Page 19 of Old-Fashioned Rancher

“What are you doing?” I whispered, clutching Grady’s forearm for dear life.

“Clearing up a misunderstanding.”

Duvall had the decency to look chastised and shook my hand.

“Pleasure to meet you, Birdie,” he said.

Cyrus followed suit.

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen McCall fancy a woman around here.”

Grady wrapped an arm around my waist and tugged me tight into his side in a startlingly protective gesture.

“She’s a special lady to tolerate a hardass like me.”

Duvall shook his head and clucked his tongue.

“She certainly has her work cut out for her, doesn’t she?”

“If you’re not careful, she might make a run for it. Lock her down with a rock on that finger, McCall.”

Grady bared his teeth in a smile that held no warmth and his eyes were cold.

“Oh, don’t worry. I intend to get the fattest diamond on the planet for my lady. She deserves it.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The conversation continued for a few more minutes but I barely registered any of it until Grady made his excuses and pulled me away. He didn’t stop until we were in the privacy of the barn. Since it had been blocked off for the party to give the horses a safe place to rest, we were alone in here.

“Bastards,” Grady grumbled under his breath. He turned to face me, rubbing his hands up and down my arms. Angling his body between me and the festival, it seemed like Grady was shielding me, using his broad shoulders to block everyone else out and hem me in against the barn wall. “Don’t listen to a damn word they said, Birdie.”

“This is what I meant, Grady.”

His hands stopped their soothing rhythm.

“I said people would talk,” I added.

He shrugged.

“I don’t care.”

“What they said—it changed you. It made you angry.”

“Of course it did.”

I raised my eyebrows as if to say, you’re proving my point. He did care what people said about us.

“They can say what they like about me,” Grady countered. “I don’t give a shit. But they won’t drag you through the mud. I won’t allow that.”

The echo of his words still replayed in my head.

Oh, don’t worry. I intend to get the fattest diamond on the planet for my lady. She deserves it.

He could have been bluffing. He could have said it simply to get Duvall and Cyrus to shut up.

Although Grady McCall had always been a man of his word. He wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t intend to follow through. That meant he’d thought about it—proposing to me, getting married. I’d barely known him for a few days and he was already dreaming about becoming my husband.

Fireworks began to pop in the twilight sky, followed by a burst of light and an appreciative noise from the festival guests.

But I couldn’t take my eyes off Grady. It should have scared me that he was talking like this when we barely defined this attraction between us as a relationship. Now that he’d confronted the town gossip and spread the word that I was his lady, it wouldn’t take long before everyone knew that Grady McCall, wealthiest bachelor in Ash Ridge, Colorado, would tie the knot one day. With me.

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