Page 46 of Snowed In with the Rancher

Well, that was a loaded question if ever there was one.

She lifted one eyebrow. “How much time do you have?”

Chapter Fifteen

“All night,” he said, sipping his wine.

“Where do I begin?” Triss said, blowing out a breath and filling up her glass with more wine.

The timer on the oven beeped to say that it was finished preheating, so Asher put the potatoes in, then turned to her. “We got lots of time before I need to get the meat going, grill is already preheating slowly, so come, let’s go sit in the living room.”

He took her hand and in his big, calloused one and a flicker of desire ignited in her belly.

They went over to the couch, and to her delight, he pulled her feet into his lap and started to absentmindedly massage them with one hand while holding his wine glass with the other. “So what was life like growing up with four sisters? Does your dad have a golf addiction just so he could escape the hormones?”

She laughed. “Not quite. Pasha is two years older than me. She’s a pediatrician, married to this blond behemoth who is also former military but Canadian, and she lives with him and their kids in Canada.”

“Navy? Marines? Army? Airforce?” His interest was clearly piqued.

She smiled then groaned when he hit a particularly wonderful spot on the arch of her left foot. “Navy I think, but then special forces. Joint Task Force maybe?”

Asher grunted. “They’re good guys.”

“Then there’s me, and then Mieka who is three years younger than me and this gorgeous dancer who works on cruise ships, dates officers and travels all over the world living the dream.”

“Sounds busy and chaotic if you ask me.”

“Oh, it’s that, too. But I mean she travels everywhere, and parties in the hottest nightclubs all over the world.”

“Not my jam, but good for her.” He switched to Triss’s other foot.

“Mine either, but I am a little jealous about all the travel. I’ve hardly been anywhere. I went to college right after high school and got my bachelor’s, then my master’s and I’ve been working ever since. I’ve got a bunch of student loans I’m still working to pay off. I can’t justify a trip when I owe the bank.” She sipped her wine. “Then Oona is four years younger than Mieka and in the final stages of completing her master’s in psychology in Montreal. She wants to get her PhD, too, crazy girl.”

“And the baby?” he probed, switching to the other foot and pushing his big thumbs into the pad of her big toe. She moaned and her pussy clenched.

“That’s Rayma,” she said on a blissful sigh. “She’s six years younger than Oona. Both she and Oona were actually whoopsie babies.”

His dark chocolate-like chuckle wrapped around her like a thick, warm embrace and she made an attempt to snuggle into it if that was possible. “Sounds like your parents missed the safe sex talk.”

“And yet they preached abstinence to us girls since we were old enough to understand.”

His brows shot up. “Abstinence doesn’t work, everybody knows that.”

“Well, that’s not what my parents thought.” She sighed. “I love them, I do. My mom’s family were Kosovo refugees who moved to Maryland when she was twelve. Her family kept their heads down and became the ultimate passivists and trouble-duckers. They worked hard, never ruffled feathers. Didn’t drink or rubble rouse. They didn’t even jaywalk. They were terrified they’d be deported, so they didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to themselves.”

He shook his head, his expression grim and understanding, but he didn’t say anything.

“She and my dad met in high school and they kind of brought that passivist, avoid trouble mentality into their own family. But I’d say they took it a step further.”

“How so?”

She loved how open he was to talking and how active he listened. She could tell that he was absorbing everything she said and not tuning in and out or nodding just to make her think he heard her. Lorne did that to her all the time and it was infuriating.

Sometimes she’d throw in something obscure like she saw a three-headed giraffe at the library, just to see if he was listening. And when he replied, “That’s nice.” She knew he wasn’t.

Lorne was an ass. Echo could have him.

Asher brought her big toe to his mouth and bit it playfully over her sock. “How so?” he repeated.

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