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He goes to get it and Scarlett walks to the back door to let Lucia and Delgado in. Ruby loses her mind over them, just as I knew she would.
“I’ve never seen an all-white chihuahua,” she says, as Delgado twirls around her feet.
She lifts him up and kisses his nose. He pants in her face, looking like he’s smiling back at her.
“I am in love,” she says, sighing happily.
Her cheeks flush and she glances over at me, swallowing hard when she sees my expression.
Lucia nuzzles against my leg and I pet her and then Theo’s dog, Fred, when he comes over for his loving. Lucia adores Fred almost as much as Delgado, but she doesn’t love having my attention divided, so she stands on her hind legsand puts her front paws on my shoulders. She’s a gorgeous,massiveSiberian Husky, and Scarlett and Jamison rescued both dogs before the two of them got together.
“I see you, pretty girl,” I tell her.
Ruby sets Delgado down when he starts squirming and he runs over, jumping up on my leg. I give Lucia one more hug.
“Down, Lucia,” I say, and she lowers her paws to sit in front of me. “Good girl.” I bend down and pick up Delgado, trying to avoid his speedy tongue. “It’s nice to see you too, buddy,” I say softly.
“I wish Lucia would be that obedient with me,” Jamison says.
“I know. Callum’s animal whisperer ways have always been inspiring,” Theo says.
“You have a way with animals too,” Sofie tells Theo, “butallthe animals are obsessed with Callum.” She looks over at Ruby and grins.
“I am too,” Ruby says, sighing.
And then her cheeks flame red and her eyes gape wide.
“Uh, I meant…here,heretoo. Yeah, I’ve seen it firsthand at his ranch, but wow, yeah, it’s…wow.” She wrings her hands together and looks mortified.
I walk over to her with Delgado still tucked against my chest and press my lips against hers. I hear the quick intake of her gasp and she’s too stunned to fully kiss me back, but I stay right there until I feel some of the tension seep out of her. When I pull away, you could hear a pin drop, it’s so quiet, every eye in the house trained on us.
“I’m obsessed with you too,” I say quietly, but knowing my family, everyone’s ears are straining so hard, they hear every word.
When I step back, she smiles shakily. She takes a deepbreath and grips my hand hard, but she looks more like herself.
Sutton comes over and pounds my back, handing me a beer.
“Godda—Goddoesmiracles,” Sutton says, catching his curse midstream as Grinny walks over to Ruby and me.
She hugs Ruby and then keeps holding onto her as she leans over and hugs me. Her eyes are watery and she clears her throat and shakes her head, trying to stave off the emotion.
“We’re so happy you’re here, Ruby,” she says. “As you can probably tell, this guy right here means the world to all of us, and he doesn’t exactly expose all he’s feeling 99.9% of the time, so to see that—” Her voice breaks. “Well, I’m just so happy and thankful, that’s all.”
I pat Grinny’s back, my eyes on Ruby, as I try to decipher how she’s handling all this.
“Let’s just try not to scare her off today, shall we?” I attempt a light tone and my siblings laugh.
Ruby’s eyes straighten and her eyes blaze as she smirks at me. “I don’t scare easily, Callum Henry Landmark.”
There’s a roar of laughter and a lot ofOoosaround the room, but fuck me, all I want is to bury myself inside her and never come up for air.
“What did we miss?” Pierre calls out and Pappy is with him, both carrying tons of food.
“I’ll fill you in,” Scarlett says, hurrying over to help them inside.
Ruby smiles at me before turning to hug her uncle, and I can’t help but think how much she looks like she belongs right here with me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
