Page 52 of That Touch

We all raise our glasses, toasting to Milly and Kent’s happiness. “Congrats on the engagement!”

18

RANGER

“I’m sorry,” Milly says.

“For what?”

I rub Milly’s back as she drapes her arms around me, squeezing me tightly. She gives hugs like she means them.

“For being so rude to you about all of this . . . dad’s vacant seat, the Texas deal . . . when we were talking a while ago with Decker,” she says.

“Nah,” I shake my head, taking a seat at the table across from her, “you were honest with me and it was exactly what I needed to hear.”

“I could have said it in a much nicer way.” She smiles as we sip our coffee in my small kitchen. She glances around. “It looks like nobody even lives here, Ranger.”

“Yeah.” I look around the room, and she’s not wrong. I’ve been down here for several months now but haven’t made the slightest effort to make this place a home. Part of it is I’ve just been too damn busy with getting the ranch up and running. The other part—the bigger part—is that it doesn’t feel like home at all. I don’t want it to be home.

“Are you okay?” She squints her eyes at me.

“Yup.” I nod, bringing my mug to my lips again for a quick sip. “Dad said you had something to tell me. What’s that about?” I ask, changing the subject before she starts to grill me like Decker did when he was here.

“Yes, two big things, actually.” She smiles. “First is, I’ve decided to take over for Dad when he retires, so he’ll be announcing me as his replacement soon.”

“Shit!” I’m actually surprised. “That’s not what I was expecting. What about Denver? And Kent?”

“Well,” she drags out the word, “that’s the second bit of news.” She slowly lifts her hand from where it was resting in her lap, and that’s when I notice the giant rock on her finger.

“What the . . . ?” I reach out and grab her hand, tugging it slightly forward. “Is this for real?”

“Yes!” she says enthusiastically, her cheeks rounded from her huge grin.

“Damn, congrats, sis!” I stand, pulling her up and into my arms for another hug.

“Thank you.”

“He makes you happy? He’s good to you?” I narrow my gaze at her.

“Yes, Ranger, you have nothing to worry about.”

“So what does that mean for your current job with the library and him in Denver?”

“I’m going to stay on with the library, but cut back my hours some. I want to take a more active role in the brewery. Maybe with time, depending on my schedule and when we decide to have kids, I might fully transition to working at the brewery and just being on the board at the library, but we’ll see. As for Kent and Denver, he’s the one who mentioned being tired of city life completely. He asked me how I’d feel about him moving out by me and opening a small private firm, and things escalated from there. We both realized we were each other’s person early on, and we decided why waste time, ya know? I told him that with Aunt Celeste retiring, I’m sure the brewery could use his help as maybe a contracted legal counsel position, and Dad agreed, so he met with him.”

“Shit, I feel like I’ve missed so much in such a short amount of time. When is the big day?”

She shrugs. “We haven’t picked a date yet, but if I’m honest, I’d love to elope.”

“You sure about that? You’re the only girl, so Mom might kill you.” I laugh.

“I’m not worried about it. You know me, I’ve never thought much about all that stuff. I do things my way . . . why change that now?” She laughs and it makes me smile. She’s right; she’s never been one to do what others expected of her. She did what she felt was right—what made her happy—and never seems to regret it. “Besides, even if we elope, I’m sure we’ll come back here and have a big family party.”

“You know our family loves a big party.” We both turn back to drinking our coffee, and I can feel tension settling between us. Before she says the words, I already know what’s coming.

“I have to ask, what happened between you and Doll? I thought for sure this was it for you two—that you’d finally realized you were in love with each other.”

“As much as I don’t want to sound cynical, especially considering your engagement, sometimes love isn’t enough, Mill.”

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