Chapter Five: The Rules of Pine Ridge
1338 Words
Chapter Five: The Rules of Pine Ridge
Kylie barely slept.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw her father driving away again.
The taillights disappearing down the gravel road.
The dust settling behind him.
The way he never looked back.
By sunrise, frustration still burned beneath her skin like something alive.
She threw the blankets off and sat up slowly, blinking against the soft morning light pouring through the massive bedroom windows. For one disoriented second, she forgot where she was.
Then the unfamiliar room reminded her immediately.
The bedroom was bigger than her entire apartment back home. Dark wood furniture. Cream-colored walls. A stone fireplace across from the bed. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking endless mountains drenched in gold morning light.
It was beautiful.
Which honestly just annoyed her more.
Rich people always managed to make abandonment look aesthetic.
Kylie climbed out of bed wearing the oversized hoodie she’d slept in, the fabric slipping off one shoulder as she crossed the room barefoot. The cold wooden floors sent a chill through her legs.
She yanked the curtains open harder than necessary.
The ranch stretched endlessly below.
Workers moved through the property already, feeding horses and hauling equipment while trucks rolled toward distant barns. Smoke curled from one of the chimneys near the main house. Somewhere outside, a horse whinnied sharply into the crisp morning air.
Everything looked alive.
Organized.
Disciplined.
Very Nolan.
Even from a distance, Pine Ridge didn’t feel like a home.
It felt like a kingdom.
And Nolan Hayes ruled every inch of it.
A knock sounded against the bedroom door.
Kylie groaned dramatically. “Go away.”
The door opened anyway.
Maria stepped inside carrying a breakfast tray balanced carefully in her hands. Coffee. Fruit. Toast. Eggs.
“Good morning to you too,” she said warmly.
Kylie collapsed backward onto the mattress. “If this is billionaire ranch prison breakfast, I’m not hungry.”
Maria laughed softly while setting the tray near the bed. “You’ll like me better after caffeine.”
“That depends,” Kylie muttered into a pillow. “Are you secretly terrifying too?”
“No,” Maria said. “But Nolan can be.”
Kylie rolled onto her back immediately. “Finally. Honesty.”
Maria gave her an amused look. “He’s not cruel, sweetheart. Just… intense.”
Kylie thought about those sharp blue eyes.
The way he barely reacted to anything.
The calmness that somehow felt more dangerous than anger.
Yeah.
Intense was definitely one word for it.
“What exactly does he do?” Kylie asked, sitting up slightly. “Besides act emotionally unavailable in expensive clothing?”
Maria nearly inhaled her coffee wrong.
Before she could answer, another voice filled the doorway.
“I was wondering how long it would take before you insulted me this morning.”
Kylie froze instantly.
Nolan leaned against the doorframe like he owned the oxygen in the room.
Dark jeans. Boots. A fitted gray henley stretched across broad shoulders and muscular arms, the sleeves pushed halfway to his elbows. His dark hair still looked slightly damp from a shower, messy in a way that should’ve been illegal.
And somehow, annoyingly, he looked even better in daylight.
His blue eyes slid lazily toward hers.
Completely aware she’d been staring.
Heat crawled slowly up Kylie’s neck, which only made her irritation spike harder.
“You knock now?” she asked.
“I did.”
“You ignored the part where I said go away.”
“So did you.”
Maria hid another smile behind her mug before heading toward the door. “I’ll leave you two to fight in peace.”
The second she disappeared, silence settled heavily between them.
Not awkward.
Worse.
Aware.
Kylie crossed her arms tightly. “What do you want?”
Nolan’s gaze flicked toward the untouched breakfast tray. “You skipped dinner.”
“I wasn’t hungry.”
“You were angry.”
“Still am.”
One corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
Again, not quite a smile.
Somehow more dangerous than one.
Nolan stepped farther into the room, and Kylie instantly hated how the air changed around him. Smaller somehow. Hotter.
Like his presence took up too much space.
“There are a few rules here,” he said calmly.
“Oh, good,” she muttered. “I was worried this place wouldn’t feel enough like jail.”
His eyes stayed locked on hers.
“You can hate me all you want, Kylie. But while you’re here, you respect the people who work on this ranch.”
Something about his tone shifted.
Still calm.
But firmer now.
Sharp enough to cut through her attitude effortlessly.
“You don’t yell at them. You don’t treat them badly. And you don’t make their jobs harder because you’re angry at your father.”
Kylie opened her mouth to argue.
Then closed it.
Because deep down, she knew he was right.
Again.
God, she hated that.
Nolan continued smoothly. “Breakfast is at seven. Dinner’s at six. If you leave the property, someone needs to know where you are.”
Her eyebrows lifted immediately. “Absolutely not.”
“It’s a ranch, not a suburb,” he said evenly. “People get hurt out here.”
“I can take care of myself.”
His gaze drifted slowly over her oversized hoodie, bare legs, messy hair, and stubborn expression before finally returning to her face.
Slowly enough to make her pulse stumble.
“I’m starting to notice that’s your favorite thing to say.”
The roughness in his voice sent unwanted heat spiraling through her chest.
Kylie stood too quickly, needing distance from whatever this feeling was.
“You know what? I don’t care about your rules.”
Nolan didn’t move.
Didn’t blink.
“You will.”
The confidence in his voice irritated her instantly.
“Why?” she snapped. “Because you’re rich and everyone listens to you?”
For the first time, something colder flickered behind his blue eyes.
Not anger.
Something darker.
“No,” he said quietly. “Because this ranch keeps people alive. Including you.”
The room went still.
Even the air felt different now.
Kylie studied him carefully then.
Really studied him.
The faint scar near his jaw she hadn’t noticed before.
The exhaustion buried beneath his calm expression.
The tension in his shoulders like he was always bracing for something.
There was something off about Nolan Hayes.
Not bad.
Just… heavy.
Like he carried things he never talked about.
And suddenly, she found herself wondering what could possibly make a billionaire look that tired.
Nolan glanced toward the windows. “Storm’s coming tonight.”
Kylie frowned slightly. The sky looked clear.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Mountain storms move fast.”
His eyes returned to hers.
“So do bad decisions.”
Her pulse gave another stupid little stutter.
“You flirt with everyone while threatening them?” she asked.
A pause.
Then finally—
A real smile.
Small.
Brief.
Devastating.
“Only the difficult ones.”
Kylie’s breath caught before she could stop it.
And Nolan noticed.
Of course he noticed.
Those blue eyes darkened slightly as silence stretched between them again.
Too close.
Too warm.
Too charged.
Kylie hated the way her body reacted to him.
Hated how aware she suddenly was of standing barefoot in front of him wearing nothing but an oversized hoodie that barely covered her thighs.
His gaze dropped again.
This time slower.
Intentional.
The heat low in her stomach tightened instantly.
Dangerous.
That was the word for Nolan Hayes.
Not intense.
Dangerous.
Because for one reckless second, Kylie had the terrifying urge to step closer instead of farther away.
A loud crack of thunder echoed faintly through the mountains.
Nolan finally broke eye contact first.
“You should eat,” he said quietly.
Then he turned and walked out of the room.
Leaving Kylie standing there breathless, irritated, and far more unsettled than she wanted to admit.
- Writer
