The Luxury of Being Stubborn (The Stubborn Series Book 4) Read online

  “Gabe knows you? Why are you in my sink?”

  He wouldn’t look me in the eye. His eyes were on my hands. “I’m Travis. Gabe just hired me to help him on the ranch.”

  “He hired you?” I tried to cover my shoulders.

  “Yes…uh…ma’am. There’s a hole in the roof. He said to check it out. I didn’t mean to catch you in—”

  “I know there’s a hole in the roof. How old are you?” I asked as I studied his face. He didn’t look old enough to know what he was doing. He didn’t look old enough to work for HalRem.

  The door slammed behind Gabe as he set his wet cap on the table and shook the rain off his arms. “He’s fifteen, and he’s supposed to be on the roof. Not in here peepin’ at you.”

  “You hired help?” I asked.

  “Me and Jud did for the summer,” Gabe drawled. “We’re saving the kid from a life of roughnecking drudgery. He’s worked a farm his whole life. He can fix or build pretty much anything.”

  “Thanks for warning me,” I muttered.

  “He’s Troy Ingarson’s kid brother. They live over in through there. Other side of Caleb’s parcel.” He pointed out the window into a rolling field that went on forever. “His family knew Remingtons way back.”

  “I’ve been here all day. Honest, ma’am, I wasn’t trying to get a look or nothing.”

  I studied the boy’s sweaty face again. I would have remembered if I’d seem him.

  “I bet you weren’t.” Gabe took a liter of Dr. Pepper out of the lukewarm refrigerator. The generator had a mind of its own. He opened the drink and shot me a look that told me I needed to put on a shirt.

  I scurried back to the bedroom and slammed the door as I heard Gabe say, “Her name’s Av’ry—not ma’am.” I snorted at his humor when I spotted my scandalous clean energy poster taped to the back of the door with my face on it. There was a black mustache scribbled above my lip.

  Less than a minute passed after I undressed and put on a clean shirt. Gabe came in and flopped down on the covers among the piles of clothes and books I was unpacking.

  “There’s less privacy here than we had at the trailer,” I told him.

  “He’s harmless. But believe me, it won’t happen again,” he said as he stretched his arms out to touch my leg. “C’mere.”

  “You’re soaked, Gabe.” I set my hands on my hips. “We should check on Lane and see if he’s heard from Molly. I’d like to go to Meggie’s to pick up my stuff. Plus, I can’t get any reception out here.”

  “You just got away from them. Now you want to go back?” He tugged on the backside of my knee. “You’re lookin’ pretty as pie.”

  I climbed onto the bed that took up most of the room. Gabe cleared some space and kicked a box of clothes off the edge of the mattress with his boot. His shirt was stuck to his skin, his hair damp with an addictive mix of sweat and rain.

  Thunder rumbled as summer rolled in with a roar. I wasn’t homesick. I was unsettled. I had nothing to do with myself after I finished my class. I was better at being a high school student than being free. I really missed my best friend Janie. I spent my days waiting around for Gabe to complete his self-appointed chores on the ranch. Sometimes I felt as if I were on a different planet than everyone else.

  I scooted closer and crawled onto his legs. His hand found its way under my shirt and began to explore.

  “Forget something, Av’ry?” He grinned. It felt as if he breathed out a love potion that encased my entire body.

  “You smell so good,” I whispered, unsure Travis had left the cabin.

  “I smell wet clothes. Take off the rest,” he suggested with an exaggerated twang, then lifted his head for me to meet his shivering lips. His hands were between us unzipping his jeans. I leaned in to kiss him and delivered warmth to his quivering skin. When I pulled away, he grabbed my hips and rolled me over.

  “Come on, Gabe. You can wait until later on.” He tugged at my shirt as I tried to wrestle him off. “I’m not taking off my clothes. I made plans.”

  “Then take mine off. Plans changed.”

  * * *

  I braced a hand on the dashboard as we approached the turn for Meggie’s farmhouse. The truck shot straight across the flooded intersection without slowing down. As my mouth opened and the words formed on my tongue, Gabe squeezed my neck in anticipation of my objection.

  “I gotta swing by Lane’s new camp. I left my hat there. The one Judson gave me.”

  “So that explains why I haven’t seen Cowboy Gabe around town.”

  He ran his hand down my ponytail and tugged. “I knew you missed him. Maybe he’ll make a visit tonight.”

  We ended up in an area outside of Williston that I wasn’t familiar with. Gabe backed up to Lane’s pickup truck and blocked him in. The drilling pad was packed. I was blinded by dozens of Texas flag emblems repeated on a fleet of HalRem tankers. Then I let my gaze climb up an oil derrick in the center of the well pad. I closed my eyes as a flash of lightning zipped sideways.

  “You see that?” he asked as he stepped down from the cab and leaned back in. “I don’t mean the storm. I mean that.” He pointed across the prairie in the direction of the infinite horizon.

  “I thought you were joking when you said he was building the biggest skyscraper in the Midwest. Why would he build up when there’s all of this acreage?”

  “He never needs a reason to show off. He’ll be able to see the Canadian border from the top floor.”

  Mr. Halden was erecting the HalRem headquarters high enough to mess up the flight pattern of local aircraft. The building was unmistakably modern, towering above the plains like a giant watchtower.

  “With all the talk about an oil bust, how can he do something so grand and so fast?”

  “He’s got enough money to ride out a twenty-year decline. He didn’t start out drilling. He’s got more going on than oil exploration,” Gabe explained as he walked toward a tractor-trailer that caught his attention.

  “Like what?”

  I skipped to catch up. He put his hand on the back of my neck and guided me. The site rumbled with engine noise and shouting.

  “Like buying up all of the smaller drilling companies. Snagging unused oil equipment and selling it to foreign countries. Research and development. You name it—he’s got his hands in it. Don’t forget he owns stock in just about everything oil related.” He stepped onto a portable staircase on the side of a trailer and led me to a platform. Before he opened the door, he pressed my back against the wall and ran a hand behind my waist and over the pocket of my shorts. Into my ear he said huskily, “Get ready for Cowboy Gabe. We’ll make this quick.”

  I grabbed one of his belt loops and followed him through the door. It was chilly inside.

  “Well, isn’t this a surprise. It’s my beautiful daughter and her rancher,” said my father as he stood from his seat in front of a monitor that was as big as a door hung sideways. “What brings you to the command center?”

  “Howdy, Sean,” Gabe said. I pinched his side. “I left my hat, sir. Is Lane around? I saw his truck out there.”

  “He sure is, but just look at this place. He can’t focus on anything. His head’s stuck in a hole. See if you two can find a way to cheer him up, bring him back to reality. We’re not getting any work done.”

  I glanced at the counter covered in blueprints, open binders, dirty coffee mugs and hamburger wrappers, then lifted my gaze to meet Gabe. He was staring at my father with a questioning look.

  “He’s out back. Why don’t you talk to him? Lend him a shoulder, Avery. The superior commander is expecting a report, and I don’t have a clue how to get this newfangled printer to print,” my father told me. “I’ve never been one for preforming magic.”

  I stretched an arm past Gabe’s waist, opened the program on the desktop, pushed a button on the printer, and made the screen light up and beep.

  “Outta sight,” my goofy father exclaimed and rubbed his beard in amazement. He was wearing a pin that said
doodlebugger at your service. I didn’t want to ask.

  “Nobody says that,” I told him.

  He patted my shoulder and grinned. “Your old man does. Here, take this hard hat. Don’t walk into any roped off areas or pay attention to any of the guys. Your mother would kill me if anything happened to you in this warzone. You know how she gets when one of us has a paper cut.”

  I found Lane crouched against a railing. An engine idled beside the portable office, making it hard for me to prepare what I was going to say. I sat on the banister beside him and noticed he was flipping through photos on his phone.

  “Gabe left his hat. We’re on our way to Meggie’s, so we stopped to look here.”

  His gaze lifted. “This isn’t on your way at all. It’s the complete opposite direction.”

  I shrugged and squatted beside him, bracing my shoulder against the rail. I didn’t know what to say to make him feel better. Molly moved out of his house the minute he found out Eli wasn’t a Halden. “I saw your father’s high-rise. It’s taller than the Empire State Building.”

  Lane fell back in a patch of dirt under the railing and covered his eyes with his HalRem cap. I played with my diamond earrings and watched him.

  “What am I supposed to do now?” he asked as if he didn’t hear me. “She took away my reason to live.”

  “I had no idea she would do something like that. I thought you and Caleb would always be a part of Eli’s life no matter which one of you it was.”

  “I have no right to him. Legally my hands are tied. Caleb’s relieved. That’s just screwed up.”

  I swallowed hard. I had always liked Molly. She was my only female ally in North Dakota until Deliah came along.

  “Emmie and Eli were supposed to grow up together,” he said. “I miss him.”

  I leaned back on my elbows and let my heavy head fall back. Lane was the big brother I never had. I felt his burden. Sadness radiated off his body, yet he smelled good, sort of subtle like Gabe but with a unique mix of his own shampoo and cologne.

  “You’ll see Eli again. Molly will come back.”

  Lane reached across my leg and held his hand over mine. A shiver ran up my arm and tightened the skin on my neck. I caught him staring sideways. “Don’t fool yourself, Avery. She’s done with Williston.”

  Lane pulled his hand back as Gabe stepped out of the office doorway. He was speaking on his phone. He ended the call and shoved it in his back pocket. He had an irritated look on his face. Then he slid down the banister to land in the gravel just as someone whistled behind me.

  “Watch it around the lady,” Lane shouted at two guys wearing HalRem coveralls. “Get back to work before we fire your lame asses.” He hauled up and waved his hat as rain began to fall. The men headed back to their station. “I better get inside. Your dad’s counting on me to get my shit together. You shouldn’t be out here.”

  I took his hand and stood up amidst millions of dollars of fracking equipment.

  Gabe tapped his knuckles on my helmet when I sidled past him and followed Lane up the steps and inside. “Sean’s got something to ask you,” he said.

  I lifted myself onto a countertop where Gabe took up a pose beside me and set his elbow against the wall. He was the most dreamy and content I’d ever seen him. His outlook on life changed when he finished his HalRem commitment. Or maybe it was the fact that Judson was lawfully his father and there were no more questions about the Halden family’s suspicious past.

  “What do you have to ask me?”

  Lane shut the door, then tripped over a stack of packages all stamped with the word urgent.

  “Gabe says you need a summer job,” answered my father.

  I jerked my chin around and glared at my boyfriend.

  “I have a job. I’m helping him fix up the ranch. It’s going to take years.”

  “A real job,” Gabe drawled slowly. “One that keeps you busy and focused.”

  I set a fist on my hip. “I am busy.”

  “Out of my hair—busy,” he replied.

  My father took a seat on the counter beside me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “How would you like to work for us this summer? Lane needs an office manager as soon as possible.”

  Lane lifted his hat and scratched his head. “I do?”

  “Work at HalRem? Did you know anything about this?” I asked Gabe. “Do you really want me out of your hair that bad?”

  He bit his lips into a straight line.

  My father clapped his hands together. “Great. It’s settled. You can start tomorrow.”

  Lane stepped out of the office and left the door open.

  “Daddy!” the little voice rushed through the door. “Hi, Avy!”

  My sister ran into my father’s arms. He slipped off the counter and picked her up. “What’s the special occasion? Both of my girls came to visit me at work.”

  “Howdy there,” Gabe addressed Brianna when she realized he was standing behind her.

  “Cowboy Gabe, can you come to my house? I have a dollhouse. It has a baby and a cat.”

  “We’ll be over,” I told her. “After Cowboy Gabe and I have a serious talk.” I eyed him, and he conveniently looked away.

  “I baked cookies,” Brianna squealed at my father. He set her down. “Me and Deliah licked all the spoons.”

  “Oh yum,” my father replied and chuckled.

  “Cowboy Gabe, I need to tell you something,” she said as she tugged on his hand. He squatted in front of her and lifted his HalRem cap off in a gentlemanly way.

  “Lay it on me,” he said.

  “It’s not something you lay on.” My sister gave him a puzzled look. “I have to ask you a secret. Don’t listen, Avy.” She cupped her hands and whispered in his ear. He wrapped an arm around her waist and scooped her up and set her on the counter.

  “You bet I do,” he answered cheerfully as he finally caught my eye.

  “Goodie,” she said and kicked her feet at me. “He likes me not you.”

  I snorted under my breath, and my father made a hiccup laugh. Both my sister’s vocabulary and her need to be the center of attention had quadrupled since she arrived in North Dakota.

  “Where’s Mommy? How did you get here?” Nobody else seemed to notice she let herself in.

  “She’s yelling at Joel.” She covered her ears when a clap of thunder rattled the trailer.

  “I don’t think she would yell at him,” my father told her but winked at me. “She’s been a little touchy lately.”

  Gabe grunted. “He probably deserved it.”

  “Be nice,” I whispered. “She’s worried about Lane. She’s probably trying to get him to help.”

  “He flied a big heppercopper to my house!” Brianna flung her arms around like a propeller and hit me in the neck.

  “Yeah, he does that sometimes,” Gabe told her. “That’s how I got back and forth to school when I was little.”

  “Wow,” she said.

  “Yesterday Joel flew the commissioner of oil in from Bismarck to discuss his advancement in hydraulic fracturing safeguards,” said my father. “We haven’t seen anything like it in the Marcellus Shale exploration back home in New York. It was impressive. He’s got an edge on the cutting edge. Safety is everything here. I’m impressed to say the least.”

  Gabe jerked his chin at the door, unimpressed. “We’re sneaking out the back.”

  I followed him into the drizzle. He acted like we were eluding the police.

  “Afternoon, Gabriel. Howdy, Miss Ross.”

  “Hi,” I greeted Mr. Halden when he spotted us leaving. He was standing beside a limousine, talking on his phone while his driver held up an umbrella. My mother was nowhere around. “I guess you’re my new boss too.”

  He lowered his phone. A smile tugged at his lips. Sometimes I thought he looked just like Indiana Jones from the first movie, but with a bigger hat. “Welcome aboard. It’ll be my pleasure to see you around more. Perhaps I can give you a tour of the tower in the upcoming weeks
.”

  Gabe was ten steps ahead as I waved goodbye to his father who disappeared into the back of the limo. I frowned sideways after I climbed into the truck. “Why are you so irritated? I’m the one who’s going to have to work under the watch of both of our fathers.”

  “Your dad’s the most laidback guy. You have no idea. He lets you live with your boyfriend.” Gabe backed out of the spot. He didn’t give his father the time of day when his chauffeur honked. “Are we still stopping by Meggie’s?”

  “You brought me to see Lane on purpose. You didn’t even look for your hat,” I replied. “Your father knew about my job already. I don’t appreciate you being sneaky.”

  “He knows everything. Don’t act so surprised.”

  “Don’t act so moody,” I countered.

  “So is that a yes? I need to know if we’re heading this way or that-a-way.”

  “Did my parents have something to do with this job? I can’t believe you want me to work for HalRem.”

  Gabe raised his eyebrows as he set his hand on my leg and played with the fringe on my jean shorts. “You’re getting in my way on the ranch.”

  I scowled at the audacity of his statement. I had been more than helpful.

  “Lane needs your help and—”

  “You’re sick of me and you’re trading me off to work at a company you despise.”

  “That’s not what I said. Go to work and see if you like it. I’ll get more done if I’m not distracted by you sunning yourself in the daisies.” He ran the back of his finger up my leg until I brushed it off. “You’re a distraction. All girls are.”

  “Oh, so you look at all girls and get distracted?”

  “I’m just picking at you. We’ll swing by Meggie’s. I really did leave my hat somewhere.”

  * * *

  “Meggie got jury duty,” Deliah told me when I walked into the house. She was sitting on the kitchen floor stacking blocks with Emmie in her lap.

  “Gabe went to check on the trailer,” I offered even though she didn’t ask. I was annoyed at him for making me work at HalRem. I snuck a glimpse at the letter on the table before I sat down on the floor. “She didn’t get jury duty. It’s a questionnaire.”