Page 125 of The Cattleman's Unforgettable Love

Ford laughed with her. "I'll let you be the judge of that. But enough talking. Are you going to get up there?"

"Sure."

He linked his hands together, and she stepped in them, allowing him to boost her up onto the horse's back. Once she was up there, she grasped his mane. "Whoa. It's a long way down."

"That's not a detail that matters," said Ford.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Seems like a pretty crucial detail from where I’m sitting."

He shook his head. "It only matters if you intend to fall off. And with riding, it's the same as anything else in life."

"How so?" Nat asked, and Amelia leaned forward, eager to hear his answer.

He smiled around at all three of them as he said, "Where you look, you go – so don't look down."

With that, he started walking and beckoned for Delta to follow him. Nat let out a little squeal, but her face shone with something that looked a lot like happiness as she clung tight to Delta's mane, and Ford turned around to walk backwards, giving her instructions as they went.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

When they arrived at the bakery on Tuesday afternoon, Ford was relieved to see that the parking lot was mostly empty. Nat made a face at him from the passenger seat. "Do we really have to do this?"

"Not if you don't want to, no."

"But I want to," Hunter said from the back.

Ford raised his eyebrows at Nat, and she rolled her eyes at him before saying in a cheery voice, "Then we will."

As they walked across the parking lot, Hunter grabbed hold of Ford's hand and stuck close to his side. Nat wore a surly expression, but Ford had already come to understand that when she looked like that, it was mostly because she felt the same way Hunter did – she was scared. But she'd never had the luxury of being able to show it.

He took a risk and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Are you okay?"

She gave him a small smile. "Yeah, it'll be fine. I'm going to have to face the cow kids sometime, aren't I?"

Ford chuckled. "Yeah, I guess you are. And at least we sprung you from Alcatraz for a while."

She wrapped her arm around his waist. "I didn't mean it when I said that, you know. It was just... it's a lot of change. This place is so different."

"I know, but I hope you're discovering that it's not as bad as you first thought?"

Rather than smiling, a worried look crossed her face. "That's the trouble. It feels like now that we're getting the hang of being here, something's probably going to go wrong." She shrugged. "I mean, that's the way it works for us."

Ford squeezed Hunter's hand and hugged her a little closer for a moment. It broke his heart to think what the two of them had been through in their short lives, but he was determined to put all of that behind them now.

"That's the way it used to work," he told her. "Not anymore. You have Amelia and me now."

"Yeah, but nothing's sorted in Florida, is it? They could order that we have to go back, couldn't they?"

Ford frowned. "No. That's not going to happen. We won't let it."

She met his gaze. "Can you stop them if that's what they decide?"

He nodded slowly. "I don't make promises I can't keep, honey. And I promise you that no one is going to take you guys away from us now – not unless you want to go."

She leaned closer and Hunter wrapped his arms around Ford's leg, shaking his head rapidly.

"We don't want to go," said Nat. "So..." She stepped away from him and started walking toward the entrance. "We should probably go figure these cow kids out, right?"

Ford chuckled as he and Hunter followed her. When they reached the door and the familiar warmth and tempting smells greeted them, he wondered if he should let go of Hunter's hand, but when he tried, Hunter only clung tighter to him.

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