The Flood Stranded Me With Three Ranch Men, So I Kept All Three novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Dutch's Knees

Dutch's POV

Brock Ellingson's Tahoe had been gone from the yard since noon, and nobody on the Rasmussen place had said her name since.

I found Jess in the loft at dusk, on the same bale where I had first had her.

She sat with her knees pulled up inside my old barn coat, and she had been crying and had stopped.

The lantern was not lit.

I climbed the ladder slowly, because I am a big man.

I sat down on the hay across from her.

The boards creaked under me.

"Emmett's cutting calves out of the east pasture," I said.

"Nels went to ride fence. They'll be hours."

"They can't look at me," Jess said.

"They can. They don't know what to say yet."

"I'm sorry," she said.

"I know," I said.

"No, Dutch. Listen."

Her voice cracked.

"My grandfather left me this place three weeks ago, and I came to sell it."

"I met you in a creek, and by the third night I couldn't sell it," she said.

"I couldn't say so, because I thought you would hate the woman who put your names on a list."

I thought about that.

She watched me think, the way she had in the beginning.

"I've never hated anybody in my life," I said.

"I tried once, over a fence. It didn't take."

A laugh broke out of her, wet and surprised.

← Chapter 12 · All chapters · Chapter 14 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend