Page 75 of Roping Her In

“I’m wondering if we should spend a bit more time with your family,” she said. “Maybe not Carson, if you can’t get him to respond, but…your parents.”

He opened his eyes. “You want to spend more time with my parents?”

“I’m just saying—” But she didn’t say anything, and Jake’s thoughts started to derail. What was she saying? Why couldn’t she just say it so he didn’t have to riddle through possibly erroneous assumptions?

All at once, a light switched on his head. “This would be the next step in a serious relationship,” he said, the words almost scraping his throat.

“I think so,” she said. “I know you don’t talk to your parents the way I do mine—and I think you’re insane if you think you’ve met even a third of the Glovers—but if we….” She trailed off again, and Jake sat up.

“Say it,” he said softly.

“If we keep dating and fall in love and get married, I don’t want your parents to be strangers.” She drew in a breath that sounded like a gasp mixed with her collecting all of her bravery. “Yeah, that’s it. I said it.”

“Are you falling in love with me?” he teased.

“Okay, I’m hanging up,” she said.

“Wait,” he practically yelled. His heartbeat fizzed through his body now, as if it had become a dissolving tablet and he’d just dropped it in vinegar.

He too gathered his courage close, the words right there at the back of his throat. “I just want to say…I want to keep dating, because I’m totally falling in love with you.”

Hailey sighed, and it carried a hint of hope and happiness in the sound. “Me too, Jake,” she whispered. “I’ll see you in a bit for church, okay?”

“Okay,” he said, and he let her end the call. After all, he now rode a high he hadn’t been on in years, and he didn’t want to come down any time soon.

He would, of course, because he had to meet the entire Glover family in less than a week, and if Hailey was to be believed, he’d need all of his wits about him for that.

29

“All right,” Hailey said as Jake made the turn onto Shiloh Ridge Ranch. “I hope you’re ready for this.” Nerves paraded through her, though he glanced over to her and reached for her hand.

“You know I’ve been to Shiloh Ridge before, right?”

“Have you, though?” she asked. “Have you come to something like this?”

He chuckled and drove slowly past the two huge houses on the lower part of the ranch. “Who lives down here?” he asked.

“Uncle Preacher’s right there on the left,” she said. “At the start of this lower cabin community. Uncle Mister and Aunt Libby are over here on the right.” Hailey swung her attention that way. “They’ve got a bunch of equipment sheds, and some barns and stables.”

“And that was Wilder out on the highway.” He didn’t really phrase it as a question, but Hailey nodded anyway.

“Yeah, he bought five acres from the ranch, so his wife could keep doing her llama classes and yarn dyeing, and that big Llama Mama’s festival.”

“Sure.” He looked over to her. “How many full-time people do you have at Shiloh Ridge?” He spoke as if Hailey were one of the managers here.

Her eyes hooked on the cabin she and her daddy had moved into when she was only eight years old. In so many ways, Shiloh Ridge had saved them both, and pure love and gratitude streamed through her that God had led her father to this ranch in the Texas Panhandle.

“There’s ten cabins down here,” she said, quickly clearing her throat afterward. “And I think another six up on the main ranch, and four or six more up in the trees. But I don’t think they use those.”

Jake made a humming, noncommittal sound, and made it past the buildings down on the part of the ranch they called the Kindred property. Shiloh Ridge’s official sign sat at the top of the hill—a huge arch that Uncle Judge put mistletoe on starting at the end of October and running through mid-January.

“That great big homestead you see up there on the right,” Hailey said. “Is where Uncle Bear used to live. It’s got three separate suites, actually, and my uncle Ace and aunt Holly Ann live in one, and Uncle Ranger and Aunt Oakley live in the other. And I actually think Robbie is living in the basement suite. It’s more of a studio type thing.”

She pointed across the cab to the hint of a back deck. “That used to be Uncle Ace’s house, but that’s where Gun and Camila live now.”

“Oh, sure,” Jake said. “Who else lives on Shiloh Ridge?”

“Uh, so many people.” Hailey gave a light laugh, and decided to start on the southern border.