Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 48446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 242(@200wpm)___ 194(@250wpm)___ 161(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 242(@200wpm)___ 194(@250wpm)___ 161(@300wpm)
“You’re not going anywhere, at least not for two weeks, so if I want you to have new jeans since yours all have holes in them, I’ll get them for you. Whatever I want, I’ll get, and you’ll just take it because you have to.”
“I ain’t no doll for you to dress.”
“Why do you always have to fight with me?” he roared, stalking from the room, sputtering with fury.
I sat down hard on the end of the bed and waited. Minutes later he was back. I arched an eyebrow.
“No one ever makes me as angry as you do.”
I grinned. “No one else even makes you angry at all, I reckon.”
He thought about it a minute, and the look I got, full of amazement, made me laugh.
“Jesus, that’s true. You’re the only one who can get a rise out of me.”
I couldn’t stifle the snickering. “Come here.”
“You make me crazy,” he muttered like he was in pain.
“Please c’mere,” I said with a chuckle. The man was adorable.
“Let me get you some things, all right? Not a lot. I won’t go nuts.”
“Swear.”
“I do.”
I waved him over.
He ran and leaped, and I went down under a hundred and sixty-five pounds of very happy, carved, toned neurosurgeon.
In Lyn’s huge-ass boat of an SUV, I stretched out in the back as Cyrus rode shotgun.
Since Cy said my boots needed to be resoled—and he was right, they really did—we dropped them off on the way, then drove to the mall with me in a pair of rubber galoshes, which was all they had to offer at his cobbler. The first order of business was to get me some new footwear.
The cowboy boots at the department stores would not make it a week on the range, so I passed. But I got a pair of running shoes and a pair of heavy hiking boots Cy insisted on because the leather was thick and the sole was sewn on, not glued, which made it more durable. I also got a pair of harness boots that I made the mistake of looking at too long.
“I know you like them,” Cy said with a daring grin. “And you need something casual.”
Being in no mood to argue, I just said thank you.
I’d left my cowboy hat at Cy’s place, but my head was cold, and I felt naked without it. He got me a wool beanie.
“This is gonna fix things?” I asked him as he wrapped a scarf around my neck and his sister helped me on with a peacoat.
“Yes.” He beamed. “You look good. That coat is hot.”
I glowered at him.
“What? It is.”
“It’s a coat,” I grumbled.
“Can I get you dress shoes?”
“No.”
“Just a pair of black lace-ups to keep at my house?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Please. You’ll need them.”
“For what?”
“I have a dinner to go to while you’re here.”
“I’ll stay home.”
His eyes softened.
“I mean, I’ll stay at your house.”
“You said home.”
“You know what I meant.”
“It was nice, how it sounded.”
“Oh, for crissakes, Cy, you know I would stick around if there was shit I could do in San Francisco, but there ain’t, and I won’t live on you and be a whore!”
“Jesus,” Lyn gasped.
“Shit,” I muttered because I forgot she was there, as well as where I was. Thank God the boys were across the aisle looking at sneakers.
“Letting me take care of you would not make you a whore,” Cy said tightly, his jaw clenched.
“But if I can’t provide for myself, I can’t respect myself. And how can you respect me if I don’t? It won’t work, and you’d come to hate me.”
He shook his head.
“You would,” I assured him. “And I won’t take that chance.”
“Why?”
I leveled my gaze at him. “I just won’t.”
He sighed heavily. “Well, I want you at that party with me, you stubborn, infuriating man, so I’ll get the shoes, you’ll wear them, and then I’ll keep them. How’s that?”
“Infuriating?” I baited him.
His glare should have killed me with how dark it was.
“So they’d be yours.”
“Yes.”
“Then I agree.”
The muscles in his jaw flexed.
“Let’s go already,” I told him. “The kids are restless.”
“Fine,” he groused.
In the car after lunch, on the road toward Half Moon Bay, Tristan was asking Cy about leprosy for some reason, Pip and his mother were playing I Spy, and I was watching Micah draw me in his sketch pad.
“I like that rhinoceros,” I told him. “I’ve never ridden one of them before. Probably like bull ridin’, ya reckon?”
Micah nodded.
“Yeah.” I yawned, leaning closer to him.
He reached up and, not looking away from his page, put his left hand around the side of my face and smoothed his fingers over my cheek. I let my head clunk gently against the top of his and heard him sigh before I closed my eyes. I had no idea I was this tired…
I felt a hand on my knee, shaking gently, and when I opened my eyes, Cy was there, looking down at me.