Read Online And Then You Fall (Crested Butte Series) by Heather A Buchman - Free Book Online Page B

of years of each other, her dad went first, over ten years ago, followed by her mom. Liv still missed them, she couldn’t imagine the feeling ever going away. She had been an only child and very close to both her parents. Renie was the light of all their lives. Once her mom and dad were gone, the house was a little too quiet.
    Since the ranch was bought and paid for, no mortgage, and her parents had left her a generous sum of money allowing her to be comfortable for the rest of her life, Liv hadn’t needed to worry about how she’d support herself and her daughter. But between the two of them, they’d decided to take in boarded horses anyway. It provided a bit of an income, but more, it provided some company when the people boarding them came to ride.
    One of the neighboring ranches was owned by a couple who had become like a second family to Liv. The Pattersons had been leasing their ranch land for their cattle since before Liv’s father owned it. It added income, provided for the care and maintenance of the land, and it also gave them some excitement. Calving season, branding, all of it gave her and Renie life experiences they wouldn’t have otherwise known. Liv wasn’t much of a ranch hand herself, but she was always willing to dish out a hot meal for the cowboys and wranglers at busy times of the year. That was when she’d started baking. Her pies had become the dessert mainstay of Patterson Ranch barbecues.
    She decided to stop and see if Dottie Patterson was home. She tied up Micah near the barn and walked in the back door.
    “Hey-o, anybody here?” Liv never knocked first, Dottie wouldn’t have known how to take it if Liv had. She probably would’ve been insulted.
    “In here, honey,” Dottie called out from kitchen.
    Liv walked straight up to the woman and let herself be surrounded by a hug like no one else gave but Dottie. Her eyes immediately filled with tears.
    “What’s this?” Dottie asked, holding Liv at arms’ length. “Sit down young lady and tell me what these tears are all about.”
    Liv sat, and proceeded to tell Dottie about Ben Rice, including the part about her not having sex since Scott had died.
    “You know sweetie, Bill and I always hoped one of the cowboys who worked our ranch would turn your head, but year after year it never happened. It wasn’t for lack of trying on their part either.”
    “What are you talking about? Whose part?”
    “Well let’s see now . . . there have been a slew of ’em trying for years to get your attention.”
    “Like who?”
    “Well Billy Junior was one, but I think he gave up years ago, honey. You wouldn’t even look in his direction. Then there was the Morehouse boy, what was his name?”
    “Brandon.”
    “That’s right, Brandon. He had a fierce crush on you. There were others.”
    Liv was stunned. She’d never known this.
    “Are you sure you aren’t talking about someone else?”
    “No I’m not talking about someone else. I’m talking about you Olivia. You’ve never been aware of your own beauty, that’s probably one of the things that makes you so irresistible. And from the day she was born, you’ve been wrapped up in being the best mama you could be to Renie. But sweetie, we’ve worried some about you not realizing there was more to life than that.”
    “I wasn’t a bitch was I?”
    Dottie laughed. “You mean to the boys? Well maybe a little. It just made them want to follow you around all the more.”
    Liv hadn’t been that interested in dating in high school, she’d already decided Scott was the only man for her. She supposed guys flirted with her, but she never really paid attention.
    “I didn’t know.”
    “That was pretty clear,” Dottie chuckled again. “It’s always that way isn’t it? The girls who do the chasin’ the boys don’t want. The girls who don’t know the boys exist, the boys can’t get enough of.”
    Dottie reached over and put her palm on Liv’s cheek. “You need to open your heart up a