Page 33 of Cruel Expectations

At the military reference to such an early hour of the day, Colton’s lips twitched upward.

She drew a sip of coffee into her mouth. “Ahh. You can’t know how much I needed this.”

They both stared at her.

She paused. “What?”

Meadow climbed off Colton’s lap and smoothed her hands over her top. “Have you been in bed this whole time waiting for somebody to make the coffee?”

She threw her sister a sly smile. “No. I was waiting for somebody to make my favorite breakfast.” She walked over to the table and grabbed a warm roll off the platter.

Sinking to a vacant seat, she took a bite of ooey, gooey cinnamon pastry with cream cheese frosting and groaned around the mouthful.

Meadow shook her head at her antics, even though she wore an expression of pride that Ivy had seen numerous times. Deep down, Meadow enjoyed pleasing people. It was how she expressed her love. For Ivy, that was cinnamon rolls.

She eyed Colton. She didn’t even want to know what her sister did to please him.

She took another sip of coffee. “I see you’ve graduated from the bunkhouse to my sister’s bedroom.”

“Ivy!”

Colton chuckled. “You could say I claimed my spot.”

She studied them for a moment. “I’m happy for you guys. And I’m really happy that none of the other ranch hands are here for breakfast.” She could at least eat in peace even if she couldn’t get any quality sleep after the dreams of Hunter.

When she woke in the early hours before dawn, she could blame it on the difference between time zones, but fact was, she’d woken up hot and thirsty too—with the feel of a man’s hand on her ass.

She must have some kind of jetlag sickness. Was that a thing? Even if it wasn’t, she was going to blame the odd urges surging through her body on sleep deprivation. And maybe the change in altitude. Yeah, the altitude was to blame.

As she devoured two rolls and polished off her cup of much-needed caffeine, she listened intently to Meadow and Colton’s discussion about the ranch.

For being so new to the Gracey, he seemed to have his finger on the pulse of the happenings around here. The way he discussed the deliveries and how the ranch hands would be spread out around the ranch was impressive.

It also raised some questions.

Ivy set down her mug carefully since it was the one with the flowers that her mother always preferred. “It’s clear that you’ve taken over ranch operations. What I’m really wondering is how did you get Zach Webb to back off my sister?”

“Ivy!”

She leveled a look at Meadow before switching it to Colton. “Well? Everybody in a fifty-mile radius knows that Zach’s had his sights on you since you turned eighteen. I have my suspicions that Daddy put that idea in his head about marrying you and getting the ranch someday.”

Meadow gaped at her. “That was never, ever a possibility. Besides, how could Zach get the Gracey when Forest would have inherited it?”

She leaned back in her seat, arms folded over her chest. “We all knew that Forest didn’t want the ranch.”

Colton’s telltale blank expression probably meant that he had a lot of questions.

She saw that she’d have to explain her reasoning. “Forest was in the military for life. He loved his friends too much to ever walk away.”

Colton dropped his stare to the table.

“And let’s face it, this place is dreary as hell.” She got up and retrieved the coffeepot then bustled back to the table, topping up all of their mugs with hot coffee. “Now let’s talk about what I can do around here.”

Meadow and Colton traded a look.

“Meadow said you want to pitch in.”

She placed her hands on the table. “I do. I’ll go crazy if I don’t stay busy.”

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