Page 79 of The Rancher’s One and Only

She couldn’t just turn him into a familiar TV show. And after all, he was right. Something couldn’t become familiar unless you tried it the first time.

Maybe men in relationships were the same. And she just needed to get over it, get over herself. There was certainly no point in being upset about it. Or particularly at him. He had been honest every step of the way.

“I’m going to warn you about my bedroom,” she said.

“What exactly merits a warning?”

“You’ll see,” she said, after they did all the dinner dishes, and went upstairs.

She pushed the door open, and he let out a bark of laughter. “This is so you.”

It was all very dark academia, which Ernestine really enjoyed. The walls were painted navy blue and she had some gold stars painted on them as well. But then there were the bones. The bronzed bones. Exactly like skeletons in a museum. Her pride and joy, really. She had a cage hanging from her ceiling that had a skeleton bird inside, and she had other creatures throughout, including a little mouse skeleton on her dresser.

“You know, from anyone else this would be serial killer behavior. But for you it’s very appropriate.”

“I’m not a serial killer,” she said.

“I know. I can’t think of a person less likely to be a serial killer. Because you are such a sentimental, sweet sort of person.”

“Sentimental?”

“Look at all this. You’re very sentimental. You love your work, you love to collect things… Yeah. I would say that you’re sentimental.”

“So are you. Moving onto a ranch with your foster brothers. Keeping your promises like that.”

He looked stunned for a moment, and then accepting. “Yeah. I suppose I am.”

“Do you mind sleeping in here with the bones?”

“Not at all. I’m the first person you’ve ever had to ask that of, aren’t I?”

“You know that you’re my first.”

His eyes turned intense. “Yes, I do.” Then he kissed her, and she knew they were done with talking. “Yes, I do.”

Chapter Sixteen

Meeting day with her boss was upon them, and she felt the need to dress up. Which Jax simply couldn’t let slide by without commentary. She was wearing a plaid skirt and a little white blouse. And he liked it quite a bit. He was obsessed with the little buttons. He wanted to undo them.

“You have to behave yourself,” she said as they pulled into the employee parking lot at the museum. He didn’t know what he had expected, but the museum was so much more impressive in person than any images online had managed to make it. He hadn’t been able to imagine the scale.

When they walked into the front room, a massive skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex greeted them.

“That’s Davey,” she said. “He was discovered in Arizona. I was on the team that found him.”

“Incredible.”

“Yes, he’s very nice.”

“He’s nice?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just feel like Davey has a very nice energy to him.”

They continued on through the entry, and he felt a sense of pride being in the place where Ernestine had done so much. She was part of this. She had helped to build it, from everything he had read. And it was packed full of history, something that he had never been particularly interested in, but she made him interested in it. She was part of a rare team of people who brought more information into the world. They didn’t just do searches on the internet to try to gather something people already knew; they actually added knowledge to humanity. It was awe-inspiring, really. He made his money punching other men in the face. It was nothing compared to what she did.

“This place is amazing.”

“Thank you. I missed it, being away. The cafeteria’s over there, and it’s actually really good. I eat there every day when I am working. I actually usually come in six days a week.”