Page 3 of Snowed In with the Rancher
But that idea sat like a ball of habanero peppers in her gut.
Yes, she loved her sisters, niece, and nephew, but she was in no mood to watch them happily in love with their perfect lives and men. Not when Triss had been convinced that Lorne was her happily ever after just days ago.
Thank God she kept the receipt for the expensive watch she bought him. She returned it yesterday and bought herself a new pair of waterproof but stylish winter boots. They would keep her feet dry and warm, while also being fashion-forward.
Lorne hadn’t even bothered to ask her where she was going or where she planned to spend Christmas when she spent two days packing up her life and painfully cohabitating with him while he was on the phone constantly with Echo, reassuring her that he wasn’t “cheating on her” with his girlfriend.
Ugh! Yeah, she’d rather spend Christmas with two crotchety veterans in Stetsons than another second with Lorne and the vapid Echo.
The plane landed, albeit with enough turbulence for the woman in the middle seat to dig her nails into Triss’s arm as she held on and crossed herself at least twelve times. But they landed in one piece and that was what mattered.
As soon as they were allowed to, she turned on her phone to check her messages.
Nothing from Hannah. That had to be a good sign, right?
That had to mean that Hannah was in the air and set to land in Denver in a couple of hours.
Since it was nearly nightfall, and they had no idea how long it would take Hannah’s plane to arrive, they decided that Triss would make her way to the ranch via a cab and Hannah would follow once she landed.
Once she grabbed her luggage from the carousel, she made her way outside only to find thick white flakes falling from the sky and a line of cabs nearly a mile long, but a line of people waiting for cabs nearly two miles long.
Great!
“Sir, sir, I will pay you triple your fare to just get me to where I need to go,” Triss said, having handed the address to five taxi drivers and been turned down because of how out of the way the ranch was. “I do not care. I just need to get here in one piece, please.”
The cabby, a man with no hair on his head but enough curly white hair for two heads flowing out over the buttons of his plaid shirt, scratched his chin, his fingers making a raspy sound on his scruff. “Triple?” He lifted a brow at her.
Triss nodded. “Triple. I just need to get there. Please.”
His nod was reluctant, but he nodded nonetheless and heaved her suitcase into his trunk. She climbed into the backseat and exhaled a sigh of relief, removing her gloves and holding them in her lap.
She checked her phone, but there was no message or call from Hannah.
Thankfully, the cab driver didn’t try to engage her in conversation.
Not that she wasn’t a polite or friendly person, but Triss was exhausted and worried about her friend, the last thing she wanted to do was engage in small talk with a stranger who was going to be taking triple his normal fare just to do his job.
Whatever. Triss didn’t care. She just needed to get to the ranch, then hopefully, Hannah’s uncles would have some answers about Hannah or at the very least a stiff drink and a warm bed she could crawl into.
Chapter Two
I’m going to have to let you out here,” the cab driver said, pulling over to the side of the road below the snow-covered sign that read “Harris Brothers Ranch”.
“What?” Triss exclaimed. “But I’m paying you triple. I need you to take me up to the house. The driveway up there is like half a mile long.”
“And it hasn’t been plowed or shoveled. I’ll never make it down there, let alone back. Sorry.” He popped open the trunk, climbed out, and heaved her bag into the snow.
Growling at this dick of a cab driver and her never-ending bad stream of luck, Triss flicked her gaze to the meter on the dash and grabbed enough cash out of her wallet for the jerk. He sure as hell wouldn’t be getting a tip.
She pulled on her gloves, tugged her hood over her head, and stepped out of the cab. The cabby was having a smoke and eying her warily. “Still triple, lady.”
She glared at the man through narrow eyes. “I’m aware.” Thrusting the cash toward him, she gruffly took the handle of her suitcase from his hand. She wouldn’t be able to roll it up the driveway, not with all the snow, so she was forced to carry the behemoth.
“Merry Christmas,” the cabby called after her before he opened the door to his car, wedged his beer gut behind the wheel, and took off, leaving her in the dark and the cold and a half a mile from where she was supposed to be.
Grumbling and cursing the man’s name, Triss began the trek through the snow toward the big farmhouse on the hill.
She checked her phone at least ten times between the road and when she finally reached the farmhouse with no lights on and the big dark red barn over to the side smelling of hay and manure.
