Cash answers on the first ring, even though it’s after midnight. “What’s up?”
“What can we do with a name?”
“A lot. What are you thinking?”
“You know anyone in Vancouver who could take a ferry ride for me and get eyeballs on a location?” Between military service and his time in jail, Cash has the biggest network of any of us—and the broadest variety of friends.
“Consider it done. You got a name?”
I give it to him. “You have to be careful with this.”
“I’ll find a way.” He pauses. “You see Ridge when you got back?”
“Yeah. He was sitting by the barn, just watching the house.” I shove my thumb into my temple.
Cash exhales in my ear. If anyone could understand what makes Ridge tick, it should be Cash. But they couldn’t be more different.
Ridge is never going to stop punishing himself for killing our father, even though all three of us wish we had been big enough to do it with him.
After Cash promises to get back to me tomorrow with an update, I set the phone down and stare at my notebook on the desk. Where I've been running numbers all week, trying to figure out how to keep my family's future on track.
None of that feels important right now.
I turn to a fresh page in the notebook and start writing out a new plan.
Chapter 18
Hope
When Bellamy wakes me up, it’s because she can smell breakfast being cooked downstairs. “Mommy,” she whispers. “Pancakes, Mommy.”
“I don’t know if it’s pancakes, baby,” I mumble. “But we’ll find you something.”
I take time to wash my face and do something with my hair, because I can hear Zane down in the kitchen. I know it’s him, and I’m all fluttery thinking of seeing him again after last night.
He made the worst news in the world something I could handle. He said he would protect my baby. And then he kissed me.
Well, I kissed him.I could fly, that’s how powerful that made me feel. And he did that! He held me in his arms and promised me he wouldn’t rush me, and then he…worked magic. And he made me want to kiss him.
He kissed me back, though. Once I asked, he kissed me until my head spun.
I touch my upper lip, where I can still feel his moustache.
“Mommy!” Bellamy tugs on my borrowed flannel pants.
“I’m coming, hang on.”Mommy just has to find a way to hide her feelings off her face.
Downstairs, thankfully Zane is alone in the kitchen. He’s wearing jeans that fit him like a glove, and a long-sleeved shirt, rolled up to his elbows.
When I hover at the threshold, he glances upand gives me a slow, sexy look that could melt ice. “Good morning,” he murmurs. “You’re up early.”
“Maybe the ranch is making me a morning person after all?”
Bellamy pushes past my legs, no longer shy with Zane. She runs up to him. “Are you making pancakes?”
He crouches down. “I sure am. You have a very smart nose, don’t you? They’re in the oven.”
“The oven?” I move closer, too. Both Waterford girls swirling around Zane like he’s our magnetic north pole.
