I was the CEO, but evenIanswered to people. The board gave me a lot of leeway, but eventually, they would start questioning my choices. Lord knew I was questioning them myself. This whole thing had started as business, but it had been getting intensely personal for me.
The turnoff leading to Granny’s Acre Farm came into view. It was a hard-packed dirt road with no sign announcing where it went, but I had become intimately familiar with it over the last couple of weeks. The sight of it sparked joy in me, knowing who was waiting for me at the end of it.
Tyler’s truck stank to high heaven but it handled well on country roads like this. After driving around in it for so long, I was tempted just to buy the damned thing. It seemed like Shelby’s brother, Shane, was never coming back to fix my car. I could have flown out a technician to get it done faster than this.
But hey, I supposed waiting on my car to get fixed was a great reason to stick around in town for a while. No one would expect me to just abandon a luxury vehicle like that out here in the sticks. It was a perfectly legitimate reason for me to be here.
I could also keep looking for investment opportunities. That was a part of why I was in Ferris to begin with, but I kept getting sidetracked because of Shelby.
The fact was, I didn’t want to visit other farmers to check out their operations. Granny’s Acre was the only farm I wanted to spend time on. The property came into view as I approached. Shelby’s van was parked in front of the house where it normally was, and it brought a smile to my face.
Shelby’s farm didn’t seem like a bad place to live. The peaceful country life was a far cry from my life in Los Angeles, but I was starting to see the appeal of a small town like Ferris. Slowing down helped me appreciate the small joys of life, like a cool breeze after working in the sun all day, a good meal after working up an appetite, or a smile from a pretty girl I had no business falling for.
In my other life, everything needed to be bigger, better, bolder. And I had thought things couldn’t get better than that. It turned out I was wrong. There was a benefit to getting closerto the land and the outdoors. It felt a lot better than being stuck inside all day looking at screens and PowerPoint presentations.
Was that even living? I was starting to think it wasn’t. That maybe I’d had things all wrong. Money was important, but after a certain point, it didn’t really change anything in my life. Now I was just socking it away in the bank, barely even looking at the balances on my accounts. My priorities had gotten out of whack somewhere along the line.
I was making lots of money, but I didn’t think I was happy. Job satisfaction and actual happiness weren’t the same thing. It seemed to me I had one without the other. It was also becoming increasingly clear to me I no longer knew what I was working toward.
I had money. I had success. I had respect. Now what?
My heart was telling me it was time to look for fulfillment outside the company. I wanted love, affection, and someone to start the rest of my life with. I wanted a family. Children. Hell, even my father, a notoriously ruthless workaholic, had taken time to get married and have me. He hadn’t been a great father but hewasa father. I couldn’t say I was too busy if he had somehow found time for it.
As I thought about it, my only defense was that I had never met a woman who seemed right for all of those things. A woman who made me want to settle down. To commit. To have children.
And now even that excuse was no longer true.
Shelby stepped out onto her porch as I parked Tyler’s truck beside her van. The setting sun made her blonde locks glow like fire, and the breeze blew it around her head like a halo.
Now there was a woman who made me want to settle down, commit, and start a family. Not right away. I wasn’t a lunatic. But with Shelby, I could suddenly see the future mapped out before me, and it was looking a lot different than it had before I had shown up in Ferris.
I got out of the truck, rushed over to her, and kissed her with every ounce of affection I felt for her.
CHAPTER 25
SHELBY
Carter was kissing me on the porch and I couldn’t breathe. Seeing him roll up to the farm had felt so right, like this was where he belonged. It was a pretty big difference from the first time he had shown up here, when I pointed my shotgun at him.
Now if I were to point it at him, it would be to keep him here with me forever. Because kisses like these were irreplaceable. And men like Carter didn’t come around more than once in a lifetime.
My body melted into his as his lips crushed against mine. His tongue parted my lips and explored me, reminding me of our night together in his room at the B&B, when he’d eaten me out like he was playing a sloppy harmonica.
That night had only given us a taste of each other, but now I was hoping we might get a full meal.
Not breaking the kiss, he picked me up and carried me into the house. It wasn’t the barn but it would do. My chest was pressed into his, and I could feel his strong muscles flexing. Carter might spend most of his days in an office but he radiated power with every move.
My heart was pounding and all my nerve endings were crackling with electricity. We had joked about Carter comingover, and now here he was. It was nice to know I wasn’t the only one feeling the irresistible force pulling us together.
Carter put me down in my living room but he didn’t let me go. His arms wrapped around me, holding me tight. “I’ve been waiting for this all day. Ever since you showed up to the town square.”
I smiled against his lips. “I have to say, you were looking pretty good in that costume.”
Carter pulled back a little to look down into my eyes. “Have I officially graduated from bad bunny to good bunny?”
“You’re way more fun as a bad bunny.” I got up on my tiptoes to kiss him again.
His hands slid down my body to grab my ass. “In that case, I can be real bad.”
