Page 36 of Claiming Their Omega

“Are you now?” Jesse teases her.

I can’t help but wonder what other areas she’d be a fast learner in. Like in the bedroom.

Christ. Her scent is making me feel like I’m sixteen again, desperate to get off. I’m not a teenager or an idiot. I can control myself.

Or at least, I hope I can.

“We can cook breakfast,” I say evenly. “I can show Grace around the kitchen. And make sure she doesn’t poison the food when we’re not looking.”

Easton snorts into his coffee. Grace gives me the evil eye, but I can see her mouth trying to twitch up into a smile. It was always a good day when I could make Grace laugh at my teasing, and apparently, that’s still how I feel, all these years later.

Great. I’m fucked. And not even in the fun way.

We make a simple breakfast and eat it quickly. There’s always a lot to do on the ranch and, as my grandpa used to say, we’re burning daylight. Grace is proficient in the kitchen, and a good cook. She insists on cleaning up the dishes while the rest of us go out and start on the chores out in the barn and the surrounding areas.

Even Cade seems to be in a better mood than usual when he gets down and accepts the breakfast burrito Grace makes him from the rest of the food we cooked up. He has a soft look in his eyes when he looks at Grace. I get it. I’m pretty sure I get that soft look on my face too.

There’s no time to moon over Grace all day, though. As much as I might want to. There’s always stuff to do around the ranch.

While I get to the daily chores, then the other stuff that we’ve planned for the day, I can’t help but notice her around. Half the time I can catch a whiff of her scent before I see her, which is probably just a sign of how insane she’s making me. And she’s barely been here a day. I’m so fucked.

But when I notice her, I see how she’s always doing something. She’s cleaning, she’s making a grocery list, she’s hanging up laundry, she’s weeding the plants along the walkway that lead up to the house.

She really does want to help out. She’s throwing herself into it even though she doesn’t know what to do to run a ranch—she’s finding what she can do.

The walkway up to the house is done in pretty cobblestones. Jesse’s grandmother put them in, wanted to give it a nice old-fashioned feeling. I think she was the one who originally planted the flowers too, but none of us have had time to look after that kind of thing.

Working on the ranch takes everything you’ve got, so the smaller things like flowers in the front yard, decorating the house how we like it, all that hasn’t gotten done. Honestly I don’t think it occurred to any of us to do it.

But Grace is putting that work in now. It’s kind of her, thoughtful, and shows a real initiative and work ethic that I can’t help but admire. I wish more ranch hands had the same kind of drive.

I have some free time this afternoon. It wouldn’t cost me much to do something nice for her.

Easton gives me a weird look when I take the pickup and head out into town, like he knows I’m up to something. Whatever. Like he wouldn’t do the same damn thing as I am if he had the idea for it.

Grace is out on the porch with a glass of what looks like lemonade when I walk up with my purchase. She smiles. “I made lemonade, Hendrix! You should have some. Did you put on sunblock?”

“I’ll put on more. Mom.”

“Haha. I’m not rubbing aloe vera on you if you get sunburned.”

“Maybe you could rub the sunblock on me instead?” I tease her.

“In your dreams.”

“Oh, always.” I hold up the daisies I got her. “I was thinking we could plant these along the walk up to the house, since you just weeded it? It’s looking pretty bare.”

Grace flushes and her eyes sparkle as she takes the flowers from me. “Oh, these will be lovely. Thank you.”

“No problem.” I watch as she grabs the gardening gear and eagerly heads down the front steps to plant the flowers. “You seem to really be up and at ‘em today.”

“I am. It’s been forever since I did physical work like this. It’s surprisingly satisfying.”

“Watch that, you’ll be taking those words back tomorrow when your muscles ache.”

“Well, I don’t like being idle. I was always working, in the city. This is different than what I did at the publishing house but it’s still work and it still helps me feel productive. And like I said, it’s the least I can do for you four.”

I watch her as she creates neat holes for the daisies, gets them carefully worked in, then piles the soil around them. They’ll grow nicely.

---