Blackhill Ranch (10 page)

“No! Oh my gosh, he
doesn't have magical Dan fingers. Not that I would know because he
won't touch me, but that's funny Chloe.” I continued to laugh as I
pulled on the freeway and headed back to the ranch.

“So what is it, because
really nothing will compare to Dan's fingers.” She smirked and
laughed with me.

“Okay, you cannot, I
repeat cannot go after him because of this do you hear me?” I shot
her a serious look and she held her chest like I wounded
her.

“I would never go after a
man you are lusting after. After all these years and you have to
tell me that. Spill, now!”

“He looks like your
favorite celebrity, Jax.” I blurted out but kept my eyes on the
road.

“Nooo... He does not! Not
Jax, not my Charlie. My celebrity look-a-like is in freaking
Montana!” She covered her eyes and acted like she was
dying.

“Very funny, but I'm
serious. He's so gorgeous. He has darker hair so he's not quite the
carbon copy, but he could be his brother. His much hotter brother,”
I said quietly and got a little sad thinking about the last few
days.

Chloe winked and squeezed
my leg. “I guess this will prove to you how much I really do love
you. I will not go after my fantasy, my one and only true love, the
man of my dreams, just for you.”

“You're too much. Thank
you though. Oh, I do have to warn you about one more thing. There
is a large group of bachelors coming in late Sunday, so you need to
be on your best behavior. We have one big rule and that is no
hooking up with the guests.” I looked over at her and she saluted
back at me.

“Got it, no hooking up
with guests. What about ranch hands?”

“Chloe, that would be my
brother or Rhet. The rest are all over forty years old.” I laughed
and put my hand on top of hers.

“Forty isn't that much
older, but fine. I'll just have a fun few weeks practicing celibacy
with you,” she giggled as I smacked her on the shoulder.

“I forgot how much of a
comedian you are. So funny,” I said in my best sarcastic
voice.

The rest of the way to the
ranch we bantered back and forth and told each other all the fun
things we were going to do while she was visiting. I told her how I
had hired a band to come out every Friday night, and we would have
a dance out in one of our barns. I also tried to talk her into
staying until the end June but she wasn't sold quite yet. We did
however want to come back to the city and get a hotel room so we
could tear it up away from the ranch. My dad had another very
strict rule that the help could not drink while they were working
on the Ranch, which everyone respected and agreed with. I was
really looking forward to the next few weeks with Chloe, I just
didn't know how much fun they were really going to be.

Chapter 9

When we pulled up to the
ranch, I helped Chloe take her huge suitcases over to our cabin.
She commented on how small it was but it would just be like our
first year in college again, and we started giggling and
reminiscing about the old days. She really wanted to meet Rhet, but
was disappointed when I told her they had just left for a three day
trail this morning. He really is illusive and a hard one to meet.
Maybe by the end of her stay she'll finally get to meet
him.

Chloe helped me for the
rest of the day getting get ready for the dance. The barn was all
cleaned out, so we set up a few decorations and helped put up the
stage we had rented. There were only around twenty people that
would be here for the dance, including all of our guests. At the
end of the night it was a big hit, and we signed a deal with the
band that they would come out every Friday night and play for a few
hours. We even talked about opening it up to the public if anyone
wanted to come out, they could bring a tent and then stay the night
for a small fee.

The rest of the weekend
flew by and we had fun taking out some of the horses, and helping
Tina out in the kitchen. Carol was starting this Monday and Chloe
was thrilled to meet her for herself.

Chloe said our ranch life
was more like a soap opera and it was exciting to be in the middle
of it. She also agreed with me that something was going on with my
Dad and Tina but they were just way too good at hiding it, and it
would be hard to prove. I was hoping that with Carol being around,
Tina may finally openly admit to loving my dad and they wouldn't
have to hide it anymore. If not, Chloe and I made it our mission to
get it out in the open before she left.

On Sunday evening we
helped get everything ready for our bachelors. When they pulled up
on a bus from the airport, we all said 'here we go,’ and helped get
all of them settled in.

Our ranch wasn't much of a
party scene, but because we had started marketing towards bridal
parties, it was going to be an interesting change. We had a strict
rule that there could not be any drunken disturbances at night, or
it was grounds to be asked to leave that next day. The guys seemed
really nice and were visiting from Denver, Colorado. Most of them
said they had been up to a few mountain towns in Colorado, but had
never been to an actual ranch. Some had never even been around
horses, so this should be amusing. There was one guy in particular
I could already see that was going to be a problem. The minute he
saw Chloe, his eyebrows shot up and he had this dreamy 'I'm going
to bang you' kind of look. She smiled over at him, but then jumped
when I pinched her side.

“No,” I said sternly and
headed over to ask if they would like a quick tour before it got
too dark. I heard Chloe sigh behind me, but I didn't ask if she
wanted to go along.

The bachelor, Greg,
stepped forward and said they would love a mini-tour and they would
meet me outside in five minutes.

**

“This place is amazing. I
have never been to a place more breathtaking than this,” Greg said
as he stepped out and put on a light jacket.

I smiled and stood up from
the rail I was leaning against. “It really is heaven on
Earth.”

“I like that, heaven on
Earth. My fiancé would love it up here. I may have just found our
honeymoon location,” he smiled over at me and I could tell he was a
really nice guy who was excited about getting married.

“Dude, you sound like such
a vagina!” A large guy yelled next to him. “First, no Vegas. Then,
no strippers. And now I have to hear about your gay honeymoon.
Barf,” he acted like he was puking and the other guys chuckled
around him.

“Don't mind Toni, he's an
idiot and also happens to be my cousin. If I would have been given
the chance, I would have left him home,” Greg said with an
annoyance in his voice and rolled his eyes.

“Whatever, man, I'm a
walking party and you love it.” Toni the large cousin said as he
put his arm around Greg, gave him a big side hug, and started
hooting and hollering.

I didn't really know how
to respond to these guys, so I just directed them back to the tour.
“Right, well come with me and I'll show you the ranch.”

We headed over to the
dining hall and I showed them the times when breakfast, lunch, and
dinner were served. We also had snacks out in between meals and
they could help themselves whenever they were hungry. The nice
thing about our ranch is all meals are included when people book a
package deal. It's nice for the guests because they don't have to
worry about carrying money around. It really is a break from the
real world out here.

We headed over to the
lodge next, where they were starting to work on a game room like
the one I suggested. My dad and Cole loved the idea so much that
they had a contractor come out last week when Cole returned from
his trail ride, and they started on it right away. We already had a
pool table and some really fun games, but they were still working
on a theatre room where we could show movies to a small
crowd.

The guys loved our new
game room, and immediately started talking about how they could
come back down tomorrow afternoon and shoot some pool. It made me
smile that our first group loved one of my ideas so much. As we
were walking back outside, so I could show them the pool house,
Chloe came running up to me and apologized she was late. She
whispered in my ear that she promised to be good, and to not worry
about a thing. I wasn't sold.

“Sorry guys I had to grab
a light jacket, I'm not used to this chilly Montana air.” She
smiled over at all the guys and I nudged her side so they couldn't
see.

“Yes, this is my friend,
Chloe. She is visiting as well, and is helping me out a bit. I'm
sorry I didn't introduce her earlier when we were checking you guys
in,” I said quickly and opened the door so everyone would start
heading outside.

“Where are you visiting
from Chloe?” Greg asked as he held the door open for both of us to
walk through.

She winked over at him.
“L.A., and you are such a gentleman thank you.”

“The pool house is close
to the Grand House, where you guys are staying. It is open until
ten on weekdays and until midnight on weekends. Let's go check it
out and I can show you how to run the steam room and sauna.” I
interrupted and pulled Chloe away so she would walk with
me.

I whispered in her ear,
“I'm very serious, please be respectful or you will stay in the
kitchen with Tina, and you will not see anymore guests, especially
ones around our age, for the rest of the time you're
here.”

“Jeez! Okay, I got it
sister,” she said quietly and gave me her scouts honor
signal.

I could hear the guys
talking behind me and they sounded excited about the sauna and
steam room. “Hey Lexi, how many other guests will there be at the
ranch this week?” Greg asked right as we got to the pool
house.

“You guys, all ten of you,
are quite a large group so we only booked about five small families
for the week. Most of them will be arriving on Tuesday and will
only be staying until Thursday or Friday. The smaller cabins are on
the other side of the ranch, so you will be secluded. Be sure to
help yourself to anything, and just enjoy your trip.”

“This is great, man. I am
so glad we didn't do Vegas or strippers. It's so nice to get out of
the city, and my wife was actually okay with this bachelor trip,”
one of the guys said and smacked Greg on the back. I'm pretty sure
I heard Toni grunt in the background.

When we finished showing
the guys the horse stalls, Greg and another friend asked if they
could hit up the swimming pool before they checked in for the
night. I smiled and said of course, and that they could help
themselves to anything on the ranch.

When they were walking
away I noticed the good looking guy that winked at Chloe earlier
was smiling and nodded at her when he walked by. She blushed and
turned around, probably so she wouldn't get yelled at by me
again.

When the guys were gone,
Chloe turned towards me and said, “Lexi come on. That guy is hot
and he is flirting with me!”

“Yeah, I noticed that.” I
smirked and nudged her with my shoulder.

“This is punishment for
all the bad things I have done in my life. God is punishing
me.”

I laughed and shook my
head at her, “You are not being punished, but I think you are being
tested. So pass okay?”

“Fine. I will pass with
flying colors only because I love you and your fam damily.” We both
cracked up and decided we would stay at the stalls with the other
hands to make sure everything was ready for the guys when they came
back with their group from the trail ride. We had water and food
for the horses, and as we sat and waited to greet them, I was
pretty sure Chloe was going to pass out from the suspense of
meeting Rhet. I had to admit I was pretty excited to see him
myself. Even though lately, I was invisible to him.

Chapter 10

Chloe and I were talking
and laughing about our times together at UCLA when we heard the
horses coming down the trail. I stood up quickly and started
straightening out my pants and shirt. I grabbed my long braid and
flung it over my shoulder. I looked over at Chloe and she started
giggling and began to imitate me. Brat.

Cole was the first to ride
in on Butterscotch. He jumped off and I took her from him so he
could help the guests dismount of their horses, and put them in
their stalls. They had taken out a nice family that had three kids.
They were celebrating their twin girls graduating high school in
Iowa. This always made me so happy to think people wanted to spend
their special life moments at our ranch.

I took off Butterscotch's
saddle and stroked her a bit before I closed her pen and helped the
mom and one of the daughters off of their horses. They told me what
a wonderful time they had and how great Cole and Rhet were. They
saw all sorts of animals and just loved it up here, but said it was
still very cold at night and next year they would may come back in
July.