Page 82 of Somewhere We Belong

“Don’t be obtuse. With the way those old ladies talk and the way my brother and his men look at you, it's not hard to deduce. And the way they fawn over Sol, it's absolutely adorable.”

My cheeks heated as I looked at her brother and his men talking to my daughter as they devised a plan on how to get her into barrel racing. Jude even chimed in a few times.

“It’s still new and we haven’t told Sol,” I said back. “If she thinks they can be her family, I’m afraid that she will be heartbroken if this doesn’t work out.”

“She already looks plenty attached to them,” Iris said, stating what I had been ignoring.

“Yeah, but she knows they don’t have the possibility of being her fathers,” I said, ignoring her ‘get the fuck out of here’ look.

“She will be loved by them and us,” she said, looking over at Sol.

That’s all I ever wanted, for Sol to have a family and be loved.

24

theodore

The first snowcame sooner than expected. We weren’t ready and I had to say, it was all my fault. Working the ranch was always my therapy and it gave me great satisfaction when I finished a hard day's work. My mind had been preoccupied with Nova and Sol, and instead of enjoying my workdays, I was rushing to get home. For the first time since I had started working the ranch, I thought we might need to hire someone to help and I had put out an ad. I hadn’t told the guys yet, they would be ecstatic because that’s what they have been pushing me to do for at least a year. It was hard letting people in my space and Aurora Ranch was my space.

I had another surprise that I had been getting ready for Christmas. It had been years in the making, and it was finally coming together. Finding builders in Sterling had been hard, but once I had gotten the name of a reliable company, it had gone a lot smoother than I had anticipated.

“We just need to finish flooring in the bedrooms, connect the solar panels, and get ready for inspection,” my contractor, Aiden, said. “Oh, and we need to install the sink since the last one cracked. That should get here in a few days, so plenty of time.”

I looked at the home I had been secretly building the last few years. While the cabin we had was just right for us, it was small and needed some repairs. My uncle had lived there, and I always pictured something a little more modern.

“Sounds great,” I muttered.

“Inspection is next Wednesday and if we get the go-ahead, you can start moving in,” he said, putting the pencil behind his ear, looking at the cabin with me.

“Can we see the inside?” I asked.

“Yeah, of course.” Aiden motioned for me to follow him.

“Hey, boss.” We ran into Callum, the other worker of the crew who had a box in his hand. “Is this for the bedrooms?”

“Yeah, minus the primary bedroom,” he replied, as Callum nodded at me.

“Thanks,” he said, walking towards the bedrooms.

Aiden talked about what they had done and the features they had added as I took in the house. Now that Atlas was home and things with Nova were progressing, this felt right, almost perfect.

“This looks great,” I said, once the tour was over.

“Just in time for the holidays like you asked,” he chuckled. “I honestly was surprised we were able to do it. Most of the time, it's always something that holds us back, but I’m really glad we were able to finish this for you.”

“Me too,” I said, holding out my hand. “Thank you so much.”

“Anytime, man,” he said, shaking my hand. “You might not like me after I send you the bill.”

I smiled. “It will be worth it.”

Working on the house in secret was the hardest thing to do. Thankfully, as winter came on, Colt stayed close to our cabin to make sure our generators were working and he weatherproofed the barn to make sure it would hold up this winter. Working at the garage had helped keep it a secret and it had been easy to keep the cows away too. I rode back to the barn to see Sol and Nova here, earlier than usual, feeding some horses as Colt took a look at De Ville’s hoof.

“Is she ok?” I asked, getting off Maleficent.

“Teddy Bear!” Sol yelled, running to me.

I caught her, hugging her tightly.

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