I woke up around mid-morning. I glanced over at Hope who was still asleep next to me and got out of bed. First, I pulled back the curtains, wincing as I squinted at the bright light from outside. There was a slight ache in the back of my head, but I was lucky I remembered to get us both a drink of water last night, so it wasn’t the worst hang over I’d ever had.

“Fuck it,” I sighed.

My head still hurt, but I could probably drive just fine. I left Hope to sleep a little longer and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower. I used cold steaming hot water to wake me up a bit more, and I found myself smirking as I cleaned up the mess from the previous night.

Last night had been amazing, to say the least. I wanted even more nights like that. And, though I’d been apprehensive about the whole thing, knowing that we were now married, meant that we could have sex as often as we wanted. Hell, at this point, it was encouraged. I could always think of everything else that came later.

I stepped back into the room to find Hope sitting up on the bed and holding her head as she squinted her eyes. The sheets fell to her waist, leaving her lush breasts on full display. The view had excited me, but she looked too disoriented for morning sex.

I cracked a small smile as I went over to the bed.

“Morning, princess,” I said with a chuckle.

She turned her head, slowly, to face me, blinking tears out of her eyes. “Curt?”

I hummed and leaned closer to press a quick kiss to her lips. She was still for a moment, but then I felt her kiss back, and I left a peck on her forehead.

“Why don’t you go have a shower for now? I’ll order something for us. You should feel better after you eat.”

“All right,” she murmured, giving me a look of disbelief. “I think we overdid the drinks a little bit, though.”

I grinned as I watched my wife—my wife!—climb out of the bed. She might have been right, but it was probably the only way we could have gone through last night.

I picked out some clothes, packed up my stuff, and got dressed. As she went into the bathroom, I reached for the room’s phone to call for some breakfast to be sent up to our room. When I hung up, I took a look around the place and laughed a bit to myself.

It was a mess. Petals were still scattered all over the place, only they weren’t as fresh, and the smell coming off them was a little heavier, and there were melted candles everywhere.

The hotel staff would have a field day cleaning it all up, I laughed as I thought it to myself.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. “Room service!” called a voice from the other side.

I opened the door to let the man in the room. He pushed a cart holding a couple of trays inside and set them down on the table.

“Thanks, man,” I murmured, shaking his hand and discretely giving him a tip.

Once he was out of the room, I lifted the covers off the trays of food and felt my mouth water. There was a serving of eggs, bacon, and toast, with sides of honey, Greek yogurt, some nuts, bananas, and berries; perfect to cure a hangover. I heard a door open behind me, and I turned around, freezing when I saw something else mouthwatering.

“Morning, princess,” I murmured.

She rolled her eyes. “Quit calling me princess, Curt. You’re not exactly prince charming, you know.”

There was an insult in there, but I barely paid attention to it. She’d just come out of the bathroom and hadn't changed into her clothes yet. She had a towel wrapped around her that barely hung on around her breasts and went down to the top of her thighs. She had another towel around her neck, and she was using it to dry her hair. I was tempted to close in on her and tug off her towel so I could admire her naked body.

She noticed the look on my face and reacted differently from what I expected. Instead of getting annoyed, she smiled coyly at me.

“Don’t tell me you’re not satisfied after last night,” she purred. “I thought you were never gonna let me sleep.”

I let myself smile easily, seeing her good mood. “Well, when you put it that way,” I teased. “No, not really.” Then I sighed. “But we do need to get going soon, or it’s going to be late when we get back. Go get dressed and come back for breakfast.”

She stuck her tongue out at me, turned and strutted off to the bedroom. I watched her swaying hips and ass, hoping the towel would drop, but then she was out of my sight. I waited, and she was out, dressed, minutes later, and we both sat down to breakfast.

“You know, I never did ask how much all this cost, did I?” she muttered as she chewed on a berry.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said dismissively. “There’s nothing you can do about it anyway, right? Everything’s paid for, and I’ll be the one paying Roger back for everything.”

“I’m surprised he even lent you the money.”

I shrugged. I was a little surprised, too, but at least he knew I kept my promises.

We quickly went through breakfast and got ready to leave. I stopped by the lobby to finish up on the payments; then we headed out to my car.

As we drove back, again in silence, it was a little was more comfortable this time, but I felt growing dread and excitement in equal measure. I was going back to the ranch, back home, finally. But I was going back married, and if Hope didn’t have a baby in a year, I would lose it all anyway. I tried very hard not to overthink that part, but we would both have to, at some point.

I drove us straight to the farm, and Hope didn’t come up with any objections. It was exactly as I remembered it; a large field of green surrounded by a wooden fence, with a large, Victorian style house in the middle of that large field.

Off into the distance, to the left of the house, I saw the old red barn that I always worked in. That barn held a lot of memories for me—of Hope and me. I smiled thinking about how we used to sneak off when we thought nobody was looking.

“Is there anyone around the place?” I asked Hope, frowning when there wasn’t a soul in sight.

When we were younger, before grandpa got sick, the place was busy with hired help tending to the land and the animals. The desolate surroundings made me sad as I thought about how much the farm had changed, even though it still looked the same.

“I’m not sure,” she murmured.

I frowned over at her, then glanced around the grounds. “Maybe they’re with the animals… or out in the field crops…” I said, more to myself than Hope.

It had been a while since I was around. For all, I knew they could have changed how things worked around the farm without me there.

Still, there was more dread than excitement in my chest as I drove slowly through down the winding drive before halting the car to a stop. I got out and headed straight for the house, didn’t even bother with taking my bag out of the car first. The door was unlocked, and I was already frowning when I entered. A few steps were all I needed, and I hurried back outside.

“Hey, Hope?”

“What?” she called back calmly. She was out of the car but hadn't made a move to get near the house.

“When was the last time you were here?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. A couple of weeks ago?”

I growled under my breath and rushed down the porch steps, then around the house to the barn in the back. Then, instead of running all over the place, used my eyes to look over the fields from every angle, going all the way around the house, until I was back at my car. She hadn't moved.

Good.

I didn’t need to go around the whole field to know that something was wrong. The house looked dirty and liked no one had been around to clean it. The state of the barn was even worse, only half the stalls had horses in them, and I didn’t know what happened with the rest of the cattle. I’d caught sight of a few people out on the fields, but not nearly enough to run the whole ranch at its top condition. So, someone had some explaining to do.

“Hope, what happened here?”

She frowned with a confused look clouding her eyes. “What are you talking about?”

I grumbled, not in the mood for her to play dumb. “Half of the workers are gone, Hope, why is that? Who has been taking care of the ranch? Don’t tell me you hadn't even looked into it.”

There was a surprise in her eyes, but it was covered almost immediately by indignation as I accused her. “It wasn’t exactly my job! I stayed to look after your grandfather, Curt.”

“Then what are we supposed to do with all this land, once we have it, and there are no workers?” I narrowed my eyes at her. “I can't do it all on my own; I haven’t been here in years. Tell me you did not trick me into marriage for free labor, here, Hope. Because we’re both shit out of luck if that’s it.”

None of it made any sense. Even ill, I knew my grandfather would have gone to lengths to ensure the place was looked after.

Hope either didn’t know or was just totally done with my shit, because she suddenly punched me in the arm, hard, and stomped toward the house.

“If that’s what you think, then you don’t know one thing about me,” she threw at me over her shoulder. “If you want a divorce so soon, go talk to the lawyer! Don’t just start blaming things on me. Married or not, I won’t take any shit from you!”

I went to follow her, but then she slammed the door closed, effectively ending our conversation if that’s what you’d call it. I cursed and smacked a hand on my thigh before turning to look around the ranch again.