The Rancher's Second Chance Read Online Free PDF Page B

doesn’t, that’s okay, too.”
    “I haven’t worked my butt off trying to keep this ranch going after my parents died. Cori followed her own path, becoming a veterinarian. Sarah’s gone. This is supposed to be a family business, and hell, there’s no family left. You know what this industry is like. If I don’t push ahead, this place will die.”
    “Uh, yeah, or you will if you keep going at this pace, and you’ll take me along with you. This is the first time in what, a year, that I’ve been inside on a Saturday morning.”
    He was right. Of course, the only reason they were inside was because of Melanie.
    “What about Cori?”
    “She’s recovering well.”
    Gage broke out into a wide grin. “Well, that is good news.” His friend immediately went back to focusing on the dining room. Cole frowned, following his gaze. Gage shot him a look from the corner of his eye. “That is one woman who just gets hotter every time I see her.”
    “You saw her at breakfast. She’s even hotter since then?”
    Gage nodded slowly. “Damn straight.”
    “She’s Cori’s best friend.”
    Gage shrugged. “So?”
    “She’s too young for you.”
    “Please, thirty-three is hardly old.”
    “You’re not her type.”
    “How do you know what her type is?”
    Cole ground his teeth together. He didn’t. He didn’t know anything about the kind of guys Melanie dated. And he also didn’t know why this should bother him. Hadn’t he just told himself he was going to let Gage have her if he wanted her? “She wouldn’t go out with a cowboy. The way you smell after a day’s work would send her running in the other direction. She’s a high-maintenance, designer-clothes-wearing, trust-fund kid.”
    Gage rubbed his chin. “Sounds like you’ve been thinking about this a lot.”
    “I haven’t thought about it once.”
    “I think you need to ask Melanie out or something.”
    He frowned, rolling his shoulders, willing himself to relax a little. “What, to the spring dance? This isn’t high school. I don’t ask women out.”
    “Uh-huh. Exactly what I thought,” Gage said, rolling back on his heels. “All this crap about being ready to move on with your life, it’s all a joke. You have no intention of moving on.”
    Cole knew where this was going, where conversations like this always went, except neither of them were drinking and it was broad daylight. He needed to shut this down, fast. “I have moved on. Am I drunk? Do I show up for work? Do I laugh?”
    Gage slowly turned to look at him. He actually looked like he was staring at an alien. “Laugh? Buddy, you don’t even smile.”
    “I’m smiling now,” Cole said, forcing his lips upward.
    “That’s not a smile. You look like the beast in that movie when he tries to smile. It’s been five years, man…”
    Cole sighed. Everyone had been saying that lately, like five years meant something significant. Like all of a sudden at the five-year mark of losing the only woman he’d ever loved he should be looking for a new wife. He didn’t need another wife. He didn’t need to love like that again. Yeah, he could be with women, but he didn’t need a relationship. It didn’t mean he wasn’t over Sarah. He was.
    “So? If I’m interested in someone, I’ll pursue it. So far, no one’s interested me.”
    “Because you haven’t moved on. Because you still go up to that shack in the mountains you forced me to build with you.”
    “I didn’t force you.”
    “You did. And because I felt sorry for you, I helped you build that backwoods-mountain-man cabin. I didn’t think that five years later you’d still be going up there by yourself.”
    Cole frowned, staring straight ahead. Gage would never be able to understand the loss he’d felt. He was an eternal bachelor who avoided commitment at all cost. “Nice friend.”
    “Hey, I’m the best damn friend you’ve ever had. Who else would clean up your vomit?”
    “Okay, this is getting a little intense for the