Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 60481 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60481 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
I’d told her when I left the ranch that I was going to see if I could bring her classmate over to see Spirit tonight, so she’d been on the lookout for me.
“JT! Hi! Do you love Spirit?” Remy asked as she raced up to us.
“Remy?” JT asked, his face lighting up.
“Slow down, sugar. We don’t want to startle Spirit,” I warned, keeping my voice low still.
Remy instantly checked her speed. “I know,” she whispered. She trotted the last few steps and stood beside JT. “Do you love her?” she repeated.
JT gave the foal another scratch and grinned. “Yep. I do. Why are you here? Do you live here?”
“This is Remy,” I said to Clio. “She’s in JT’s class. Her dad, Wes, is the foreman here.”
Remy lifted her freckled face and flashed a bright smile at Clio. “Hi, JT’s mom.”
“Hi Remy. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you. I don’t live here, but we come here aaaaaall the time.” Her light eyes shifted to JT. “Wanna see my fort before I go home? Daddy says we’re leavin’ soon cause I have school tomorrow.”
JT’s mouth dropped open. “Your fort?”
Remy nodded, her light curls all wild and tangled after a full day. “Yeah. It’s this way.” She beckoned to JT then stopped and whirled to look at Clio. “Can we?”
Clio looked at me. “Do you know where they’re going?”
I nodded. “Yes.” To Remy and JT, I said, “Don’t go anywhere but the fort, okay?”
“Okay!” Remy called out, tearing back out the way she’d come. JT charged after her, laughing.
“We have to leave soon, too, JT!” Clio hollered, but I doubted he paid her any attention.
She put her hands on her hips. She’d stripped out of her coveralls before we left and now wore a pair of jeans and a long sleeved top. She looked so beautiful. I wanted to kiss her senseless now that we only had the horses as witnesses.
I waited, though, because she looked like she had something to say to me.
She cocked her head. “Did you plan a playdate for JT?”
I narrowed my eyes as I leaned against the wall. “That depends. Are you mad?”
She bit her lip. “No–I…I’m surprised, I guess.”
I shrugged. “Remy told me JT was in her class, so I figured they might like to hang out together sometime.”
Clio blinked. “You and Remy are buddies?”
I grinned. “Well, sure. She’s my boss’ kid. She’s here all the time.”
“That explains why you’re so good with JT.”
I laughed. “That and because I have a whole mini-pack of nieces and nephews, too.”
Her brows flew up. “You do?”
I reached for her waist and tugged her to me. “I told you–there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
She glanced in the direction the pups ran off, like she was worried about them coming back.
I stepped closer, into her space. “Don’t worry. I won’t get caught.” I sent her a wink.
A wry smile twisted her lips. “I’ll bet that wink gets you everything, doesn’t it?”
“What’s it getting me now?” My voice was low and suggestive.
“Nothing,” she said firmly, setting her hand on my chest and pressing in. “Not with JT around.”
I held my hands in the air. “Okay, okay. Message received. Let’s go outside where we can keep an eye on the kids, and I won’t be so tempted to lift that pretty top of yours.”
Some of the tension left her shoulders, and she let me lead her out with a hand on her lower back. I walked her around the pasture to sit on a bench that Roy, one of our pack mates who was a woodworker, had made out of a split and polished log set onto thick, sturdy legs. From here, we could watch the pups without being overheard.
“How many nieces and nephews do you have?”
“Three total. Two nephews, one niece, from two sisters. They all live here in Cooper Valley. I’m the ‘fun uncle’.” I waggled my brows. We stepped out into the sunset, and I dropped my hand from her back.
“I’ll bet you are,” Clio said.
“The kids are over there.” I pointed to the treeline where Remy had been stacking sticks.
“Wanna see something?”
She flicked her gaze toward the kids.
“We’re not going far. You’ll be able to see them.”
“Okay,” she replied, and I took her hand.
It was small and warm in mine, and I liked how it felt as I led her to the edge of the east pasture. It was fenced in and sloped up a hill.
“See that bull?” I raised my chin in the animal’s direction.
“That’s Lucifer. He’s a bucking bull. Half Brahman, half Longhorn. They grow big, can handle the heat, and are real muscular. He’s mine.”
She looked at me, a little confused. “You have a bull?”
“I do. He’s the start of my sire services.”
She snort-laughed.
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
“Well, you would make a good stud.” She squeezed my biceps. “But, I’m sorry. Tell me about your bull.”