She pushed out of her rocker and moved to stand beside him at the railing. The sheer, overwhelming number of stars was breathtaking. In Las Vegas, the city’s relentless glow washed out all but the brightest planets. Here, the sky was a living, glittering tapestry. “It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah.” His voice was a low rumble beside her. “Some things you forget when you’re away too long. The quiet. The stars.” Silent for a moment, he turned his head, his profile silhouetted against the night. “You did good today.”
“How hard is it to buy seeds? I’m sure your mom would know about the flower seeds too.”
“No, I mean more than starting a new vegetable garden. You fit in like you’ve always been part of this family.”
Though he had no idea that was probably one of the nicest complements she’d ever gotten. “I’m trying my best.”
“And nailing it.” He smiled at her.
“Your family has been so kind to me. And your mom, in the short time I’ve been here, treats me as if I were one of her daughters. It’s an odd feeling for me.”
“I’m sorry.” His gaze darkened, he inched closer, taking her hand in his. “If keeping up this pretense for an entire year is going to be too hard for you, we can call it off now. I’ll be going on temporary duty soon, you can go back to Vegas, or wherever you want to go, and I’ll find a way to tell Mom it just didn’t work.”
All she could do was blink. Had she totally misread him all this time? Was he wanting to end their deal? Finally, she managed to mutter, “You want me to leave?”
“No.” He spoke with a force she’d not heard before. “Not at all. I just know that you were passed from house to house—I won’t call any of them a home—and each time it had to hurt. I don’t want us to hurt you. I…” He raked his fingers through his hair and paced away from her. “I didn’t think what this arrangement might do to you.”
It took her a minute to process all his words.
She was still sorting through everything when he turned to pace back in her direction. “I don’t ever want to hurt you. Not even a little bit.”
Now she got it. “Are you saying you would rather break the deal, lose the money, if staying here was going to make me feel like I was back in the system and about to lose another family?”
Very slowly, he nodded. “Cassie, you matter more to me than money ever could. The ranch will survive. We’ve come a long way.”
She let those words rattle around in her head.
“Cassie? Say something.” His voice almost cracked. Had she ever seen him so… vulnerable?
“I like the way you say my name.”
Now he was the one staring like a deer in the proverbial headlights. “Cassie?”
“I’ve always been Cassidy. I like hearing you—and your family—call me Cassie. It makes me feel like… a new person. Like the old Cassidy fell off the face of the earth and Cassie is in her place.” She looked off at the stars again. “You know what’s strange?”
“What?”
“A month ago, I’d never been on a horse, never shot a gun, never seen a real cow up close. And now…” She gestured to the vast darkness beyond the porch. “Now this feels more like home than anywhere I’ve ever lived.”
Quiet for a long moment, he reached for her hand. “It suits you. All of it.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.” His smile turned impish. “You’re a natural rancher. You’ve learned everything any of us have shown you. I bet if you wanted to stay on after the year and keep working—for a paycheck, of course—Mom wouldn’t object. No one would.”
Stay on. Now that was food for thought. Maybe, just maybe, when this year was over she could find someplace in town, stick around. Maybe work here, maybe work somewhere else. Start her life over in Honeysuckle. Wouldn’t that be something?
Chapter Twelve
The low thrum of conversation and the familiar twang of a jukebox country song wrapped around Kade as he and Cassie entered the Whiskey Moon. Most of his siblings and their spouses were already there, having claimed a large table that took up most of the back wall of the small local hangout. Garret raised a beer in greeting, a wide grin on his face. It wasn’t often they all managed to carve out the same night for a celebration, but between Clint’s promotion to foreman, the ranch finally showing a profit, and the sheer miracle of their mother remaining blissfully unaware of their arrangement, a celebration seemed in order.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” Carson called out, his own smile easy and relaxed in a way Kade hadn’t seen in months.
“Just in time,” Jillian added, gesturing to the fresh round of beers the waitress was setting on their table. “We were about to toast to ourselves.”
Chairs shifted, making room for the two of them. Sitting side by side, crammed closely together in the tight space, Kade found his hand automatically seeking hers under the table, their fingers lacing together in a gesture that felt less like a performance and more like a simple, necessary truth.
