Reuniting with the Rancher (Silver Creek Ranch)

4. Too Close

4

TOO CLOSE

Lily

It had been ten years since she heard her name on Greyson Monroe’s lips and when he finally said it, he used her stage name.

Dick.

The flash of venom in his eyes first chilled then angered her as flashes of his vile behavior ten years ago super-heated her blood. It was his lucky day because she refused to subject Caleb to an ugly scene, but in her mind? In her mind, she was stomping on his balls in glee.

Pull it together Lily. Caleb is watching.

“Thank you for delivering our food, Mr. Monroe. I’ve already added your trip to the app. Caleb, honey, please take our food in the house.”

“You know who she is?! I swear Auntie, I didn’t tell him.”

She broke eye contact with the slimiest bastard on the planet and gave the best smile she could muster to her nephew. “I knew Mr. Monroe many years ago. You were just a little Boogie Bear then. And look, a decade later and several states away, he’s our delivery boy. Life is funny.”

Greyson's dark eyes narrowed further and his square jaw ticked at her jab. Caleb cleared his throat and Greyson seemed to remember himself, turning his attention toward her nephew.

“Well, I’ll be…Lil Boogie Bear ain’t so little anymore,” Grey said as he smiled down at her nephew from his six feet four inches. “Now I know why that smile felt so familiar. My God kid, what a handsome, intelligent young man you’ve grown up to be! The last time I saw you, you were the cutest toddler with the roundest cheeks. I don’t suppose you still drop everything to dance when music comes on?”

“Nah,” Caleb said, scratching the back of his neck in bashful embarrassment. “I make music now.”

Enough of this. Every moment they spent in Greyson’s presence made her teeth itch and she wouldn’t be able to hold to the niceties much longer.

“Yes, time passes, children grow, circle of life, you probably have to go,” she rushed out as she reached out for their food, eager to dismiss the bastard.

She made a mental note to never order from that restaurant while they were in South Dakota, while also trying to remember the terms of her contract with the ranch so she could quickly and with as much grace as she could summon, get out of it.

If Greyson Monroe was in South Dakota, that meant even the entire state of North Dakota was too close. Shit, anything west of the Mississippi was now off limits.

She hated to move Caleb again, but there was no fucking way she could stay here with Greyson here, and he obviously still hated her… He’d out her identity in a heartbeat and the fucking circus of paparazzi would descend, the questions would start again, and she would not put Caleb through that.

She was so distracted by the tatters of her life overlapping she missed the maxed out cues her body was giving her. She’d almost reached the bottom of the steps when she misjudged the distance of the next step, and her injured leg took too long to catch up with her momentum. She reached out, but missed the railing, so instead of catching herself, she grabbed only air.

Well, shit on me.