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“I hate you,” I hiss with a sated laugh, too exhausted from that euphoric experience to right my disheveled clothes.
“You hate that I was right.”
“Same difference.”
“Macy? Ryder?” Shit! It’s Gina.
Though my limbs barely work, I fix my clothing situation as quickly as I’m able. Ryder stands guard, his back to me as I desperately try to reconnect my bra hooks with shaky arms.
“Ah, there you are,” Gina says. “Where’s Macy?”
I turn on the faucet and start washing my hands before the water even warms. “Right here.”
“Oh my,” Gina says when Ryder steps off to the side. “How much trouble did those goats give you? Your poor hair looks like a bird’s nest.”
Oops.
“I’ve been through worse.” I try to ignore the amused victory that sparkles in his blue-gray eyes, but I’m stupid enough to glance his way long enough to send another ripple of pleasure through my belly. Damn that cowboy is potent. Sex with Ryder Stone might very well be my undoing. It takes incredible restraint to smother my smile at the thought. “Did you need something, Gina?”
“I’m worried about Molly,” Gina says. “She’s been pacing back and forth all morning. I didn’t want to wake Paps from his nap. He’s still worn out from all the festivities yesterday. Could you check on her?”
I force a smile into place because I don’t want to worry Gina until I know there’s a reason. The mare is three hundred and thirteen days into her gestation period. We’re a week away from being out of the danger zone should she go into labor early. “I’m happy to check on her.”
“Oh good!” The relief in Gina’s tone is surprising as I follow her outside, Ryder close on my tail. “We’re going to miss you when you head back to Colorado, Macy. You sure you have to leave? You know, we’ve got a cabin you could move into.”
I’m taken aback by the offer that I’m certain is just flattery, but also might be genuine if the hope in her hazel eyes means what I think it means.
Staying in Emerald Creek? No, I can’t.
“Let me grab my bag from the Jeep, and I’ll be right over to the stable.”
“Thank you!”
Ryder waits until Gina is out of sight before he pulls me around to the passenger side of my Jeep and pushes me up against it. One hand drops to my hip, the other combs my cheek. “You could stay, you know.” He kisses me before I can argue, effectively scrambling my brain once again. Damn the man.
“I need my bag, Ryder.”
He opens my passenger door and grabs it off the seat with one hand, his other still on my hip. “Come over tonight,” he says, making me an offer I can actually wrap my head around. He leans in, dropping his mouth near my ear. “I’ve only given you one orgasm, sweetheart. There’s many more where that came from.”
CHAPTER 10
Ryder
“It won’t be a quick process, like I said,” Weston says from across my kitchen table. We’ve been at this for over two hours, going over every idea I’ve come up with in the short time since our last family meeting. He was the only one I could convince to stop by again on such short notice. Since he’s the lawyer with all the paperwork know-how, he’s the one I needed anyway.
“But we can do it?” I ask.
“We can try. There’s a lot of hoops to jump through.” He takes a pull of his beer before waving the bottle at the stack of papers I’ve spread across the table with all my ideas. To my surprise, he’s been open to almost all of them. He’s only shot down a couple that would require very expensive liability insurance to pull off. Can’t argue with him there when we’re just getting started.
“Keep working on this though,” he adds. “See if Liam can put together some blueprints for some of it. I’m fairly confident we can get nonprofit status without too much trouble. But we’ll need a solid business plan and just an overall plan if we have a prayer of making this a viable solution to save the ranch.”
“And Paps’ blessing.”
“You really think he’s going to say no to this?” When I don’t answer, Weston adds, “He may be stubborn, but he loves these animals. He’d do anything for them.”
A gentle knock at the kitchen door draws my attention to it. Macy Knight stands on the other side of the screen door, the glow of the setting sun behind her. I’ve been so wrapped up in this animal sanctuary idea that I nearly forgot she was coming over tonight. Nearly.
“Come in,” I call to her, quickly gathering all the papers and stuffing them back into the manila folder. I shove the folder under a stack of newspapers. “Not a word about this,” I say in a low voice to Weston.
