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“You don’t want me calling the laugh police.”
She stares at me blank-faced for a second.
“Okay, not my best line.”
“No.” She giggles. “All right. Well, I picture you on a horse every day, and you and Jude galloping around doing… I don’t know.”
I laugh.
“Maybe you’re trying to keep the herd together, or you’re in one of the rings, lassoing them by the head. Which looks painful by the way.”
“Anything else?”
She stirs the pasta and eyes the timer. “You said something about planting, so are you in a tractor making those straight lines in the dirt?”
“I think a field trip to the farm is in order.”
The timer goes off. With the hot pads, she takes the pot to the sink and pours the noodles into the strainer. “Do I have to wear my innertube?”
I laugh. “Most definitely, although that’s going to give your secret away.”
“Maybe they’ll think I’m looking for a pool.”
“There’s always the lake.” I nod toward the body of water I’ve swum in plenty, but I wonder if she’d ever entertain it. She doesn’t seem the type.
“I might freeze the baby.” She gives me that smile she always does as if I can’t figure out that she’s joking.
“Making fun of me for being protective?”
She opens the oven and pulls out a dish I didn’t even know I had. There’re a lot of vegetables in it and an entire bulb of garlic. The stool scrapes the floor as I rise to watch her work.
She takes the garlic, squeezing the now-soft cloves into the mixture. “This is a dish I perfected in Chicago because eating for one isn’t all that enjoyable. This is just a bigger batch.”
I admire her thin fingers, and the smell of her perfume overrides the smell of the garlic and oil and whatever herbs she has in there. I step closer, my chest hitting her upper arm, but she doesn’t step away. This is dangerous territory, but I’m probably the only one thinking that because right now, I’d do about anything to take her upstairs and sink into her, forgetting all the shit with the farm and my brothers. Losing myself in sweet moments with her sounds like bliss right now.
“Oh, the garlic bread!” She steps away from me. “Do you mind getting the tray out while I grab the pasta?”
Did she feel the electricity between us too? Or maybe she just felt the start of my dick growing in my jeans. She’s got more sense than me, stepping away because she doesn’t need another complication in her life.
I pull out the garlic bread that’s done to perfection, and she pours the pasta in the dish from the oven, stirring it around with tongs.
“I got into a fight with my brothers today.” I figure talking about what’s pissing me off might help cool my libido.
She twirls the pasta in the sauce she made. “Okay, what happened?”
“They always undermine me. Think I can’t do anything for myself. The thread on my patience finally broke.”
She says nothing, rising on her tiptoes to grab two plates from the cupboard, which I take from her hands and dish out the food she made.
“Thing is, I have this social media account where I’ve been posting things I’ve filmed on the farm. I did Jude and Sadie’s gender reveal.”
“I saw that.” She follows me outside to the patio with the basket of garlic bread and our drinks. “Gillian showed it to me. It’s amazing what you can do with a horse.”
“I’m going to leave that line right there. But thank you.”
She laughs, sitting down. With the sun still up, I crank up the umbrella to give us some shade.
“I got a ton of views, so I filmed other content. People started making comments about wanting to come to the ranch. So I pitched the idea of a dude ranch to my brothers and Dad before taking it to the rest of the family.”
