Page 11 of A Forever Kind of Rancher

It was hers.

Theirs.

For now.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her throat going tight.

She looked up at him, and her breath caught. His blue eyes were startling, arresting, there in the sunlight, and the way the gold played against the whiskers on his face did something to her stomach, low and intimate. His face was just...perfect. As if an artist had lovingly sculpted him by hand with the intent of making him the perfect masculine figure.

His jaw was square, his nose straight, his cheekbones so sharp she could cut herself on them. And then there was his body, which she’d spent a lot of time not contemplating and she surely wasn’t doing it now, with her daughters present.

She freed the breath from the little knot in her throat and got herself together. She didn’t need this kind of drama. Not now.

“This is so cute!” said Sadie, her voice going high, and the delight in her tone shocked and pleased Wendy.

“It’s like a fairy house,” said Mikey.

Wendy had to wonder if her daughters were being overly happy for her benefit, but then she decided she didn’t care.

They’d been so supportive of her through everything.

If they’d been younger, she’d have tried to shield them. But the thing was, she’d sort of made the news.

“Scorned Wife Goes Full Carrie Underwood Song on Cheating Husband.”

It was all over the country music news sites, given the rodeo circuit was sort of adjacent when it came to industry interest crossover, and also because, indeed, she had sort of had a certain set of song lyrics in her head when she’d driven across state lines.

Lucky for him it was more “Before He Cheats” and less “Two Black Cadillacs.”

The article had actually made that point.

But because of that there had been no shielding the girls from the truth. She could have handled herself better, though she had a feeling there would have been some news about it anyway since Daniel was a minor—very minor—celebrity who both rode rodeo and had done some reality TV, so the breakup would never have stayed entirely between them.

“I’m glad you like it,” Boone said.

He walked up the steps and pushed open the door and revealed a house that was immaculately put together. Everything in it was new. And she had to wonder if it had been furnished like this when he bought the place or...

She decided to stop wondering.

And just enjoy the experience.

Tomorrow she was going to get the girls off to school, and she was going to start work. She would give herself four weeks of this. Of taking Boone’s help, and then she was going to need a plan. A real plan.

She was resourceful, and she was a hard worker, so she knew she would be able to come up with something. But it was hard to do when you also had deep wounds that needed a little healing.

And also had to be an adult and a mother when you just wanted to keep on being subject to the whims of your emotions. Being that woman, the one with the baseball bat, had been easier than being this woman. The one making plans and trying to hold it together.

But that was what she needed to do; it was who she needed to be.

For her girls if nothing else.

“I’ll leave you to get settled,” he said. “If you need anything, just give me a holler.”

And then he put their things down and left them, shut in the little house that felt somehow indescribably safe, secure and...wonderful.

Like shelter from a storm she hadn’t realized she’d been in.

Right now, she could rest.

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