Page 93 of Ace of Spades
“Weston, I never—”
“I know,” I stop her. “I don’t know how, but I knew. I’ve been trying to find a way to you since then.”
She gets a glimmer in her eyes, her lips tilting into a playful grin.
“Are you saying you missed me, Langford?”
My mouth tilts into a grin, my hands wrapping around her waist as I pull her into me.
“What I’m saying is that Poncho really missed you while you were away. You know, you can’t just leave me with a baby raccoon and run off on me, Sorrels.”
“Weston,” she scolds, gently smacking my chest.
“Of course I missed you,” I chuckle, running my hands through the hair at the back of her nape and pulling her mouth to mine.
More than you’ll ever know.
“I missed you too,” she whispers against my lips, and my heart flutters in my chest.
“For the record—if you ever do decide to leave, you’re not getting away from me that easily.”
She chuckles.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Chapter 26
HAILEY
“What would you think about making gift baskets for the guest ranch? We could fill them with a bunch of small goodies from the smaller shops around town, and have them waiting for the guests in their rooms. It could help encourage them to go look around, and maybe even drive some business?”
“I love it,” Weston tells me, the two of us walking back inside after letting the dogs out for the morning. “I think Dakota is gonna take the new arrivals to look around Main Street this afternoon, I’m sure she can talk to some of the shop owners and see if they would be on board.”
I pull my bed-hair into my go-to messy bun, my bare feet padding across Weston’s living room in nothing but underwearand his t-shirt as I make my way to the dog crate in the corner, unlatching it to wake up baby Poncho.
“Perfect! Now, why don’t you go make us some of those delicious breakfast sandwiches, we’ve got some fences to check today.”
“Are you my boss now, Sorrels?”
His cheeky smirk brings a smile to my lips as I throw a glance over my shoulder, taking in his tanned chest and well-defined abs. Something about the way he wears a backwards ball cap over his disheveled dark hair, his sweatpants hanging low over his hips, and the tattoos crawling down his masculine arms—the carefree look has me swooning.
“Maybe.”
“Well, you can boss me around anytime,” he winks, walking up behind me as I pull the little raccoon into my arms.
“Good. Now get to it, hot stuff,” I tell him, using my free hand to smack him on the ass.
“You little rascal,” he purrs, bending down to give me a quick kiss.
“Go!” I chuckle. “I gotta feed Poncho.”
“Alright, alright,” he relents, making his way to the kitchen. He gets the breakfast started as I heat up the formula, settling into the recliner as I tuck the tiny creature into my arms and offer him the bottle.
I pull out my phone with my free hand, checking the socials and the ranch website. It had been a full week since my mom had defied my dad and driven me back here, finally reaching her breaking point after overhearing that Brad had hit me. She’d been settling in well, better than I would have expected. Andalthough I couldn’t say we had grown close just yet, I could see that she was making an effort. It felt… nice.
My dad, however? None of us had heard from him since. And though everything seemed to have passed over for the time being, I couldn’t help the gnawing feeling in my gut that everything wasn’t over just yet.
There was still the threat on the trailer park, and the still-developing resort plans. I knew my dad well enough not to assume that he had just rolled over and given up. We hadn’t talked about it much, but I knew everyone at the ranch was on edge. Weston had insisted that I move into his cabin, and he slept with a pistol under his pillow every night.
