Page 31 of Kicking Up Dust

“You don’t need to be nervous. They’re all going to love you.”

“Nervous is practically my middle name.”

“No, Marie’s your middle name. Like my little sister, Tate. You two can bond over that, maybe. And Kenny loves kids and is probably the sweetest person you’ll ever meet, so she’ll be easy. She’ll be a teacher in the fall. Bailey may be a bit harder, but she’ll come around too. Jameson radiates sunshine, and Maddox is… well he’s a bit of an asshole, but he’s been mostly quiet lately anyway, so he shouldn’t give you too much trouble. Mama’s the only one you have to worry about and that’s just because she’ll probably try to smother you to death with hugs.”

I laugh. He’s told me all about his siblings during our phone calls and the drive, but it still feels like there’s too many for me to remember all of their names. I wasn’t really good with names. Too many years of people coming and going. My brain gave up trying.

“I’m not nervous about whether or not they’ll like me.”

He steers to the left with just the bottom of his hand, and I curse my hormones again. He’d driven with his hands at ten and two the whole drive yesterday, but now that he was more relaxed, he was an unfortunately sexy driver. I’d had a hard time trying to find something he wasn’t sexy doing, though.

“I know they’ll like me because they love you and I assume they’re excited about the baby based on what you’ve said, but like… I’m just the buckle bunny you knocked up as far as they’re concerned, aren’t I?”

“You’re not a buckle bunny, first of all,” he says, a bit too sternly. He brings my hand up to his lips to kiss my knuckles as though he’s expecting me to burst into tears again.

I roll my eyes. “As far as they’re concerned,” I repeat.

“As far as they’re concerned, you’re my girl and the mother of my baby. You’ll be loved and respected the same as any other member of the family, Blair. I swear it. If something feels off, let me know and I’ll handle it, but I genuinely don’t expect anything to go badly. I promise, pretty girl,” he says, pulling up to a large metal gate garnished by a decorative cow head, a W and R on either side of it.

“Welcome to Whittaker Ranch,” he whispers as he hits a button clipped to his visor, causing the gates to swing wide.

It’s beautiful. Colt points things out when we pass them as we travel along the long, winding dirt road leading onto the property. The land seems to go on forever, thwarted only by the mountains in the distance. I’ve never seen mountains. Only concrete jungles and beaches.

“There’s so many cows,” I whisper without meaning to as we pass a pasture full, a bunch of baby cows with what I can only assume are their mothers. I snap a couple of pictures for the girls as we pass, and Colt slows down a bit to make it easier for me.

“Yeah, that’s kind of our thing,” Colt replies with a grin that makes me roll my eyes. “It’s a cow farm⁠—”

“There’s gonna be cows outside, I know, I know.”

I don’t even realize my nerves have melted away until they slam back into me full force when he parks the truck in front of what I can only assume is the place he’s been calling the Big House when he talks about it on the phone.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he says gently, turning my head to face him with a knuckle against my chin. “It’s going to be fine. Maddie and Jamie are probably already working, so you’ll probably just be meeting the girls and Mama. We won’t hang out long. I’ll make some excuse about showing you around, but if you need to dip earlier, just give me a signal and I’ll get us out of there.”

“What kind of signal?”

He puffs out a breath of air like I’ve asked him to name every country alphabetically off the top of his head, exaggerated on purpose to make me laugh. It works, a bit.

“I don’t know. Slap me across the face, maybe?”

“Oh yeah, that’ll really make your mom like me.”

“I think she’d agree I need some sense knocked into me every now and again. But I see your point. A pinch, perhaps?”

“Or I could just nonchalantly scratch my eyebrow?” I offer.

Colt makes a show of rolling his eyes. “I mean, sure, if you want to be boring about it.”

“Boring sounds better than abusive, yeah.”

My door swings open, making me gasp.

“Are you guys just gonna sit out here forever or what?” A woman not much younger than me asks. She’s got brown hair—lighter than Colt’s and pin-straight—and blue eyes, with freckles across the bridge of her nose.

“I’m Tate,” she says. “Short for Tatum, but only Maddie calls me that.”

Colt sighs. “I’m telling Tyler you touched a door handle,” he grumbles at his sister before getting out of the truck and rounding the back.

“Blair.” Colt nudges his sister out of the way with his shoulder, offering me his hand to help me down as though it’s so far to the ground.