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child.
    “Nope. Don’t know. Don’t care.” That was only a
partial lie. Right then, he really didn’t care. Only because he was too
fucking hungry to put forth the effort.
    “Hope didn’t seem happy,” Cody mentioned, his hands
resting on the table as he stared at Lane.
    Lane didn’t have a problem with an audience while he
ate — or anytime, for that matter. But right now, he was hungry, so if Cody
wanted to talk, he’d have to endure Lane having a mouthful of food.
    “Does she ever?” Lane countered.
    “Touché.” Cody laughed.
    It was true. Hope Lambert walked around with something
stuck up her ass most of the time. Of all five of the Lambert sisters, she was
the most serious. Lane had seen the woman in action. She didn’t put up with a
whole lot of shit, and being the oldest, she apparently took on a lot of the
responsibility for Dead Heat Ranch, which left little room for fun. At least
from what he could tell.
    Unlike Gracie, Mercy, and Trinity, Hope wasn’t the
fun-loving sort. Not anymore, anyway … from what he’d heard. Then again,
neither was Faith, the youngest of the bunch. Proof in the fact that it was
closing in on seven o’clock and both sisters were still working. He wasn’t sure
the two of them ever stopped.
    As for Hope, Lane knew she had taken on the task of
managing the day-to-day operations of the ranch alongside their father, Jerry.
Ever since their mother had died, when the girls were young, she’d been
steadfast in her efforts to prove her worth to anyone who would pay attention.
Not that she needed to. As far as Jerry Lambert was concerned, his daughters
hung the moon and lit the damn thing every night, to boot.
    But Hope had a one-track mind when it came to
business.
    Which was why Lane knew he didn’t want to be around
when Hope did eventually find Grant. Whatever she wanted to talk to him about
was likely work related, which meant the man was in a shitload of trouble.
    “Have you seen him? Grant?” Lane asked, probing as to
what Grant had been up to when he’d returned to the ranch. Clearly, either Lane
had been too busy or Grant was avoiding him altogether because Lane hadn’t even
been aware that the man had returned.
    “Not since after lunch. He was pissy, so I hauled ass
in the opposite direction.”
    “Can’t blame you there,” Lane said, shoveling food
into his mouth.
    “Have you seen Mercy?”
    There it was. The real reason Cody had the sudden urge
to chat it up. Lane forked more food into his mouth and shook his head. He
hadn’t seen her since earlier in the day. That woman was trouble with a capital
T, and Lane tried to stay as far from her as possible.
    It didn’t help that Mercy seemed very aware of what
was going on between Lane, Gracie, and Grant. She was acting like fucking
Cupid, what with trying to force the three of them together.
    Not that there was any force necessary.
    Damn it. Now he was thinking about Grant again.
    Maybe he should stop by, check on him.
    Bring him food.
    No.
    Damn it.
    “Well, if you do, let her know I’m lookin’ for her.”
    Great. Now he was a fucking secretary. Another forkful
of food went into his mouth as he nodded his head at Cody. There wasn’t a
chance in hell that he was going to mention Cody to Mercy, but the kid didn’t
need to know that.
    “Night,” Cody finally said as he pushed to his feet.
    Lane wasn’t trying to be an ass; he just wasn’t in a
talkative mood, so he sent Cody off with a curt nod.
    In fact, he had something else entirely on his mind as
he polished off what was left of the Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes that
had been overflowing his plate moments earlier.
    Shoveling the last bite in his mouth, he decided it
was high time he addressed the issue.

Chapter Four
    Grant didn’t want to do anything except sit in front
of the television. Hell, he didn’t even want to get up and get another beer.
Glancing down at the one in his hand, he realized that would be something he’d
really need