Page 86 of Unbreakable Love

“Wow… And you’ve had a lot of them.”

Gavin snorted.

I laughed.

Josie was right. I’d had a lot of birthdays, most of them spent alone. Never had I received a present or a surprise except for my eighteenth birthday when Maize brought me cupcakes and candles. Until then, I’d never even wasted the money on learning how to make a birthday cake and we’d only splurged for treats on Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Yes, this was definitely going to be my best birthday ever, and all due to the man sitting next to me.

“Thank you,” I told Gavin and let him see the emotion in my eyes, the thankfulness and care I had for him.

We might have been at the beginning of whatever this was going to become, but it was already more important than any other relationship in my life outside Maize.

“You’re welcome,” he replied, and his tone was as serious as mine. “You deserve it.”

We turned right at the stoplight that would take us out to the ranch. I hadn’t been out that way yet since there really wasn’t a reason to, so surprise hit me as soon as I saw the fence posts marked with signs declaring it Kelley Ranch land. They had a ton of land, I had been told, and I knew it was in multiple thousands of acres, but until we crested a small hill and all I saw were cows and their fencing and open land for as far as the eye could see, I hadn’t truly been able to picture it. Far to the west were snow-capped mountains, barely visible, but they were still magnificent, peeking out beyond the trees and grass and fields in front of us on both sides of the road.

“Wow.” I blew out a breath and stared at the open plains in awe. “I didn’t realize it’d be so beautiful. Or large.”

“In the spring, I’ll take you out on the horses or trucks and show you all of it,” Gavin said.

In the spring. I glanced at him, checking to see if he caught what he’d said. Spring was months away.

One side of his lips curled up. “You heard me,” he stated and turned back to the road.

“I’d like that.”

I’d like to be with him in the spring, and I’d like to still be with him in general, and more than anything, I’d go out on a truck or a horse or on foot, if I had to, to see it all with him.

Gavin slowed his truck and turned off to the right. We bounced along a gravel road, the small rocks pinging beneath the carriage of his truck.

“That’s my grandparents’ original house.” He pointed to a brick home with a large front porch and a couple rocking chairs out front. “Dalton lives there now. He moved in when they decided to retire. Beyond his place is where some of the ranch hands stay and most of our equipment.

There were buildings upon buildings. Sheds and massive equipment and smaller penned in areas.

I pointed to one of them. “What’s that?”

“That’s one of the pens we use to vaccinate and tag and castrate the calves every year.”

“Oh.” Well, I didn’t need that image in my head.

“Whole town comes out, well, most of them. It’s a huge process, so we need as many extra hands on deck as we can. Mom and the women fix up a huge spread of food and drinks. It’s a party. You’ll love it.”

He was grinning again, and I shook my head. First spring, now he was thinking of me there in the summer. This man wasn’t messing around with his intentions, that was for sure.

“I’m sure I will.” And I squeezed my hands together, pinched the inside of one palm to ensure I wasn’t dreaming.

The sting of pain told me this was real. Real and maybe better than anything I could have dreamed up on my own.

We drove around Dalton’s house farther down the road where the pens changed and off to the left were several horses wandering around in another fenced in area. A large barn was beyond it, and Josie bounced so hard in her booster seat the truck swayed back and forth.

“That’s Pickles!” she shouted.

There were at least eight horses corralled together. So I had no idea which one she meant.

“Which one?”

I leaned forward, which made me also lean closer to Gavin so I could see out his window. He hissed in a breath and shot me a look that had my toes curling in my boots.

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