“We can talk about it later?”she asked Ford.
“You bet, sweetheart.No rush at all.”
She beamed at him.
Conversation switched to talking about Colton’s recent attack, and after the meal was over and the table cleared, everyone sat around discussing how to keep their people safe.
Ford was even more determined that the farm would be the pinnacle of a safe haven for their people.Because someday, he and Darcy would be bringing kids of their own into the world and he wanted the farm to be the safest place on earth.
Sunday afternoon, Darcy was in heaven, and it wasn’t because Ford was using his talented tongue and fingers to drive her wild.It was because she was in the farmhouse kitchen with the other women in the herd, peeling apples from the trees in the yard.
After breakfast, they’d invited her to pick apples, then prep and bake several desserts, plus make homemade applesauce and apple butter.Her mom hadn’t really been someone who enjoyed being in the kitchen, preferring convenience food and takeout to spending hours in the kitchen.When Darcy started living on her own, she’d watched online videos to learn how to cook.But baking had never been in her wheelhouse.She was enchanted by all the women in the herd could do in the kitchen.It was like magic.
“So, what do you think of everything so far?”Nancy asked, her paring knife smoothly cutting off the peel.
“I love it here.I really do feel at home, and a lot of that is Ford, but it’s also how welcoming and warm everyone has been.”
“Crew told me when they settled here, that he hoped the house would someday be filled with mates and kids, and it took a few years, but we’re finally here.All the herd males are mated, and we’ve already got a baby on the way,” Zara said, casting a smile at Fallon.
The women all shared the stories of how they’d come to be with their stallions.Nancy was the first—meeting Dexter at a movie theater where she worked when Dani was young and he was a single father to Khyle.Then Tris shared how she came to work as a caretaker for the farm and met Khyle.As the others shared their stories, Darcy could tell how close everyone was and how much they enjoyed each other’s company.The stallions were a family, the guys like brothers and the girls like sisters, with Nancy and Dexter as the parent figures.
Darcy was overwhelmed with how much she liked everyone, and how sweet they all were to her.They all worked together to provide a wonderful home for everyone, from laundry to meals to cleaning, not to mention the fun they all seemed to have with each other.
It had just been Darcy and Cruz, plus her besties Rhomi and Reagan, for such a long time, it was refreshing and sweet to have so many new friends who treated her like family already.
She was feeling really blessed.
After various apple desserts were prepped, some baked for dinner that night, and some frozen for the future, with several batches of applesauce and apple butter finished, Darcy headed upstairs to their bedroom to video chat with Rhomi.
After Rhomi assured Darcy she was in the park in the house she and Mercer shared, which wasnotthe apartment that she’d first been shown, so they could speak freely, Darcy said, “I can’t believe Mercer is a lion.”
“Right?Freaking cool, I tell ya.But the craziest part is that when Mercer and I fell asleep that first night?He shifted while we were asleep and I woke up to a dang lion spooning me!”
“Are you kidding?”Darcy asked, laughing.
“Not even a little bit.I was so scared I ran screaming from the apartment where he told me he lived before I learned the truth about shifters.He broke down a door trying to get to me!I almost passed out.Stop laughing.”
“I can’t help it!He was really spooning you?”
“Yeah.”Rhomi made a face, then laughed.“But, I’m really glad that you and Ford are together now, so you and I can actually talk about our lives fully.”
“Do you find it hard to keep the secret?”
“Not really.I know how important it is that humans don’t find out about shifters, and especially having a half-shifter, half-human baby on the way.But while I don’t like keeping secrets from my parents, or you and Reagan, I’d never endanger the pride or my mate or his family, you know?It makes it easy to keep the secret when the stakes are so high.”
“Good point.”Her mind strayed to Reagan.Indio must be a shifter since he worked at the park.Which meant her other bestie was possibly the mate of a shifter too.How wild!She didn’t say anything to Rhomi, because she knew Reagan hadn’t told her about her sexy encounter, and Darcy wasn’t going to share secrets that weren’t hers to share.
She and Rhomi talked about the baby and then about Darcy moving to the farm.
“I just don’t know what I’d do here, you know?Like if I stopped working at the hardware store, I don’t know how I’d be useful to the herd.”
“Did Ford ask you to stop working?”
“No, but I kind of want to be with the herd.With him.”She bit her lip, thinking about the farm and what life could be like.Not living in a cramped apartment and going to a job that she really had no enjoyment of.She’d seen Ford work on the tractor and how he really loved turning a wrench.
“Maybe they’ll figure something out for you,” Rhomi said.“I’m still selling seasonal tickets in the booth, which Mercer loves because he can swing by for kisses when he’s on patrol.”
Darcy snorted.“Just kisses.Sure.”
