Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 95273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
“Then yes, I want to go, too,” Daisy says, doing another dance.
“Now, tell me about what’s happening with you,” I say to Abbi. “You hired new people?”
“Yes, and I have interviews for three more tomorrow.” She smiles at me, her blue eyes lighting up. “The business is growing by leaps and bounds, thanks to tourist season ramping up for the summer and all the lovely people coming to visit our little town. Plus, more locals are hiring us, too, and that really makes me happy. Before long, I’ll have to move to a bigger office space so I can buy more washers and dryers for linens, but I’m not complaining.”
“Your mom is a powerhouse,” I inform Daisy.
“I know,” she says and swirls her fork in her pasta.
“This also means that I can help out at Daisy’s school more often and really cut back to part time for a while, which has been my goal since she was little.”
I wish I’d known her then. I would have made sure that she could be a stay-at-home mom, if that’s what she wanted to do. I would have made sure that they both were taken care of.
Not that she needed me. Obviously, she didn’t. She doesn’t need anyone.
“Okay,” Abbi says when we’ve finished dinner. “Let’s have some popcorn and watch our movie.”
“Can I have M&Ms?” Daisy asks.
“I got you some,” Abbi assures her daughter, and as we settle in front of the TV, with the lights low and me in the middle of these two girls, there’s nowhere else in the world I’d rather be.
“No,” I reply, irritation humming through every pore of me. “I can’t do it again. I’m not making a movie here. I’m working.”
The guy in the designer suit with the expensive shoes he’s already ruined sighs. “Can’t you just try to lead the horse around again so we can get another shot of it?”
“For fuck’s sake,” I mutter and grab Blackjack’s bridle. “I’ll lead him around one time. And then I have to ride out to mend a fence.”
“Oh, good, we get to catch him riding,” he says, turning to his crew.
Why he thought he’d be comfortable in that getup on a working cattle ranch, I’ll never know.
“You could walk Blackjack around this ring all day and he wouldn’t care,” Dad reminds me as he falls into step next to me.
“Yeah, but I have shit to do, and it’s not walking my horse in circles.”
“Fair enough,” Dad says. “Are we going to lead them to the event space? There are some pretty shots over there, and if they use it in the ad, they have to pay more. Which will get me a nice vacation on a cruise ship with your mother. Alone.”
“Dad. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but you and Mom live alone already.”
“Not the same,” he says with a wink and hops onto his own horse, making me laugh.
“I don’t even want to think about that.” I glance ahead and see Rem and Ryan riding over on their horses. Ryan wanted to keep an eye on things here, to make sure we’re not being taken advantage of, and he always did like riding the fence line with us.
The only brother not here is Chase, but I suspect he’ll put in an appearance before the day is through.
For the next few hours, we put the crew through the paces. They’re not used to the altitude or the chilly weather, so finally around lunchtime, we take pity on them and head back for the barn to rest for an hour.
When we get there, I’m happy to see that Abbi, Erin, Polly, and Mom are here, too, and Abbi doesn’t hesitate to hug me when I get close.
“I’m sweaty,” I warn her.
“Don’t care,” she replies, burying her face in my neck. “Don’t care at all. Have I ever told you how hot you are when you’re doing ranch stuff?”
“I don’t think you have.”
“Well, you are. It kind of turns me on, Cowboy.”
I growl and then kiss her and wish that I could sneak her off to my cabin for a while, but I know that I could never get away with it.
“Break it up,” Millie says, rolling her eyes as she walks out of the barn. “We have a bunch of lunch here for everyone. Soups and bread and stuff. You should eat.”
“I think I will.” I try not to pay attention to the cameras pointed my way as we walk in to get some food. “They won’t stop following me.”
“That’s why they’re paying you,” Ryan reminds me, but then his eyes narrow. “However, if they keep taking photos of all of us, they’re going to pay all of us.”
“Today is going so well,” Designer Suit Man says as he joins me near the food. “We have some great footage already. We’d like you and your brothers to sit on the fence for some shots, since you’re all wearing Ranchers today.”