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Please don’t go. I can’t do this from right here, much less Denton. I need help, and I’m frustrated.”
    “I can take care of that frustration.” His deep voice was sultry and coaxing. If anything, he’d always been sex on a stick.
    “No, you don’t, dude. Business, remember.” I shook my finger at him in a playful gesture.
    “Yeah, but then you’ll owe me.” He laughed.
    We did a little dance as we stepped around each other in my kitchen opening—him trying to come closer, me moving away.
    “That’s the part that scares me. I’m not sleeping with you, so don’t go thinking that it’s your bargaining chip.”
    We were in close proximity in the small kitchen, and I could hear his deep breaths. When he approached me, my eyes trailed to the fullness at the crotch of his jeans. I backed away from him and made myself a glass of ice water. Something he would wear to cool himself off if he decided to get any closer.
    “I’d do anything for your mom—and you, no threats needed.”

    We walked out to the bridge and observed that it was not a total loss, some of the wood could be reused. I wasn’t prepared for buying more lumber, but I had my savings if it came to it. We checked the supplies in the barn, and there was more steel pipe than I’d remembered, so the price of repair would be less than expected.
    Walking back to the house, he caught me of guard. “I’m happy you got out of here and went back to school. You’ll make a better life for yourself than what you’d find here.”
    “I got railroaded by Dr. P and Mom.”
    “Really? She finally pushed you out?”
    “So to speak.”
    He laughed. It was a sound I loved to hear. There was nothing better than his laugh when he was carefree, but when he was drinking and jealous—that was a different story.
    Back inside, I didn’t dare trust myself enough to sit with him on the sofa, so I parked his ass at the kitchen table. We looked over the list and laid out a timeline.
    “Wrenn, I’m really sorry about everything. I just want you to know that.”
    “You hurt me, Stephan. You broke my arm in a jealous rage.”
    “And you tried to shoot me.” He gave a little chuckle, trying to make light of what had happened.
    “You’re lucky that pistol in the truck wasn’t loaded. Look, I can’t rehash the past. I just can’t. I’ve forgiven you and let’s leave it at that.”
    “But I can’t forgive myself.”
    His words stunned me.
    Right about that time, I got a call that changed everything.
    “Ms. Cunningham?” the deep male voice asked.
    “Speaking.”
    “Ms. Cunningham, I’m Holt Severs, out of Fort Smith. Your ad for land just came across our fax, and my son is looking for more land for his cattle. The only problem is that he also wants to rent a place for a ranch-hand of his to stay with the herd. Would you know of a place around there?”
    “You mean a room for rent or something like that?”
    “Sure, that would be nice. Do you know of something?
    “Perhaps. Can I get your number and give you a call back tomorrow?”
    “Better yet, I’ll give you Ben’s number, and you can call him yourself.”
    After I took the notes from Holt, I sat down in pure amazement as Stephan looked on.
    “You win the lottery?”
    “Something like that.”

I ushered Stephan away and was grateful he didn’t offer too much resistance. I needed to garner up a clear head and a stubborn streak to deal with my mother.
    The problem with the bridge repair meant that no one could come and go on our property while the repairs were going on, and it would take a full day of work to get it back to usable status again. So, the plan was to get the brush hog on the land first, and I could do that during the day each day until the weekend, and that would be when the guys would come and fix the bridge.
    When Mom got home, I had dinner prepared, but she was too tired to eat. She sat down in her recliner and closed her eyes. I observed her from the kitchen for several