Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 112903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
I’m thrilled with how it went. I’m also dead on my feet as I watch Dad and Vance clean up the stall.
“I truly can’t thank y’all enough.” Ava’s gaze catches on mine. “You really are talented. When the Wallaces asked me to start their training program here—”
“Training program?” Wyatt asks.
“They’re hoping to get involved in the barrel racing circuit,” I explain. “Breed horses, train riders. A little bit of everything.”
Which, come to think of it, could be an opportunity worth investigating. I’ve operated plenty on racehorses.
“But, yeah,” Ava continues, “I didn’t realize the level of expertise y’all would have in Hartsville in terms of veterinary care. I’ve truly never seen anything like it, and I feel like I’ve seen it all.”
“How long were you on the circuit?” I ask.
Ava gets a wistful look in her eyes. “Five years, but I feel like I’d trained my whole life for it.”
“You miss it?”
“Yes and no. I was ready to be done. When I got pregnant with my daughter, I knew it was time.”
“Oh!” Wyatt lights up. “How old is your daughter?”
“She’s three.”
I look at Wyatt. “We need to introduce her to Ella, don’t we?”
“My brother also has a three-year-old little girl,” Wyatt explains. “Fun age.”
“Very fun. And very intense.”
“We’ll have to get y’all together.”
Ava smiles. “I’d like that.”
“Are you trying to set Ava up with Sawyer?” I ask when Wyatt and I are safely out of earshot in his truck.
Wyatt chuckles. “Hell yeah I’m trying to set Ava up with Sawyer. They both have three-year-old girls. They’re both lonely.”
“How do you know Ava’s lonely? No, wait. How do you even know if she’s single?”
He shrugs. “She’s not wearing a ring, and I haven’t heard of a husband or boyfriend hangin’ around. I’d bet good money she’s single.”
But me? I’m taken. And I think I might be slowly coming up with a plan to make sure that never, ever changes.
Wyatt, Dad, and I head back to Lucky River Ranch later that morning. We have lunch with everyone at the New House. After inhaling Mom’s chicken potpie, I wilt against Wyatt’s shoulder. I feel like I need toothpicks to keep my eyes open.
Cash wipes his mouth, rising from his chair at the table across from us. “Why don’t y’all head home? We got the herd handled.”
I feel Wyatt go still. Cash offering to cover for his brother so Wyatt and I can rest—together—is a big deal.
“You sure?”
“Long as these clowns don’t cut up too much.” Cash knocks the baseball hat off Duke’s head.
“Dude!” Duke says. “Don’t mess with the hat. I’m havin’ a bad hair day.”
Mollie grins from her chair beside Cash’s. Ella is in her lap, and Mollie is patiently braiding her long blonde hair into two plaits. “That some bedhead you have going on?”
“Wait, who the hell are you gettin’ in bed with?” Ryder asks.
Duke just smirks. “Gentlemen don’t kiss and tell.”
“Good thing you’re no gentleman,” Wyatt replies.
“What’s a gentleman?” Ella asks.
Cash leans down to press a kiss to her cheek. “Me. I’m a gentleman.”
“Not always,” Mollie replies with a smirk of her own.
Cash gives her nape a squeeze. “I won’t elaborate in polite company, but you ain’t wrong, honey.”
Wyatt bends his neck and looks down at me. His eyes are bloodshot, but he still smiles at the inside joke we silently share between us—Wyatt’s no gentleman either.
You turn me into an animal, he says, the skin at the edges of his eyes crinkling.
Wouldn’t have it any other way, I reply, turning my head so I can kiss his arm through his shirt.
“But, yes, a break is what Sally deserves for performing yet more miracles,” Cash continues.
“Wyatt performed some miracles of his own,” I reply.
Cash arches an eyebrow. “Do I want to know more?”
“He got the horses in a good place. Calmed them down so I was able to do my thing with no issues,” I reply. “He’s the best surgical assistant I think I’ve ever had. Other than Dad, of course.”
“Really?” Cash looks at his brother in disbelief.
“I’ve never had an assistant bring me a breakfast biscuit before or look so good doing it, so, yes, really.”
Wyatt pops his cuffs. “Y’all are gonna make me blush.”
“Go home.” Cash waves us away. “Y’all did good today.”
At Wyatt’s house, we take a quick shower. I know I’m exhausted when I’m too tired to have hot shower sex with my very hot boyfriend, despite him helping me come to the realization earlier today that happiness is not success or big salaries, but community and caretaking and dating cute cowboys.
This particular cowboy has turned my world upside down in all the best ways.
We fall into bed and pass out hard. Next thing I know, late afternoon light is streaming through the windows. Wyatt is awake, his head turned on the pillow so that our eyes meet.