Page 47 of Boston
“All right,” Cora said. “Is my steak done?”
Boston swore under his breath and dove onto the coals to get the steak off. “If it’s terrible, I’ve got a backup.”
Cora giggled as she picked up her tray. “You’ve got a backup steak?”
“Well, it would be chicken,” he said. “I only brought two steaks.”
“I’m sure it’s fine.” Cora flipped it over and saw how crispy and brown the second side had gotten. “It looks amazing.”
He picked up his tray, and they settled side by side in front of the fire.
Cora sliced off the end of her steak where all the crispy bits were, dunked it in a little bit of steak sauce, and put the bite in her mouth.
Pure deliciousness exploded across her tongue. “This is so good.”
Boston shook his head and chuckled. “There you go, talking with your mouth full again.”
Cora kept her lips closed over the food, but she couldn’t help smiling. She did talk with her food in her mouth quite often, but she wasn’t going to apologize for it. Everyone had to have some quirks, didn’t they?
Full darkness fell as they ate, and Boston took their trays inside after throwing their paper plates and utensils in the fire. He came back out with marshmallows, chocolate bars, and graham crackers, and Cora cuddled close to him while they made s’mores.
“Tell me more about this farm you want to have,” she said.
Boston held his roaster in the fire, burning off the last of his marshmallow. “Oh, it’s a silly dream,” he said. “But right now, I live in a studio apartment at a lodge, and one day I’d like to have a house and land of my own.”
“Mm.”
“My momma ran a flower shop in Louisville,” he said. “Before she met Mav and they got married and we moved up here. She still works part-time at one here, and she hasenormous wildflower gardens that she harvests from for special events.”
“That’s cool,” Cora said.
“I think I get some of my love of farming and ranching and gardening from her, but right now I have a pot on my balcony that has a single tomato plant in it.” He laughed lightly. “I’ve been saving for a year or so, and maybe one day I’ll buy my own place.”
“Will you still work at Silver Sage?” she asked, not sure why her chest squeezed at the thought of him not being there.
“Oh, I can’t imagine I will, sweetheart,” he said. “If you have a ranch, that’s where you spend all your time and energy.”
“How does a ranch make money?”
“Crops,” he said. “Raising cattle or horses. Breeding. There’s a few places in Dog Valley that I’ve seen—at least online.”
She nodded and curled her arm around his and leaned into his bicep.
He yawned. “We better get to bed if we’re going to get up at five o’clock.”
She’d taken a nap and didn’t feel tired, but Boston had been working non-stop since dawn. She got up and folded their chairs while he doused the fire with water. Then he took her hand in one of his and gathered up the s’mores ingredients with the other and led her inside.
He locked the door behind them and turned toward the kitchen. “You can go get changed.”
Cora practically ran down the hall in the other direction, and for some strange reason, she locked the bedroom door behind her when she hadn’t locked a door since moving to Coral Canyon.
She dug in her pack for her pajamas, realizing now that they were pale pink with strawberry shortcake cupcakes all over them.
“It doesn’t matter,” she muttered to herself, changing as fast as possible. “He’s not going to see them.”
She stuffed everything back inside her backpack, flipped open the lock, and practically dove into the king-size bed. She had no idea how long Boston would take in the kitchen, and she got up and retrieved her charger from her bag, plugged it in to the outlet beside the bed, and then attached it to her phone.
It dinged, saying there was electricity coming through the outlet, but it certainly wasn’t going to be a fast-charging situation. She’d brought a portable charger too, but while the generator ran, she might as well use the outlets.
