"Because I bet that it'd take you a few months. Now, I owe Blaze two hundred dollars. And I'm not even fucked up about the money," he bitches, "but it's Blaze. He's going to annoy the hell out of everyone now that he won."
"Jesus Christ," I mutter, not entirely surprised that Blaze is behind the betting. You make your entertainment on a ranch, or you do without, and he's damn good at keeping things entertaining.
"He won two hundred dollars betting on us?" Letty asks.
"No." Tanner grins at her. "He won 4gs betting on the two of you."
Her mouth pops open.
I chuckle, tugging her into my arms. "They're assholes, Sunshine. Feel free to enhance their food."
She looks up at me and then over at Tanner. "You aren't mad?"
"About losing to Blaze? Fuck yeah, I'm mad. He's going to be insufferable."
"About us," she whispers.
His expression softens. "What'd I tell you, Letty? This is your home now. If that big idiot makes you happy, then good for you. If he ever stops making you happy, you tell me, and we run his ass out of here. It's that simple."
"But…" She gapes at him. "He lives here, too."
"Yeah, but cowboys are a dime a dozen around here. You're one of a kind." Tanner winks at her, snatching another piece of bacon. "We keep what's special, sweetheart. That's what makes this place what it is."
She stares silently as he strides out of the kitchen.
"Feel better now?"
"He meant it," she whispers, blinking up at me.
"Yeah, baby. He meant it."
She burst into tears.
I sweep her into my arms, tucking her face against my chest. My lips land against her ear. "Welcome home, Letty baby."
Chapter Eleven
Letty
"Ms. Letty?"
I turn from the ball of dough in front of me to find Abel standing in the kitchen doorway with his hat in his hands.
"Hey," I murmur. "What's up?"
"Walker sent me," he says. "He said I'm supposed to tell you that he needs you at home."
"He needs me at home?" I blink at him. "He's supposed to be repairing fences."
"Not today, ma'am."
I dust my hands on a towel, worried. If Walker is home in the middle of the day, something is wrong. Actually, if Walkerwillingly sent one of the cowboys into my kitchen, something is wrong. Even though he's in my bed every night and has been for the last week, he still gets all grumpy when they even poke their heads in here. He's jealous and possessive and nine kinds of ridiculous. And I love him anyway.
"I'll go right now," I mumble to Abel.
"Yes, ma'am." He steps out of the way, allowing me to hurry out the door around him.
I step out into the sunshine with my heart pounding a million miles a minute, worried as hell about what happened. On a ranch, it could be anything. They're always coming in from the fields with some new injury or horror story about a near miss.
