“Not like you’re at Grey’s admitting you’re a virgin since a two-year-ago divorce before a one-night stand.”
“This is a literal saddle you’re climbing back up into.”Boone high-fived Cash.
“Still in high school?”Telford muttered, but despite being a little embarrassed, he had to fight the urge to smile.
He’d never had easy camaraderie with men.He’d been the youngest on many of the construction crews when he and Cam had first started building their business, and he’d had a lot to prove to Cam and the men.Then his job became mostly cerebral and in the background—research, crunching numbers, strategizing.
A hazy outline of how his life could be different tantalized him.
Instinctively, he looked over River’s back to find Ayana watching him.Maddy was filming them saddling up.Riley and Petal, Witt’s daughter, who was also Cash’s sister—and his—led several horses out into the arena for Maddy and Ayana to choose one to ride.
“You still look goofy when you look at her,” Cash noted.“And don’t say it.I went from zero to one hundred with Maddy in less than a week, so I know I look stupid boots over spurs about that woman.Plan to stay that way.How long you been married?”
Telford tested the saddle’s girth buckle one last time.Fed River a carrot and hoisted himself up.Settled.Felt right.He looked at Cash, wondered how much to say.How little.
“Maybe it’s genetic,” he deadpanned even though the DNA results hadn’t hit his inbox yet.“Met her not quite two weeks ago at lunch.Proposed that night.Married in Marietta on Monday.”
He let Cash goggle over that while he lightly tapped River’s flank and rode out of the arena into the yard where Rohan and Taryn Telford waited with about eight friends of Cash’s from the American Extreme Bull Riding Tour.They were in town, most with spouses or girlfriends, for the weekend wedding and associated activities.
Riley, Boone’s wife Piper, Petal, and her friend Arlo were going to lead a trail ride and picnic with the women, which was going to feature a tarot card reader and someone who read tea leaves, auras, and palms.Telford was relieved that the men’s group was just going to ride—do some archery, and eat before coming back.Tonight the bachelors were heading to someplace called FlintWorks for beer and music, and the women were headed to the cowboy bar, Grey’s Saloon, for pink drinks and dinner before the men joined them for dancing.
All of it should sound awful, but Cash had asked him and Ayana to attend.He’d known he should say yes, but the flash of excitement in Ayana’s eyes had sealed the deal.He usually used work as an excuse to escape social engagements, but he hadn’t done much work since hitting Marietta.Not that he’d abandoned the idea of building a legacy for Cam.He hadn’t, but he knew his friend well enough that he would approve that Telford was doing a little legacy foundational building of his own.
He was beginning to contemplate the idea of buying land closer.And for that, he should probably have a sit-down with the man who quite likely was his uncle—Taryn Telford.So far, he’d spent time with his sons and Cash.
“Seriously”—Cash rode up next to him, blocking him in, navy eyes, so eerily like his flashing—“you can’t lay something out like that and then ride away like it’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing,” Telford admitted, a little shocked he’d been so free with information.
Should he have asked Ayana first?Did he want to tell his brother about the one-year contract?No.
“But you got guests, and this is your party, meaning you need to host up.”
He rode over to check on Ayana, who’d admitted that she’d ridden horses in Austria, France, and Romania and donkeys in Greece while she’d worked on river cruises.
“You situated?”He wanted to ask so much more—was she sore from last night?
As overwhelmed as he was, but her shining eyes gave her away.
“Better than.”She smiled at him and blew him a kiss.
And that would have to hold him until later.
*
“We’re short ontime.”Ayana grabbed his hand and raced up the grand, historic staircase to the second and then toward the third floor.“I’ve had the most fantastic day,” she enthused.“It’s like a dream—the challenges and teamwork, the ride out in the beautiful, sprawling ranch, and a picnic lunch.It was like a movie.”
“Not that short on time,” he objected, though he’d run up with her.
He cursed as he almost missed a step.
“Tired and sour from riding a couple of miles,” she teased, gently because he’d been deep in his head on the way back to town.
She’d noticed Cash poked at him a bit and Telford had poked back, and it had made her happy as well as sad because she no longer had Alissa to share inside jokes with.
Not that our life had leaned into joking or laughing.
Still, she’d tried to steal moments of fun and beauty with her sister.Create the illusion of freedom, even though the Family’s leadership was vigilant, looking for mistakes and setting painful or humiliating examples.
