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CHAPTER TEN
Making love to Libby – against a door, at work, with his colleagues just a few yards away – hadn’t exactly been part of his plan to win her heart. But it had happened nonetheless and there was no taking it back now. He’d also be lying to himself if he even tried to deny that it wasn’t the hottest and best sex of his life.
Everything that had gone down with Libby this past week had shocked him. From the first nights they’d spent together, to the messages she’d sent him. Zach had just assumed that once they’d taken that next step, she would automatically try to withdraw from him emotionally. But that wasn’t the case at all. If anything, she’d opened up to him even more.
Even though he’d known from the beginning they had the potential to be something amazing, how quickly such a deep connection formed still took him by surprise. A good one.
It was now Sunday night. He’d spent three days and nights with Libby, only going home once, briefly, to pick up some clean clothes. And he couldn’t be happier.
Unlike last weekend, their time hadn’t just been restricted to the bedroom. On Friday night, they’d gone out to dinner to the little Italian place in town. On Saturday, after a diner breakfast at Molly’s, he’d taken her on a hike up Little Rock Falls. And today, after a quick trip to Farm n’ Fresh, they’d made a hearty Sunday dinner together.
The best part of it all though was that she never pulled away when he took her hand. Or kissed her. Public affection, unexpectedly, hadn’t been a hurdle at all.
A small smile tugged at his lips as Libby snuggled further into his arms, a satisfied hum in her throat as she rested her head on his bare chest. It was late and he was tired, but he couldn’t sleep. Instead of focusing on the good that was currently wrapped around him, his mind was on the bad.
“You okay, baby?” Libby sleepily asked, her hands now running up and down his torso in a soothing motion.
He didn’t want to lie and say yes. But he also didn’t want her to be offended that he wasn’t the happiest man alive after what they had just done. Because in a way he was.
“Just thinking, princess.”
“About?”
He still hadn’t spoken to his brothers about the ranch. Or his friends. Or anyone. It was coming up to two weeks now and he knew he couldn’t avoid his father’s calls for much longer. He’d had time to think and now he had to make some decisions.
“That weekend you met my family, well, my dad kinda ...” Fucked me over? “He gave me some pretty big news. News that’s been hard to process.”
“What kind of news?” Her soft, relaxed voice was just as calming as her hands on him.
“He announced he was retiring. He’s not been well. And he sort of wants me to take over. Take over the ranch.”
“What?” Libby’s head lifted until she was eye level with his chin. “But you have a job already. What about your brothers, they’re there full time, right? Doesn’t it make more sense to give it to them?”
“Yeah, it does. And that’s part of the problem. In terms of my job, I guess my dad just expects me to quit and move back. He says he wants me to keep his legacy alive. Whatever that means.”
He could see Libby scrunch up her nose, even from this angle. “I still don’t get why it falls on you. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure you’d make an excellent rancher and everything, but what about Wade and Jonah and Matt ... is there a reason your dad’s decided not to involve them in this?”
She was wrong. He would not make an excellent rancher.
“Apparently the ranch has been having some money problems that only I can solve.” The idea was ludicrous. He didn’t know the first thing about how to make a ranch profitable. “And as the oldest, he wants to leave the business to me, not my brothers. He said something about it being my birth right.”
