Page 30 of Rancher's Return

“Sure,” he said. “Sounds good.”

Now he was going to see her tomorrow.

But that was good. He was listening. To his intuition, which said there was something here. Something he needed to accomplish through his reconnection with Marigold.

And so he was bound and determined to do it.

Chapter Eight

The next day, Buck put on his cowboy hat, a button-up shirt and a pair of blue jeans and went down to the local diner, where Marigold had said they were meeting the contractor over coffee and pancakes.

The boys were at school, and that meant Buck could focus on this project. He was also working toward getting the ranch prepared for cattle. But there was some time now between planning and when it would actually execute, so he didn’t need to worry about it today.

When he walked into the diner, he saw Marigold, sitting at a table with her red hair pulled up into a ponytail and a deeply contemplative expression on her face. She had a legal pad in front of her, which he thought was cute and old-fashioned. She was holding a pen.

He gestured toward the hostess, who had been about to seat him. “I’m with her.”

And then he went over and positioned himself across the table from her.

“Guess we’re early,” he said.

“Yeah. You want a coffee?”

“Sure. I’d never say no to that.”

The waitress came by, and he ordered coffee, waiting on food until the contractor showed up.

“So basically, you need a kitchen,” he said, a way to get her talking.

She nodded, and then started to explain the layout of the space. Buck really did think it was a great business idea.

“How did you get involved in this, anyway?” he asked.

“Well, I was cooking anyway. I wanted to be able to work from home so I could be with Lily, and I knew I was going to have to get creative because I didn’t even graduate high school.”

“You didn’t?”

“No.”

He knew a moment of anguish. Because her brother had died the night of his graduation. Because Buck had let his own life get derailed right after that. And it had carried back to Marigold. Who hadn’t even had a graduation. The ripple effect of tragedy was an alarming thing.

Especially when he knew he could trace his own behavior back to losing Sophia, his youngest sister.

He swallowed hard and looked down at his coffee. And just a moment later, a man approached the table carrying a large binder. “Marigold,” he said. “And you are?”

Buck stood. “Buck Carson.”

The contractor reacted to his name. And Buck evaluated the guy as about his age. He wondered if they had gone to school together.

“I’m Jackson. Delaney.”

Oh right. They had. They hadn’t really been friends, because Jackson had been a jock and Buck had been a fuckup. So. One of those had been required to maintain a certain grade point average. The other had not.

“Didn’t know you were back in town,” he said.

“Yeah. I am. I moved back a month or so ago.”

“Definitely didn’t expect to see you with Marigold.”