“So?” Trish asked once he swallowed the last bite.
“It’s different. But not horrible.”
“Gee, thanks.” Trish finished constructing her own, but before she could pick it up with her own fingers, Wade snatched it away and took a bite. “Hey!”
He sent a wicked smile her way, his face carefully tucked away from the rest of the crowd. “Okay, they’re a little better thannot bad.” He handed her back the half-eaten s’more. “I’ll let you have the rest and make you another. Shadow too, no chocolate please, before she kills me with those pitiful eyes.” He rubbed the shepherd along her neck.
There was something intimate about sharing a s’more. Trish found herself staring at the broken edges of the crackers, imagining Wade’s lips touching them. “You know what? You can have it.” Trish handed off the tray and shoved her roasting fork at Wade. “I think I’m going to turn in for the night.” She skittered inside before anyone could talk her into staying, and raced up the stairs.
Once her door was closed behind her, she leaned against it, wondering why she couldn’t quite catch her breath.
Chapter 5
Wade
Wade was oftenthe last one to put out the fire and the first to rise in the morning. Grams slept later these days, which he didn’t blame her for. For months after Grandpa was gone, she was rarely out of bed before lunchtime. With Kate hanging around the ranch more often than not, it seemed Grams found a reason to get up early and make a hearty breakfast. But her days of rising before daybreak seemed behind her now.
It was a little after five when Wade snuck out the kitchen door, snatching a lemon poppyseed muffin that Grams had most likely left on the counter for the writers. But they wouldn’t miss one; there were enough stacked there to feed a small army.
Even Shadow gave a yawn at the early hour as she trotted beside Wade. She was eight, and her age showed early in the morning. But between then and her afternoon nap, she was every bit the puppy she’d once been.
“You know, we should be moving that herd. Need to start vaccinations,” Allen had said to Wade before he sped off in the ATV. “But instead, Grams has got us as puppets in her photoshoot this afternoon.”
“We have to wait another day?” Chet hadn’t been given a copy of Grams’ itinerary, if his disgruntled expression was any indication.
“Just one more,” Wade said.
“Until Grams has us doing the next crazy thing for her writers,” Allen tossed in.
“Don’t even act like you’re put out by this,” Wade fired back. Allen was loving every minute of fame, and he knew it.
Near the north pasture, Shadow hopped into the bed of the ATV. Wade took a bite of his muffin before speeding down the road and tossing a bite to his dog.
Chet and Allen would handle feeding and watering the stock. Wade planned to check fences today. It’d been at least a week since anyone had, and it was his turn to make sure there weren’t any areas in need of repair. Keeping his cattle safe meant preventing them from escaping, and keeping predators from getting in—one of the first things his grandpa had drilled into the boys.
It was all he’d have time for with his personal-chaperone duties. How Grams even came up with the idea of a personal horseback riding tour of the ranch, this morning of all times, Wade wasn’t going to ask.Such an inconvenience. Last he saw Trish first thing this morning, she was passed out in the living room recliner. But the guilt trip Grams would give him if he were late was enough to keep him from stalling.
He was still puzzled by Trish’s abrupt departure last night. Sure, she seemed a little upset about the misunderstanding, though he thought it was amusing. It might’ve been better for both of them if she believed hewasmarried. But a week was a long time to keep up a silly charade, especially when it included his sister.
After two hours of slow going along the fence line, Shadow was snoring in the back of the ATV, and Wade had yet to spot a single area in need of repair. “Of all the days . . .” One fence post was a little crooked, so he stopped and pulled out a rubber mallet, hoping to right the post without having to pull it out of the ground.
One of the bulls, Ed, raised his head from a hundred yards away. Wade knew it was Ed by the white spot on his chest and goofy tilt of his head. The bull trotted toward him, and Wade instinctively pulled a handful of grass and held out his hand. “Hey there, Ed.”
Doing that caused a chuckle as he thought back to when he told his cousin Allen he planned to make a friend of this bull. Allen had laughed at that. “Bet you a hundred bucks this bull will never let you touch him without trying to charge you. In fact, I’d pay a hundred dollars for a ticket to that show!”
It had taken hours of patience, but little by little, Ed warmed up to Wade. It was something about the bull that Wade sensed. He couldn’t explain it, but he was good with reading animals, and many trusted him when they wouldn’t come within a dozen yards of other hands.
Allen lost the bet at the beginning of the summer.
The bull’s soft lips tickled against Wade’s palm as the grass disappeared in a few quick chomps. Wade patted Ed’s shoulder. “Keeping everyone out of trouble today?” Wade asked.
Allen would get a rise out of Wade talking to Ed. “First you name the bull,” Allen had complained. “And now you’re petting it? Wade, you know it’s a bad idea. We don’t usually keep bulls for more than three years.”
“Maybe we will this time.”
Wade was running operations with his uncle taking a leave of absence to join his wife on a speaking tour in Europe. Wade suspected his uncle was ready to retire from running the ranch, though he assumed they’d want to live in the main house when they returned. All the more reason to get that cabin renovated quickly. But even from the cabin, Wade could make the important decisions about their animals.
Wade remembered the next thing Allen said, “You’re a lot like Grandpa.” He was never sure if that was a compliment or a jab, but he shot back, with a cheesy grin, “Grandpa was the best with animals and you know it.” Both Grandpa and Ed were special, when Wade thought about it.
