Page 33 of Tizzy's Little Thanksgiving

“That’s pretty awesome,” Lucas agreed. “And, if my eyes aren’t deceiving me, I have a feeling you’ll be joining me in the not-too-distant future.”

Eddie didn’t bother to deny it. He’d given up trying to ignore his attraction to another type of storm. Teresa was his personal Texas tornado. She had been on his radar for years and now that they were both grown and obviously attracted to each other, he was going to give it his all. His grin was contagious as Lucas joined him, both men obviously considering all the possibilities they had to look forward to.

“Speaking of forces of nature, what do you say we head on back and find our girls? Surely they have to be finished trying on dresses by now.” Eddie enjoyed the time he was spending with Lucas of course, but he couldn’t wait to have Teresa back in his arms.

The two men packed the building supplies into the four-wheel Gator and rode back to the main gardening shed.

“Daddy!”

Both men turned from unloading to find Georgie and Teresa running hand in hand toward them. Eddie didn’t know which one had called “Daddy” but found he really wanted to believe it had been Teresa. When Georgie dropped her friend’s hand to throw herself at Lucas, Eddie didn’t wait for Teresa to do the same. Instead, he stepped forward and scooped her off her feet to spin her in a circle. The sound of her gasp of surprise followed by her giggle, made him smile.

“There’s my little tornado.” He stopped the spin but didn’t yet set her down.

“Tornado?” she asked, tilting her head to study him. “Why did you call me that? I’m not the one spinning around.”

Eddie chuckled. “Because you blew into my life and swept my feet out from under me, babygirl.”

Her eyes lit up and she smiled. Taking advantage of having her in his arms, Eddie planted a quick kiss on her lips and loved the blush that colored her cheeks. “I’ve missed you.”

“You have?” she asked, as if the very thought was impossible to believe.

“Every minute,” Eddie assured her, giving her another kiss on the tip of her nose before setting her on her feet. “Did you miss me?”

“I did,” Teresa answered with a smile. “I can’t wait for you to see the dress Georgie picked out for me. It’s so pretty.”

“You’d make a burlap sack look beautiful.” Eddie slipped his arm around her waist. “Are you done with wedding duties for the day?”

“I don’t know.” Teresa frowned, scrunching her brows together as she motioned to where the couple was still rather “engaged” in kissing each other as if they’d been separated for a year instead of a couple of hours.

“Hey, you two, save some for the wedding,” Eddie teased.

Lucas didn’t release his bride for another few moments but when Georgie started to giggle, he chuckled and finally stepped back.

“Sorry, not sorry,” Georgie quipped. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have some… um… some—”

“Things to do,” Lucas supplied. “We’ll see you later.”

The couple didn’t wait for a response, simply turned away and started walking across the thick green lawn heading toward a set of buildings that housed some of the Ranch’s employees.

“Well, that answers that question,” Eddie quipped as he looked down at Teresa. “And leaves us free to—”

“Ride!” Teresa interjected.

“A Daddy has to love an eager Little who loves to ride him,” Eddie teased, wagging his eyebrows.

“Oh, um… I-I didn’t… um, mean ride you,” Teresa stuttered, her cheeks going a darker pink. “I meant Wren invited us to ride the horses, but, if you don’t want to, that’s okay.”

“I suppose we should.”

“No, really, I don’t mind,” Teresa said quickly.

“I mind. You’ve been wanting to visit the stables from the moment you heard about them. With Georgie occupied, this might be the only chance you’ll get and it’s actually perfect timing.”

“Oh, right, because of Thanksgiving and then the wedding and we’ll be going home… I mean back to Texas…”

Eddie caught the look of wistfulness in her eyes and gave her hand a squeeze. “We are here now, soooooo, I say we ride!”

Her expression brightened as she looked up at him. “Thank you, Ed… Daddy.”

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