“Morning.”
I smiled and nuzzled Silas’s chest with my nose. After a quick kiss on his pec, I lifted my chin and looked into his beautiful eyes. “Morning.”
I’d only been awake for ten seconds, but I already knew this was the best morning I’d ever had in my thirty-four years.
“Do you have anything you need to do today?” he asked.
“Nope.”
“Do you feel like hanging out with me?”
“Hmm.” I looked up and pretended to think about it.
“I’d make it worth your while.” He reached beneath the sheet and trailed his fingers down my bare back. Shivers broke across my skin as they skimmed down to my ass.
“I’m sure you will.”
He rolled me onto my back and lined his lips up with mine. When his mouth came down, his tongue and cock slid inside in unison.
He proceeded to make it worth my while. And then again in the shower.
By the time we walked downstairs so I could make us a big breakfast, I was sated and famished.
“No showings today?” Silas asked as I scrambled eggs for omelets.
I sighed. “No. Prescott’s real estate market isn’t exactly booming right now.”
Since buying into Jamison Valley Real Estate, I’d only had one client meeting and I didn’t have another lined up until the middle of next week. Though I was still excited and loving the job, adjusting to the slower pace had been difficult.
“It will pick up when the weather gets warmer. People don’t want to move when it’s snowy and cold.”
“Yeah. You’re probably right. I’m just anxious to get a couple of deals under my belt. This is such a change for me, I just want to know that I’m doing a good job.”
“You’ll be great, babe.”
I ducked my head to hide my smile and blushing cheeks. “Thanks.”
He pushed away from the counter and pressed his chest against my back, wrapping me in his arms. “I love that you get all shy when I give you a compliment,” he said into my hair. “But don’t hide that smile from me, Lis. I live for it.”
My chest swelled and I had trouble breathing. Sniffing away the sting in my nose, I said, “You’re going to make me cry and then we’ll never eat breakfast.”
“We can just have cookies.”
I shook my head. “All those muscles of yours need protein. I can’t have you getting weak on me.”
“Good point.” He kissed the back of my head and stepped away. “I’ll just have a couple of these anyway”—he nabbed a cookie—“before they end up as weapons.”
I stuck out my tongue as he laughed. God, that sound.
Best morning ever.
“So what are we doing today?” I asked as we parked outside the barn an hour later.
“I thought we could take a drive through the calving pasture. You can see all of the cute little calves, then we can do whatever you want.”
I stared at his firm butt as we walked to the door. “I’ve got a few ideas.” All of them involved a bed and a lack of clothing.
“Pax?” Silas called when we pushed inside. Paxon answered from the living room and we walked in to find him zipping up his large duffel.
“What are you doing?” Silas asked.
“Well, princess, time has come for me to find a new home.”
“Listen, man, if this is about last night, I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten physical.”
Paxon grinned and winked at me. “That’s too bad for you, Felicity. I thought for sure he’d get physical after I left.”
“Oh my god, you’re a child.” I tried not to laugh but failed.
Paxon chuckled and clapped Silas on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I would have done the same thing if I’d been in your boots.”
“Thanks.” Silas sighed with relief. “Then why are you leaving?”
“This is your place. You should be able to bring your woman over and not have a third wheel. I’m just going to crash at the motel for a while until I find a permanent place in town.”
“You’re staying in Prescott?” I asked hopefully. “No more California?”
He smiled. “Montana has grown on me. Figured I’d help out the dipshit here until something better comes along.”
“I’d love your help but I’m paying you from now on,” Silas insisted. Pax opened his mouth, but before he could protest, Silas talked over him. “Hear me out. Gus is coming off payroll. Last week he decided to take disability, retire and get back surgery. That leaves us shorthanded as we head into the busiest time of year. Dad and I already discussed it, and if you’re interested, the job is yours.”
“I don’t know shit about ranching,” Paxon said. “You should hire someone with experience.”
“You know plenty. Dad and I will show you the rest. What you lack in experience you make up for in hard work and trust. That’s huge. Please? Take the job.”
I was on the tips of my toes, waiting for his answer. This place could be so good for Paxon. There was peace here with the outdoors and the animals, and maybe if he let it, some would settle into his heart and chase the demons away.
“All right,” Paxon finally agreed and shook Silas’s hand.
“Yay!” I cheered. “How great is this?”
“Are you going to find me a house?” Paxon asked.
I gave him a mock salute. “I’m on it.”
The three of us visited for a while until Silas and I went to check the cattle and Paxon headed to the motel. When we got back, Silas helped me out of my coat, then bent to give me a light kiss. “Want to watch a movie and chill?”
“Nope.” I grinned and started padding down the hallway and up the stairs. Silas’s hand gripped the back pocket of my jeans as he followed.
I’d never been in Silas’s bedroom loft before, but by the end of the day, I was well acquainted.
Especially with his bed.
“Thank you, Felicity.” My client was shaking my hand with such abandon, my entire arm was moving up and down.
“That’s enough, dear.” Her husband gently pried both of her hands away from mine. “Thanks, Felicity.”
I smiled. “It was my pleasure.” We were at Maple’s, wrapping up an afternoon spent shopping for homes. I was helping this young couple find their first house before their baby was born in the summer. “I’ll draft your offer agreement right now and send it over so you can sign it. With any luck, we’ll hear back from the sellers this evening or tomorrow.” I waved good-bye as they left the coffee shop and sat back at my table, getting to work on their offer.
I couldn’t have picked a better pair of clients to be my first. They were such a cute couple, with a little boy and a baby girl on the way. Seeing her pregnant belly, plus being around Gigi’s, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of longing.
Being this close to Rowen and Ben had really amped up my biological clock. I swear I could hear it ticking louder each morning as I swallowed my birth-control pill. Would I get the chance to have my own kids? Did Silas even want children? We hadn’t had the kid conversation yet, and as much as I’d like to know the answers to my questions, I didn’t want to get ahead of myself.
I was enjoying the beginning of our relationship. We couldn’t keep our hands off of one another, any spare moment was spent together, and we laughed just about as much as we kissed. The serious family discussions could wait. Right now, I was happy we were together.
Finally.
After all these years.
“Felicity?” Khloe Olson stood at my table, on the other side of my laptop.
“Khloe, hi!” She looked so much better than the last time I’d seen her. Her cast was gone and this was the first time in months that her face wasn’t bruised and battered.
“Can I sit?” she asked.
“Of course!” I rushed to slide my computer and papers off the table.
“You look nice,” she said. “Though you always do.”
“Thank you.” I smoothed out my navy pencil skirt and gray blouse. “I had a couple of house showings today and I wanted to dress up.”
“House showings?”
“I got my realtor license a couple of weeks ago and went into a partnership with Rob Jordan. It’s all very new but so far I am really enjoying it.”
She smiled. “I bet you’ll be great.”
I smiled back. “How are you?”
“I’m good. Really good, actually. I’m glad I ran into you today. I’ve been meaning to call and say thanks.”
“Thanks for what?”
She took a long breath. “For coming over on New Year’s. You really helped me that day.”
“I did?” I’d only been there for five minutes.
She leaned forward and whispered, “I left Derrick that afternoon.”
“Oh.” I tried to sound shocked instead of elated.
She smiled and toyed with her keys on the table. “Our separation didn’t last long. He came and found me at the motel the next morning. He promised to go to counseling if I came home and that he’d stop drinking. He’s kept his promise and things have been good. I think our marriage will come out stronger because of it all.”
“Oh.” This time I tried to sound hopeful instead of disappointed. “How did my visit make a difference?”
“I hated that you saw me so low,” she said. “That you were judging me. I decided that day that I didn’t want to have Felicity Cleary’s pity ever again.”
Ouch. She didn’t think much of me at all, did she? What could I say that would convince her that I wasn’t the bratty adolescent that she had once known?
“Khloe, I never judged you,” I said, “or pitied you. I just wanted to help. I just wanted—want to be your friend. I hope you will believe that.”
She studied my face for a minute, then looked to her lap. “Maybe I needed to think you were judging me. Then I could judge myself.”
I could give her that.
“I never thought I’d be a woman whose husband abuses her. It just . . . happened. Derrick and I have been married for eleven years. Most of them have been great, and I don’t want to make excuses or anything, he shouldn’t have hurt me, but he only ever did it when he was drinking. These last couple of years have been hard. He turns into a different person when he’s drunk.”
I nodded but kept quiet. I knew what it felt like when a partner treated you differently when they were under the influence. Wes had turned into a different person when he’d been high. So I wouldn’t judge Khloe for forgiving her husband. I would, however, judge Derrick for being a rotten piece of shit that beat his wife.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have given him one last chance, but I love him.”
“I understand that.” I patted her hand.
“Anyway, enough of that. If you still want to be friends, I’d really like that.”
“Me too.”
We chatted over the next hour and gossiped a bit. When I told her that Andrea Merkuso had left town to marry my ex-boyfriend, she stood up and did a happy dance. Apparently, the teasing I’d done to her in high school paled in comparison to how Andrea had treated her behind my back.
“Thanks for letting me interrupt your work,” Khloe said, standing to leave. She smiled, maybe the most genuine smile she’d ever given me, and waved good-bye. “See you around.”
I waved back. “Bye.”
I wished Khloe the best with her marriage, and I truly hoped that we could become friends. She was sweet but had a hilariously dry sense of humor.
Derrick had just better watch himself. Nobody messed with my friends. If he stepped over the line again, I wouldn’t be quite as hesitant about my involvement or pulling my brother, the sheriff, into the loop.
I hurried to finish up my work so that I could leave the coffee shop and call Sabrina. She had promised me that she would be free all night long and we could have a long talk. Between Khloe, Paxon and Silas, we’d need at least an hour. That, and I was keeping my fingers crossed that tonight she’d finally spill on this super-secret story she had been investigating.
When I got her voicemail, my heart sank. I left her a quick message and held my phone tight, willing it to ring.
Something was wrong. I’d heard Sabrina’s voicemail more these last few months than I had in the past ten years combined. I was tempted to do something drastic, like fly to Seattle and track her ass down, but instead, I drove to the ranch to spend the night with Silas.
I kept my phone close all through dinner and the movie we watched together on the couch, but Sabrina never called.
It took her a week to finally return my message.
With a text.
“Lis!” Silas called.
“I’m in the kitchen!” I was making us beef tacos with homemade salsa and guacamole for dinner. Reheating, actually. I’d made the same thing at Mom’s house on my lunch break and saved half for me and Silas.
“Smells good.” He had taken off his boots but his clothes were splattered brown. I had learned over the last couple of weeks that I couldn’t assume anything brown was mud or dirt. That, and not to wash my clothes with his.
“How did fencing go?”
He pulled a stool out from beneath the island and slumped into the seat. “Long. It was a fucking mess down there.”
Silas and Paxon had spent the entire day repairing a section of fence that had been washed away. This spring had been wet. So wet, there were days when I’d felt like I was back in Seattle. It was great for the grass and the land, but it had wreaked havoc on the ranch. The creek that ran from the mountains through the ranch had been at record levels.
The roaring water had pulled down hundreds of fence posts and the barbed wire in between. One of the culverts that had channeled the creek under a gravel road was now gone, requiring the road be completely rebuilt. And an old, empty barn had finally given way under the pouring rain and would now need to be cleaned up.
“Sorry, baby,” I said.
“We’ll get it all done eventually. This weekend, maybe you can help me fix a section of fence in the lower meadow.”
“Definitely. I’d be happy to.” Silas had been hesitant to have me working out in the mud, so while he put in exhausting hours, I sat around and felt useless. I was itching to help him on his actual ranch work, not just the cooking and cleaning I’d been doing at his place.
It had been a month since we’d moved from our unlabeled relationship to an actual relationship, and we hadn’t spent a night apart. We’d stayed at my place a couple of times early on, but with Silas needing to be up early, it just hadn’t made sense to make him stay in town and drive out to the ranch before dawn.
So I’d hauled over my fancy kitchen gadgets, some clothes and my nice laundry detergent and made myself at home.
“Did Sabrina call you today?” Silas asked.
I shook my head. “I’m getting worried. It’s been, what, three weeks? She’s never gone this long without checking in. If I don’t hear from her by Monday morning, I’m calling her boss and her doorman just to make sure she’s okay. And if I have to take a couple of days and fly—”
I whirled toward my ringing phone. It wasn’t Sabrina, but instead an unknown Prescott number.
“Sorry. One second,” I told Silas. “Hello?”
“Felicity? This is Dr. Faraday.”
“Hi, Dr. Faraday.” I stifled a laugh at Silas’s jealous face.
“I’ve got some good news,” the doctor said. “I’ve been able to get your mother approved for that drug trial I was telling you about.”
“That is great news. Does she know?”
“Yes, I called her first. She seemed a little hesitant and asked that I call you to explain the program details. Is now a good time?”
“I’m actually just getting ready to sit down for dinner. Would you mind if I came to the hospital next week and we discussed it in person? Maybe Monday morning?”
“Not at all,” he said. “Swing by whenever it works best for your schedule.”
“See you then. Bye.” I hung up and looked to Silas. “Mom got approved for that Alzheimer’s drug trial!”
“That’s great, babe.” He smiled and came around the island to give me a kiss.
Kissing Silas always made my belly flutter, but this time I had another reaction too. “Baby, don’t take this the wrong way, but you stink.” I stepped back and plugged my nose. He smelled like stale water and stinky mud. I was pretty sure there was some cow shit mixed in there too.
He chuckled. “That’s eau de ranch. My new cologne.”
“Yuck. Throw that one out, smelly man.”
He laughed and walked out of the kitchen and toward the front door.
“Do you want a beer?” I heard him in the laundry room and I assumed he was changing into some clean clothes. When he strode down the hallway wearing only his dark-green boxers, I nearly dropped the plate in my hands. “What are you doing?” I asked as he went to the fridge and pulled out a beer.
“Getting my beer. What are you doing?”
“You know that’s not what I meant. Why are you practically naked?” My eyes traveled over all that muscle and I had to fan my face.
Forget milk. Ranch work does a body good.
“I thought you’d prefer this over my stinky clothes.”
“Obviously I prefer this look,” I said. “I’m just not sure how you expect me to eat with you sitting next to me like that.”
He walked into my space and lifted the plate from my hands, setting it on the counter. A shiver ran down my spine when his hands came to the sides of my neck and he whispered, “Maybe we should—”
“Silas?” Olivia called from the door.
I let out a frustrated sigh at the same time Silas grumbled. He stepped away and called, “In here, Mom!”
Her footsteps echoed down the short hallway and I did my best to stop panting so she wouldn’t know that seconds ago I had been about to jump her son. Who was I kidding? There was no way she would miss my flushed cheeks and Silas’s lack of apparel.
When Olivia walked into the room, she gasped. “Oh, I’m interrupting. I should come back later.” She was looking anywhere other than at Silas and me in the kitchen.
“You’re fine,” Silas said. “We were just getting ready for dinner. My clothes were filthy so I stripped.”
“Right,” she said, still not making eye contact. “I just need to borrow your keys and then I’ll get out of your hair. My car is at the shop and your dad isn’t back yet. I just wanted to run and grab the mail.”
“Sure, but it’s a filthy mess right now.”
“Do you want to take mine?” I turned and pulled the keys from my purse on the counter. “Here. It smells like vanilla, not poop.”
She laughed and took the keys. “Thanks, sweetie. Be right back.”
I smiled and went back to setting out the tacos. “We’d better eat. Otherwise your mom is going to come back to a locked door and you’ll have to go fetch my keys because I can never show her my face again.”
He chuckled and leaned down to kiss my forehead. “You do realize she knows we’re having sex.”
“Yes, I realize that, but let’s not make a spectacle out of it. She called me ‘sweetie.’ That means I’m on her good side.” And I intended to stay there.
I desperately wanted his mother’s approval. There was already so much stress in their family dynamic, I didn’t need to add to it by being anything less than the perfect girlfriend for her son.
We were halfway done with our meal by the time Olivia came back and returned my keys. She chatted with us for a while before she left to go home and cook her own dinner.
“Dinner was awesome,” Silas said, carrying his plate to the sink. “I’m going to take a quick shower.”
“Okay.” I stood on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek before he walked down the hall.
Now that’s a view. I wasn’t sure which I liked better, Silas’s tight behind or his sculpted back. I planned on doing some research with my hands later to help me choose the winner.
When the shower turned on, I busied myself with the dishes until I heard the door open again and slam shut.
“Did you forget something?” I walked around the island, expecting to see Olivia. Instead, Silas’s dad, Elliot, came storming down the hallway, his muddy boots leaving a trail behind his angry footsteps.
I had forgotten how much Silas looked like his father. Elliot’s blond hair was starting to gray but he still had the same build and height as his son.
I opened my mouth to greet him but he snapped at me before I could.
“Is that your fancy fucking car out there blocking the hay shed?”
“Uh, I’m sorry,” I stuttered, shocked that Elliot had chosen to greet me this way.
Not once in the month that I had been with his son had he come over to say hello, and Silas had never wanted to go over to their house in the evenings. I had remembered Elliot as being such a gentleman. Clearly, things had changed.
“You’re sorry?” Elliot mocked. “Maybe you can be sorry enough to consider the fact that there are people here trying to work and make a living. But since you know nothing about running a ranch, I guess I can’t be all that surprised. Maybe I’ll just hope you realize soon enough that you don’t belong here and leave again. If I’m lucky, maybe you’ll stay gone this time.”
All I could do was blink as Elliot spun around and left just as quickly as he had entered.
I stood frozen, trying to process Elliot’s blow until I heard Silas turn off the shower. I came unstuck and walked back to the kitchen before he could tell I was upset. Nothing good would come from me telling him what exactly his father had said.
“Did someone come over?” he asked.
“Your dad,” I said, rinsing a plate. “He asked me to move my car.”
“Oh, okay. Mom must have parked it in a bad spot. Let me throw some clothes on and I’ll do it.”
“All right.” A few minutes alone would give me a chance to recover.
“I see he didn’t bother to take his boots off,” he muttered as he walked to the stairs. “What an ass.”
Yeah. He could say that again.