Proof that I exist.
Why had that popped in?She’d eschewed negative thoughts for years.She thought of optimism and confidence as her hard-woven freedom flags.
“Tonight will end that drought.”Piper smiled.“You are on a legacy ranch in Montana.Home of cowboy sightings.I grew up all over—military brat.I met Boone in California eight years ago.I followed him on the pro rodeo circuit for a spring and summer and never looked back.Telford men are impossible to resist.”
Ayana was impressed that Piper was leading the conversation without any backup from the other women—probably also Telfords—who stood in a different area of the arena near a stack of plastic totes with color-coded lids.One of them held an iPad and pointed up to the rafters in the large wooden barn that looked old but well kept.
“You got that right,” Ayana said, feeling a spurt of mischief rise up.Should she say how she and Telford knew each other?“I didn’t even bother to try.”
“Me neither,” Piper said.“I fell like a redwood tree.”She propped one elbow on her other palm and mimed timber, slapping her hand down on her upper arm.“I was a goner with one look from his sparkly blue eyes and his smile.Soul mate.”
Ayana smiled, ignored the yarn in her lap.
“When you first saw Telford did you know?”Piper asked.
“Know what?”
“He was it?The one?”She combed her fingers through her hair.“I wasn’t even looking.I’d just completed my massage therapist certifications and was chilling on a paddleboard.I saw Boone on the shore.He rented a board and paddled out to meet me.He’d never been in the ocean before, never been on a board, but he was a bronc rider, abs of steel, balance of a yogi, and he rode the waves like…” Her eyes went dreamy.She laughed.“Sorry.Not sorry.I’ve been listening to too many audio romances during my workouts.I can’t listen to them anymore on my drive into town for work because we have two kids who are no longer babies or toddlers, and a third due in six months, God willing.”She brushed her lower abdomen, clearly excited about her news.
Ayana stared, fascinated.Do you want children?Telford had asked.Her instinct was always no.A child would hold her back, be so difficult to protect.But Piper seemed like she had freedom and independence to work, to drive into town, talk to a stranger without supervision.Telford had said he’d never leave a child.
Never.
“Congratulations.”Ayana stumbled through the word.“Paddleboard,” she tagged on.Sheesh, she was rattled.
“It’s too late to warn you those Telford men won’t quit when there’s something they want.”Piper laughed, but Ayana’s stomach lurched.
There were children on the ranch.Families.A wedding next weekend.Tarek Telford had practically threatened to arrive—did he intend something nefarious?Should she and Telford warn his family?
“How’d you meet?”Piper clearly expected them to become friends with confidences, and a longing rose up in Ayana.
She hadn’t had that—not really.Roommates out of necessity, but not a true friend.
“At his office,” she answered honestly, her voice a little choked.
“A work romance,” Piper said, delighted.“Sounds like there’s a story there.”
“Ahhh not exactly, but it was quick.”
“A Telford man knows what he wants and makes his move.Boone had only swum in a swimming hole on the ranch, before he mounted the paddleboard to charge into the ocean to meet me.Said it was easier than a buckin’ bronc.”
“Telford showing up without contacting the family first isn’t causing consternation?”Ayana asked curiously.
“This family…” Piper smiled fondly.“They’re like sixth-generation Montana ranchers.Family is everything.The land, stewardship of the land, and the animals and community drive them.I didn’t realize how much I craved that.They have a code and are first to jump in when anyone needs something.”
Ayana listened, finding it hard to believe though Piper’s face shone with honesty.
“When Rohan and Cash heard a wedding guest had arrived at the Graff that looked like his twin, we all thought, here we go again.Find out friend or foe.”
“So, you were suspicious,” Ayana clarified, relieved.
The Telfords had much to protect.And while Telford didn’t intend to do them dirty, there was still the possibility of Tarek Telford.But maybe they were already on guard.
“We’re big-hearted but not naïve,” Piper said.She stood.“Oh.Hang on.They’re bringing in the first bull, Destiny, to the chute.”
Ayana didn’t understand what that sentence meant, but she put her work aside and stood up to watch the group of men—some standing back, others actively engaged in something that looked and sounded dangerous.Telford stood apart, posture erect, hands in the pocket of the barn coat he’d purchased at the western wear store.He was the only man who didn’t wear a cowboy hat, and she wondered if she should have pushed harder for him to buy the hat.Maybe he’d feel more the part.It wasn’t like she had any cowgirl history in her lineage.
Riley, whom she’d met at the Java Café, stood with the men.She was tricked out in western wear that looked like it was for work, not an aesthetic.She spoke animatedly, sweeping her arm wide, and then she spun on her heel, vaulted the arena fencing, making the fringe on her chaps dance when she strode off.Another tall, dark cowboy, also wearing chaps, smiled and vaulted the fence one-handed to follow her.
