Page 74 of Parading the Cowboy Billionaire (Bluegrass Ranch 4)

“Yes,” she said, turning back. “What would you like me to do with it?”

“It’s your entire family fortune,” he said. “I don’t think it should just sit on the desk like a piece of trash.” He picked it up and put it in a drawer. “I’ll put it in this locked drawer.”

He approached and took her hand, and Ginny didn’t know how to say what was revolving through her mind. “Cayden,” she said as they exited the building. “What if I don’t want it? What if I do want to just toss that deed in the trash and put Sweet Rose behind me?”

“I don’t get it,” he said.

“I don’t either,” she murmured. “I just need more time to work through everything.”

“Text your brothers,” he said. “You guys could have a meeting tonight. Old Ember’s. Figure things out.”

“No,” she said. “You and I have plans for tonight.” She took his hand and squeezed it. “Our celebratory plans, remember?”

“I think I said I wanted to collapse on the couch, eat a whole pan of brownies, and deal with final numbers next weekend.”

“Exactly,” she said. “What do you think I’ve been whipping up in the kitchen for the past week?” If he’d slept at the homestead, he’d have already seen the eight pans of brownies she’d unloaded onto the kitchen counter a half an hour ago.

She looked at him, and he gazed down at her, a slip of confusion in those handsome eyes. “Brownies,” she finally said, swatting at his chest. “I madebrownies, Cay.”

He laughed, stepped in front of her, and stopped walking.

“We’re going to be late,” she said. “We’re already late.”

“I don’t care,” he said, taking her into his arms and leaning down. “I love you, and I need to kiss you right now.” He did, and Ginny could barely hang on as the passion and love from his kiss flowed from him and into her.

They’d shared some pretty spectacular kisses in the past, but this one blew them all out of the water. He was rough and insistent, slowing to calm and gentle yet still so intense as to convey how he really felt about her. He knew how to rev her up and pull her back down again, and Ginny loved him for that.

She loved him for his kind heart.

She loved him for his brave spirit.

She loved him for his calm demeanor.

She simply loved him.

* * *

“No,”Ginny said hours later. “I don’t think you should get that roan.” She looked at Drake, who hadn’t been out of the program for longer than it took to watch a race all afternoon. “He’s going to go for too much,” she added. “He’s not that great.”

“He won,” Drake said.

“He almost fell out of the starting gate.”

“And thenwon.” Drake shook his head and looked back at the program. “What about the gray one?”

“There were three gray ones,” Ginny said in a deadpan as she got to her feet. “What are you going to do with a racehorse anyway?”

“Race him,” Drake called as Ginny went to check on the chips and dips she’d ordered. She found she could hardly sit still during the breaks between races. She wasn’t sure why. Mother and Sydney had not come to the Bonfire Room despite the advertisement for lunch.

She could host sixty people between the suite and the dining room, and Sweet Rose employees and friends and family had been in and out all day. She’d paid for a personal host, and it was actually Marcus’s job to make sure the chips and dips stayed full and fresh, all the fruit salad got replenished, and any special requests for the buffet got communicated with the kitchen.

Yet Ginny found herself stirring the mandarin oranges, pineapple, and strawberries, her nervous energy too much to be contained. She had not texted her brothers about the deed yet, and as she moved down and picked up a bowl to get herself yet another serving of the banana pudding that had set her taste buds rejoicing, she decided she better.

They’d brought their ideas to her, and she’d listened. They’d do the same for her.

If only you knew what your idea is, she thought. She had an inkling, a very core, but nothing had manifested itself to her quite yet.

With a full bowl of pudding sitting on the table in front of her, she texted her three brothers in one text.

---