Page 59 of Alive and Wells

Ihaveahardtime wrapping my head around Cecily’s exnotshowing up yet. With every passing day of no threatening messages, and no word about a stranger turning up in Wells Canyon, she seems more relaxed and carefree. On the other hand, I’m more wary than ever. If he had turned up the same night as those initial texts, I could’ve easily handled him. Now it’s starting to feel like he’s taken so long because he’s plotting something bigger. There’s no chance he’s given up.

I definitely wouldn’t give up.

“How’s it going?” I approach the round pen where Denny and Red are leaning on the fence panel, watching Jackson lunge his new colt. Over the next couple years, he’ll join the remuda.

“He’s a bit spicy.” Red peers over the top rail and spits on the ground. “If anybody can handle it, it’s Jackson.”

“He never picks the easy ones, does he?” I shake my head.

“Nah, look at his wife,” Denny says.

Jackson yells, “Better not be talking shit about my beautiful angel of a wife.”

“Beautiful angel who screamed at him this morning for drinking the last of the chocolate milk.” Denny laughs quietly. “If I ever get a chick pregnant, I hope she just calls me after it’s born.”

Red reaches over and swiftly smacks him across the back of the head. “You’re a dickhead.”

I lean next to them, watching the colt run in wide circles around Jackson, who acts like a ringmaster in the middle. “You guys still good to handle loading cattle without me tonight?”

“As if we ever need you there.” Denny adjusts his hat. “All you do is stand around and bark orders we don’t need.”

“Hey, Jackson, wanna lunge Denny next? I think he needs to work the piss and vinegar out,” I yell at my brother, who laughs and nods eagerly.

“Yeah, come on in, Den. I’ll whip ya into shape.”

“I prefer to only be whipped by busty blondes, thanks. Or the occasional wild redhead.” He winks at Red.

“Oh, fuck right off.” Red tries to smack Denny again, but he ducks just in time.

Good Lord. Sometimes it’s like handling teenagers instead of thirty-something-year-old men. Despite all the goofing off, I know they’ll be tacked up and waiting when the cattle liners roll in later. And I’m confident they’ll get them loaded up without incident.

Seeing the look on Cecily’s face when I mentioned needing to ship this load off for slaughter, I decided she’d be better off being far from the ranch while it happens. Arguably, sending the cattle to slaughter is one of the most important aspects when it comes to operating a cattle ranch… and maybe I should be there. But I can’t find it in myself to leave her tonight. In a lot of ways, she’s assimilated into the ranch lifestyle so well it’s easy to forget she wasn’t born and raised in the country. But teary eyes as she thought about how we get meat on the table is a clear reminder Cecily was brought up as a city girl. She can face the hard reality another time.

“What do you and Filly have planned?” Denny gives me an exaggerated wink and an elbow to the ribs.

“The drive-in theatre.”

“Oh, I’ve had somegoodtimes at that place,” Red muses. “Never actually watched a single movie, though.”

If I thought the few days alone with her while the guys were gone were amazing, the last couple weeks have easily been the best of my life. Waking up next to her, kissing her every chance I get, listening to her sing in the kitchen, showering in the tiny box together, and falling asleep intertwined. I don’t care that I’ve fallen hard and fast for a woman who’s unlikely to be my forever. Or, at least, I’m trying not to care by thinking about the possibility of her leaving as little as possible. I want to soak in the feeling of playing house for as long as she’ll have me, daydreaming about a future where she’s my wife.

When Cecily walks out of the bedroom in painted-on jeans and a tight black tank top, my jaw drops and I consider saying “fuck it” to our date plans. I have more interest in watching her than a movie, anyway. My mouth instantly finds its way to her cleavage, nestling between her tits with soft kisses.

“I missed you,” I mumble against her skin.

“Who are you talking to right now?” She laughs.

“You, them, everything.”

“I saw you on your way to the barn—like, half an hour ago.”

“Nuh-uh.” I shake my head, dropping my hands to their usual spot on her ass. “Seeing each other from afar isn’t the same as being able to dothis.”

I drag her into me and kiss her with reckless abandon. My dick begins to firm immediately as I picture how great she’s going to look peeling those jeans off later. If we skipped going to town, I could make that happen now. She rolls her hips into me with a soft moan that goes straight to my cock.

She breaks away from the kiss while her hips continue absentmindedly grinding against my dick. “Let’s go, I’m starving.”

“I am too.” I bite her bottom lip.

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