Chapter 5 99 Problems and Money Ain't One

*Skylar*

Danica's house was a craftsman type structure with a single bedroom and a loft. Very small, but cozy, with a southern facing porch that lit up with the morning sun as we sat in a porch swing drinking coffee.

The red ford truck glistened in the sun before us, all of the tools she'd used to get it up and running again scattered in her front yard. A short gravel driveway met up to a long, winding dirt road that led back into town, and patches of beautiful flowers dotted her neat and tidy lawn.

I'd slept on her couch last night but I just met her, so I wasn't comfortable imposing on her hospitality. I had to figure things out today. I had to figure out what the hell I was going to do, and most of all, why I suddenly had a fire burning in my chest at the thought of someone trying to take all of this away from me.

Carter had been taken away from me. So had Raney. I'd loved them both and trusted them fully, but after learning of the affair it'd been radio silence from them both. I'd had my career, my passion, and my dream stripped from me as well.

I had nothing to lose now. I needed something to work toward, and if that meant fixing up that house north of town and living there only to stop Ben Lawson, a perfect stranger, from taking it... There was no question that was exactly what I was going to do.

But for now, I was content sitting on Danica's porch sipping coffee as we watched the sunrise.

"My parents died when I was eighteen. I was in my freshman year of college, " I said, clutching my coffee mug between my hands. "My grandparents died when I was a kid and I didn't have cousins, so it's just me now. I didn't even know about this side of my family until I got that letter from the lawyer."

We'd been talking about life in general all morning. Danica wanted to know about my dancing career and the injury that ended it, but I'd been vague.

"That must have been hard."

"Surprisingly, no. I guess I'm just used to it." My parents were wonderful people, loving and kind. They drove me all across the country for dance competitions, adding fuel to that flame in my heart that drove me to dance, and dance, and dance.

But I felt more alone than I ever had now, alone and off kilter in a small town where it felt like everyone hated me, and I didn't understand why.

"I have two older brothers," she grumbled, swinging us with one leg and sitting on the other. "Hassan, and Keme. They're assholes."

I snorted into my coffee. "Why?"

"They wanted me to stay home on the rez, marrying someone in our tribe. My dad's the same. They hated that I moved away. I rarely go home. They're ranchers and they have a bit of wealth, nothing like out here though. Not many opportunities back home. I took a chance and tried to make something better for myself."

"What does your mom think of it?"

"She would've been proud, I think," she murmured with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. Her hair was pulled back in a long braid, the sun etched across her high, proud cheekbones.

"I bet Grady loves that you live so close," I added, and it was an incredible risk. She eyed me playfully, tucking her other leg beneath her.

"Oh, he does, trust me."

"He's obviously in love with you–"

"I know that too," she laughed, sighing wistfully. "I'd eat him alive, and he knows it. I think that's why he keeps trying. He used to being bullied by Ben day in and day out, so a little abuse from me probably feels like home."

"Are they friends?"

"Oh yeah, real close. Grady lives on Ben's property."

"Really?" I shifted my weight so I faced her. Grady, who had the personality of a golden retriever, was the complete and total opposite of Ben, who I could only describe as Satan himself.

"Mhm," she hummed, turning to face me. "Ben has a whole operation up there. Two-hundred thousand acres in total, I think."

"Jesus Christ–"

"The man upstairs has got nothing to do with it," Danica laughed, her braid falling over her back. "Ben is a dictator who runs that place with an iron fist. Grady works full time as a rancher for him, which was started by Ben's great-great grandfather way the hell back in the day. They're always out on horseback."

"Every little boy's dream," I smiled, taking another careful sip of my coffee.

"That's exactly what it is," she mused, smiling softly to herself.

"I'll find out what my property used to be today, I think. How much land I'm working with." I looked around at her gardens and the two greenhouses nearby. "Maybe you can set up some greenhouses up there."

"I'll be taking you up on that if you're serious."

"I'm serious about staying," I said without a shred of hesitation. "If only to shove it down Ben's throat."

"Be careful around him," she whispered into her coffee, her eyes on mine. I smirked, sipping deeply.

"Why? Is he going to smother me in my sleep?"

"Worse, I think." Her eyes glimmered with that secret I felt like she was actively trying to hide from me. I wasn't going to pry. Danica, so far, was the only friendly person I'd encountered here and I meant to hold on to this new found friendship.

Something was up, and I was going to find out just what that thing was.

***

I felt dazed as I pulled up my property a few hours later. The afternoon sun glinted off the rusted tin roof and heat snaked through the tall grasses as I got out and took a deep breath. Nothing felt real right now, not after the hours I'd spent at the bank.

A week ago I'd been a twenty-six-year-old with a little under five-thousand dollars in my bank account, a shitty car on its last leg, a tanking career and the future I had planned out for myself spiraling into oblivion.

Now I had over ten million dollars in an account tied to massive estate dating back to the late 1800's and twenty-thousand acres of pristine grazing lands with a long documented history tucked away in a bankers box in my truck. I couldn't wrap my head around having that kind of money. It didn't feel real. I wasn't sure it was real.

I felt almost convinced I'd wake back in my bed in LA, and all of this would have been a weirdly vivid dream.

I stepped out of my truck and took a moment to look around, my fingers playing over the waist high grasses that had taken over what was once the driveway.

Compared to Ben's two-hundred thousand acres, my property was miniscule. That didn't matter to me right now. I had more than enough money to repair this old house from top to bottom, and then more than enough to start something great.

I just had no fucking idea what that would be yet.

A lock box at the bank held a key set that weighed roughly a pound, and that was it. No family pictures, no jewelry, no personal documents pertaining to who the woman who'd owned this place before me was or why she left and never returned. Again, a nagging feeling that something was amiss tugged on my mind as I walked up to the front door and fumbled with the keys until it opened wide and I stepped inside.

Stale air was the first thing I noticed.

Some of the furniture had been covered in sheets now speckled with twenty years worth of dust. The man at the bank turned the utilities back on, but as I walked around the lower level of the house I realized only some of the lights worked, and the outlets were probably completely shot.

But it was a start.

I spent the next hour exploring and running my fingers over the dated floral wallpaper in the living room, which had an archway leading into what looked like an office of some kind. Ceiling height bookshelves lined the far wall of the office, full to the brim with old books gone yellow with age.

There was a hallway in the back of the house that had an old washtub, and through a screened in back porch I could see what remained of a clothes line in the distance, the entire area overgrown with high grasses scorched by an unforgiving sun.

The lower level broke into sections around a wide staircase that faced the front door with the living room on one side and the kitchen and dining room on the other.

The appliances would need to be replaced. The electric and plumbing needed updating, the roof needed to be totally replaced too, but the hardwood floors downstairs were in great shape at least.

Upstairs was a different story entirely. I worried I'd fall through the floor because of the water damage from the leaky, partially open roof. It smelled like mildew, and the doors were so warped I couldn't even open them to look into what I was told were three bedrooms and two full bathrooms.

So, I went back downstairs and out to my truck, pulling out the meager groceries and other things I'd bought at the general store on my way up to my ranch.

I had a ranch.

I smirked. Who would've thought?

I'd had my old car towed away, to where I didn't know. Danica was right about not being able to get that thing up the road, let alone down that driveway. Thankfully the truck was up and running like a dream, otherwise I would've been fucked.

I spent the entire afternoon setting up a little corner of the living room for myself and started making a list of things that needed to be done.

But that list grew and grew as the hours ticked by and the sun began to set.

I walked out onto the porch and looked over the landscape now painted gold. Heavy clouds funneled in the distance, dark and murderous against the sunset.

I caught the gleam of the distant windows on Ben's foreboding tower and wondered if he was up there right now, watching me, lusting after my property.

I walked back inside and shut the door, locking it tight.

This place was mine. I was a Courtney. And I sure as hell wouldn't give this up, regardless of what Ben or the rest of the town thought about it.

I had nothing to lose.