Free After the Sunset by Mary Calmes

participating on behalf of the Red Diamond in the individual events, and when you get here, there will be a camp site for your men and a small stable and a corral for your horses.”
    What in the world had I gotten myself into just because I didn’t want Glenn Holloway to win? It seemed suddenly very stupid. I needed help.
    “Shall I email you all the information?”
    “That would be great,” I said, trying not to sound like I wanted to throw up.
    “Would you like it sent to the email for Rand Holloway that we have on file?”
    “No, let me give you a new one.”
    We talked awhile longer, and she told me about the different events, about the trailers we would be staying in, about the dances, the bachelor auction, and the awards ceremony. I got overwhelmed just listening to her.
    “I can’t wait to meet you. Everyone says that having the Red Diamond attend is one of the high points. You have the only ranch that isn’t located in our county, Mr. Joss.”
    “Yeah, I know.”
    “Rayland and his son Glenn will be so surprised.”
    “Oh, I have no doubt.”

Chapter 4

     
     
    T HE academy owed me an award. The only time I wasn’t acting in the following twenty-four hours was when I was in bed with Rand. There, with him, I was stripped naked both literally and emotionally, and all I could do was come apart under him. But from the time I got back to the table, before we hit the sheets, and then afterward, I was on stage. When I kissed Rand goodbye Thursday morning, waving from the porch at him and Brent and Emily—they had signed up to be guests at Zach’s ranch—telling them all to be safe, smiling like an idiot until I couldn’t see the car anymore, I felt like there should have been applause. It had been a truly amazing performance.
    A half an hour after Rand left, Mac Chapman, Rand’s foreman and the one guy on the ranch who had never warmed to me, stepped onto the porch.
    “What?” he asked irritably.
    I had called his cell phone, and he had ridden in from where he had been supervising some fence mending, to speak to me.
    “I need help,” I said from where I was sitting on the rail.
    He sneered at me, and I was suddenly just done. I could hire some men when I got there. Fuck it.
    “Forget it.” I shook my head, starting for the door. “Sorry to bother you.”
    He caught my arm, fingers tight around my bicep as he stopped me. “What is it?”
    “Nothing, lemme go.”
    “Just tell me.”
    “You’re a dick.”
    “That ain’t news.” He squinted at me. “Now what is it?”
    “Rand’s gonna lose the grazing rights in King if we don’t show up at a rodeo.”
    “I’m sorry, what?”
    I eased free of his grip and explained what was going on. He followed me into the house, and I passed him everything Katie Beal had sent me the previous evening, all the paperwork I had printed out.
    “Does Rand know?” Mac asked me, his eyes flicking to mine.
    “No.”
    He nodded. “Good. It would only eat at his gut all weekend.”
    “But I can go,” I told him. “I own half of the Red.”
    “You do?”
    I raised my eyebrows at him. “Yeah, asshole, I do, so maybe you should think about not being a total douche to me all the time.”
    The squint was back, and for the first time ever, I laughed at him.
    I was stunned a second later when I got a very slight curl of his lip. I had no idea that Mac Chapman could smile. I had never seen him do it before. The man had never warmed up to me. I had initially thought it was because I was gay, but it turned out that he thought I was going to leave Rand. He thought I would get bored with life on the ranch and that his boss, who was now happy and content and smiling, would go back to how he was before I took up residence in his home. No one wanted Rand breathing fire, impossible to please, and micromanaging them. They liked him how he was now. Mac, more than anyone, liked his boss as far away from him on a daily basis as possible. He liked that I wanted to help, and