“I should be fine.”
She nodded and stepped back, allowing me room to get out of the truck but I hadn’t willed my body to move yet. After a few minutes she pointed to the front again. “Code to the door is eight two nine one.” I nodded and she smiled awkwardly, like she didn’t know what to do with herself. “I’m going to grill steaks and bake potatoes. That’s usually pretty quick. An hour tops. I’ll call when I’m done.”
“Thank you.”
“Yep.” After another awkward moment of her just standing there, she huffed and pointed to the main house. “I’m going to go; thanks for today.”
Without waiting for me to say anything, she turned on her heels and headed toward the house. She was inside before I forced my tired limbs to cooperate long enough for me to climb out.
Once I secured the duffle that held a couple changes of clothes and my toiletries from the passenger floorboard I headed to the house, keyed the code, and stepped inside. A chill hit me because the place had been vacant for months according to her spiel about the foreman packing up in October.
My first stop was at the thermostat on the wall in the tiny living room before I did a quick scan to locate the bedroom. There were two, split by a bathroom. I took the first, tossed my duffle on the floor, and immediately stripped out of my clothes. What I wanted more than anything was to face plant into the bed and not move for a week, but I was desperate for a nice hot shower.
Unfortunately that was about all I had left in me. So by the time I was done and dressed in sweats and a long sleeved T-shirt, I ended up with my face buried in a pillow before I could think twice about it, my mind drifting as sleep won.
Chapter 4
Reece.
Fresh out of the shower I felt revived and a lot better than I had twenty minutes prior. My muscles still ached from being out on the ranch all day trying to keep up withRo, but there was a sense of relief from knowing everything we tackled today would make my life so much easier in the months to come.
I sat on my bed in my bra and panties, rubbing mango and pineapple body butter into my thighs and calves, smiling as the brown sugar cream blended into my deep brown skin. The scent was heavenly but more than anything it had me glowing, feeling moisturized and soft.
Every day I moved around this ranch in my jeans and boots, working harder than most to keep my head above water and my ranch standing, but the minute the tools were tucked away, I lived for moments like this. Pampering myself because I deserved it. Life was tough sometimes, but if I learned anything from my father, it was to never allow anything to consume you.
Stop and enjoy the moments that bring you peace, Reecee Cup.
I smiled through the sadness of remembering that conversation. We had been out in the pastures all day mending fences and I was right beside him the entire time. My arms ached, my hands cramped, and my back was stiff from bending and kneeling to get the work done.
When I noticed him removing a flask and a cigar from his jacket pocket, I grinned, knowing we were done for the day. He fired up and leaned against the wooden gate enjoying his guilty pleasure. I laid out in the grass smiling up at the sky, enjoying a minute to just be.
“Are you happy, Reece?”
“Why?” I lifted my head and narrowed my eyes his way.
My father smiled and turned his flask up. “Because that’s the point of it all. Life, that is. Being happy.”
“Then yes, I’m happy.”
“Don’t speak the words if they’re not true. You gotta really mean it. This…” He motioned his hand around the ranch. “…isall I know. It’s all I ever wanted but this is also my dream, not yours. If you get to a point when you’re not happy, you tell me okay. If being happy means finding something other than this, then that’s just what it is.”
“I love this ranch. It’s the heart of everything I am, this makes me happy. I’m never leaving.”
My father chuckled and nodded, puffing his cigar. “If that ever changes, just know I love you enough to let you live the life that’s meant to be yours, Reecee Cup. And just promise me you’ll always stop and enjoy the moments that bring you peace, even when life falls apart, because those moments will keep you grounded.”
My hands stilled and my mind jolted. I was fifteen when we had that conversation. It hadn’t made sense then, but in this moment, my mind processed what he’d said differently.
“It’s all I ever wanted but this is also my dream, not yours…”
“I love you enough to let you go…”
That conversation was about my mother. She wasn’t happy. She wanted more than being on this ranch. He loved her so he let her go, even if it meant suffering a broken heart and raising me all on his own, the best way he knew how. My father didn’t want me to stay and have regrets, so he was giving me permission to leave him one day too.
I never did, because I never wanted to. This was all I knew, all I wanted, and I loved that he was the one who gave me this life. The thought should have made me understand my mother more but it made me angry that she’d hurt him. Angry that he wasn’t enough for her because his love had always been enough for me. So much, in fact, that I never felt like I missed anything in life. Not even her…
Instead of settling intothatspace I pushed the thoughts aside and finished my routine. Once my skin was glistening, I pulled on a pair of wool socks, lounge pants, and a hoodie soI could work on dinner, which reminded me to check on the steaks. I hopped up and left my bedroom.
In the kitchen, I removed the pack of steaks thawing in the refrigerator and placed both on the counter, removing the kraft paper. The visual of the ribeye steaks made my stomach growl again. My body moved with a second wind around the kitchen to get things prepped for dinner but first I needed to tackle this chaos of coils that had me regretting not getting braids when Wren had tried to talk me into going with her.
