AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Nineteen
Nate had never told a woman he loved her, and he’d never kissed a woman he loved. He’d just done one and was currently doing the other, and he’d never known such joy. How an amazing woman like Ginger could love him, Nate didn’t understand.
But he believed it, because he could feel it in her kiss.
He’d seen the other woman sitting beside Ginger at the pool, so he didn’t kiss her as long as he wanted to. He couldn’t believe the Warden had said he could walk through the hotel to the pool by himself, but he had. Apparently, the guy who owned this hotel used to work at River Bay as a Unit Manager, and when he’d retired from the prison system, he’d bought the hotel. He’d called to say Connor and Ginger were at the pool, and the Warden had simply let Nate get out of the car and walk inside.
No one had looked at him. No one could tell he’d been in prison just by looking at him.
“I have to be back at the ranch tonight,” he said. “It’s part of the release paperwork.”
“Do you have that paperwork?” Ginger asked, turning in his arms and leaning into his body. She kept her arms wrapped around his waist as they watched Connor adjust his goggles and dive under the water again.
“Yes,” Nate said. “I set it on the table back there.”
“So six more months,” Ginger said.
“I’m actually hoping for longer than that,” he said.
“You have always been quite hopeful,” she teased, and Nate liked that there was absolutely no tension between them. No need for more apologies. No wordy declarations. “My hopeful cowboy.”
“Thank you for forgiving me.”
“Thank you for forgivingme,” she repeated. “We’ll go as soon as Spencer gets back.”
“Where is he?”
“You’re never going to believe this,” she said. “But he met a woman at the beach yesterday, and they went to breakfast.”
Nate laughed, and the sound was glorious and wonderful, and Nate wanted to laugh this freely every day for the rest of his life. “Sounds like Spencer.”
“Right?” Ginger nodded toward the chair she’d been sitting in. “I was just getting my payroll done.”
“Go finish it,” Nate said. “I’ll go sit with Connor.” He pressed his lips to her temple, and Ginger stepped over to the chair and picked up her tablet. Nate stepped out into the sun and said, “Connor, show me how you float on your back.”
* * *
Later that night,after they’d packed and loaded Ginger’s truck, after they’d driven back to Hope Eternal Ranch, after Nate had been out to the stables to see the horses he’d left behind, he picked up his cowboy hat and said, “Come on, Connor. We’re eatin’ next door tonight.”
Somehow, everyone else had left the Annex without him and Connor, so Nate took the little boy’s hand and led him out the back door, across the deck, and down the stairs to the grass. “What did you and Ginger do while I was gone?”
“I got to sleep in Spencer’s room,” Connor said, though Nate already knew that. He’d spent some time this afternoon gathering all the little boy things from Spencer’s bedroom and thanking the man profusely.
“Yep,” Nate said. “And what else?”
“One time, Jack took me on the four-wheeler.”
“Did you like it?”
“Yep.”
“What did you eat?”
“Dad, Emma made grilled peanut butter sandwiches.” Connor danced in front of Nate, his face animated with wide eyes. “Can you believe it? They were so good, and maybe she’ll make them again.”
“Maybe I can ask her how she did it, and then I can make them.” He wasn’t sure how to make the two pieces of bread stick together if the peanut butter melted, but Emma would tell him.
“But you have to use the right kind of bread,” Connor said.
