting any younger. If the last year had taught me anything, it’s that the years were starting to move by faster than ever.

It’s time to find yourself a woman. The voice was back, and once again I couldn’t distinguish whether it was my own or that of my father’s.

Tanya was never the girl for you. That’s why you found it so easy to leave her behind. But there is someone out there for you, and I don’t want you to be so caught up in missing me that you miss seeing her.

I couldn’t deny that. The fact that I was able to let Tanya go so damn easily proved to me that our love wasn’t real. Or deep. Or meant to be, either.

I’d known her for so long that things just kind of fell in place without much thought. I’d gone to high school with her and then we’d ended up in the same college. Then she ended up managing the feed store where I bought food for all of our animals. One day, she asked me if I’d like to come over to her place for chicken-fried steaks with homemade mashed potatoes and creamy gravy. She said she’d even throw in some sweet tea.

How could a man pass that up?

One dinner led to another and another until we were dating and having sleepovers at her place. But my heart wasn’t ever hers, and hers was never mine. I had to admit that she was a damn good sport when I told her that I didn’t have time for a relationship when Dad got sick.

Her exact words were, “I understand, Pitt. You do what you’ve gotta do, handsome.”

As I had walked away from her front door that afternoon, I couldn’t help but notice how she never mentioned anything about being there when I got ready to come back. I knew she wouldn’t wait around for me, and she was smart enough to know that I wouldn’t be back anyway.

I hadn’t asked about her after that. I stayed out of the feed store after that, too, leaving that business up to Lucy and her entourage of ranch hands.

I hadn’t even seen Tanya once since my father’s memorial. She showed up to that, but so did most of the town. We shared a brief hug, and she told me she was sorry. When we parted ways, she told me to take care of myself. She didn’t call me handsome—the way she’d always done before.

The thing was, I wasn’t that damn sad about it. She wasn’t the one for me anyway. Somewhere—deep inside—I’d always known that.

Dad wouldn’t want me to spend my time on the island mourning him, so I didn’t know what I was really doing there, then—not until the sun started coming up over the clear water, anyway.

“Hello, beautiful,” I whispered. “Look at you.” The colors looked the same as they did at the ranch, only they added their beauty to the sparkling water instead of the snow-capped mountains.

Slowly, the shadows over the water began to fill with the sun’s light until not one shadow remained. Seabirds called out their good mornings to all who were awake at the early hour. Some fish splashed happily in the water.

I took in a deep breath of salty sea air. “Ah, this is nice. This alone is worth the trip.”

Once the sun was all the way up, I went inside to see what kind of breakfast I could rustle up. The coffeemaker was some fancy thing, but I figured it out without even reading the directions. There were eggs and bacon in the fridge and a loaf of wheat bread in the bread box.

Breaking out the frying pan, I went to work making my first meal on the island. Soon, I found the smell of bacon paired just as good with salty sea air as it did with cool mountain air. “Ah.”

After eating breakfast, I set to work unpacking my bags and putting everything away. Then I showered, shaved, and put on a fresh pair of starched blue jeans, a white, long-sleeve, pearl-snap button-down, my tan Lucchese boots I’d bought especially for the island, and a brand new Stetson cowboy hat. Looking in the mirror, I commented, “Not bad, Pitt Zycan. Not bad at all.”

The phone in the living area rang, and I went to answer it. “Pitt here.”

“I know,” Galen said. “We’re heading to breakfast. Should I come to get you? Or do you think you can find your way to The Royal? It’s straight up the pathway and easy to find.”

“I’ve already had my breakfast, thank you very much.” I knew I would most likely always be ahead of the man when it came to meal time. “How about I catch you for lunch around eleven?”

“Um—no.” He laughed. “Maybe we can meet for dinner. How’s nine-thirty for you?”

“It’s not a great time for eating as I’ll likely have been asleep for about a half hour by that time. Early to bed and early to rise, you know.” I had no idea just how off our schedules would be.

“You don’t have animals to care for here, Pitt.” He chuckled. “I tell you what. We can meet for drinks at one of the bars here. How about at Cantina Cordova at noon? You just leave your bungalow and go to the right, then come along the beach to a large open-air hut with a bar in the middle of it. You can’t miss it.”

“I’ll be there with bells on, Galen. See you then.” I hung up the phone and went to check out the television, only to find there wasn’t one. “Well, what the hell am I supposed to do with my time off now?”

It was ten in the morning. No television to entertain me. But there was a beach to walk down. And a bar to go to, apparently.