Life After Wife (Three Magic Words Trilogy, #3)(5)

He crossed the hallway and checked the other guest room. The room was big enough for an office, but the bed, dresser, and chest of drawers would have to go. He might keep the old, wooden rocking chair. He’d spent many hours sitting in it with a book in his hands.

“What are you doing? Marking your territory? Don’t get too comfortable. You’ll get tired of the ranch pretty quick,” Sophie said.

He tensed, his hands balling into fists. No one had managed to sneak up on him in years. After two days, his survival instincts were already beginning to get rusty. “Figuring out where my things will fit, and, honey, I won’t get bored. I’ve done my duty for my country for more than twenty years. I’m ready for boredom.”

Sophie hadn’t figured on him actually moving into the house. Her eyebrows drew down, eyelids shading the anger in her gray eyes. “What things?”

“The moving van should be here this afternoon.”

“You mean you are moving furniture in here?” She gasped.

“That’s what I mean. You got a problem with that? We will split up the house. There’re four bedrooms. I’ll take two. You can have two. I get half of the kitchen and half the dining room. I’ll take the den. You can have the living room. What do we do about the deck? Duct tape it down the middle?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I thought you’d stay in the bunkhouse until I paid you off.”

Elijah chuckled. “Thinking will get you in trouble every time.”

“You are a smart ass, aren’t you?”

“That would be the pot calling the kettle black, now wouldn’t it? You can stay in the bunkhouse if you don’t want to live with me. I snore. I get up at five o’clock every morning, and I’m not quiet. I rattle pots and pans while I’m cooking breakfast. I go for a run after I eat, and I come back all sweaty and stinky. You don’t like any of the above, you go to the bunkhouse, darlin’,” he said.

“Don’t call me that. If it’s an endearment, you don’t have the right. If it’s sarcasm, save it for someone who gives a…” Sophie stopped herself. He wasn’t going to make her swear another time this early in the game.

“Who ticked you off this morning?” he asked.

“An egotistical fool named Elijah Jones,” she told him.

He pointed at his chest. “Not me. I don’t like you well enough for that.”

“Believe me, the feeling is mutual. Before this goes any further, I will give you double what your half is worth,” she said.

“Not interested. But if you’ll move out of my doorway, I am hungry. I smelled fried chicken when I came in the door, so I’m going to eat. When you get ready to sell, let me know. Until then I won’t badger you with offers,” he said.

Sophie stepped to one side. “I will write you a check for one million dollars anytime you’ve had enough, and, darlin’, I can afford it. You let me know when you are ready to get on your expensive toy out there and ride out of Baird. Are you an idiot? This is a ranch, not a commune for worn-out Hells Angels.”

“In six months we’ll see who is an idiot,” he said.

She let him have the last word. She’d given him a figure to boggle his little military mind. If that wasn’t enough, she’d go to the bank. It was more than simply wanting to live on the ranch now. It had become a war, and after losing the last one with her sanctimonious, two-timin’, preacher husband, she wasn’t conceding one inch of her precious ranch to Elijah.

She marched back into the dining room where the table had been spread buffet style, and folks were helping themselves. Elijah was already visiting with Hart and Theron.

Traitors!

Tandy, an old friend of Maud’s, took her by the arm and led her to the table. “Come and eat, sweetheart.”

She whispered as they waited in line, “That Elijah sure grew up to be a handsome man. You’ll have to be very careful living in this house with him on a permanent basis. You realize he’s not really kin, and there could be talk.”

“Tandy, you don’t have a thing to worry about. He’s not staying long enough to be a threat. I’m buying him out. And, yes, I know we are not blood kin, but believe me when I tell you that I’m flat-out not interested,” Sophie said.

Tandy put a chicken leg and potato salad on a plate before handing it to Sophie. “You can add more to that, but you’re going to eat that much or listen to me fuss at you. You’re too thin, girl. Long legs like you got should have some meat on them.”

“Are you changing the subject?” Sophie asked.

“I’m old as Maud was, darlin’. I see things a lot different than you young’uns do. So, yes, I’m changing the subject. This ain’t no time for me and you to argue. But if you think you’re going to run Elijah off or pay him off, sweetheart, you’ve got horse feathers for brains. That man has come home just like you did last year. Now, I’m going on over here and havin’ a visit with Kate’s momma. I don’t get to see her nearly often enough,” Tandy said.

Sophie wrapped her fingers around Tandy’s arm. “If he’s come home, then why didn’t he come around while she was sick and help take care of her? If he loved this place so much and it wasn’t just dollar signs to him, where was he this whole past year?”