one month later
“Cleo!”
I looked up at the sound of a slamming car door, watching Charlie run toward me at a dead sprint across the gravel driveway in front of my parents’ house. “Hey sunshine!” I said, laughing as she slammed into me with the force of a freight train. If I hadn’t braced for impact, we both would’ve crashed to the ground. “How was the drive?”
Charlie huffed, blowing a piece of loose hair out of her face. “Way too long. I got so bored. Daddy kept telling me to be patient, which I don’t like, but then he told me he’d give me ten dollars for every hour I stayed quiet. I told him I’d do it for twenty, and he agreed.” She looked around and lowered her voice. “I would’ve done it for some Sour Patch Kids.”
This was where I probably should’ve told her that extorting her dad wasn’t the best idea, but honestly, I couldn’t fault her. She damn sure knew her worth. Who was I to tell her otherwise?
“Your secret’s safe with me,” I said, pantomiming zipping my lips tight.
“What secret would that be?” came a familiar voice. I looked up to find Liv ambling toward us, a knowing smile on her lips as she stood behind her daughter.
Charlie’s eyes grew wide as she quickly blurted, “Nothing, Momma,” before running toward the barn. Liv and I both turned around to watch her skip down the alley where Lennox was waiting with open arms.
“Did she extort Grady for cash again?” Liv asked, biting down on her lip.
I nodded, stifling my own laugh. “Yup. She sure did.”
“I swear the kid is going to be the death of me,” she sighed, turning back to give me a hug. Over the past month, she and I had grown close. Sometimes it felt strange confiding about my relationship with my boyfriend’s ex-wife. Maybe it would’ve been different if Liv hadn't been so damn likeable. Our situation was anything but conventional, but we made it work all the same. “It’s so good seeing you again, Cleo. Grady’s been driving me crazy. The amount of sulking?—”
At the mention of Grady’s name, my gaze drifted over Liv’s shoulder toward the man in question, who was shaking hands with Bishop and Lincoln. Whatever Liv had been saying faded into the background as all of my attention was focused straight ahead. He was wearing a tight black T-shirt that hugged his body like a second skin and a backward baseball cap. His sun-kissed skin seemed even more golden than it had last time I saw him.
It’d only been two weeks, but it might as well have been an eternity. According to Lennox, I’d grown to be quite the lovesick fool while Grady had been gone, which might have been true. She caught me doodlingMrs. Grady Wildeon one of the livestock invoices the other day. I wasn’t sure I’d ever really live that down.
When all three guys headed our way and Grady’s burning gaze locked on me, I took off at a run. I could hear the hoots and hollers around us as I jumped into his arms and kissed him. He slid his hand up my back, gripping my neck and holding me close until I’d completely melded my body to his.
Would I ever get used to this feeling? I hoped not. Every time he kissed me, touched me, or even looked in my direction, I felt a rush of excitement, reminiscent of when I was sixteen.
“God, I missed you,” I mumbled against his lips.
“Never leave me like that again,” he said back, setting me down on my feet. “I didn’t sleep for shit without you in my bed.”
“One,” I said, swatting at his chest. I let my hand linger on his taut muscles just because I could. After all, I hadn’t been able to gawk at him in weeks. A girl deserved a little eye candy. “You left me. I’ve been right here all along. And two?—”
Grady captured my lips again in a bruising kiss. “Semantics,” he said, cutting me off. “I don’t ever want to be without you again.”
“Pretty soon, that won’t be a worry.”
He looked over his shoulder at the moving truck parked in the driveway. Josie, Lennox, Lincoln, Bishop, and I had spent most of the day filling it with boxes of childhood memories and what little belongings I had left at the house.
Okay, in reality, my sisters and I mostly watched while the guys did the heavy lifting, but supervisors were important, too. Besides, I needed to soak up every minute I could with my niece while I could.
I wasn’t sure I’d come to terms with the fact I was moving to Tennessee. In my head, Black Springs Ranch was still my home. This was the land that raised me, after all. It would continue to do so for my sisters and their growing families, too.
Josie and Lincoln were already talking about having another kid, and I reckoned Lennox and Bishop wouldn’t take long tofollow after their wedding next spring. Maybe sooner, given how often they were at it. Nothing would surprise me at this point.
Moving wasn’t a choice I made lightly, but it felt right. Grady, Liv, and I talked about it extensively before they headed back to Tennessee. They were willing to do whatever it took to make our relationship a possibility, even talking about buying a home in Ashwood to live there part-time. But at the end of the day, I couldn’t let them. They had made a life for themselves in Nashville. It was the only home Charlie had ever known. I wouldn’t have felt right if Liv or Grady missed out on time with their daughter because I was unwilling to move.
As much as I loved the ranch and those who lived on it, it never felt like home to me. Try as I might, most of my life was spent attempting to change everything about myself so I was more like my sisters. All I wanted was a place to call my own. A place that was as comforting as it was exciting.
Color me surprised when I realized that the feeling came from a person, not a dot on the map.
With Grady, I didn’t have to be anyone other than who I was. He knew every part of me—the good, the bad, and the particularly ugly—and loved them fiercely. My insecurities didn’t bleed out as often. Instead of living life in my head, I could spend my days basking in his love and adoration.
“It won’t be long at all.” Grady put his hand in my back pocket and squeezed, letting loose a deep growl that sent goosebumps skittering across my skin. “Is it horrible that all I can think about is getting you into our brand new home and christening every single surface? Those countertops are just begging to have your bare ass imprinted on the marble, and the leather couches…”
“Maybe we could just leave now? I’m sure the others would understand,” I murmured. After two weeks of nothing but a handful of phone calls and the random risqué text, I wasn’t ashamed to admit I was just as ravenous for him as he was forme. He’d spent most of the past few weeks either talking with lawyers and his PR team about the divorce or house hunting.
