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CHAPTER ONE

GRANT took a swig fro-neck bottle on the farimaced It tasted like swill, and didn’t smell much better in his opinion, but it was all part of the ritual

“Damn it, Bud, this is the third one in twowith a Dear Grant speech, and he hadn’t even been able to work up enough remorse to make her feel properly appreciated

He’d been too busy trying to control the urge to follow Zoe and the guy on the Harley He’d been looking after Zoe Jensen for as long as he could re some leather-clad joker with his hands all over her with any kind of equanimity

Bud did not answer, and Grant took no offense He staredeyes

“Guess you understand, aot dumped too”

Bud wiped his face and stared silently back at Grant

Grant nodded “Women Who can understand the lately You should have seen the loser she ith last night”

Just re the thick-necked biker-wannabe ore more leather than one of his bulls h some kind of emotional crisis since her dad had sold Grant the faht she would take it so far She did not belong on a cattle ranch and she had to know it He had expected her to come to terms with that truth by now

If her recent behavior was anything to go by, she hadn’t

He e so that he could put his booted feet up on the already scarred oak tabletop It was the oldest piece of furniture in a house that had been holy, it had survived the decorating efforts of his grand at Bud, he sighed

A man who talked to hamsters probably had no room to criticize Zoe’s choice of dates On the other hand, a hauy last night

Grant stood up and put his now empty beer bottle on the counter He could not stay still and he did not enjoy the feeling Zoe had him tied in knots and she was not even his woman But he felt as possessive of her as if she bore the nae glistened in thebehind the sink He glared at his reflection Disgusted blue eyes glared back Al brushed the collar of his denim shirt For once, he looked like the rancher he was He spent lomerate, but at heart he was every bit the rancher his Spanish great-grandfather had been

Ramón Cortez had left his aristocratic roots and the country of his birth to eneration after him had built on his efforts There was no conceit in Grant’s belief that he’d increased the Cortez empire more than any man before him, only simple truth

His father was a millionaire; Grant was a multimillionaire Unlike the rich and famous who had winter homes in the area, his family had their roots in this small town And, as wealthy as he was, he preferred the slow pace of life here to that in the big city, though his business interests dictated that he spend a fair a up he could not get out of And et away froret He wanted her, but his daddy had a saying and it made a lot of sense: “Don’t piss in your own backyard It kills the grass and gets your bootsin to his desire for Zoe would be a very stupid thing to do, and Grant Cortez was not a stupidthe door, he reached in and took the ha up his arm “Do you knohat my problem is?”

The hamster did not pause in his ascent up Grant’s ar it out loud didn’t help, and neither did the idea that Zoe’s datemore in that department lately than Grant was

The hamster shifted his path to climb across Grant’s chest, unimpressed with the otten cut off too

Grant petted the hamster curled up near his breast pocket “Don’t worry, Bud Zoe’ll take you in”

She had a soft spot for animals that reseet the look on her face the day they’d met He’d saved her life from a mountain cat, only to find out the reason the six-year-old had been wandering the range was that she had been trying to save her pet cow, Flower, from a stock sale Her dad had been furious, but had reluctantly agreed to sell the cow to Grant instead