The rest of the day is filled with far too many laughs about the trouble we nearly got into in the dressing room on Main, and a few texts from Andrew that I’ve been ignoring. There’s no reason to open them. I don’t want to know what he’s thinking. Tonight is about the distillery, Cash and his brothers, and that’s all. Everything else is going to have to wait.
“He has no proof it was you,” Bella says, twisting a curling iron around my hair. “Plus, if I had a day like yours, Andrew would be the last thing on my mind.”
“Kind of is,” I grin, “and maybe that’s a problem. I’ve sunk so far into this delusion now that I’m being careless.”
“Come on. It’s not careless to have fun.” Bella arches her brow as she looks toward me in the mirror. “So, you’re into him, like throw everything else aside… into him?”
“I thought that was obvious.”
“It is! So send off an email to the people in Dallas, officially turn down that job, pack your bags, and move into the ranch immediately.”
I think about the way Cash asked me what I wanted in the barn. How demanding he was. How dominant. How he needed me so badly that he bent me over right there and took me.
A gush of wetness soaks my panties. I swear, if we don’t stay together, I’m going to be replaying today for the rest ofeternity. Hell, I probably will regardless. There’s no doubt in my mind that for the rest of my life I’ll be thinking about today over and over again.
“Have you figured out how you’re going to act around your dad yet?”
I close my eyes as Bella sprays texture spray over my curls. I could’ve done my own hair, but she’s here to watch the kids for us and insisted on helping. “No. I’m going to do that thing where I don’t think about it at all and just hope everything works out.”
“Oh,” she laughs, “smart!”
“I thought so.” I run my fingers through my hair, a knot in my stomach where hunger usually lives. “I am worried about this rain, though. Cash didn’t get to moving the gravel in the creek and they’re calling for record rainfall tonight.”
“It’ll be fine. The weather people are consistently wrong. They called for that huge snow storm this February and we got like an inch.”
She’s not wrong. That does happen more times than not, but I still worry about the barn and the animals. Though vintage and interesting, the barn’s structure isn’t set up to withstand severe flooding.
“Damn,” Cash says, stepping into the bathroom, his eyes on me in the long black dress he bought me today after our dressing room fun. “You look gorgeous!”
“That’s ‘cause she is, Dad!” Cora hops into the bathroom like a frog. Jake is right behind her like a rabbit, nodding his head slightly.
My eyes want to pay attention to the kids, but they’re drifting upward constantly. They’ve never seen Cash looking so refined. Usually, he’s in jeans and a work T-shirt, which I’m not complaining about, but I’ve never seen him like this. A pair of slacks, a vest, a button-down shirt beneath with the sleeves rolled, his dark ink and corded arms on display.
He’s hot as hell!
“You okay, Ms. V?” Cora pokes my leg and I drop my gaze to hers, swallowing hard.
“Yeah. I just thought Daddy looked pretty handsome too.”
“My dad looks like an alien,” she says, suddenly standing and talking like a robot. “He doesn’t belong on this planet.”
“I don’t, huh?” Cash grabs her up and tickles her little belly before rolling her down the hallway and grabbing up Jake who’s giggling along with Cora.
“Both of you better be good for Bella tonight, or no candy for breakfast!” Cash laughs and tickles both the kids as they ram into him again.
The man is perfection, the kids are perfection, and I have no clue how anyone ever walked away from this.
“I think it’s time to play submarines,” Bella says, gripping up a kid in each arm. She teaches preschool, and it’s obvious why she’s so good at it. Sometimes, I think she’s just a big kid herself.
“Submarines!” The kids squirm as Bella offers Cash and I a wink as she mouths the word‘run’toward us.
We laugh and head downstairs, my heart thumping wildly as I breathe Cash in. Masculine and massive, while also hot and sweet. He’s everything.
“One thing before we go.” He hands me a gift bag from the kitchen counter. “It’s our first official date, I suppose, though I guess the dressing room could have also counted.” He’s stammering on his words, which isn’t like him. “First date or not, I wanted to get you this.”
A gift? He got me a gift!
If anyone should be getting a gift right now, it should be me buyinghimsomething. It’shisbig night. It’s the premiere of his dad’s whiskey at the distillery. The guys have spent months putting this together. They had to find the book, decipher an oldrecipe, build hype, and set up the party. Cashdeserves the gift, not me.
