My stomach muscles clenched at the growl in his voice. I knew I was perfect. I hadn’t said it to be insulting to my body in any way, but it still felt good to hear him tell me those words.
“I’ll stay here with Patience,” I said, encouraging him to head out with the men to the part of the ranch where Joel kept the horses.
Micah appeared reluctant.
“There’s way too much security around this place to let anything happen to her,” Patience added.
I frowned, not having noticed the security she spoke of.
“I’ll be fine,” I told Micah.
He gave me one final look before heading off in the direction of his father and the other men.
“Did I miss anything?” Deborah, Robert’s wife, asked as she came up behind us. She’d excused herself to the restroom as we all had exited the house.
“Your husband and second oldest son deciding to take on their brother and cousins in a little target practice,” Patience answered.
Deborah laughed. “I’ve got to see this. Are you girls coming?” she asked over her shoulder.
Patience shook her head.
“I don’t like guns,” I confessed.
She gave me a small smile and followed where the men had gone. Patience and I took a seat out on the back porch. We could see them in the distance.
“Did you say there was security out here?” I asked.
She nodded. “They’re discreet, but I’m sure you saw the two Suburbans out front.”
“I did.”
“Yeah, those things are like freaking tanks. Bulletproof and all. At least, that’s what Aaron told me. I haven’t been, nor do I care to be, in the middle of a shooting to find out.”
I laughed along with her.
We ended up talking for the next thirty minutes. I found it easy to converse with her.
“Number five?” I blurted, my eyes bulging at finding out Patience was pregnant with her and Aaron’s fifth child.
She nodded with a sheepish grin on her face. “To be fair, my first two pregnancies were both twins.”
My eyes grew wider. “Wait. You’ve been pregnant two times with twins? And you decided to give it another go ’round?”
She giggled. “This one was kind of unplanned.” Cocking her head to the side, she looked out into the distance. “Honestly, they all were, but …” She shrugged. “There’s nothing I love more than being a mom, so I’m okay with it. Except when I wake up with a foot in my rib.” She shifted in her chair, her face grimacing.
“That sounds like hell.”
“You don’t want kids?”
“I do,” I answered quickly. “No more than two, though. I have my limits.”
She nodded. “I get it. I was scared of being a mom. Mine died in birth, and I was frightened I would have no idea what to do or how to love my kids, but I learned. I’m still learning. They teach me something new every day.” She rubbed her belly. “Looks like someone couldn’t stay away for too long.”
I turned and looked ahead to see Micah moving in our direction, mounted on a horse. He rode with such precision and fluidity it almost appeared as if he and the animal were one. I swallowed the lump in my throat at the picture he made. Even his hair had fallen free from the bun he always kept it in. It flowed in waves over his strong shoulders.
I shifted in my seat as the moisture in between my legs increased. I began thinking about how I wanted to ride him in much the similar way he rode that damn horse.
“Of course, my husband’s not too far behind him.”
