Page 38 of Reaching Little Robyn

“You want to woo me?”

“I’ve been trying to woo you from the moment that dino nugget flew out of your mouth and landed in my macaroni and cheese.”

Pleasure turned to surprise. She had the most expressive face of any woman he’d ever known.

“My place is under renovation, but I think it’s safe enough to give you a look, at least from the outside.”

“Then I’d love to see it.”

It didn’t take too long for him to navigate the back roads until he pulled onto a dirt road between two poles. There wasn’t a fancy iron gate like the one that welcomed a visitor to Rawhide Ranch, but there was a sign swinging above the road that had four large ‘Ws’ made out of barbed wire arranged across the width of the board.

“They look like birds flying,” she said and he smiled and used the arm he had draped over her shoulder to pull her close.

“I never noticed that before but they do indeed. And I think you just gave me the new name for the place.”

“I did? What is it?”

“The Flying W.”

Her cute little nose scrunched up. “Are you planning on having planes out here?”

“Nope, I rather like it just the way it is. May eventually get a few more horses, but for now, I’m concentrating on getting the house into a livable condition. Then we’ll go from there.”

He continued to drive until they came over a small rise and she could see his place. He frowned. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. Instead of showing her a house shemight actually want to step into or a pasture she might want to ride across with him, she was seeing a yellow bulldozer. green tractors, and men in hard hats wearing tool belts around their waists. When he realized several of those men had ditched their shirts as the day got warmer, he had a sudden urge to jump out of the truck and demand they cover up.

“Oh, this is so great!”

Okay, shirts were definitely going back on!

“You must be so excited.”

Her comment took him by surprise and brought him back from the brink of making a complete fool out of himself. “How’s that?”

“Just the wonder of it all. When I told Master Derek my dream was to open a B&B, he not only thought it would be a great idea, he told me he had a place he wanted me to consider. Said it had once been the home of the original owners of what is now Rawhide Ridge. He warned me that it was in pretty rough shape, but he hadn’t had the heart to tear it down. I remember standing in the front yard of the B&B before it became what it is today. It was an old Victorian lady who had left her prime behind a long time ago. Others saw rotted planks and sagging roofs, but I saw what she had been and longed to be again. Hayleigh helped me so much and every single time a room was finished, it was like I’d opened a present.” She gestured out the windshield. “Now you get to do the same thing with a place you told me you loved as a boy.”

She was right. He forgave the shirtless men, well healmostforgave them, but her enthusiasm was enough for him to be able to maneuver the truck to face back the way they’d come.

“That’s it? I thought you were going to show me around.”

“I am, just stay here a second,” he instructed as he climbed out. Going to the back, he lowered the tailgate and then arranged a blanket he kept in the back seat over the metal. He returned tothe truck and slid her out and then set her down on the tailgate. The only regret he had was that he couldn’t hold her on his lap and keep her leg elevated. He appeased himself by running his fingers over her calf and ankle. She was wearing ballet flats, having insisted he bring her shoes down when he’d returned upstairs to put on his boots before they left the B&B.

“Tell me what you see,” she said.

“The most beautiful little foot in the entire world.”

Robyn laughed and used her other foot to nudge against his hip. “I’m serious. Tell me what you see for The Flying W.”

So he did. He told of the house he pictured, made from the stones his grandfather had used as well as new logs Winston had taken from his own trees to enlarge the two-bedroom cabin. He told her that after seeing her kitchen, he was going to make some changes to the blueprints, enlarging the room, and would install a large window that would look out over the mountains. He told her how instead of two there would be six bedrooms.

“Six! Hey, don’t tell me you’re wooing me only to get info on how to run a B&B!”

He chuckled. “Not at all. I just want to have enough room for all the future Wanes. I picture an entire new generation growing up out here, running and playing and learning to love the land as much as Gramps and Gran did.”

Her smile was slow and a bit hesitant, but when he smiled back, her pleasure shone in her eyes. “That’s nice.”

“I’m glad you think so.” He was about to add that he truly hoped she’d be the one to birth those future babies but thought better of it. He’d watched Jagger handle skittish horses and he was going to follow the older man’s lead and be patient. “Do you like to ride?”

“Are we talking horses here?”

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