“This is a fine spread you have here Mason.” Walt Hitchman pushed his sturdy frame and round belly up from one of the brown club chairs in the corner of my home office with a groan. “Your paperwork is in order but I’d like a tour.”
I nodded because I would give this man anything he wanted that I had to give. My first born named after him, hell half the family billions would be his if he wanted it. As the Chairman of the Texas Pure Breed Association his word carried plenty of weight and I needed his opinion of me to be nothing but positive.
“Sure. Let’s grab a coffee first.”
Walt clutched his belly with a laugh. “Boy you must’ve read my mind.”
With a smile, I led him out of the office inside the main house on the M&M Ranch, a huge spread of land that’s been in the Manning family for five generations. We turned down the hall where photos of my family hung on both sides of the wall, then turned left into the open kitchen with a large butcher block table that sat ten. Twelve when we needed to accommodate more during busy summer months and holidays. “Maybelle what smells so delicious?” The woman had to be close to sixty because she’d been cooking for the M&M since I was a kid.
“I’m working on supper, but I got some coffee and cookies for you boys.” She smiled and set a plate of my favorite, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, on the table beside two thermoses of hot black coffee.
“You truly are an angel,” I told her, loving the way she still blushed at words of praise. “Walt, you won’t find better cookies in all of Texas.”
“Oh hush,” Maybelle said and turned back to what smelled like her lamb stew.
Walt groaned after the first bite and quickly finished the cookie. “I gotta agree with you Mason. Mind if I take one for the road?”
“Take two,” I told him, grabbing a few myself along with the coffee. We both thanked Maybelle and let the hot Texas sun hit our faces. “You want to see the land by horse or by Gator?”
“My knees ain’t what they used to be so let’s go with the Gator if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.” We started off on the east side of the property where several barns were located. “These buildings are for housing the horses, separated as needed. As you can see, we’ve different paddocks for grazing and the training rings.” The ranch had plenty of open space that had been used for generations for cattle we used to raise and sell. These days my little brother Tanner handled about two hundred head of cattle far on the back end of the ranch property.
Walt walked up and down the stalls, admiring the horseflesh with a small smile on his sun kissed face. “Impressive, son.”
“Thank you Walt. Want to see the therapy building?” It wasn’t officially a therapy building but for now that’s what we used it for.
His face twisted into a frown of confusion but he nodded and ambled back to the utility vehicle. “You offer equine therapy?”
I didn’t, and I hadn’t planned to, but my buddy’s little sister needed a couple hundred hours of animal time to officially complete her degree so now, I did.
“Not yet but I’m thinking about it,”
“This building could use some TLC son.”
“I know,” I smiled through clenched teeth. I explained the situation to him as we made our way into the barn on the other side of the property.
Walt continued to talk about I don’t know what because I was completely distracted by another sight. Sage Winchester, little sister of my bestest friend in the world, was bent over Cookie rubbing the horse’s hind legs and giving me a front row seat to her heart shaped ass and mile long legs in her painted-on jeans. Damn the woman wore denim like nobody’s business.
“This must be your intended,” Walt said and motioned to the stall at the far end of the barn. At my look of confusion, he went on. “I heard there was a beautiful young single woman in your employ, and I figured she must be your betrothed since this is a small town and all. Unless I’ve got it wrong?”
I heard what he hadn’t said. Walt was a traditional and conservative guy and he wouldn’t approve of anything—or anyone—bringing scandal to the TPBA. He wanted us engaged, or Sage gone. Neither of which was an option. “You’re not wrong Walt but we’ve kind of kept it under wraps.” I felt a twitch grow in my eye at the blatant lie but it was too late to turn back.
“For the love of god, why?”
“She’s my best friend’s little sister, and he’s an Army Ranger off saving the world so we haven’t told him yet.”
The old man’s entire expression softened. “I always wanted to be a Ranger, but it wasn’t meant to be. I understand. Now introduce me to your lady.”
Without another word, I approached Sage and Cookie and placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned and smiled at me and hot damn I almost swallowed my tongue at the sight she made. When had Sage Winchester turned into a babe?
“Hey darlin’, how’s it going?” I pulled her in for a hug and whispered, “Follow my lead, please,” and turned so we both faced Walt.
Big blue eyes asked several questions but she’d kept her smile on. “Great. Cookie is feeling much better, aren’t you girl,” she gave the horse a gentle rub. “What brings you…both by?”
I kept my arm around her, ignoring the hum of awareness her proximity created. “I want to introduce you to Walt Hitchman, Chairman of the-,”
“Texas Pure Breed Association,” she finished and stuck out her hand. “It’s great to meet you, I’m Sage Winchester. Rumor has it you have one of the most gorgeous pure Arabians in all of Texas.”
Walt’s face turned a peculiar shade of red at her praise, but he accepted her hand with a gentle shake. “My pleasure Ms. Winchester and I have to say that my Inkspot is a beauty.”
“Call me Sage, please. How do you like the M&M?”
“It’s an impressive operation.”
“Mason’s been working this land since he was knee high to a grasshopper. He’s been playing cowboy for nearly as long. Haven’t you babe?” The look in her eyes and her emphasis on the last word told me she was wondering what I was up to.
Damn now I was blushing like a teenager in front of his first crush. “What she isn’t telling you is that she used to be right beside me and Jack, going faster than the both of us.”
“A beautiful woman who knows horses, how’d Mason get so lucky?”
She looked up at me, eyes shining with something I couldn’t identify and grinned. “He finally saw me as something more than his best friend’s kid sister.”
Her words were loaded but I knew she was just following my lead as I’d asked. She’d had a crush on me as a kid, but that was years ago. Wasn’t it?
“Better late than never,” I told her and felt a rush of male pride at the reddening of her cheeks and the slight shiver that went through her.
“You were a smart man to scoop her up before some other fellow did. When’s the wedding?”
Sage opened her mouth and closed it. Twice. I stepped in and tucked her under my arm. “We haven’t set one yet. Says she won’t make it official until I get her a ring.”
Walt chuckled and pulled out a handkerchief to dab the sweat beading on his forehead. Even late spring in Lucky Flats, Texas could be blistering. “Well maybe Houston will have the perfect ring for her. You can go shopping together in three weeks when you come up for the get-to-know-you dinner we like to do with prospective members. June first.”
“We’ll be there,” Sage promised and stepped forward, shaking Walt’s hand again while also putting space between us.
“Good to meet you m’dear,” he grinned at the both of us, waiting for…something. “Well go on boy, kiss her. My wife never lets me leave without a kiss. Reminds me what’s waiting for me when I get back.”
I don’t know what happened, but between Walt’s expectant gaze and Sage’s big blue eyes, that dark chocolate braid curved at her collarbone and the scent of strawberries wafting from her, I was powerless to stop the overwhelming need to taste her lips. It was as if his words had given me permission to do what I’d been fighting since she started working for me last month.
“You heard the man darlin’,” I told her and cupped her head, tilting it ever so slightly as my mouth crashed down onto hers. It was meant to be hot and short but Sage, the little minx, snuck her tongue out and the moment it touched mine a fire shot through my veins and I deepened the kiss, devouring her sweet mouth. A buzz of something flowed between us and I knew I was in trouble but I was too damn turned on, enchanted, to stop. Somewhere, somehow I found the willpower to pull back and found Sage looking as shocked and discombobulated as I felt.
Walt gave a final wave and I joined him as we left the barn, tossing a grateful smile at Sage as I did. I walked Walt to his car and handed him a bottle of water for the road. “This summer is going to be a hot one,” he complained and slammed the door shut.
It was already a hot one and that kiss only made it hotter. Now I needed to talk to Sage about this mess. Well not now while my body still hummed from that kiss, from the feel of her soft body pressed into mine.
But soon.