Benji only shrugged. ‘He always has.’ He dusted the stall door distractedly. ‘Anyway, I figured I’d work through the summer. Give you time to find my replacement. Head out at the end of August.’
‘I hate to see you go.’
‘Yeah.’ Benji glanced away, cleared his throat. ‘But we both know I can’t stay.’
‘I think you and Sierra need to sit down and talk. Fight. Just speak to each other! It might help.’
Benji only shook his head. ‘Our kid died, Mav. Nothing is going to help.’ He tapped the door once before stepping back, repeated, ‘August,’ before turning and walking away.
Chapter 2
By seven o’clock the next morning Maverick had fed the horses and updated both the trail riding and lesson sign-up sheet for the day. He had helped muck out the stalls and then made it back in time to watch the sunrise, a cup of coffee in his hand, his dog at his feet.
Over at the resort, guests would be starting to stir, wandering down to the dining room for coffee and breakfast, or ordering it up to their rooms. The folks staying in the lodges might be putting a pod in their coffee machines or ordering a fresh one, maybe a French press or pour over, from the main lodge.
The well-trained staff on both the resort and the ranch would already be well into their own routines.
Everyone had their schedules, and for the most part, things ran like clockwork. But the horses and the sunrise were Mav’s. One little moment in time he took for himself every day. Because in the early hours of the morning, when all the guests were still asleep and the animals were just beginning to stir, Mav remembered why he had kept Hunt Ranch when his parents had died.
He could have sold. He knew the value of the title deeds, knew that if he had sold, he and Sierra, their children, and their grandchildren would never have had to work again. And he’d considered it seriously. Both he and Sierra had.
But then he’d asked himself what he’d do if he had all that money and the time to do anything he wanted, and the answer had been simple: he’d buy a goddamn ranch. Maybe he wouldn’t have so many cows or horses. Maybe he wouldn’t have the resort and the guests. Maybe he wouldn’t work so hard. But he had 124 years of family history proving otherwise.
So, the choice had been easy for him.
Less so for Sierra, but even then, Mav knew she only struggled with all her memories. His sister had seen a lot of heartache at Hunt Ranch.
The sound of the front door opening had him turning in his chair as Poppy came out, dressed in her PJs, a matching shirt and pair of shorts in pink that Sierra had undoubtedly picked out. Her tiny feet were bare. Her hair, the same dark brown as his, was a wild tangle that Mav took one look at and sighed. Her eyes, brown like Shannon’s where his were blue, were still half shut.
On the floor, Shadow’s tail thumped loudly.
‘Good morning,’ he said quietly.
‘Hi, Daddy.’ Poppy smiled and walked to him, pausing on the way to pat Shadow.
She crawled onto Mav’s lap, rested her head against him, and yawned.
Maverick inhaled her familiar scent, vaguely resonant of Johnson & Johnson shampoo, and his heart settled. His mind quietened. And when Poppy looked out at the ranch, saw the horses grazing, and whispered, ‘Pretty,’ Mav reminded himself that he was exactly where he was meant to be.
He kissed her head, asked, ‘Did you sleep okay?’ though he knew the answer already. Poppy had two modes: awake and dead to the world.
‘Yeah. I slept good.’ She reached for his coffee mug and gripping it with both hands, raised it to her mouth when he released it.
Poppy took a single sip, scrunched her face up as she swallowed, and then passed the mug back to him without a word.
‘Still don’t like it, huh?’
She made a gagging sound. When he laughed, she did it again.
Mav ran his hand over her hair, covertly trying to see what he was in store for. ‘Want me to make you breakfast before daycare?’
It might have been mid-June, the first full month of summer for most kids, but Poppy was still too young to be left alone on the ranch for full days, and her nanny couldn’t spare the extra time from her part-time job. So, daycare it was. At least until she was old enough to hang around the ranch without slowing him down or getting hurt.
‘Eggs and toast,’ came the succinct reply.
‘Okay.’ Mav helped her down, groaned as he pushed to his feet. ‘Why don’t you go and get changed, and I’ll start breakfast.’ As she ran inside, letting the door slap closed behind her, he called out, ‘You have to hurry! Jenna is picking you up soon!’
‘’Kay!’
