“No. I want to check on my grandmother’s house in Tifton. I’ve arranged to be there a week.”
“Do you mind if I tag along?”
She tilted her head and looked at him, surprised. “You want to come with me?”
“Yes. Your grandmother was an important part of your life, just like Dad was an important part of mine. I told you a lot about my life with him when we visited my childhood home. I’d like you to do the same for me. I want the chance to feel close to the woman who helped make you into the person you are.”
She smiled. He really was the best. “I’d love it if you came to Tifton with me.”
“I’ll talk to my pilot about flying us there. Then when you are ready to return home, he’ll fly you to Chicago.”
“You would do that for me?”
“Yes, sweetheart. I would do anything for you.”
CHAPTER 24
Danielle and Wade
Dani stood beside the corral, watching Wade try his hand at breaking in one of his new horses. And she wasn’t alone. A lot of the ranch hands had shown up, likely to rib their boss if he had a hard time.
She couldn’t believe she had been in Texas for two weeks already, and next week, she’d have to go home. Her time spent with Wade had been unbelievably fantastic. His men had returned to the ranch on Monday, and she’d gotten to know a few of them.
Over the past week, she and Wade had spent their nights together. After breakfast, he’d go off to work at the ranch, and then come back so they could share dinner. It was a simple ritual, but one she’d grown to love.
Now that Jerry had repaired the internet, she spent most of her time working on marketing projects, though she wasn’t enjoying them as much as she used to. She’d much rather be doing this, watching Wade in action, or helping while he worked on the ranch he loved so much. Yesterday, when Libby had called to see how things were going, she’d told her sister that she and Wade were together.
She felt it was only fair that her sister knew it since Serenity Pines was a close-knit community. And though it appeared that the neighbors were minding their own business, she wanted to give Libby a heads up, even if the locals seemed to accept her in Wade’s life the way they had accepted Libby in Richard’s.
Libby’s only concern was that Dani was a woman on the rebound. But was she? Her sisters didn’t know the truth about her break-up with Steve. Dani decided, then and there, to tell her family what really happened. Because she was definitely not on the rebound.
So now, she was here on a Saturday morning, watching Wade break in not one horse, but three. Carlos had explained that only one of the mean-spirited creatures belonged to Wade. The other two horses belonged to one of Wade’s neighbors, who appreciated him taking on the job for him after two of his ranch hands got hurt.
“Don’t look so worried, Dani,” Carlos said, coming over. “This isn’t Wade’s first rodeo, no pun intended. He’s been breaking in horses since before he could walk.”
She chuckled. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Well, yeah. It just seems that long. His dad taught him all he knows, and I haven’t seen a horse throw him yet.”
There was always a first time for everything, she thought. And the last thing she wanted was for anything to happen on her watch. She glanced around and saw that several more people had arrived, mainly neighbors. They were acting as if Wade was putting on a show or something. Did they not understand that one wrong move could end with Wade breaking every bone in his body, starting with his neck?
She shifted her attention back to Wade. He was standing on the other side of the corral with several of his men. As if he’d known she was looking at him, he glanced over at her. The moment he did, every hormone in her body seemed to short-circuit. When he grinned, she knew they were both thinking of the wonderful, wicked things they’d done to each other the night before. He broke eye contact with her when one of the men said something that got his attention.
“The show is about to begin,” Carlos said, breaking into her thoughts. “I’m going over there with my beautiful wife for my front row seat.”
She watched as Carlos walked off and headed to where Elena was sitting in one of those folding chairs. She smiled and waved at the older woman, who smiled and waved back. Earlier, she had met a few of the women who were married to Wade’s ranch hands. Like their husbands, all of them were nice.
Suddenly, everything got quiet as she and others watched Wade, as sexy as any one man could be, strut across the yard to enter what one of the ranch hands called a chute. Dani held her breath as Wade swung into the saddle of a huge, blindfolded black stallion. He then grabbed hold of the reins that one of his ranch hands handed to him. Finding Dani in the crowd, Wade smiled and winked at her before nodding to the ranch hand. A second later, the horse was led out of the chute, and the blindfold was removed. The horse began bucking and kicking around the corral, doing everything it could to throw Wade off its back. Dani’s breath caught in her throat a few times when it seemed the horse would be victorious, but Wade hung on, refusing to be thrown. Finally, the horse admitted defeat, and slowed to a walk. It hadbeen an epic battle of man against beast, and the man had won. The cheers continued as Wade was whisked from the horse’s back by his ranch hands.
The next thing she knew, Wade was striding across the corral toward her. Knowing his intent, she climbed over the wooden gate and was engulfed in a pair of strong arms as he pulled her for a kiss.
“So, what did you think?” Wade asked as he drove her home. She glanced over at him and smiled. It hadn’t taken him long at all to break in the horses, then while he’d showered, Elena, the wives of his ranch hands and neighbors, had spread tablecloths on several long tables for a Texas chow-down.
“You were amazing… Almost as amazing as all that food! There was enough to feed an army.”
“Thanks for the comparison, babe,” he said, reaching out and patting her knee.
“You know I’m only teasing. You’re quite the cowboy. I can’t wait to see you perform on the rodeo circuit. My heartbeats should be back in sync by then. I was so afraid you would get hurt. Those were some mean-looking horses.”
