Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 77936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“I don’t want to go back to Houston with her.” Gaze dropping, Hannah kicked at the dirt with the toe of her riding boot.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen,” I promised, pulling her in for another hug. “I’m here for you no matter what, Hannah. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Okay. I think I want to ride my horse some more.” She swallowed hard, shoulders back, chin jutting out. So damn stoic, and she shouldn’t have to be, but I was impressed nonetheless by her fortitude.
“You do that.” I gave Hannah one last hug. “I might go find some coffee.”
“Coffee? You need your bed,” Colt scoffed. He’d hung back while I talked with Hannah, but he stepped forward now. “I’ll walk with you.”
“Go. I’ll keep an eye on the girls.” Kat made a shooing motion with her hand.
“You okay to walk?” Colt peered at me as we exited the barn into the hot summer sun. “I could go get the truck.”
“I can walk.” I sounded disgustingly like my father, so I gentled my tone. “Slowly. But stretching my legs feels good.”
I wasn’t lying. It did feel good to move. Adler had stumbled to the upstairs bedroom as soon as we’d arrived back at the ranch, but I’d needed to see Hannah and Colt. And move. Breathe. Remember smells and sounds other than the hospital.
“You tell me if you need a hand.”
“I always need a hand.” Feeling bolder than usual, I grabbed his hand and held it tight, less for balance and more for the simple pleasure of holding it. “Did you mean it when you said you believed in me? That I can do anything I set my mind to?”
Hearing that after my long night had been more potent than a triple shot of espresso.
“You’ve always been impressive.” Colt swung my hand lightly, a little playful in a day of awful. “Great grades despite what was going on back here at the ranch. Put yourself through college. Great career. I saw what you did with the house here.” He stopped near the back steps, a fond expression in his eyes. “You always did have talent.”
“Thank you.” If I were less exhausted, I’d preen, but I settled for a grateful smile.
“And for better or worse, you have ranching in your blood.” Colt gestured around us at the land and outbuildings. “If you want to make a go of this place, not simply wait your year out, I believe in you. You’re more than capable.”
“I sense a however coming any second.” My tease had a certain wariness to it.
“No.” Colt pursed his lips, making me less inclined to believe him. “You asked me to fight for us. And I’m ready to do that. I want you to stay. Am I scared you’ll get tired of ranching? Yes. But that’s different from thinking you can’t do it.”
I want you to stay. I’d waited so long to hear those words my knees nearly buckled.
“Does it help if I tell you I’m scared too? Or does that make it worse?” Forcing my rubbery legs forward, I climbed the steps to the kitchen door, turning at the top of the porch. “I don’t know what I’m doing here. I only know I have to try. It’s the right thing for all of us—Hannah, all the ranch hands, Grayson, Willow, you and me included.”
“And you?” Colt tilted his head, considering.
“Funny thing.” I ushered us into the house. “When I told you the other day that I was staying, I thought I was finally being selfless for once in my life, putting everyone else’s needs first, my own be damned.”
“What’s that you told me?” Leaning against the counter, Colt gave me a pointed look. “Your needs matter.”
“They do.” I nodded. I considered sitting on one of the stools, but I was so tired I might fall asleep right at the island. “And I need to stay. For my own reasons. I don’t want the story of the Lovelorns to be bad luck and disappointment, ending with a whimper of a land sale.” I took a deep breath.
I’d thought long and hard about luck while sitting in the hospital waiting room. The kind we make for ourselves, the kind the universe hands out, and the intersection of the two. I wanted to believe we were more than our bad luck and bad choices as a family.
“Makes some sense.” Colt nodded for me to go on.
“You and Grayson kept saying that this place was more than my father, and I didn’t see it until two a.m. or so when I started wanting to be home in the worst way.” My back tensed at the word home and all the power therein. Sitting in the waiting room, I’d been bone tired, but my craving had been for something more than a bed. “The ranch is home. My home. And it can be so much more than it has been.”