Page 111 of Scrape the Barrel
The corner of his mouth ticked up. “I guess you’re right.” He pressed a kiss to my lips, then said, “Ready to go tackle this party?”
“Ready as ever.” I got off of him, standing so I could straighten my yellow dress, then looked in the mirror to fix my hair.
“Thanks to me,” he sarcastically remarked.
I shot him a joking glare in the mirror. “I would’ve been fine without it.”
In the reflection of the mirror, he cocked a brow in challenge. “Don’t make me do it again.”
I grabbed for the door handle right as he darted for me. Doing quick work of unlocking the knob, I swung it open right as he got his arms around me.
“Too bad,” I said with mock deflation.
“I’ll make you pay for that later,” he promised.
I silently wished that he would.
“One question before we go back out there.”
I turned in his arms as he loosened his hold. “What’s that?”
“Avery’s gift. I got her a stuffed horse,” he started, watching me closely.
“I’m sure she’ll love it,” I replied, but it sounded more like a question.
“It’s notjusta stuffed horse, though.”
My brows drew together in confusion. “Okay…”
“It’s a real horse.”
My eyes widened. “It’s outside?”
He shook his head, his fingers gripping the fabric of my dress. “No, no. I need to go pick it up, but I’ll be bringing him to the ranch. I got her a stuffed one that looks just like it, but I wanted to make sure this was okay with you before I gave it to her.”
He bought Avery a horse.
This man who had shown up in my life not so long ago bought my daughter an entire horse—her dream that she’d been begging me to get for her for ages.
“Uh, I— Yes?”
He smiled, but the act looked nervous, like he couldn’t gauge my reaction clearly. If I had to be honest, I couldn’t either.
“You don’t have to pay for a dime of it. He’s got a place to live and hay to eat, I just didn’t want to overstep.”
“You’re not. It’s just…”
“You’re shocked.”
I nodded, but before I could get another word out, Avery came barreling down the hall toward us. “Mama! I wanna open gifts!”
I turned to her as Callan dropped one of his arms from around my waist. “Okay. Let’s go open gifts.”
She squealed with her friends behind her, then they all took off toward the living room. I looked back to Callan. “She’s going to love it.”
“You think so?” His voice was a bit shaky, like he was anxious for our reactions.
“Of course, she is. I know I already do.”
