The Heartbreaker of Echo Pass by Maisey Yates

CHAPTER THREE

IRISWASVIBRATINGwith energy by the time she got back to Hope Springs Ranch. She had done it. She had... Gone up the mountain a hausfrau and come down a bakery owner.

Sort of.

There was still so much to consider. So many things to put into place. Thankfully, she knew that the building had the facilities she needed to do what she wanted, more or less, since it had been a bakery prior to her taking over. But she was still going to have to... Well, bake more than she ever had in her life, figure out a name, figure out so many things.

And somehow, add cleaning a cabin that seemed entirely made of dirt and cooking dinner for a hermit.

He was not at all what she expected.

The cabin wasn’t at all what she expected.

Griffin Chance was a man who seemed to own real estate, and have the ability to negotiate business deals. The way that he talked about things made her certain that he was familiar with the practice.

And he lived in a hovel.

It didn’t make a lot of sense.

But she had accomplished her goal, thanks to her cookies, so she was going to go ahead and call it a win and not worry about the rest.

She scrambled around the kitchen, finishing off the meat loaf that she was preparing for dinner.

Everyone was coming over tonight. Which made her very happy indeed.

It was a strange thing, wanting to distance herself slightly from the family, while also missing them desperately.

The way they were.

Because they’d been a soft cushion for her for so many years, and deciding that she needed to move on, deciding that she wanted more, didn’t mean...

She missed it. Feeling satisfied with this.

It wasn’t comfortable to want so much.

To be dissatisfied.

“Iris.” Her sister-in-law Sammy came into the room with baby Astrid strapped to her chest. “I didn’t want you to cook dinner by yourself.”

“Oh it’s fine,” Iris said.

“We always used to cook together,” Sammy said, looking down at her baby’s beautiful, fuzzy head.

“And now you have Astrid to take care of,” she said. “It’s fine.”

“I do have Astrid take care of,” Sammy said, “but that doesn’t mean I can’t cook dinner.”

“Well, I just want to... I want to help when I can.”

Because she was going to have to tell them all tonight that help was going to be a lot less common.

The front door opened, and Iris heard the sound of the dogs rushing in. Their nails clicking on the hardwood. And then she heard three pairs of boots walking along with them.

“Can we not have the dogs in?” Iris asked, mostly just because it was what she always asked.

It was futile, at this point, to complain about the small pack having free run of the house.

She just didn’t want them under the dining room table, or in the kitchen. But at this point, the dogs had won, and there was no sacred space for humans. And there was simply no enforcing it with Sammy as mistress of the house anyway.

Iris rolled her eyes, and took the pans of meat loaf into the dining room, setting them with the rolls and salad that were already on the table.

She also had an icebox cake ready to go for dessert. Lemon with vanilla cake and candied citrus peel, which was a family favorite.

She was gratified by the sounds of anticipation that her sister Rose, her fiancé, Logan, Ryder and Sammy made as they surveyed the table. West, Pansy and West’s half brother, Emmett, joined them a few moments later, and made more proclamations of joy around the food.

It was almost enough.

Almost.

But she couldn’t help but be conscious of the fact that everyone was paired off except for her and the teenage boy.

And it was things like that that just left her a little bit depressed.

She waited until they were halfway through the meal to make her pronouncements. Her reality might not be cheering. Her pronouncement was.

She might feel stagnant here in this familiar environment, but she wasn’t. She’d gotten her deal.

“I did it,” she said. “I made an agreement with the owner of the building on Grape Street today, and I’m going to be opening a bakery.”

Everyone stared at her like she had grown a second head.

“Well,” she said. “Say something.”

“That’s fantastic!” Rose said. “I knew that you could do it. How did you manage?”

“I...baked a plate of cookies and hiked up to the top of the mountain.”

“I have no idea how that got you a bakery,” Rose said.

“They are very good chocolate chip cookies, Rose,” Iris said, sniffing.

“Good for you,” Pansy added. “You’ve been wanting to do that for so long.”

“Yes,” she said. “And in exchange, I’m going to be giving my landlord twenty-five percent of the profits, and cleaning his house. And making him dinner. And dessert.”

“What?” Ryder asked, his eyes narrowing.

“Well, he was charging a lot for rent, so I went to negotiate.”

“Iris,” Ryder said. “You don’t even know who this guy is. Do you?”

“No. His name is Griffin Chance. He’s from California, I think. But he lives here in town now. Well, not in town, he lives up Echo Pass. And well, let me tell you, he is in need of someone taking care of some things for him.”

Everyone was staring at her like she’d grown cloven hooves, and was currently grasping her fork between the splits.

“I don’t feel comfortable with it,” Ryder said.

West was eyeing her closely, but as her brother-in-law, probably didn’t feel like he could offer his opinion freely. Logan, however, as a surrogate brother who had known her all of her life, was clearly not so encumbered.

“I don’t like it at all,” Logan said. “The whole thing is weird. He might be some...some pervert, who likes to watch people clean his floors, you don’t know.”

Horror stole over Iris, as she tried to imagine what that could even mean. Especially applied to the large, muscular bearded man she had met earlier today.

What sort of...perversion was related to floor cleaning? She didn’t know.

She wasn’t afraid of him, though.

He was a very large man. If he decided to harm her in some way, she wouldn’t have any recourse, and even though for some reason she felt she could trust him, she wasn’t entirely sure that could be enough. Maybe she could carry bear spray...

“Well, it’s too late,” she said, emphatically. “I made a deal, and I start tomorrow. And... I’m excited. Because it’s the first thing I’ve ever done for myself, and I went and made the deal, and I’m not boring.”

“Nobody said you were boring,” Pansy said.

“You think I am. Because I needlepoint and knit, and Rose thinks that I should date a man in khakis.”

“Are you still mad about Elliott?” Rose asked.

Irritation and something that felt deeper stabbed at her chest.

“I’m not mad,” Iris said. “I was never mad. It’s just... Look, I’m doing something for myself. And I’m excited about it, and I don’t need commentary from a man who got his best friend pregnant, another man who slept with my sister even though she’s a decade younger than him and he’s known her since she was a child, and finally, from my sister’s landlord, who is also an ex-convict who seduced her and stole her innocence.”

The three large cowboys at the table had the decency to look chagrined, so there was that. And she could tell that none of them had expected quite such a definitive display from her. Well, they didn’t know everything about her.

“That was different,” Ryder said.

“Completely different,” Logan agreed.

“How so?” she pressed.

“We are not potentially secret serial killers,” Logan said.

“West might have been.”

Pansy gave her husband a sidelong glance. “She has a point.”

“How did I get dragged into this?” West asked. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You thought it,” Iris said.

“You definitely thought it,” Emmett agreed, in the fashion only a younger brother could.

Great. Not only was the teenager the only other single one, he also seemed to be the only one on her side.

That made Iris feel a little bit less confident in her plans.

“I appreciate the concern,” she said. “But I’m a grown woman. I’m older than you,” she said to her sisters. “And about the same age as you.” She directed that to Ryder and Sammy. “I don’t need to be taken care of or coddled.”

“It’s just... Where does he live again?” Ryder asked.

“Off-grid. Up Echo Pass. Yes. I know. But... I don’t know what his deal is. But clearly he needs someone to do things for him.”

“That seems stupid,” Ryder said.

That earned him a baleful look from his wife. “Because you’re notorious for making your own dinner after a long day out on the range?” Sammy asked, sweetly.

Iris looked across the table. At all the food that she had made. “I’ve been taking care of all of you, for a long time. And now I’m taking care of myself. So, some support and a little bit less questioning would go a long way.”

“I support you,” Rose said.

It did not surprise her that it was her youngest sister that immediately jumped on board. In part because as seemingly sketchy life choices went, Rose was leading the charge in their family. Her secret relationship with Logan had been a shock to everyone else, and it was easy for all of them to underestimate Rose, given her age. But she had proven that she was tough, and that she and Logan were definitely something other than logical. They were meant to be. And everyone would have told them not to do it. And they would’ve been wrong. Just like they were wrong about this situation. About her.

“I’ll bring bear spray,” she said.

That earned her an incredulous laugh from West.

“Right, now you’re talking, Caldwell,” she said. “Which means it’s officially open season on you.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “The image of you taking down a man with bear spray is funny.”

Because they didn’t think she was tough. That was why. She hadn’t anticipated this whole thing being quite so annoying. She knew that her family had good intentions, but she didn’t need to be saved from herself.

“I have cake,” she said, getting up from the table and stalking into the kitchen.

She heard a chair scrape across the floor, and she expected to see Sammy following after her. But it was Ryder.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Let me help you with the cake.”

“I don’t need help with the cake that I already made.”

“I just worry about you,” he said.

“Stop,” she said. “Stop worrying about me.”

“It’s not that simple, Iris, you know that. You’re my partner in crime. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know what would’ve happened to this family. There were things I had to do to take care of all the kids. But I was mostly the legal fulfillment. You were the heart of us. You made sure that Pansy and Rose looked nice when they went to school. You learned how to mend things, and make clothes and make sure that we ate well.”

“Your wife deserves credit for that too. When she came to live with us...”

“Yes, Sammy helped. But you had already set the tone. You made sure that our house was still a home. Even after we lost our parents. I want you to be happy. I really do. And I’m supportive of you, I promise. But sometimes I worry that you missed out on a lot of the real world because you were here.”

“I did,” she said. “And that’s what I’m trying to fix.”

“I’m just worried that it’s made you a little bit naive.”

“Naive? And then you think I don’t know that a random man living on the top of the mountain could be a pervert or a serial killer? I do. I have, like, three streaming services and I watch a lot of crime dramas. I have seen things.”

“You know what, it’s not even that,” he said. “What if he’s after something else?”

Iris blinked, then stared at her brother in disbelief. “Are you... Are you warning me that the man might be after my... My virtue?”

“Oh hell,” Ryder said. “I didn’t say that.”

“You did, though. That is basically what you’re saying.”

She wanted to laugh except she was so angry. After everything...she couldn’t even fantasize that a man like...well, that one would be atall interested in her in that way.

“I’m not. I’m really not. I just... He might expect something.”

“Ryder,” she said. “I know that you’re my brother, but come on. The man is no more likely to want to take advantage of me than he would a small brown vole that came to his door. And you know it.”

“You’re not a vole,” Ryder said. “You’re a woman and...”

“And I’ll bring bear spray,” she said, feeling angry now. Honestly, it was like he was making fun of her. How could he possibly think that... He couldn’t. He was basically just giving her a talk to give it. Being outrageous and over the top because he could be. “But I guarantee you that the prospect of a home-cooked meal is about the only thing that makes me appealing to him.”

“Just be safe,” Ryder said.

“Do not lecture me about safe sex,” she said. “First of all, I’m way too old. Second of all, you don’t practice it yourself.”

“Iris,” Ryder said, sounding like he wished he were dead.

“Don’t lecture me,” she said. “Don’t scold me. Just support me.”

“Make sure you have cell signal up there,” he said.

“I don’t think I do.”

“Fine, then put a CB radio in your vehicle and figure out a way to call Pansy if you need it.”

“Ryder, I promise you that I will be safe. But you have to let me go. You’re right, I was the one who came alongside you and did this. Who helped you with the other kids. I was never one of them. Not in the same way. But we were a team. And we aren’t now. We can’t be. Not in the same way. I’m so... I’m so happy for you. For you and Sammy, and I love Astrid. Dearly. But I still don’t have a life, Ryder. And that’s not fair.”

He looked at her, hard. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I mean, really sorry. I didn’t think of it. Not that way. I’m proud of you,” he said. “For making it happen.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“You’re stronger than I give you credit for,” he added.

“I am,” she said. “Stronger than I give me credit for too.”

She brought the cake to the table, and the subject of her working for Griffin was dropped.

And she repeated what she just said to Ryder, over and over internally. She was strong. She was. She had lost her parents, she had helped raise her siblings. Cleaning up after one backwoodsman was going to seem easy in comparison.

She was certain of it.