Rhett Chapter 2
*western romance *billionaire romance *friends to lovers *fake marriage *holiday reads
Rhett Walker could not believe his rotten luck. It seemed like he’d run into a string of it, and he wondered when it would end. Just like this blasted tornado. It seemed to go on for a long time, and not only because he was trapped in his own storm shelter with three strangers.
Women, sure, but they chatted more with each other than him. He’d switched on the flashlight on his phone and currently stood in front of a long shelf with dozens of cans on it. At least they wouldn’t starve down here.
“How do you know when the tornado is over?” he asked, thinking he needed a camera that showed the weather outside so he wouldn’t have to risk losing his hat to check. He felt six eyes on him, but when he turned, only one woman still stared at him.
“Evelyn, right?” he asked, taking a step closer to her.
“Right,” she said, her voice hoarse. She coughed, and Rhett watched her. “Sorry,” she added. “We were out in the dust and dirt for a while before coming in.” She cleared her throat and bent down to a lower shelf.
She straightened and held two bottles of water in her hand. “Do you mind if I have one of these?” She extended the second one toward him, and he took it.
“No problem.”
“Where are you from? Have you been in a lot of tornadoes?”
“I grew up outside of Austin?” Why he phrased it like a question, he wasn’t sure. He found himself clearing his own throat, as if this woman made him nervous. Everything about coming out to a ranch made him squirm a little, and three of his brothers were supposed to be with him. But there had been some problems at the office a couple of days ago, and he’d ended up coming north himself.
“I know where Austin is,” Evelyn said with a small smile. She hid it behind the water bottle as she drank.
Of course she did, and suddenly the storm shelter felt a little too hot. He returned his attention to the shelves in front of him. “My father owned a technology company there,” he said, glancing at her. “This shelter needs one of his cameras, then we’d know when the tornado has passed.”
“You’ll be able to tell,” she said. “Even without a camera.”
“You think so?” He wasn’t sure how, as it wasn’t like there were any windows in the shelter.
“A camera would get knocked around in a storm,” she said, cocking her head at him, the questions clear.
Rhett shuffled his feet, but he kept his eyes on hers. “My dad had contracts with the military and government,” he said. “The cameras were tiny.”
“Tiny? How tiny?”
“Pinhead tiny,” he said. “The wind wouldn’t knock it off.” As if the world had been holding its breath and had just released it, something changed. He looked up to the ceiling, the lack of groaning evident. “I think the storm is over.”
“It’s passing,” one of Evelyn’s sisters said, and Rhett couldn’t believe that she could tell without visual proof. “Let’s give it a few more minutes,” the other woman said.
“Callie,” Evelyn said, providing Rhett with the name he’d forgotten, though they’d only been in the shelter for maybe ten minutes. “She’s the oldest,” she added in a mock whisper, and Rhett got the message.
A chuckle started in the back of his throat, and he ducked his head as he tried to quiet it. “A little bossy, is that what you’re saying?”
“She has moments,” Evelyn said, and Rhett met her eyes again. She had a beautiful smile to go with that long, dark hair and those sparkling eyes. He couldn’t really tell what color those were in the glow of flashlights, and he told his heart to stop skipping beats.
He hadn’t bought this ranch out in the middle of nowhere to get his heart broken again. He’d managed to do that in Austin, thank you very much.
“I’m the oldest,” Rhett said. “Six younger brothers.”
“Wow,” Evelyn said, those eyes still shining at him. “I thought some of them were coming with you.”
“They are,” he said. “The twins got held up in Austin, tying up loose ends, but I had to come up for the job.”
She cocked her head again. “The ranch is fine.”
“Oh, Jeremiah is going to mostly be doing the ranch stuff,” he said. “I’ll help a little. The twins are technology dudes, but they insisted on coming.” He shrugged, because Tripp and Liam didn’t even own plaid shirts.
“So what’s the job?” she asked.
“I’m a forensic veterinarian,” he said. “There’s a case up here that’s expected to take a while. My dad’s company was selling, and this place was for sale….” He let the words hang there.
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed. “Have you ever lived on a ranch?”
Before he had to answer that, Callie said, “I’m going up.” That caused movement, and while Evelyn watched him for an extra moment, she too moved toward the ladder. He let them all go up first, feeling like perhaps he should’ve done so to make sure no one got hurt.
Thankfully, the house still stood at the top of the ladder, though there were several windows broken.
“Looks bad,” Callie said, walking over the dirt that had been blown in through the broken windows.
“This is bad?” Rhett asked, not quite the house and ranch tour he’d been expecting. The weight of the clean-up felt like tons and tons, and he couldn’t shoulder it. He stood in the middle of the kitchen, turning slowly.
The appliances were still there. Countertops. Even the kitchen table and barstools.
The women had gone out the back door, and Rhett went out onto the deck as well. He had so many questions, and he’d been hoping he could ask the four men who supposedly lived here on this ranch he’d bought.
Only Evelyn paused at the edge of the lawn and lifted her hand in a friendly wave, and Rhett returned it. Then she turned and followed her sisters, their red pickup firing up and rumbling down the road to the west, where their ranch obviously was.
He sighed and looked up into the still angry sky. “Really, Lord? A tornado? What am I supposed to do now?”
He had the very strong feeling that he better get to work, so he went into the garage and found a broom. After all, God had led him here, and he couldn’t leave now.
* * *
Rhett had most of the main floor swept out when his phone rang. “Hello?” He didn’t recognize the number, but he had a feeling he’d be answering a lot of calls from people he didn’t know in the near future.
“Mister Walker?” a cowboy drawled.
“Yep, you got ‘im,” he said.
“I’m Orion Goldberg,” the other cowboy said. “We got stuck in town and wondered where you ended up during the tornado. Maybe you’re not in town yet?”
“I’m at Fox Hill,” he said, pushing the huge pile of dirt out onto the deck. Everywhere he looked, there was more work to do, as evidenced by the patio table and chairs his eyes caught on. The umbrella was still there, but bent, and a sigh passed through his whole soul.
“Arrived just before the tornado. Good news,” he said, trying to find the silver lining in this situation, the way his mother had always done. “The storm shelter is stocked with food and fits four people.” With room for more.
“Four people?”
“The women from down the road were here,” Rhett said, thinking immediately of Evelyn. He consciously switched his thoughts to how he needed to rename the ranch now that he’d finally arrived.
Just another thing in a long to-do list.
“Well, we’re still in Three Rivers,” Orion said, his voice fading for a moment. “What do you need us to bring back? How’d the windows fare? The animals?”
Jeremiah was supposed to be here to run the ranch, and Rhett had paid little attention to the type and number of animals on the ranch.
“Uh….” He looked out over the land behind the homestead and found several outbuildings. Barns and stables and coops. He turned away from them, overwhelmed and thankful for the four men who would be back soon. Hopefully. “There are several broken windows. Dirt and stuff everywhere. I’m sweeping out the house now.”
“We’ll bring back lumber and some cleaning supplies. What about groceries?”
“Can I call something in?” Rhett asked, turning back to the house. He’d bought the ranch a couple of months ago, but he and his brothers hadn’t made the move immediately. The owner had said his neighbors and the crew at Fox Hill could manage for a while, and they obviously had.
“To where?” Orion asked, and that answered Rhett’s question. It only took fifteen minutes to drive into the town of Three Rivers, and it was a bustling place. At least Mason Martin had told him it was. Rhett had come straight to the ranch when he’d seen the windstorm kick up and the sky turn an ugly shade of green.
“Never mind,” he said.
“We can bring out some food, boss,” Orion said, and Rhett wasn’t used to being the boss. He worked for the state as a forensic veterinarian, and while there were only a few people who did what he did, he wasn’t the boss.
“That would be great,” he said. If they wanted him to be the boss, he could do it. “I’ll pay you back.” He outlined a few grocery staples for Orion, and the call ended. As he swept the dirt back onto the ground where it belonged, he supposed things at Fox Hill could be worse. He could be the only one here, with no money to pay for anything.
As it was, he had a crew coming back with the supplies he needed, and his brothers on their way. Oh, and plenty of money, as when his father had sold the company he’d built, he’d gotten billions for it.
All the Walker brothers now had billions too—which was how Rhett had gotten this ranch in the first place. It was the second-biggest one in the area, and well-maintained. At least it had been.
“And it will be again,” Rhett vowed. “But it needs a new name. A fresh start.” Just like him and his brothers.
“So what do we call it?” he mused aloud to himself, not quite used to so much country stillness and silence. He and three of his brothers would be living here. “Four….” The only word he could think of was men, and that sounded stupid.
Plus, once Wyatt finished with the rodeo circuit, he’d probably come to the ranch too. With Rhett’s parents retired and living in Grand Cayman now, there was no “home” for the rodeo king to return to.
“Seven Sons,” Rhett said, the name popping into his head. It fit. It was perfect, and while Rhett certainly hadn’t appreciated all of the rotten luck that had brought him to this part of Texas, he tipped his head back and looked up into the clearing sky.
“Thank you, Lord,” he whispered, because he at least had a place to stay, money to fund the rebuilding of this place, and family coming.
He didn’t need a wife, despite what his mother said. Oh, no, he did not.