The only person I haven’t officially met yet is Katy. She steps towards me, brushing a hand over the dog’s head on her way, and then reaches out to wrap her arms around my neck in a hug. Her embrace is warm and soft, comforting, like my mom’s—and my senses are flooded with a familiar scent.Oranges. The way Ruth smelled the first day we met. The scent that drove me wild in my dreams until her vanilla perfume drowned it out.
I inhale, a shallow breath just barely filling half a lung with air, and when Katy releases me, she has a wide grin on her face. It doesn’t match the scowl on her boyfriend’s face, as he looms behind her, towering over both of us. He must be over six feet; legs a little apart, thick, muscled arms folded across his broad chest. If I hadn’t grown up staring bulls in the face on a daily basis, I might be intimidated.
“This is Pup, by the way,” she says, gesturing towards the dog. “He’s Jay’s assistance dog.” I think of Jay’s injury, and now that Katy has mentioned him, I remember Ruth telling me that Jay had been matched with a service dog.
I’m about to ask for permission to greet Pup when Maisy rushes over and grabs my hand. She immediately leads me to Jay and grabs his hand too.
“Unca Jay, Unca Evvy, you play!”
I guess we have our marching orders.
Jay and I spend the next hour with Cam and Maisy in the sun, kicking the beach ball around. Pup joins us briefly, and Maisy is thrilled with her canine playmate. She’s cute as hell, and clearly adored by all of her honorary aunts and uncles. And when she blinks up at me with earnest eyes, her stuffed dinosaur in one hand and a book in the other, I can’t help but fall a little bit in love with her, too.
“Katy smells like oranges,” I say later, when we’re finally alone. Ruth’s head snaps around to catch my eye. “You—you smelled like oranges the first time we met. I dreamed of that smell.”
“You dreamed of my best friend’s perfume?” Ruth asks with a wry smile. She sits on the edge of the bed beside me, wrapping her body around mine and resting her chin on my shoulder.
“Only because I thought it was yours,” I admit. I tip my head until it meets hers and close my eyes, exhaling slowly and completely. My mind and body both begin to finally relax after a day of functioning at full speed. It only hits me now how exhausted I am from a day that began before dawn with ranch chores, followed by a drive to the airport and a two hour flight. Two world-rocking orgasms took it out of me, too. Add in meeting a bunch of new people, one of whom hated me on sight, and several hours spent running around and playing with a three-year-old spitfire, and I could fall asleep standing without even trying.
“I borrowed her jacket that time,” Ruth explains. “She drove me to the airport and I realised halfway there, I hadn’t packed one. She had that blazer on the back seat. It’s a bit big on me, but it’s so soft and comfy.”
“And it made you smell like oranges.”
“It made me smell like oranges,” Ruth confirms. “I don’t smell like oranges anymore.”
“No,” I agree.Sweet vanilla, and just a hint of espresso.“You smell likemine.” I push her down onto the mattress, covering her body with my own and capturing her lips in a kiss that’s neither bruising nor tender, just somewhere in between. The happy medium kind of kiss, I guess. Our tongues slide together in a perfectly choreographed dance, and I tangle my fingers in Ruth’s hair, still spent from earlier, and content to just kiss her and enjoy this closeness.
In a lot of ways, it’s this closeness I crave the most when we’re apart. Just being with her. Holding her, kissing her. Don’t get me wrong—sex with Ruth is like nothing I’ve ever known. She is the sun, the moon, and all of the stars; she sets my soul alight with a simple glance—to say nothing of what her touch does to me. But this soft intimacy, this togetherness… this is what feels likehome.
Chapter thirty-eight
Ruth
My friends have fallenin love with Everett just the way I knew they would. He fits into our little ragtag group perfectly. Jay is still weary, keeping his distance, but even over the last twenty-four hours, I can see how much Everett has worn him down, just by being his perfect self.
He’s won Maisy over the most. She adores him already, and she loves having someone new to chase around and roar like a dinosaur with. He’s proven himself a worthy airport builder, too. Right now, he and Cam are busy at the grill, cooking up a storm. I’ve been in the kitchen for a lot of the afternoon, with a rotation of helping hands from my brother and my best friends, throwing together an enormous array of side dishes to supplement our feast. You’d be forgiven for thinking we’re preparing a banquet for a hundred, given the amount of food, but it’s just eight of us—and Pup, of course.
I settle into one of the Adirondack chairs on the porch with a crisp glass of wine in my hand. There’s a lot going on in the back yard: Katy and Jay are running around with Maisy and Pup. Paloma is crouched nearby, snapping photographs with a peaceful smile on her face. Amie is sat on the side of the pool, reapplying sunscreen. But my eyes are fixed on one man, at the other end of the wraparound porch.
Not only is he an absolute god, sexy as hell, and the nicest man in the world—he’s a damn good grill master, too, if the mouthwateringsmell is anything to go by. I guess that’s to be expected, growing up on a ranch. Grilling and barbecuing kind of comes with the territory, at least as far as I can tell. Most of the meals I’ve eaten when I’ve been on the ranch with Everett have been grilled outdoors and shared with family.
“Roo!”
I tear my eyes from where I’ve been admiring the way Everett fills out his jeans, to see Amie waving me over from the pool.
“Come and get some sun!”
She has her own glass of wine sat in the small, shaded spot at one end of the pool, so I grab my own and trot down the steps to join her. When I reach her, I fling off my beach kaftan and let it fall to the ground, revealing a maroon two-piece swimsuit underneath.
“That’s better. Girl, you’re too pale.”
“Girl, you’re too brown,” I bite back with a grin. “We can’t all be jet-setting to tropical islands every week.”
“Your man lives in Texas, babe. Time to get some of that year-round sunshine.”
A giddy thrill ripples across my skin when Amie refers tomy man. Sometimes it still feels like a dream to think that of all the women in the world, Everett Tanner chose me.
Moments later, Paloma plops herself down on the edge of the pool beside us.
