Chapter Twenty-nine
I’m entirely too fond of that just fucked look on Juni, knowing I was the one to put it there. Her cheeks are rosy; her blonde hair disheveled. She wobbles on her feet when I lower her to the ground, but keep a hand on her while she steadies herself enough to get dressed.
We move in companionable silence. I right my pants and do up my belt while she pulls on her panties, wincing when she gets them in place. I’m not able to stop the smirk on my face knowing I’m leaking out of her perfect pussy, marking her from the inside as mine.
I help her with the rest of her clothes, getting her all straightened out so we can leave the tack room and pretend I didn’t just fuck her senseless against the door.
While the idea of getting caught may have pushed her up a notch or two, the mere idea of someone getting a look at what’s mine makes me a little homicidal.
I’ll play into her little fantasy however much she likes, but seeing her like that is reserved for my eyes only. I am not a man who shares.
Pinching her chin, I tip her face up so I can kiss her one last time and then open the door, letting her leave first. We’re heading toward the exit when Darcy comes around the corner with Ada.
“Oh, there you are,” Darcy says, her eyes flicking between me and Juni, “I was looking for you.”
“We heard there was a new horse,” Ada claps her hands, “I want to see the baby.”
Juni laughs, “She’s this way.”
“You didn’t say the ranch was buying another horse,” Darcy frowns, “You don’t need a vet check?”
I don’t answer her immediately, too busy watching Juni show off Ginger to her new friend. She gushes over the mare who is lapping up all the attention from both women.
“Silas?” A hand touches my arm, and I snap my attention back to her.
“She’s Juni’s horse,” I clear my throat. “Doesn’t belong to Knight Falls.”
“Juni’s?” She looks over my shoulder to where she is. “Oh, I didn’t realize she was moving her own horse in.”
“You can look her over if Juni wants you to,” I shrug.
“No, I’m sure it’s fine. I’ve got to run anyway.”
She yells goodbye to Juni and Ada and is gone before I can say anything more.
I place the pasta dish in the center of the table just as Juni, Rosie, and Caleb bundle through the door.
Apparently, Ginger is a hot topic, and my kids were desperate to meet Juni’s horse.
Juni had offered to take them immediately, and I’d almost stepped in thinking Caleb would be hesitant to go with her alone, but he’d jumped at the opportunity, even took her hand to walk with her to the stable.
It’s been so long since Caleb got attached to anyone, and a part of me wants to stop it just to save his broken heart. Perhaps that makes me a shitty dad, but Juni will leave one day.
“She is so cute,” Rosie gushes, “Can I ride her?”
“Absolutely,” Juni says. “Well, if your dad says it’s okay, that is.”
“She’s a natural rider,” I clear my throat. “Go wash up; dinner’s ready.”
Both kids run off to the bathroom to wash their hands while Juni goes to the sink quietly. Maybe if I don’t bring up the whole leaving thing, she’ll forget she ever said it and just stay here. With us. With me.
I never thought I’d meet anyone who simply just belonged here.
Knight Falls has been a part of the Knight family for generations; it’s engrained in our DNA, the very fabric of who we are, and for the longest time, I thought it simply belonged to us and no one else.
But then Niamh came, and she took a piece for herself with Roman and now Juni… she suits this ranch.
She suits me.
Shit.
I’m falling in love with her.
The thought has my heart dropping into my stomach.
She wanders toward me, light on her feet, her face soft, and runs a hand across my back as she passes me, moving to the cupboards to pluck out glasses she can place on the table.
It’s natural, domestic even, and my thoughts spiral back to that place where she doesn’t leave and her future is here.
Swallowing thickly, I shift out of her touch, disguising the move by grabbing silverware from the drawers to put by the placemats.
I should have known falling in love with Juniper Scott would be easy. Too fucking easy.
I figured I’d have control though, that I am much too jaded and far too broken to be capable of it.
But somewhere along the line all her gold seeped into the cracks of my heart, and she pulled the pieces back together.
I gave up on love a long time ago. That’s what I had said to her only this morning, but what a bunch of bullshit that was.
I hadn’t given up; I was simply waiting for her.
Now I need to convince her to stay. To give up those thoughts of leaving, of traveling so I can love her. How fucking selfish does that make me?
Caleb and Rosie come sprinting back through, providing a welcome distraction from my swirling thoughts, and I get them settled for dinner, dishing both of them up a plate while Juni gets seated in the chair next to mine.
“I’ll cook tomorrow,” she declares suddenly, giving me those dark eyes of hers.
I think that’s where it started. Those eyes, those deep brown eyes framed by thick lashes that are so open and hopeful, it was impossible not to lose myself in them.
She never hides her true feelings, not really; if you look, you’ll see them right there.
A sparkle in a sea of shadow, the glimmer of hope.
“You don’t need to,” I swallow.
“I want to,” she smiles.
“What are you going to cook?” Rosie asks, stealing her attention.
“I’m not sure yet,” Juni taps her lip. “Maybe you can help me decide, and then we can go to the store to pick it all up.”
Rosie grins wide, “Really!?”
“Is that okay?” She asks me.
All I can do is nod.
“Sound like a plan?” She asks my daughter.
“Can I come?” Caleb pipes in.
“But it’s a girl’s day,” Rosie whines.
“Hey now,” Juni says to both of them softly, “I’d hate to be left out, so we’re not going to leave Caleb out.”
I’m stunned silent, watching her with my children like she’s been here for years and not weeks.
“Of course you can come,” she tells my son gently. “We can all pick something together, do a surprise for your dad.”
Their eyes light up at the suggestion of surprising me; meanwhile, I’m spiraling further into the ground.
I am so utterly fucked it isn’t even funny.
They make a whole plan for tomorrow and despite my very real internal crash out, watching her with them, making them both feel special has my heart thudding and skipping inside my chest.
“You ever stop to think that maybe she needs a reason to stay?”
My brother’s words ring through my head with the sound of their laughter and voices. Am I enough?
Are all my broken pieces enough for her?
Beneath the table, I feel something touch the side of my foot, a gentle tap, and when I glance over at her, she’s already looking my way as if she just knows and can read every thought running through my head.
“They’re doing that thing adults do,” Caleb pouts.
“What thing?” Rosie frowns, and when I look at my daughter, she’s staring really hard at the two of us. Juni places a hand over her mouth to cover her laugh.
“Talking but not talking. It’s annoying.”
“How can you talk without talking?”
“Like that,” Caleb points at the two of us, as if that has all the answers in the world.
Reaching under the table, I give Juni’s thigh a squeeze and then get up, clearing up the plates.
Caleb joins me at the sink while I wash up, taking the towel for drying duty, but his eyes are on the woman reading with his sister.
“Is she staying, Dad?” he asks me quietly and, dare I say it, hopefully.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I look at my son.
“You want her to?”
He drops his eyes to his hands, fidgeting on his feet, “I like her a lot.”
Sighing, I feel my shoulders droop. “Me too, bud.”
“Like adults?” He asks me.
“What do you mean?”
“Like Uncle Roman and Aunt Niamh.” He blinks up at me, completely innocent, “Like when you were with Mom.”
Fuck.
Juni tips her head back and laughs at something Rosie says, my little girl climbing onto her knees to get closer to her as if the sound is as good to her as it is to me.
Little does Juni know, she’s making me and my kids fall in love with her. I can’t even say I blame them either.
“Yeah,” the word scratches out my throat. “Just like that.”
“It’s okay,” Caleb nods firmly. “I don’t mind.”
A sudden laugh bursts from me, “Glad I have your approval, son.”
He gives me a wide grin and runs off toward the living room to join the girls. All I can do is watch them, praying to whatever is out there that I somehow don’t fuck this up and give the only woman who has been able to speak to my cold, dead heart a reason to leave.
Juniper Scott has been my undoing; she’s picked apart my seams and crawled straight into my soul. I’m not sure there’s anything I won’t do for her. No length I won’t go to, no boundary I won’t cross.
I always thought this ranch was my home, but I’ve been wrong all along.
Home isn’t a place. It’s a person, or people in my case.
Caleb and Rosie. Roman, Remy…
And now Juni.
My Honeybee.