Off to the Races (Gold Rush Ranch, #1)

by Elsie Silver

Holding one hand up to stop him, I launch in, “Okay, first of all, I am downright fascinated by your blow-up doll preference. Can we table that for now but revisit it someday?” A sneer touches his lips. Ha. Didn’t like that one. “Second, I’m a grown-ass woman, don’t call me a girl. And third, when you’re finished having this epic man-child meltdown,” I wave my hand up and down his body like he did to me, “can you please let Hank know that Billie Black is here for her job interview?”

Surprisingly, being a shitty, misguided person isn’t enough to make a little girl stop loving her dad. But it is enough to make me lose respect for him. And that is a heart-wrenching combination… loving someone you can’t respect.

Yes, I will enjoy the hell out of this view, but from a safe distance. Because men like Vaughn are a trap I will never fall into.

I scour my brain but can’t remember the last time I felt as happy as Billie looks in this moment. I feel like I’m looking at the sun, blinding but so deliciously warm that you just close your eyes and bask in the glow, anyway.

I march straight out the back door and into the buttery evening light with my eyes set on the hill ahead of me.

She lightly taps her pointer finger against the indent along her top lip. “Yeah, Boss Man. You look good on your knees.”

Fucking my employee is off the table. The farm is in too much trouble. But fucking with my employee… now that’s another story altogether. Off to the races, honey.

I literally cannot put this book down. I am SCREAMING rn !!!!

Fuck my life. Had he just heard me talking about him? To a horse?

Baby steps with this one. Just like Vaughn.

Antagonizing the boss shouldn’t be this fun.

That night, with Billie pressed up against me, shouldn’t have felt different—but it did.

I’m distracted and agitated. I’m tired, and I’m tired of constantly thinking about bending my employee over my desk and having my way with her.

Even the grumpiest horse in the world likes her. She is inescapable.

“Vaughn,” she calls out, “stop.” I keep going, opening my car door. “Good lord, don’t be such a bitch baby.” I can’t help it. I bark out a harsh laugh against my will and turn back to take her in. “Billie Black, did you just call your employer a bitch baby?”

Vaughn rises and with one large side-step moves between my legs. When he almost instantly wraps his steely arms around my waist, I can’t hold back the sigh that escapes my lips. He feels so warm and solid pressed up against me—soft and vulnerable. I snake both my arms around his neck and we melt into each other. I’ve never hugged a person who needed to be held so badly. It should feel strange, hugging your boss like this, but

wrapping myself around Vaughn Harding in the middle of my kitchen feels like the most natural thing in the world.

And when his warm lips descend onto mine, I sigh, like we’ve done this a million times before. The kiss is chaste. Reverent.

“First, I was angry.” Vaughn’s voice is so soft that I barely hear him. “Now…” He looks away, out the dark window. “Now, I just feel overwhelmingly sad. Helpless. And I don’t know how to get out from underneath it. I don’t know how to stop.”

Maybe he did some bad things, made some bad choices, but that doesn’t make him bad. It doesn’t negate all the wonderful things he did for you or the important role he played in your life. He can be both.”

There is no right order or right way. You’re entitled to it all. Because at the end of the day, he’s not here to explain things to you, so it all just comes down to how much you can forgive. How much you can accept.