I try to stop feeling so damn emotional about it, but now that I’ve said it out loud and finally admitted it to myself, all I can think about is marrying her and if she’s pregnant or not.
She says she’s probably not, but even the possibility fills me with an excitement for the future possibilities.
Maybe the Seymour name doesn’t have to die with me. Maybe Dolly and I can restart the family—in a healthy way this time.
Cash is sitting beside me, cutting into the turkey he and Sterling deep fried.
I lean toward him. “What did y’all decide to do with Stanley?”
“Holden sent him to work on a ranch up north. One of his buddies from his time in prison has a place in Montana, Triple T Ranch.”
“Hmm.” I swirl my turkey around in the gravy.
“He’s just a kid, you know? He got twisted up in something because he had nowhere else to turn to. Maybe this place will get him on the right path and give him a better purpose in life other than futile vengeance.”
“And he knows that if he ever sets foot around Redford Ranch again …”
“Yeah, he knows. He’s not going to. Kid was scared shitless. We told him his uncle ran off after we took him. Turns out, the guy had been manipulating him since he aged out of the system. Giving him money, advice on how to get women to trust him so he could get them alone, all kinds of sick shit. Holden and I grilled him for a while.”
The table is full of lively chatter as Rosie tells a story about the twins at preschool, followed by Monroe sharing some celebrity gossip that has Dolly wide-eyed.
“And Cain’s other kid? What’s happening with the lawsuit?” I ask, still keeping my voice low to avoid killing the positive holiday vibe.
Cash takes a drink of his water before answering, “We were going to discuss it with you later on, but we’re thinking about settling by offering to buy the mom a little house up in Montana, near Triple T. It’ll be cheaper than a lawsuit would be. Then she can live there with the boy, Stanley can work and help support them if he wants to, and maybe all three of them can move on and forget about what happened to their sperm donor back in Texas. Holden seems to think this other rancher has a way of connecting with troubled young men and helping steer them down a better path.”
I look over at the oldest Redford brother, laughing with his wife and playing with one of his daughters. I respect him more now than I even did before. I never knew my own father, but from what I heard, he was a piece of shit with no direction in life who knocked up my mother and then ran away with her before abandoning her.
I wonder if things would’ve been different for him if he’d had a family like the Redfords around to influence him. I wonder the same thing about myself sometimes.
“Yeah, I like that idea. I wanna help pay for it, as long as they agree to stay away from Moonlight Ranch too.”
“That will definitely be a part of the deal.”
I nod, reaching over to grab Dolly’s hand.
She smiles at me, her stormy-gray eyes studying my face. “What are y’all talking about?”
“I’ll tell you later. After your bath.”
She rolls her eyes. “I don’t need your help bathing anymore. I’mfine.”
“I don’t needyou to keep washing my hair. I can handle it.”
“Maybe I just like doing it.”
She leans her head back, her eyes drifting open to gaze at me. “Okay. If you insist.”
I kneel down beside the free-standing bathtub. It’s big enough for both of us, but I’d rather watch her than get in. She’s covered in bubbles now, but they’re slowly dissipating. In twenty minutes, I might get a glimpse of a nipple.
Her thick ebony hair is piled up in a messy bun on top of her head. She reaches up to pull it down, pinching the claw clip to loosen the strands until it cascades down the side of the bathtub.
I grab the bottle of shampoo and squeeze some into my hand as I kneel down. My sweatpants are revealing the already-growing erection, but she can’t see it with the angle I’m sitting at.
She leans forward, and I cup my other hand under the water to wet her hair. I lather the shampoo between my hands and start leisurely scrubbing her scalp with my fingertips. She moans faintly.
“Do you really want to elope?” she says.
“I want to marry you sometime soon, but if you need time to plan the wedding, I can wait.”
