Page 128 of Rough Ride

“I had a burger on the drive up today,” Johnny complained.

Sawyer grunted unhappily.

“Italian?” Eli suggested.

“Not in the mood for pasta,” Sawyer said.

“There’s a Thai place two blocks away that’s really good,” I offered.

“I don’t like anything too spicy,” Johnny said, shaking his head.

“They have a fried rice dish that’s mild!” I said.

“Rice is dumb,” Eli complained.

All three of us turned to look at him.

“What?” Eli said defensively. “Itisdumb. I don’t want to eat ten thousand little things. I want to eatonebig thing.” He mimicked holding a cheeseburger in his two hands.

“Un-fucking-believable,” Sawyer growled. “We can share a woman without any problems, but we can’t decide on dinner.”

Epilogue

Sophie

Two Years Later

I flicked the reins of Applesauce, my horse, to urge him to pick up the pace from a walk to a trot as we moved across the landscape of our ranch. Cresting a short hill, I was given a sprawling view of what we had begun to call “the back half.” Endless prairie stretched in every direction, marred only by a copse of trees and the lake that we shared with the adjacent ranch.

As it always did, the view took my breath away. I still couldn’t believe all of this wasours.

It hadn’t come easy.

First there was the farmhouse renovations, which uncovered enough black mold to fill a swimming pool.

The barn repairs seemed easier… until we discovered that about abillionbrown recluse spiders were living in one corner. Eli’s scream was so high-pitched that I thought another woman was on the property.

There were issues acquiring the head of cattle.

Hang-ups moving them from New Mexico to Texas.

And once they were settled in, a quarter of the herd came down with a strange fungal infection.

We dealt with a six-month-long legal dispute over the mineral rights underneath the southern border of the property.

No, it was far from easy getting this ranch up and running. We’d cycled through every possible human emotion, then went back for seconds.

But eventually, we made it through.

And my relationships with Johnny, Eli, and Sawyer were stronger than ever.

I squeezed my boots, urging Applesauce forward again at an easy pace. Sometimes I forgot just how quiet it was out here. No city noises or traffic. Just peaceful silence, occasionally interrupted by a prairie breeze or the screech of a hawk.

I had always been a fiercely-independent woman. I did what I wanted, when I wanted to. I liked my life in Fort Worth. I had always worried that settling down with a man would somehow dampen that freedom—to say nothing of settling down withthreeof them.

But only after moving out here did I feel trulyfree.

I spotted our herd in the distance, a splotch of black and brown marring the endless yellow-gray prairie. They weren’t the target of my search, but the man watching over them was. I urged Applesauce in that direction, and the horse bobbed his head like he knew exactly where we were going.

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