Page 47 of Long Hard Road

“No woman has ever been disappointed.”

I had been enjoying our flirty teasing, but that comment snapped me back to reality. Nate was a 32-year-old man. He had likely been with dozens of women, including one he had loved. I had been with zero men and had no idea what I was doing. Maybe he’d never left a woman disappointed, but what if I disappointed him?

“Hey.” He bumped his arm into mine. “Where did you just go? You’ve got a panicked look in your eyes.”

“Just freaking out about meeting your family.”

“You’ve met nearly all of them already. As for the others, well, Evan gets along with everyone and Dad will probably try to embarrass me in front of you, but he’ll be kind to you. Evan doesn’t have his kids tonight so it will just be the adults. You’ll have fun,” he promised. “But if Dad starts saying something weird, just ignore him. He’s going to be thrilled to have a new audience for his terrible dad jokes.”

“I can’t ignore your father. That would be rude.”

“It’s your call, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Nate pointed toward a body of water way off in the distance. I could see a house just beyond it. “That’s my place.”

“Really?” I squinted to see if I could get a better look. “Can we go there after dinner?”

“It will be dark and we don’t have lights hooked up yet. I promise to bring you back in the daylight.” His response was so sincere that I knew he wasn’t just blowing me off.

“I love that it’s right by the water.” I could envision sitting with Nate on the dock, maybe watching a couple of kids fishing in the pond. That was a startling thought.

“We all used to skinny dip in that pond back in high school. You can’t see it from the main house.”

“Is that why you chose that plot of land? For privacy?”

He nodded. “That was part of the reason. I wanted to be near one of the ponds, too. This ranch is large, but only certain parts of it are right for building a house. I wanted something where I could be close to the family, but still far enough away that when I start my own family, we’ll be able to do our own thing.”

“That looks like a decent size house. Are you planning for a big family?”

He smirked at me. “Someone has to give Gran all those great-grand-babies that she wants. Evan knocked out two, but he’s not having any more. The rest of my siblings are still single. It feels like the first one of us to find our person is going to lead the way on the baby-making.”

“How many babies are you planning on making?” I asked nervously.

“That’s not entirely up to me,” he said with a laugh. “But I always thought I’d have three or four kids. I love having so many siblings and I want my kids to have that when they are growing up.”

“You’re going to have enough bedrooms in that house?” I looked over again but the house was even farther in the distance now.

“Five bedrooms,” he confirmed. “And I’m going to build a small apartment over the garage for any visitors. Dad has room at the main house, but I think it would be nice to have an option for guests at our house.”

My breath hitched. “Our?”

“My. My house.” He looked away in a hurry, but not before I saw the hint of blush on his cheeks. Nate had been thinking of me living in that house with him.

“Sounds like you’ve got it all planned out. Your future wife is going to be a lucky lady.” I was disappointed to see that we were already back at the main house. I wanted to keep walking the ranch and talking to Nate about the future.

“I’m sure a life on the ranch doesn’t sound all that glamorous to a woman like you, but I think it could be a really nice life with the right person.” He was still avoiding looking at me.

“It sounds like a perfect life, Nate.” I squeezed his hand and leaned into his arm. “A woman like me could be really happy with a life like that. With the right person.”

Just as he was turning to look at me with the sweetest smile on his face, a horn blared as Harper’s truck raced up the dirt road behind us. Ronan was behind the wheel with Harper in the passenger seat. When he slammed on the brakes, Evan and Chase jumped out of the bed of the truck.

“Have a nice walk, lovebirds?” Chase asked, punching Nate’s arm. “What do you think of the ranch, Madi? Is it everything you hoped it would be?”

“I love it.” It was an honest answer. Everything here was so different from the life I knew, but I had never felt more at peace. “Even with Nate’s annoying siblings lurking around.”

“Hey!” Harper snapped, slamming her door. “I am not annoying. You adore me. I am your favorite Sullivan, remember?”

“What?” Nate looked at me with exaggerated shock.

I winced. “Harp, you weren’t supposed to tell the others, remember?”

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