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)
My pulse hiccups. Because Wyatt isn’t hot enough as it is. Now he’s got to go and be adorable with his niece. I swear to God, I’m going to burst into flames before Wyatt and I so much as undo a single button on each other’s clothes.
“Sally and I were going to check out the herd,” Wyatt says. “Y’all want to join?”
“That’s where we were headed too. That little sleepyhead”—Sawyer nods at Ella—“didn’t wake up until after seven.”
Wyatt curls his arms around her. “You needed your beauty rest, didn’t you?”
“Go, go.” Ella kicks her feet.
Wyatt laughs. “All right, all right, we’ll go. You good, Sunshine?” He looks at me.
My mouth has gone dry. I swallow. I wish he’d stop being so relentless today. First the honesty over coffee, then the race and the laughter. The almost kiss and the sweetness with Ella. And now this, him checking in on me, making sure I’m okay after his brother almost caught us during that almost kiss.
Wyatt Rivers would make a really fucking great boyfriend.
Which doesn’t compute because I don’t think the man has ever had a monogamous relationship in his life. Only he asked me not to hook up with anyone else, didn’t he? Which means we are, indeed, monogamous.
My heart swells at the idea, even as I silently chastise myself for reading too much into it. Yeah, we’re monogamous in that we’re not sleeping with other people. But are we in a relationship?
“I’m good.”
We ride for another twenty minutes or so. I smell and hear the herd before we see it. That’s what fifteen thousand head of cattle will do—the ground trembles, the air ripe with lowing and the scent of manure.
We crest a hill, and the breath leaves my lungs when I take in the view. Texas Hill Country stretches out before us in all its autumn glory. The pale earth is set alight by the colorful remaining foliage that clings to the trees. The Colorado River is just visible in the distance, a thick braid of deep blue water that reflects the more ardent blue of a clear, wide-open sky.
And then there’s the herd, cattle as far as the eye can see. Brown cows, black cows, spotted cows. Longhorns and Angus. Some are huge; others are still young, less than a year old. I can pick out the pregnant heifers by their full udders and the way their bellies bow out, making them look like walking barrels on legs.
“The moo-moos!” Ella shrieks, pointing.
Wyatt tilts his head, shielding Ella’s face from the sun with his hat. “Should we go see them?”
“Go, go,” she replies.
He taps his cheek. “Only if you give Uncle Wy a kiss.”
Grinning, Ella kisses his chin, then scrunches her nose. “You scratchy, like Daddy.”
Don’t I know it.
My face felt a little raw this morning. Mom even commented on how red my throat was when I came downstairs. I had to scramble to make up some excuse about an allergic reaction to my new face wash.
I am so, so ready to have my own place again. I just wish my next apartment weren’t in Ithaca, New York.
Really, I wish my next apartment were here instead, and that I was renting it with a certain cowboy.
Wyatt takes the lead down the hill while Sawyer and I follow several paces behind.
“Looked like you and Wyatt had a good time last night.” Sawyer keeps his voice low. “You know he told me—”
“I know.” I’m blushing again. “I get it, Sawyer. It’s really weird that we’re pretending to date. But Wyatt’s doing me a solid, which I appreciate.”
“Y’all are awful good at pretending.”
I shrug. “We know each other well, which helps.”
“Right. And you wouldn’t consider actually dating my brother because…”
My face is burning. “Because Wyatt is Wyatt. He’s not interested in dating anyone. Least of all me.”
Sawyer turns to look at his brother. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I think Wyatt does want to be with someone. He wants to settle down. He’s just afraid to put his heart out there after what happened with our parents.”
My own heart twists. “That makes sense. No one wants to experience that kind of pain—the loss—again.”
“You bring the best out in him, you know. He’s always happiest after hanging out with Sally Powell. That’s how it was with him and Mom. They were tight, two peas in a pod with their books and their sweet teeth. Sweet tooths? What’s the plural there?”
I laugh. “No clue.”
“I need to ask Cash. Point being, I don’t think he’s ever let anyone get close since she died. Anyone except you.”
I glance at the cowboy in question. Wyatt’s holding the reins in one hand, like he always does, his other arm wrapped around Ella. He’s leaning down, saying something in her ear, and I can just hear her giggle over the sounds of the herd.