The ride to the main house is quiet as hell.Too quiet, but I’m feeling awkward about possibly being caught out, and I don’t know what the hell to say about it.I don’t wanna scare her off, and I don’t want her thinking she owes me anything.She should never feel obligated to be with me.I want her to need me so much she can’t stand not touching me, but it has to be her choice.
Even so, it’s taking all the composure I possess not to kiss her right now, but I don’t, because I need her to know that I’m here for her.I’m all in.
With his usual bad timing, Wade pulls up to the main house.I turn from Daisy and remove Waylon’s carrier out of my truck.“Brother, Daisy-Mae.Don’t you two look like the start of the perfect nuclear family.”
Wyatt’s coming over from the barn, and he clearly caught the tail end of what Wade said.Like the asshole he is, he’s decided to elaborate on it.“Seems you went from ‘just friends’ to ‘moving in’ pretty fast.”
“Shut it,” I warn.“Both of you.”
Daisy smiles anxiously.“We’re just—”
“Friends,” Wade and Wyatt say at once and then laugh while they shove each other like the five-year-olds they are.
“Yeah.”Wade chuckles.“We’ve heard that one a few times now.”
“So many, many times,” Wyatt deadpans.They roughhouse again and race to the back door.
“I’m sorry about my idiot brothers.”
“Honestly, I don’t mind.”Daisy shrugs.“This is all pretty crazy.If we don’t laugh, right?”
I frown and stop in my tracks.“Is this you telling me you don’t like ranch life?”
“No.God, no.It’s beautiful out here.”She looks over the barn, the training ring, and the ranch beyond and sighs.A quiet smile lifts the corners of her mouth.“And your family—you ...are amazing.I just ...I guess I’m a little confused after last night.”
“What happened last night?”Lemon asks, scaring the shit out of both of us from her lazy lean against the doorjamb.
“Lemon, hey,” Daisy says, glancing nervously at my sister.“You scared me.”
“Hey yourself.What happened last night?”
“None of your damn business,” I say, giving her the ‘don’t fuck with me over this’ expression.As usual, my sister ignores my threats.
“They boned,” Wade says, appearing over Lemon’s shoulder.
“They totally boned,” Wyatt adds from deeper in the mudroom.
Daisy’s cheeks flame the most beautiful pink, and I’m instantly transported to earlier when I watched her sleep against my pillows and mentally traced the outline of her lips like a fucking creeper.
I shake my head and glare at my siblings.“Not another fucking word.You hear me?”
“Don’t you idiots know anything?”Lemon continues like I didn’t just threaten my siblings’ lives if they kept this shit up.“They can’t bone until she’s six weeks postpartum.Can they?”She shrieks.“Oh my god, you did other stuff, didn’t you?Actually, don’t answer that.Thinking of West doing ...anything is ...”She scowls and screws up her button nose.
“What’s that, Lemonade?You don’t like a taste of your own medicine?”I ask with a smug smile.“Now imagine what it’s like to be me walking into a barn that you and Colt are occupying.”
My sister pokes out her tongue and snatches the baby carrier from me, promptly walking inside.I grab Daisy’s hand and pull her to me.“I’m sorry about them.”
“It’s fine.They probably already suspected something was going on between us anyway, right?I mean, how many new mothers move in with their ...friend.”
I try to hide my grin over her fumbling that last word.“Maybe.One thing about my family though, they’re never going to let us hear the end of it.”
“Well, isn’t this nice?”Mama says, smiling at Daisy and I.Lemon’s hogging all the baby cuddles from Waylon instead of eating, and Colt is making stupid faces at the kid like Bozo the Clown.“My kitchen full of my babies and their lo—”
“Mama,” I warn, and scoop a heap of eggs and bacon on mine and Daisy’s plates.She opens her mouth as if to say something and quickly closes it again.
“It’s just temporary,” Daisy says.“Just until this all blows over.I promise I’ll be out of y’all’s hair right quick.”
“Nonsense, you’re family Daisy, you and Waylon both.You’ll stay as long as you want, forever if I have a say in it,” Mama says, and I turn away to hide my mortification.
