Page 18 of The Rogue (Four Corners Ranch #11)

“You’re being kidnapped.”

Rue opened her bedroom door when she heard the female voice on the other side.

It was Fia, with Arizona and Bix, all looking determined.

“Why... why?”

“Because,” Fia said, “we know you’re sad, and you have every right to be because screw that guy. But we thought you needed

a girls’ night and since King’s Crest is your safe space we thought we would do it here.”

“Here?”

“Not here, here, we’re going to Bix’s because Daughtry is working.”

“Come on!” Bix said cheerfully, grabbing Rue by the arm.

“I’m not dressed!” She had stripped down to her sweats after the trail ride and had taken a nap.

“You’re just fine for our version of girls’ night,” Arizona said.

“I’ve never had one,” Bix said, looking large eyed. “Please come.”

It was, she told herself, sympathy for Bix that propelled her on, and not the sheer force of will of the women involved.

She was piled into Arizona’s truck and they took the two-minute drive across a field to Bix and Daughtry’s house. It was small and charming, with a neatly kept front yard that had endless planter pots—empty now due to the cold weather.

There were red lights strung up on every exterior surface, giving the whole place a glow. “I never really had any holidays

growing up,” Bix said, explaining as they went in and found it to be an even more explosive Valentine theme in there than

it had been outside. “I might go a little overboard with everything.”

“This is impressive,” Rue said, trying not to feel sad over her empty house and how she would usually have put all her decorations

out by now.

“Thank you. Now that I’m not living in a van, or with criminals, I can actually enjoy putting out cute things!”

It was only after she’d taken in all the glittering decor that she realized there were also plates of food. On every surface.

Cheese, crackers, meat. Chips. Dips. Fancy things, Super Bowl–style things... it was a lot.

“In case you need to eat your feelings,” Arizona said solemnly.

Fia produced a couple bottles of wine and held them out. “And in case you need to drink them, though only you and Bix can

have it since Arizona and are gestating humans.”

“She can have it,” Bix said. “I’m not a big drinker.”

A funny sentence coming from a former moonshiner who was now the resident brewer at King’s Crest. But Rue had accepted long

ago that Bix was a funny one.

It was part of her charm.

“I’ll go easy on it,” she said. “Though I appreciate the thought. I’m trying not to slide entirely into a depression. Though,

Justice is doing a good job of helping me stay busy.”

“I heard he took you on a ride today.”

Of course they had collaborated with Justice on this kidnap. “Yes,” she said. “I haven’t actually done a lot of riding ever

really. I did it a few times when I was a kid because I was learning to be a country girl. But it wasn’t something that I

got all that into. Mostly I spent my free time either running around with Justice or being at my grandma’s.”

She was a little bit older than Arizona and Fia, and Bix hadn’t grown up here, so she wouldn’t have been surprised if even

the ones she had shared the ranch with in childhood didn’t know a whole lot about how she had spent her time.

“Well, you were one of my brothers’ friends,” Arizona said. “Obviously you had cooties like they did, even though you were

a girl.”

“I would’ve been proud to share cooties with Justice,” she said.

She clapped her hand over her mouth to suppress a squeak when she realized how that sounded.

Arizona laughed. “Well. That’s unexpected.”

“And not what I meant,” said Rue.

“Yes, I know. You are platonically involved with my brother.”

Rue felt twitchy having that introduced into the conversation because her feelings were so on edge it was like she had a teeter-totter inside of her.

It had been making her feel strange things, think strange things.

The same sorts of thoughts that burst into her mind and bloomed like a flower before she could grasp on to them and see what they were actually trying to grow into.

Earlier today it had been... a little bit treacherous.

“I’m sorry that asshole cheated on you,” Arizona said. “I don’t know anything about that, but I did end up bitter and twisted

for years because the man that I fell in love with when I was a teenager left me.” She didn’t know Arizona all that well,

but she did know there was more to the story than that.

She had been in a life-changing car accident shortly afterward that had left her scarred and with a permanent limp. But for

years Arizona had been mean and standoffish to anybody who tried to get close to her, including Rue. Not that she had ever

seriously tried to make friends with her, but she was Justice’s sister, so she had spent time trying to get to know her, and

for a long time that had been an impossible thing.

“I really don’t want that,” she said.

“Micah Stone broke my heart,” Arizona said.

“He didn’t mean to. It wasn’t a bad thing that he chose not to get involved with a seventeen-year-old girl who had way too many feelings for him.

But it felt like it to me. I really let it poison a whole lot of good years of my life.

I’m with him now because it was meant to be.

The only thing I regret is that I wasted those years that I had by myself.

Because they were valuable on their own.

Because I’m valuable on my own. It took a little bit of untangling for me to realize that.

Our dad really did a number on all of us, so I can’t even really blame Micah for how I handled that.

But I know your parents aren’t exactly a walk in the park so. ..”

“I appreciate it,” Rue said, sitting down on the couch and picking up one of the jalapeno poppers. “I do. I don’t want to

be bitter, and I don’t want to be stuck. I’m... I’m so happy for both of you,” she said, gesturing to Fia and Arizona.

“But I’m thirty-two. And I really did think that I was going to be able to start my own family. I was with him for eight years.

I thought this was it. I thought this was the beginning of my life. And now I have to figure out what else it looks like.”

Not even getting into the fact that she now had a massive dent in her ego.

“That’s its own kind of painful,” Arizona said, frowning. “I wasn’t exactly worried about my biological clock when I was seventeen.”

“I’m getting worried about mine,” she said.

“It’ll be okay,” Fia said, moving to her and rubbing her back. “We’re almost the same age.”

“I know,” she said. “It’s more that I’m worried if I have to meet another guy and it takes me eight years to trust him enough

to marry him then... You know.”

“Maybe Justice could be your sperm donor.”

Bix offered that cheerfully from her corner of the sofa, and Rue felt like she had been shot between the legs with an arrow.

“What?”

“He is a fine genetic specimen,” Bix said. “I hear you can just use a turkey baster to...”

“Bix!” Arizona and Fia shouted.

“Also, you could do it the old-fashioned way,” Bix said. “The King men are good in bed.”

“Should I see myself out?” Arizona asked.

“Are you squeamish?” Bix asked, smiling.

Bix and Arizona were both edgy, badass women, and watching them go toe-to-toe would normally amuse Rue, but right at that

moment she just wanted to crawl under the couch and make herself as flat as possible.

“You’re making some assumptions about all the King men being good in bed,” Fia said dryly.

“I’m just assuming they all share a genetic predisposition,” Bix said. “Besides. I can’t commiserate on the biological clock.

I’m twenty-two.”

“Shut up,” Fia said.

Bix grinned. “I’m just saying. It would be practical. He’s a good man, you like him.”

“I’m not... I’m not having Justice’s baby.”

It made her stomach turn over, made it feel tight. Because... just that whole thought sounded intimate. And Bix could talk

about turkey basters all she wanted, but it was still his... It would be his baby growing inside of her.

She felt vaguely clammy.

“No,” she said. “That isn’t how I want it anyway. I want a family. Because I didn’t have one. And what I want more than anything

is a chance to have that.” Her eyes started to fill with tears, because she had always imagined raising her kids in her grandma’s

little house. The place that had become so dear to her.

“Hey,” Arizona said, patting her on the back. “It’s okay. It sucks. It just does. And there’s no jumping forward and making

it better.”

“I want to, though.”

“I get that,” said Fia. “And I may not be the best person to give advice either, because I spent a lot of years hanging on to my secrets. I’m not sure that I dealt with my anger in the meantime.

I just kind of deferred it.” There had been a lot of bitterness between Fia and Landry and nobody had known why.

It had all been about the secret pregnancy they’d had when they were teenagers, and Fia subsequently giving their child up for adoption.

She suddenly felt uneasy. Both Fia and Arizona had forgiven men that hurt them.

She really hoped that wasn’t what she was supposed to do, or what they were about to counsel her to do.

“I don’t want to forgive Asher,” she said. As soon as she said it, a few things felt a little bit lighter. A little bit clearer.

“Oh, of course not,” Arizona said at the same time Fia said, “Why would you?”

Bix was just sitting there holding a cheese knife, looking thunderous.

“Well, it’s just that you forgave Micah,” she said Arizona. “And you forgave Landry for making a really difficult time in

your life even harder by not supporting your decision. I was worried that—”

“Neither of them cheated,” Fia said. “And listen. Everybody has to make the best decision they can for themselves. I’m not

saying there’s not a scenario where I don’t understand why somebody would make the choice to forgive a cheater...”

“I wouldn’t,” Bix said. “I’d give him a vasectomy with the nearest sharp object.”