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“Which one?”
“Rhett. I told him to have his ass, excuse me,” Clyde says, briefly turning back toward me before continuing, “buttover here to greet our Poppy.”
Our Poppy.
That feels nice.
“I really don’t mind the swearing,” I chime in, leaning toward the two of them. “I was brought up in the backwoods around a lot of boys who had no manners.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t try to have them now,” Clyde teases, winking at me just like his son did a moment ago.
“Not sure. Last I saw, he was out messin’ with the cattle fence out near the rocks. Probably got caught up. Where’s Momma?”
“Ah,” Clyde says, waving a hand in Wells’ general direction. “Out with the kids somewhere. Who knows?”
“Alright, well, I’m gonna take Poppy here on a little tour around the ranch and then come back to grab her stuff.” Wells opens the back screen door and gestures for me to go through it. “We’ll be back in a bit. If Rhett shows up, send him down to the dogs.”
“Don’t let him run you ragged!” Clyde calls after us.
I laugh at Clyde and then do a little jog down the back stairs to catch up with Wells. We’re heading out toward a barn off the back of the house.
“Much easier to travel by ATV,” he tells me when I catch up. “We have a fuck ton of them, so we’ll get you one to keep parked by your cabin. Help you catch a few extra minutes of beauty sleep.”
“Thought you were going to try to have some manners,” I tease.
He shrugs. “Figured you should probably get used to it sooner rather than later. Because once you meet Rhett, you’ll be lucky to have a single sentence come out of his mouth that doesn’t have profanity in it.”
“I think I’ll survive.”
For the first time, he looks me over. But this doesn’t feel like he’s checking me out, more just appreciating the way I carry myself. He nods.
“I bet you will, Poppy. I bet you will.”
He uses those strong rancher arms to rip back the barn door. It creaks and moans under the stress of moving, and damn, do I relate to that. Once I hit twenty-five, it was like my joints decided to just quit on me. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.
“So…ATVs, huh? A fuck ton of them?”
“Yep!” He pops hisP, too. I like this guy. “This one’ll be yours. Got it cleaned and gassed up.”
Pulling back the tarp that was over it, he reveals a gorgeous Polaris RZR. I’d know one anywhere. We used to have these and would drive them around our small town at night to get to each other’s houses. I distinctly remember smoking weed for the first time out of a Coke can in one years ago.
“Ever ridden in one?” he asks, pulling me out of my memory bank.
“Many,” I tell him, climbing into the passenger seat. “Drove them, too.”
“Well, aren’t you full of surprises, city slicker?”
I roll my eyes at that little nickname I’ve been given. If only he knew where I grew up…saw the double wide I called home. He might look at me a bit differently.
“Where to first?” I buckle in and relax back in the seat, making sure to tuck my dress between my thighs. Don’t need that blowing up in the wind.
“Figured I’d drive you around the main spots on the property.” The engine revs to life, and I throw my head back in laughter when he wags his eyebrows at me. “Then I’ll take you down to the dogs!” he shouts over the roaring noise.
We jerk forward and roll through the barn doors before he guns it, and we’re off. I grab onto one of the bars above my head and smile wide. This is the most fun I’ve had in ages, and I’ve only been here for all of twenty minutes. I can’t imagine how the rest of my time here is going to go, but I’m incredibly optimistic.
I’m giddy from it all. This is turning out to be the best decision I’ve made for my life. The scenery opens up as we race through the fields, showing off the blues and pinks of the mountains as the sun shines down on them. The animals graze, and the birds fly overhead. Wells’ cologne mixes with the hint of gasoline from the ATV, and I breathe it in like it’s life-giving.
Yeah, I think to myself as I tilt my head back and close my eyes against the sunshine. This is where I belong.
