Page 133 of Colt

She’s giving me a look too. My face burns.

“Ryder helped too, you know. He’s an excellent kitchen assistant,” she says.

I glance at Billie. I have to admit she looks happier. Lit up even as she reaches for Ryder’s hand.

“That so?” I ask.

“My mom always used to say many hands make light work,” Ryder says, gulping his beer.

Lainey and I meet eyes. Hers are full of feeling. She used that exact same expression with me, only in a wildly different context. My blood thumps at the memory.

“You’re kind of the living embodiment of that, Ry,” Billie says.

Lainey is chewing thoughtfully on some garlic bread. “All y’all are. Watching you work together day in and day out is really something else.”

Can’t help it. Gotta tease this girl. Gotta get a rise out of her, ease the tension in here, because I kinda want to die right now. I didn’t come to address the proverbial elephant in the room, but I do want to thaw out this silence between me and Ryder and Billie a little bit.

I also wanna keep that smile on Lainey’s face.

“That’s ’cause we’re doin’ real work. The kind you do with your hands,” I reply with a tight smile and take my seat.

Lainey’s eyes gleam. “You really gonna start with this right now?”

Almost like she wants to play this game with me.

Damn it, she gets it. Gets me. Once upon a time, that woulda pissed me off. Now it turns me on.

I can’t stop thinking about our date. Best I’ve been on in forever. I can’t wait to do it again.

“Daddy, Miss Lainey does real work too,” Dean says, watching with glee as Tate scoops a massive piece of lasagna onto his plate. “Matter of fact, we worked together today.”

I raise my brows. “I thought you were showing Miss Lainey how to ride a horse.”

“We were riding horses, Daddy. We were also talking strategy.”

Mack hides his laughter by wiping his face with his napkin. “I like the sound of this.”

“Can we tell them?” Dean asks around a mouthful of lasagna. “Please please please? Your ideas are the neatest.”

Now we’re all laughing.

“Sure,” Lainey says with a nod. “Why don’t you tell everyone the idea we were kicking around today while you were being such an excellent teacher?”

Dean looks like he’s about to burst when he smiles and says, “Double U Ranch! Get it, Mimi? Instead of the Wallace Ranch, our new name would be—wait, what did you call it, Miss Lainey?”

Watching her laugh, I feel short of breath. Somehow I know she’s going to nail her delivery, and my family’s all gonna love whatever idea she presents.

And me? I’m gonna have to try with all my might not to love it too.

“A play on words.” Lainey’s ruffling my son’s hair now. “Wallace starts with the letter w, so we just spell that letter out in a different way. D-o-u-b-l-e-…”

“U!” Dean shouts, clapping his hands. “Remember you wrote it out for me and I got it because I know how to read now?”

Double U Ranch.

It really is clever. And it’s unique enough to make us stand out.

Lainey knows this. Of course she does. Why else would she aim that wide, white smile at me before turning back to my son?