I bit my lip, suddenly realizing this was a pretty heavy conversation for only knowing him for such a short time.
“What?” he asked.
“You’ve got a huge family,” I said, stating the obvious. “Now that I know who they are, I know it’s not just my brother and Lainey who are having babies this year.”
Zeb grinned. “Yeah, I think my brothers–and yours–are fucking like rabbits.”
I blushed, thinking about what we just did. We’d gone from being virgins to having oral sex and taking sex pictures out in the open. Photos! I hadn’t eventhoughtof the things we did before yesterday. My pussy was still sore from the night before. “I’m–”
“You’re not ready to have a baby,” he said, finishing for me. “I respect it.”
I frowned. “What about you? You want kids?”
“Hell, yeah. But not right now.”
“Yeah, we just met. Besides, you’re going to probably go pro with football and–”
“Nope.”
I paused. Tipped my head again.
“No?” I asked, frowning. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to do that. I want to run the ranch with my family. Like my brother Buck. He and I are the most alike, I think.”
That surprised me. Of course, until a few hours ago, I only knew the football college student version of Zeb. I saw how everyone adored him for his throwing arm. I saw it in action in the game. He was good. Amazing, even. It was the next step for a winning player like him, to go pro. “You do?”
“Yeah. I got a full ride for football, so I took it. Other kids would kill for that opportunity I was given and I wasn’t going to squander it. But I’d be content to quit right now and stay home. Here.” He waved his arm like a rainbow. “Never leave this.”
Oh.
My heart felt like it fell off a horse and got stomped on.
I had two years left of school. I wanted to be a teacher. No, I wasgoingto be one. I couldn’t quit if I wanted to keep that dream. I needed the degree.
Yet, sitting here in his favorite spot on his family’s ranch, Stetson on his head, it was much easier to see why Zeb wasn’t interested in school. Not like I was. He was an ag major, which would help him with whatever he wanted to do on the ranch, but he didn’t need it.
He just said this was exactly where he wanted to be.
So was this temporary, us? Or did he expect me to give up my dream for his?
“We should get back,” I said, pushing up to my feet, then brushing my butt. I wasn’t wearing panties. Zeb had pulled out his pocket knife and cut them off since he’d ruined them. I didn’t miss the way he’d tucked them along with the knife back in his pocket.
I started walking toward the horses which were grazing nearby. My cheeks stung from the chill, but it didn’t matter. I didn’t really know Zeb and he mentioned marriage in the car.
Mom had been in a marriage that had been horrible. Her first one to Beau’s dad. I didn’t think Zeb was physically or verbally abusive like her first husband had been toward her, but Zeb’s dreams didn’t align with mine. Mom had been stuck, pregnant and with no way to support herself and Beau if they left. It’d taken her years stuck in a horrible marriage to escape. I couldn’t quit college to be here on the ranch with Zeb. I would lose my chance at a career, at making my own money and making myself self-sufficient in a way Mom hadn’t been.
“Whoa there, what’s going on?” Zeb asked, catching up. He reached out and his fingers brushed my arm.
I looked to him.
“What’s the matter, sweetheart? Don’t you like it here?”
I huffed and shook my head. “Yeah, of course. It’s amazing.”
He smiled and pointed at the ground. “Then this is where we’ll live.”
I gave a little head shake and he studied me. Iwasn’t used to the Stetson and it only was a very big reminder of what Zeb really was, deep down.
