Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
“ T ildi.” Boone called her name, and his tone made her think it wasn’t the first time.”
“If I need to keep your attention by having this conversation with you across my knee, I can.”
Yep. Not the first time he’d called her name.
Boone studied her through narrowed eyes. She gave her best impersonation of earnest attentiveness. “What if I need something that isn’t in the house?”
His eyes narrowed even more. “Like what?”
Like what? Good question. “I don’t know. I’m just trying to be prepared.” She needed to be less earnest and more attentive.
“If there’s something you need, tell me and I’ll get it for you. You want to go outside? We’ll go outside together. If I’m not there, you can ask one of my brothers. If you can’t find one of them, you call Grif, Dutch, or one of the other Wild Men.”
“You have wild men on the ranch?”
“No, not actual wild men. That’s just what the people around town started calling them years ago, and it stuck.”
“Huh. Do they act like wild men?”
“Only when they—never mind. We’re getting off track.”
Dutch tried to hide a snort of laughter in a cough.
Boone glared at him, then continued. “The point is under no circumstances are you to leave the lodge without an escort. Understand?”
She didn’t, but she nodded anyway. It was a wide open space with horses… well, wild Mustangs… and cows… okay, bison… but it wasn’t like she’d go running out there and try to ride one of them.
Grif turned left and all thoughts of over-protective Daddies flew from her mind. They were here. Her heart kicked up a notch or ten. She’d been half looking forward, half dreading this moment. What if Boone’s family didn’t like her?
It wouldn’t be the first time that had happened. Even her own family didn’t like her. Except for her sister, that was. Breezy had always loved her. Everyone else wanted to change her into who they wanted her to be.
The Daniels family was important, and not just to Boone. They were important people to the whole area. According to Dutch, the ranch sent a lot of business to the town and hired many people to work on the ranch. The road they’d turned onto was named Wild River Ranch Road. You didn’t get a road named after you if you weren’t important.
Fluster bunnies thumped their feet against the walls of her stomach. They always attacked at the worst time, like ninja warrior bunnies. Their only goal was to keep her so flustered she made an idiot of herself. That couldn’t happen with Boone’s family.
Half a mile down the road, she forgot about calming the fluster bunnies hopping around in her stomach. One more turn and they were pulling up to a gated entrance. Four short stone columns bracketed the road supporting a wooden beam structure and roof. A solid wood gate slowly opened when Boone hit a button on his phone.
Less than a minute after passing through the gate, they crossed the Wild River. The whitecaps of the rapids on each side of the bridge were beautiful. Scary but beautiful.
The long, straight road led to what Boone called the main house. She sat as close to the edge of her seat as her seatbelt would allow and stared as the house grew closer. It was a massive two-story structure of log and stone. Large windows filled the front of the house. There was a covered overhang gracing the front door.
The fluster bunnies in Tildi's stomach shifted from dancing to practicing their spinning kicks. She was about to meet Boone’s family and throw up right in front of them.
“Babygirl, look at me.” Boone’s voice was tender.
Nope. If she looked at him, she'd cry. She couldn’t do tender right now.
She could barely breathe for fear they weren't going to like her. Traveling six hours without anything longer than bathroom breaks meant their first impression of her would be of a girl with pink hair wearing wrinkled clothes.
Did cowboys like girls with pink hair? Boone liked it, but he was a super commando soldier cowboy. That might make him different. She should have dyed her hair back to some normal color at the hotel last night.
The only thing that could make meeting Boone's family worse would be meeting everyone with a red, puffy face. So, no, she didn't need her Daddy being tender.
Boone grasped her chin in his hand, taking away her choice. “Babygirl, you’ve talked with my family almost every day for the past three weeks. They already know you. They already love you. If you’re worried about anything, be worried about the trouble Kenzie will find for you two to get into.”
She couldn’t hold back a crooked smile because he was not wrong. Boone's sister, Kenzie, was a pistol. She was crazy, and Tildi loved her already.
“Grif, stop the Jeep.” Boone unlatched her seatbelt. “Come with me,” he said as he opened his door.
She started to open her door to get out, but he stopped her. “Not that side. Crawl across the seat and get out over here.”
Why should it matter what side of the Jeep she got out of? Argh!
She crawled to his side, where he made her wait while he helped her put on the new beanie with ears on the top, along with matching new mittens that looked like paws and a bright red parka he’d bought her the day before on the way to Sev’s estate. She felt like a princess.
Teasing her, he pulled her beanie down over her eyes and left it there while he bundled her up in her mittens and coat. Without shifting the beanie, he lifted her from the Jeep. He shut the door then slapped the side of the jeep twice. With a quick wave, Grif drove off toward the house.
She had not been expecting that. “Daddy, why did he leave without us? It’s too cold to walk all the way to the lodge.”
Boone chuckled. “If you think it’s cold today, bluebell, you’re in for a long winter.” He zipped up her coat. “Besides, you seemed to be getting upset and I wanted you to have more time.” He guided her in front of him and put his hands on her shoulders. “And I wanted you to see this.”
With that, he pulled the beanie from over her eyes. Before her, stretching out to the horizon in both directions, were the Grand Teton mountains. Snow covered the entire range, with peeks of the rocky terrain scattered throughout the range. It was a more than perfect backdrop to the white expanse of pastureland overlaid with untouched snow.
Thank goodness he didn’t ask her anything. There was no way she could speak. She’d seen the mountains at a distance from the Jeep before the windows were covered with snow and sludge. That didn’t come close to preparing her for this. There were no words for this.
Boone wrapped his arms around her from behind and pulled her to rest against him as she continued to take in the vista.
“Tennessee was beautiful, but my hometown of Darling never had anything like this.” Even though they were alone, she spoke just above a whisper.
“Not many places do. It never gets old.” He turned them toward the grand house at the end of the long drive. “Let me introduce you to my family.”
She didn’t know why the mountains settled her, but they did. Her Daddy was right. She’d been talking with all his brothers and his sister for weeks. Now, finally, she would get to meet them in person. “I’m excited to meet your family.”
He held her hand and led her down the drive to his home. “They’re excited, too. I’ll introduce you to everyone and then we’ll go upstairs and settle in.” When her stomach grumbled, he added, “Then we’ll come back down and find something to eat.”
She laughed. ‘That might be a good idea. Oh. My. Gosh. Are those buffalo?” There was a hulking dark animal nuzzling snow out in the pasture.
“They’re bison. I’ll go ahead and tell you right now that I don’t want you going near them. We have people who think they are tame, but they aren’t. They are wild animals. They won’t go out of their way to attack you, but they are unpredictable. I don’t want you anywhere near them. Are we clear?”
Crystal. It was the easiest “Yes, Daddy” she’d ever given. Her desire to pet a bison was only a nanometer above petting a rattlesnake.
“We need to hurry as much as you can, Tildi. The sun will set in about forty-five minutes, and the temperature will drop fast once it does.”
Wow, it was already freezing. “I can jog if that will help.” Well, for a few yards anyway. She hadn’t gotten much exercise the past year, locked in all those rooms by Nico Midnight. She would never be able to say she was glad she’d been kidnapped the night she helped cater his birthday party, but she could certainly count Boone as her reward.
Not that she felt that way at the second, since she could tell he was doing his best not to laugh. Well, she was going to start exercising. One day in the future. The distant future. Probably.
Though it had seemed like the main lodge was a long way off, it took them almost no time to make it to the house. Everyone had already gone inside, not that she blamed them. Boone had been right. The sun hadn’t set, yet the temperature had already dropped.
As he led her to the front door, she noticed the lighting and stopped.
His eyes were wary. “What’s wrong, Tildi? You aren’t still nervous, are you? I’ll be right beside you, babygirl. I would never let anyone be rude to you.”
She shook her head. “I’m not nervous. Or at least I wasn’t until I saw that you have three chandeliers lighting the overhang.” Outside their house, well, their mansion. A log cabin could be considered a mansion if it was the size of a small apartment building and had chandeliers, right? “Who lights their porte cochere with chandeliers?”
Gazing at the ceiling, Boone shrugged. “I don’t know. And I’m not sure you can call it a chandelier when it’s made from wrought iron.”
“You can it if has all those cut metal decorations of wolves and pine trees and stuff.”
He frowned at the wagon wheel shaped lighting, shrugged, and took another step toward the two story double door entry. She jumped when he shouted, “Isn’t anyone going to get out here and greet my girl?”
Tildi gasped. What would his family think of him bellowing out a demand like that?
Boone grinned at her expression and took up their earlier conversation. “For what it’s worth, my parents didn’t build it, either.”
Before she could ask just how old those chandeliers were, the massive wooden front doors swung open, and a woman with long chestnut brown hair came racing toward them, hands outstretched and wide open for a hug. “Tildiiiii!”
Tildi stiffened. She recognized Boone’s only sister, Kenzie, immediately, but she wasn’t sure her enthusiasm wouldn’t send them both to the ground. Without missing a beat, Boone stepped in front of her. Grabbing Kenzie around the waist, he swung her off her feet and spun around three times before setting her down.
Boone grinned down at his sister. “I said greet her, Tiger, not tackle her or scare the bejeezus out of her.”
She slapped his chest and laughed. “I’m excited.” At his raised brows, she added, “But I’ll be careful.”
Tildi watched the exchange in silence. So, that was what a real family interaction looked like. Her heart hurt for all she had missed growing up. Giving herself a mental shake, she shut the thought down. That was then, this was now.
She stuck out her hand toward Kenzie. “It’s so good to finally meet you face to face.”
Kenzie stared down at her extended hand. Looking up with a grin, she said, “I’m not going to be that careful!”
The next thing Tildi knew, Kenzie enveloped her in a tight hug. She froze. What was she supposed to do? The only person to hug her like that was Boone. Nothing so uncivilized ever happened in her family. When they were forced to show affection for the cameras, the most she got were stiff armed, fake hugs followed by lukewarm pats on the back.
No way was she giving Kenzie one of those. Warmth flooded her entire body. Before she knew what she was doing, she hugged Kenzie just as tight.
With one more squeeze, Kenzie stepped back. “I’m so glad you’re finally here. I have so many things planned.”
Boone groaned. “Don’t get her in too much trouble right out of the gate, darlin’.”
The front door opened again, and three of the most gorgeous, intimidating men she’d ever seen filed out. Well, not counting her Daddy, of course. She knew what the rest of the Daniels men looked like from video chatting with them on the phone. But seeing them on a teeny, tiny, static-filled screen was one thing. Seeing all that alpha maleness in person, walking toward you, was totally different.
Tanner reached her first. He gave her a side hug because he had one arm in a sling. Concerned, she demanded, “Tanner, are you okay? What happened to your arm?”
He had the most adorable grin. Normally she’d return his infectious smile, but she didn’t feel like smiling when he was hurt.
“Aw, it’s nothin’, chickabiddy. I got tossed off by Dozier last week down in Texas. Don’t worry, my shoulder broke my fall.”
He laughed, but Tildi didn’t think it was funny. “Who is this Dozier? Do I need to find him and kick his butt for tossing you like that? Then again, with a name like Dozier, no wonder he’s mean.. Didn’t his parents like him?”
Chance stepped forward to hug her. “That would be the 1900 pound bucking bull this idiot insists on riding at whatever rodeo he’s at. Maybe you’ll be the one to talk him out of riding them. Lord knows the rest of us have tried and failed.”
Hugging Chance was like hugging a warm slab of marble. He was just like Boone, all muscle. But it still felt nice to be welcomed by his hug. Was this how normal families greeted one another? In her experience, hugs were saved for photo ops. She could get used to long, warm hugs that lasted more than a few seconds.
Without moving, Chance whispered, “Wait for it.”
“You want to get your arms off my girl, brother? If you need that long of a hug, you need to find a girl of your own.”
Chance grinned down at her and winked. Turning to Boone, he said, “I’m pretty sure from how she was smiling at you when you walked up, you got no worries about her getting a few brotherly hugs from me.”
He crossed to Boone and gave him one of those slap-on-the-back hugs that men give.
“Welcome to Wild River Ranch, sweetheart,” Trace said as he stepped closer. “I’m glad Kenzie finally has a friend.” He winked at her. “That way, maybe she’ll stop pestering people when they’re trying to work.”
Kenzie faked a frown. “I’m sure I’ll still find time for plenty of pestering. As a matter of fact, now you’ll all get twice as much pestering because now there are two of us, right, Tildi?” She hooked her arm around Tildi like they’d been besties forever.
Tildi’s heart almost stopped. The last thing she wanted to do was get on everyone’s nerves. Of course, she didn’t want to disappoint Kenzie. “Oh, um, I’m not… that is?—”
“Stop teasing my girl, brat,” Boone said with a smile. “I’m sure going along with your antics will keep her in trouble, but can we at least wait until she gets settled in?”
“Hmm.” Kenzie pretended to think. “I’ll have to figure out the best ways to not get caught. That way we can have fun and not get in trouble at all. Oh! That reminds me!”
Kenzie dug her hands into the pockets of her jeans. It took her a minute to get her hands around whatever it was she held there. Turning to Tildi, she grinned. “I wanted to have a parade for your arrival, but there wasn’t time. But there’s always time for this.”
With that, she pulled her hands from her pockets, each filled with fistfuls of sparkling confetti.
“Kenzie, no! Wait!” Chance shouted, but it was too late to stop his sister.
Kenzie shouted, “Welcome to Wild River Ranch!” Tossing both handfuls of confetti into the air, she kept her hands in the air and began to dance as the confetti drifted to the stone-paved ground.
Tildi couldn’t keep back her laughter. It was all so exciting and fun that before she realized it, she was dancing beside Kenzie in the confetti rain.
Her new bestie pulled her close and grinned. “We’re in big trouble now.”
Everything inside Tildi froze. They were in trouble? Already? She just got there, and she was in trouble already. Heart racing, she ran through her damage control options. She’d clean up all the mess, of course. That was a given, but it wasn’t enough. She needed to do something big to show them she wouldn’t make any more messes if they let her stay.
She didn’t dare check to see how upset Boone was. She’d probably embarrassed him in front of his family. Stupid. She was so stupid. The world around her faded, and she must have an elephant on her chest because she couldn’t breathe.
Kenzie’s face showed concern. “Tildi? Boone, what’s wrong with her? Tildi?”
And then she was in her Daddy’s arms. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Breathe with me, Tildi. No one is upset. And even if they were, they wouldn’t be upset with you. You didn’t do anything wrong. Kenzie shot off the confetti bomb, not you.”
The warmth and strength of his arms broke through her panic. “I couldn’t let Kenzie be in trouble by herself. We’re sisters.”
Another set of arms wrapped around her waist. Kenzie pressed against her back. “I’m sorry, Tildi. I didn’t mean to scare you. We’d never be in trouble for being happy and excited. I’ve never had a sister, but I’m glad I have one now. We are going to have so many adventures!”
Sighs echoed off the stones around them. With Boone beside her, Tildi was brave enough to look around. Everyone stared at her, but with concern, not anger. Actually, they weren’t upset at all.
She grinned back at her new friend. “That sounds like fun. I want to learn to ride a horse.”
“Well, so much for Tildi calming our Tiger down,” Chance said, clapping Boone on the back. “Good luck, brother. And may God have mercy on us all.”
Tildi and Kenzie burst out laughing as Kenzie pulled her inside the house, leaving a trail of sparkling confetti in their wake.
Tildi didn’t make it three steps inside before her legs stopped working. “Holy cannoli! Your house is bigger than the queen’s palace in England.”
Kenzie replied, “Well, it isn’t just our house. It’s the main lodge.”
Tildi’s confusion must have been obvious because Kenzie kept explaining. “You know… for the ranch. In the summer? When all the guests come?”
There would be guests besides her? “Is bringing home strays something this family does often?”
Tildi yelped when a hard hand delivered a swat to her behind. Her face was on fire when Boone turned her to face him. “You’re not a stray, bluebell. And if I ever hear you use those words to describe yourself again, you will be one sorry Little girl. Do you get me?”
She nodded, knowing that wouldn’t satisfy him.
“Words, Tildi. Do you get me?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
Ice cold dread sheeted through her body. What had she just said? Had she called Boone Daddy in front of his entire family? She needed to say something to fix her mistake, but her throat would not allow any words to flow. All she could do was stare up at him and pray he wouldn’t be upset.
Boone held his arms open to her. “Come here, little one.”
She launched herself at him and burrowed her face into his chest. What would everyone think? Sure, he’d told her that all his brothers were Daddies, but that didn’t mean they talked about it out in the open.
“Boone!” Kenzie called from behind Tildi. “You had three whole weeks to tell her about the ranch and you just let her come in here blind? Didn’t you tell her anything?”
“I had a few other things on my mind, Tiger. You try taking a tiny ship across an ocean.”
He sounded more amused than angry, so he couldn’t be too upset. She peeked up at him to find his gaze already fixed on her. He smiled and everything in her settled.
Boone was not the General. He didn’t care what other people thought, even his family. And if they were all Daddies, they wouldn’t be upset anyway. How long would it be before she stopped reacting to everything based on the way her messed up family had operated?
“We’ve had a long two days. I think the grand tour will have to wait for a while.”
Kenzie frowned. “But I wanted to show Tildi around. She needs to see the craft room and the playroom. Oh! And I got the latest Disney movie cued up in the home theatre. Ruby said she’d help us make caramel popcorn balls with chocolate chips.”
Tildi pulled her face away from Boone’s chest. That sounded like fun. Although she wasn’t sure she could stay awake for the movie. Still, she’d try if it meant not disappointing Kenzie.
Boone was already shaking his head. “We need to get unpacked first and Tildi needs to rest before dinner. But it sounds like fun for after dinner.”
Evidently, Kenzie wasn’t convinced. “But?—”
“Tiger,” Chance warned. “Boone said after dinner. Do you remember what we talked about?”
Kenzie sighed. “Yes,” she drawled out. In what sounded like a speech her friend had practiced, Kenzie added, “Boone and Tildi will need time to themselves. And Boone has the last word.”
“Right.” Chance crossed thick arms over his broad chest.
Tildi was disappointed and grateful at the same time. Kenzie’s plans sounded amazing, but she was exhausted. She hadn’t slept well the night before. Her brain wouldn’t stop telling her what a failure she was for disappointing Boone. Maybe Boone could spank her brain without getting her bottom involved.
On second thought, that didn’t sound like very much fun.
Boone reached for Kenzie and pulled her in for a hug. “Thank you for making plans to show Tildi around, Tiger. I’ll turn the night over to you right after dinner. If you both eat your vegetables, that is.”
Kenzie stomped her foot.
Stomped. Her. Foot.
At Boone. And he didn’t get angry or anything. He just grinned and threw a glance at Trace. It was a glance Kenzie didn’t miss, either.
“Did you tell him Ruby was serving asparagus tonight? You know I hate that stuff. It’s slimy.”
Trace held his hands up in surrender, but Tanner laughed. “Ruby has never served slimy asparagus in her life, and you know it. I’ve a good mind to tell her you said that. Matter of fact, I think I’ll go find her right now.”
With a wink at Tildi, Tanner strode from the room, a protesting Kenzie hot on his heels. Tildi wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about. Asparagus was awesome. Especially if it was roasted. Now, if they’d been having squash, well, that was a whole different matter. Everyone knew squash was gross.
Boone took her hand. “Come on, Tildi. Let’s get settled in.”
Tildi walked by his side, still reeling at the welcome they’d received. Everyone was so nice and accepting. She hadn’t known a family could be that way. She was beginning to wonder if she knew what being a family meant.