Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“Hey!” I laughed. “I’ll have you know, I have to do more than just sit there and look pretty.”
“Sure, sure.” He winked. “What’s for lunch, Holly? I’m starving.”
“Sorcha is finishing everything up now.”
“Who’s Sorcha?” I wondered.
“That’s my wife.”
I looked up to find the club’s vice president, Major, swing his leg off his horse and grab the reins. “She cooks at the ranch several times a week.”
“Sorcha is also my sister.” Denver swung off his own horse.
Everyone else followed suit but Beau, who was too busy talking to Iris about his horse, Goss.
“Dinner’s on!”
“Dinner is in six hours!” Denver hollered back.
Iris stiffened, not good with the loud sounds.
Neither, apparently, was Beau’s horse.
Both animal and child were not happy at the raised voices.
Which Beau picked up on.
“Let’s go get Goss put up,” Beau said.
“Okay,” Iris signed.
I went to go with them but Holly held me up by saying, “Hey, will you hold this?”
She handed me the bag of green bands and the pliers.
I took them, shoving them into my coat pocket.
The wind whipped my hair around again, and I caught it before tucking the loose strands underneath the hood of my jacket.
“Where are you going?” Denver asked.
“Going to talk to a man about a horse,” Holly called out.
“Was it something I did?” Denver asked after Holly disappeared.
My brows rose. “What?”
“Her covering her ears,” he said. “I’m guessing she doesn’t like yelling?”
“She doesn’t do well with any loud noises,” I explained. “It’s not your fault, though. She’s got to learn to deal with it. She’s getting a whole lot better, but she freezes up instead of having a wall-eyed fit now. Like her mind is trying to process it. You did nothing wrong.”
“I’ll try to not yell,” he said. “We don’t want her to be uncomfortable around us.”
“Kids love me,” Huxley joked. “I’ll bet I can have her as a best friend by the time lunch is over.”
That was how I got divested of my kid and left behind with Beau who was looking at me like I was his own personal snack.
“What?”
He inched closer, tugging on both ends of my hoodie string before saying, “You look adorable.”
I grinned. “Thanks.”
“I didn’t think grown adults wore overalls anymore, though.”
“This one does,” I quipped, moving until our bodies were practically touching. “Hey, Beau?”
His eyes were on my mouth when he said, “Yeah?”
“I missed sleeping under the same roof as you.”
His eyes heated. “Maybe you can come back over tonight, and we can spend the night together for real this time.”
FIFTEEN
Men who stop at yellow lights won’t do that thing you like.
—Beau to Magnolia
BEAU
Lunch was fast and quick, and before too long I found myself back in the barn showing Goss off to Magnolia alone.
Iris was with Denver and Huxley looking at the cows that Denver’s girls were still separating out, babies from mamas.
“What did Holly want to talk to you about?”
I looked at my naughty horse.
“Well, apparently she deigned to share her love with a mustang,” I sighed. “There were a couple of wild mustangs that were sniffing around her. A colt jumped the fence and bred her. Which should be impossible, seeing as she’s pushing eighteen. So Holly shared her thoughts with me, and we decided that we’re going to let it play out. We’re just going to watch her closely.”
“Wow.” She laughed. “Guess you got yourself a new cutting horse?”
“She’s not a cutting horse.” I shook my head. “She pretends real well, but she’s a racer. She won the Kentucky Oaks when she was six. Placed second in a few more races that I allowed her to race in. We retired her after she had a fall that scared the shit out of me. Now she’s just a lazy girl.”
“She’s beautiful,” she said, stroking down her nose. “Why do they say she’s mean?”
“Because she is.” I chuckled. “I’m honestly kind of surprised that she’s allowing you to touch her. She’s usually a bitch to everyone but me. Huxley wasn’t lying.”
“She was nice to Iris, too.”
“Maybe she knows that you’re mine.”
She turned to face me, this person that I couldn’t stop thinking about, no matter how hard I tried.
For eight months, I’d done nothing but replay our encounter that we’d shared in my mind.
Over and over, it played on repeat in my dreams.
There wasn’t a single night that I didn’t wake up thinking about her. About how she would feel around me. About how great that single time we spent together was.
What would’ve happened if we had been able to spend all night together?
“Is that?” she asked.
“Is that what?” I asked, inching closer.
“What I am.” She pressed closer until the only thing separating us were our heavy coats. “Yours?”
My hands found her hips and then she was kissing me.
I poured every single ounce of longing into that kiss, my arms winding around her hips to hold her to me.