Page 12 of Parading the Cowboy Billionaire (Bluegrass Ranch 4)

Ginny stood in the kitchen, removing strips of crispy bacon from a pan and laying them on a plate covered with a paper towel. She wore a gray T-shirt that was easily two sizes too big for her, the fabric billowing around her like a tent.

The jeans she had on were also not the right size, sagging in some places, but clinging to her legs in others. Her hair was a mess on top of her head, wisps of it falling out of the half-ponytail, half-bun she’d put them in.

She looked absolutely amazing.

He cleared his throat and continued toward the bar, where Blaine sat nursing a cup of coffee and eating a plate of scrambled eggs. “Morning,” he said.

“There you are,” Blaine said pleasantly. “You’re up late.”

“Yeah,” Cayden said, his eyes never really leaving Ginny.

She turned toward him too, and the electricity between them made the hair on his arms stand up. “Good morning,” she said in a somewhat formal voice. She wore no makeup, and she was like a goddess straight from heaven.

“Morning.” He cleared his throat. “Are you making eggs to order?”

A smile touched her lips. “Yes, sir. Scrambled or over-easy?”

“Scrambled is fine,” he said, holding out the I in the word for an extra beat.

“Coffee?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Blaine shook his head, but Cayden just ignored him. He couldn’t talk about everything right now anyway. Instead, he took the mug Ginny handed him and he poured plenty of cream and sugar into the dark liquid while she went back to the stove to make scrambled eggs.

“Ginny says she’ll be here for a few days,” Blaine said. “I told her that’s fine.”

Cayden grunted, not sure what else to say.

“She’s going to send Melanie to get her clothes.”

“What’s she wearing right now?” Cayden couldn’t help looking at her again.

“Some of my stuff,” Blaine said with a chuckle. “Ridiculous, right?”

“I couldn’t wear that dress,” Ginny said, smiling over her shoulder. “These are fine.”

Cayden’s phone rang, and he glanced at it. Lawrence. His pulse skipped and he swiped on the call. “Lawrence, you’re on speaker with me, Blaine, and Ginny Winters.”

“Ginny Winters?” he asked.

Ginny didn’t turn around, and Blaine said, “What’s up, Lawrence?”

“Just wondering where you are,” he said. “Cayden. Where Cayden is. We have a meeting in half an hour with Georgia Cartwright.”

“Right,” Cayden said. “I’ll be there.” He hadn’t exactly forgotten. He had everything in his calendar anyway, and it would’ve alerted him with enough time to get to the conference room in the administration building.

“Okay,” Lawrence said. “I guess we’ll go over the stuff you want me to send to the second publicity firm after the meeting with her?”

Cayden closed his eyes, his memory firing yesterday morning’s conversation at him. “Yes,” he said anyway. “Sorry, Lawrence. I had a late night and got up late this morning. I should’ve texted.” They were supposed to go over the split between firms before the meeting. He should’ve been in the admin building fifteen minutes ago.

“It’s okay,” he said. “If Ginny’s there, something must’ve happened.”

Something had happened all right, but Cayden couldn’t say what. Ginny turned from the stove and slid his breakfast out of the pan and onto a plate. She brought it over to the counter, interest in her eyes as she set the plate in front of him.

“See you in a bit,” Cayden said, tapping to end the call. “Thank you, sweetheart.” He picked up a fork lying there and positioning the plate closer to him.

“So…are we a thing again?” Blaine waved his fork between Ginny and Cayden.

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