McKenna: I’m the same. You can take the girl out of Tennessee, but you can’t take the Tennessee out of the girl. I’ve gotta run. See you all tomorrow.
“All the girls with their heads in their phones,” Dustin muses.
“We were texting McKenna,” Emberleigh says with a playful whack to Dustin’s abs.
The radio on Cody’s belt sounds with a call. The atmosphere shifts from relaxed to urgent in a breath.
Dustin leans over and places a peck on Emberleigh’s cheek. “Duty calls. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The kiss is simple—the smallest gesture. Watching them tugs something warm in my chest.
I watch as Cody runs behind Patrick to the fire truck out front.
“I guess I’d better get going too,” I say. “Duty doesn’t call, but I’ve got a to-do list I’m conveniently avoiding.”
I leave Baker From Another Mother, driving my old red Ford F-250 through our small downtown and turning out through neighborhoods until I’m on the open roads leading to our ranch. Something tight unfurls in my chest. It’s still a little too cold out to roll the windows down, but I do it anyway. The faint smell of wood smoke and damp earth fills my senses. I tug out my ponytail and shake my head to let my hair fly like a blonde mane, wild and free.
I pull into the driveway that runs alongside the main house and leads back to the barn and sties.
Dad is on his knees next to a gate that leads to one of the hog lots. Our eyes meet and he stands, slowly rising to his feet, bracing his hand on his knee. He’s been just a tad slower than usual lately. I sigh. My smile is instantaneous when he strolls over to my truck. I jump out, closing the door with a satisfying clank.
“Mom said you ran into town?”
“I was helping at the bakery.”
“That’s my sweet girl.” He tucks me into his side and gives a tug. We stand there, Dad’s arm around me. He absentmindedlymentions farm updates. “Lawson said a heifer calved early this morning.”
“Does Cody know?” I ask.
“He was on shift at the station. The ranch hands and the other Lawson boys handled it.”
I chuckle.
“What’s so funny?”
“Referring to those grown men as boys. They’re the farthest thing from boys …” my voice drifts off.
“I guess you’re right. It’s hard to think of them as anything other than the boys the next property over, even if half of them are in their thirties. I’ll always view them as my second set of sons—our extended family.”
Yep. Cody Lawson—just like a brother—at least according to everyone who matters, he is.
But, what I feel for Cody? Definitely not sisterly.
Which is exactly why I keep it locked down.
Chapter 2
Cody
When riding a horse, we borrow freedom.
~ Helen Thompson
The morningat the bakery fades like a distant memory as soon as we’re driving through town with our sirens blaring. Every time we get a call, a switch flips. It’s instinct now, the alarm rings and my body responds almost before my brain registers the details.
“No structures involved at this point,” Patrick relays from the driver’s seat. “Just a grass fire.”
We’re all buckled in, wriggling into our wildland gear while we roll past the shops on Main Street out toward the open land surrounding Waterford. The ranches past the town limits are at least a mile apart from one another and set back from the main road. It almost looks like no one lives out here, but a whole world of ranchers and farmers form a hidden community down these seemingly desolate roads.
