“Is there something we should know?” Jude asked, looking between Hazel and Chuck.
Chuck seemed to shake off his anger, returning to his typical, laid-back persona. “Let’s find the herd, but then we should talk.”
“Lina will want to be included,” I told him, remembering how pissed she was when her dad didn’t tell her about the drought.
He nodded. “Before the rodeo, then.”
The sky was already growinglight as I walked up the steps of my new home. My body was tired and sore after riding all night through rugged terrain. We’d found the majority of the herd grazing along the riverbank, but a few of them were still missing. Chuck reported the missing cattle to the livestock commission so they could start searching for the branded cows.
We all moved the herd to the eastern pasture, and Chuck and Hazel decided to stay out there to give Jace and Marshall a rest. All I wanted to do was check in on Penn, drink a big glass of water, and go to bed. But sleep would have to wait. I was supposed to let Lina know that Chuck called a meeting at the big house directly after breakfast.
The double-wide was dark, the only glow coming from the nightlight through the cracked door of Penn’s room down thehall. I toed off my boots and tossed my gloves onto the entry table at the door before padding down the hallway to peer into Penn’s room.
My chest tightened and my heart skipped a beat at the sight of Lina curled up on Penn’s twin bed beside her. Both of them were sound asleep. Penn had her arms raised above her head like she always did when she slept, her legs sprawled beneath the covers. She was wearing her favorite Frozen jammies, and her hair was in two braids. Lina slept with an arm folded beneath her head, her lips pursed in quiet, even breaths. At some point, she had changed into a pair of my sweats and a tee, her hair piled on top of her head. Her face was clean of any makeup.
She looked absolutely perfect there, sleeping beside my daughter—as if she belonged at her side. I wanted to encapsulate this moment, engrain it in my brain, and tattoo it on my heart. She said that she thought it was love at first sight, and maybe it was. I felt something then, too. I just didn’t know what to call it at the time.
I stood there for a few more minutes, watching them both sleep, their steady breaths causing their chests to rise and fall while they snuggled together. This felt like a significant moment that was about to change everything. And even though I was dead on my feet, I couldn’t pull myself away from the doorway.
Taking my phone from my vest pocket, I snapped a photo so I could save this memory forever.
22
lina
The sound of voices—one sweet and lilting and the other deep and rumbly—pulled me from the haze of sleep. The smell of bacon and coffee made my stomach growl as I stretched out in Penn’s bed. My eyes sprang open. I hadn’t meant to fall asleep in her bed, but when she started missing her dad, I had lain down beside her and we’d both fallen asleep.
I was alone in her twin-size princess bed now and I sat up, adjusting my hair in its messy bun before tiptoeing out to the kitchen where I heard Penn and Reed. I stopped at the couch. They hadn’t noticed me yet. Reed’s back was to me, holding Penn on his hip. He flipped bacon in the pan while Penn was talking his ear off about the movie collection I showed her in our basement. Her eyes had grown into the biggest saucers when I’d turned on the lights and she saw the floor-to-ceiling shelves of DVDs and old VHS tapes.
My heart did a little flip, and my ovaries made that funny little twinge again watching them together. To see a man as gruff and grumpy as Reed go completely soft for his daughter was absolutely panty-melting and heartwarming all at the same time.
“Hi,” I said, approaching the kitchen island. Reed turned, his eyes growing wide for a moment before softening and traveling over my frame.
“Hi,” he said back, his gaze returning to mine. Even with that one simple word, I could feel it reverberate through me and scatter goose bumps all over my skin.
My cheeks warmed.
“Lina!” Penn wriggled out of her dad’s hold to rush to me. I bent down for a hug, which allowed me to hide my blush.
“Hey, Princess Penn.” I grinned brightly.
She smiled wide. “You remembered!”
She insisted I call her Princess Penn last night after we finished watchingBeauty and theBeast. One of my favorite princess movies.
“Of course, milady.” I exaggerated a curtsy, causing Penn to giggle and jump up and down in her kitty slippers.
Over Penn’s head, Reed was frozen, tongs in hand. He bit his bottom lip as if attempting to keep himself from saying something. His dark eyes glinted in the early morning light, a sheen I hadn’t noticed before, and it made my breath hitch.
“Can we ride horsies after breakfast?” Penn asked, grabbing my hand and dragging me into the kitchen to stand beside her dad.
I had trouble pulling my eyes away from him. It was as if our gazes were locked—connected in a way I couldn’t explain. The air seemed to thicken now that I was this close to him, making it hard to breathe. His Adam’s apple bobbed on a swallow, and the muscle in his jaw ticked. I wanted to ask him if he, too, felt as though he couldn’t breathe.
Reed cleared his throat, forcing himself to break free from our stare. He seemed to recover quicker than me, noticing now that Penn had a hold of both of our hands. I gulped, seeing our hands gripped in her little dimpled ones.
Nerves flipped my stomach. What was this? What could this be? Could I take on a relationship with a man who was a dad?
“We can’t today, princess,” Reed was saying. “We’re going to the big house after we eat.”
