That was only yesterday!
I stare at him, my heartbeat thudding in my ears, a thousand questions spinning in my brain.
Then he laughs.
Relief turns my suppressed chuckle into a loud snort, which makes him laugh even harder.
He digs in his pocket and pulls out his wallet and money clip.Finn slips out a black American Express card and pulls several hundred-dollar bills from the clip.“Feed me all day, every day, whatever you want to feed me and for as long as you’d like to do the feeding.”
He reaches for one of my hands and lifts it, turning it palm side up.Then he places the card and cash in the flat of my hand.He smiles softly at me.“Jasmine and I know that we’ve lucked out with you, Emma.”
I stare at the credit card and the cash.No one has ever trusted me with twenty bucks, let alone this.
His hand continues to support mine.His skin is warm.“Keep the card.Use it for any household expenses, anything you might want or need.I’ll get another one.”
My throat constricts and my hands tremble.All I can do is nod.
We get out of the car, and I walk toward the front door.I’m greeted with the bucket of soapy water and the sponge I left behind many hours ago.I don’t like half-finished cleaning jobs.I get antsy knowing I dropped the ball like that.
“I can make steaks for dinner tonight.”
I say this only to discover that Finn hasn’t walked up the steps with me.He’s still standing in the gravel by the car, face lifted, watching me, the oddest expression in his eyes.
“Hey, Emma,” he says.“You want to see the new filly I just bought?I think she’s going to be my pride and joy.”
“Sure.”I shove the money and credit card in my front pocket, thrilled that he would even think to share something like that with me.
And I’m absolutely, positively, terrified about what may happen next.
CHAPTER 32
Finn
What am I doing?Why do I think this is a good idea?
I just invited my new housekeeper into my inner sanctum, the place that houses many of my hopes and dreams for this ranch.I have no idea why I wanted to share it with her.
But when that voice shows up in my head this clear and this loud, I listen.I don’t always have to understand what the voice is telling me, but I’ve learned to do what it says.
I’m alive because of that voice.I came home to Jasmine in one piece because of it.It’s the voice that told me to yank the Humvee to the left just before I clipped the buried IED.
If I’d ignored the voice and stayed in the middle of that road, I’d have been directly over that shit and I’d be dead.
For eight years now, I’ve wished and hoped that voice is Amy watching over me, keeping me safe and steering me along the right path.
It isn’t.It never sounds like her, as much as I want it to.
And in this instance?Of course it isn’t Amy.Why would the love of my life want me to welcome another woman into my world, into my arms?
Because that’s where this is headed, and I know it.
And now Emma is walking by my side into the horse barn, her canvas sneakers stepping onto the rubberized flooring of what Evander calls my cathedral.
I watch her throw her head back to drag her gaze up, and up some more, all the way to the cupola.Her dark hair slides down the center of her back, nearly touching the waistband of those faded Daisy Dukes.
ThosefuckingDaisy Dukes.
They’re not even out of place here on Yosemite Ranch.I’ve seen a whole lot of female barn staff and ranch hands wear them over the years.But they never made my eyes cross and my heart pound the way Emma’s do.
