Chapter 19 #2
Levi walks up to me and pulls me into a hug. I grin as I rest my head against his chest, and he places a kiss to my hairline before pulling away and pressing another to my lips. He spins to the remaining two, keeping an arm around my shoulders.
“Please don’t do anything stupid.”
“Oh, calm down, Romeo,” Stevie teases as she steps forward and grabs my hand, pulling me out of his grasp before entwining our arms once more. “It’s a tour of the ranch, not cowboy poker.”
“What’s cowboy poker?” I ask, glancing between the three of them.
Addie grins and loops her arm through my free one. “We can show you if you like.”
“You’re supposed to be the responsible one,” Levi tells Addie with a look of desperation.
“Actually, that’s Nash,” she reminds him.
“Addie, I swear—”
“Oh, calm down.” Stevie steps in with a shake of her head. “If we introduce her to cowboy poker, it’ll be watching the actual cowboys play. Now, go take care of the guest house. We got her. She’s in excellent hands.”
I give him a gentle, reassuring smile when his strained expression turns to me. “I’ll be fine, really. I’m thirty years old, Levi. I can handle myself.”
“Please keep her away from the bunkhouse,” Levi pleads to the girls on my arms. “Those cowboys are worse than Jesse.”
“No can do, amigo,” Stevie tells him as she drags me towards the back hallway. “Bunkhouse is part of the tour. Now shoo, go clean the guest house, Cinderelly.”
I can’t stop my laughter as the sisters drag me down the hallway and out the back door onto a dark wooden deck. Before they can lead me down the stairs, I pull them to a stop as I take in the mountains and the beautiful grasslands. Levi was right; New York sunsets had nothing on Montana.
“Let’s head down to the barn,” Stevie suggests, grabbing my attention to see her climbing onto a four-wheeler buggy. “The horses are really the best part, in my opinion.”
“Have you ever been horseback riding before?” Addie asks as she climbs onto the makeshift seat behind her sister.
Climbing on next to Stevie, I grab the metal bar in front of me as she turns it on. “I haven’t. I’ve always wanted to, but I’ve never been able to get out of the city to do so.”
“Wait,” Addie yells over the roar of the engine as Stevie takes off down the gravel road. “Have you never travelled before?”
“Only once, but it was for a work event and was only for the weekend,” I respond with a shrug. “It’s hard to travel with my schedule, and it’s even harder to find time in my daughter’s schedule.”
Stevie goes flying down the hill, causing Addie to cuss and slap her shoulder. “Let’s make it there in one piece, yeah?”
“Oh, don’t get your panties in a wad,” Stevie fires back. “I’m the safest driver here.”
“And that fact is terrifying,” Addie mumbles so quietly I almost don’t hear her.
We reach the fork in the road a couple minutes later, and it’s only then I see a post with arrows pointing in different directions.
Pointing to the left, where we had just come from, reads Main House, Guest House, Chicken Coop, Pasture 12-18 and Cabin.
Pointing to the right in the direction we are heading reads Barn, Bunkhouse, Corrals, and Pasture 1-11.
“This might be an extremely dumb question,” I say loudly enough so both sisters can hear me. “But why is your chicken coop over near the houses instead of closer to the barn?”
“Momma ain’t big on being around all the cowboys near the bunkhouse,” Stevie answers as she peels right and starts driving through the grass.
“Says they’re too rowdy for her when they’re all together like that, but she loves taking care of the chickens.
So, our father spent a whole week with a few of the boys building a new and better chicken coop closer to her, so she would quit complaining. ”
Addie chuckles from behind me. “The cowboys bitch about it all the time, though. If I can’t get a batch over to them, one of them usually has to make the haul out there at three or four in the morning because heaven forbid they don’t have eggs for breakfast at least twice a week.”
“And they call me dramatic,” Stevie mumbles with a shake of her head, causing a soft laugh to slip past my lips.
As I look out in front of me just as we crest a hill, I see the barn finally come into view.
It’s a large black and white building to match the main house with a giant H on the front.
Off to one side is a large rectangle corral with a few smaller round ones a few feet away from it.
In one of the smaller corrals, I spot a few men with cowboy hats sitting on the wooden beams watching another being bucked wildly on the back of a dark brown horse.
Stevie pulls up beside the barn and shuts off the engine. She doesn’t wait for us as she beelines it towards the action. Addie just chuckles and gestures with her head for me to follow.
“Get your ass off that fucking horse,” Stevie yells as she climbs up the wooden beams to rest over the top. The four men sitting atop it beside her look at her with amused expressions. “It was my turn to break one, Lane.”
“You’re not allowed to break any of the horses,” a male in a black hat says to her, appearing at her side just as Addie and I step up behind her.
“Not allowed?” She seethes, eyes narrowed on the man. “You let Addie do it.”
He rolls his green eyes, and after glancing between the two sisters, I can easily see the resemblance. “Don’t start.”
“Before she puts a foot up your ass, let me introduce you to Marlowe,” Addie says, interrupting them. “Nash, this is Levi’s girlfriend. Marlowe, this is our oldest brother, Nash.”
“Pleasure to meet you, ma’am.” He grips the front of his hat between his thumb and forefinger and tips his head at me.
I smile, sticking my hands in the back pockets of my jeans. “And you.”
“Levi trusted y’all alone with her?”
“Momma didn’t leave him much of a choice,” Stevie informs him, which earns her a chuckle.
He turns to Addie. “I thought I gave you the day off. Kolbi is cleaning the stables.”
“I wasn’t going to miss meeting her,” she tells him, gesturing to me. “Had to make sure she was real and all.”
“All right, enough of this,” Stevie says, hitting the arm of the cowboy sitting beside her. “Colt, Jett, go set up the barrels. I want to show our city girl here some real talent.”
Two hours later, I sit atop the top beam of the large corral, watching some of the cowboys’ roping cattle when I feel a hand on the small of my back. I look down to see Levi lean beside me, his eyes staring up into mine.
“Hello there, beautiful,” he greets me with a smile. “You enjoy your afternoon?”
“Oh, absolutely,” I tell him. “I got to break a horse, take part in cowboy poker, and some of the cowboys were very, very helpful.”
Levi’s face falls and a flash of anger appears in his eyes, causing me to laugh as I swing my legs over and climb down to stand in front of him. I reach up and wrap my arms around his neck, pulling his lips down to mine in a brief kiss.
“I’m kidding, baby,” I tell him softly, and he immediately sags in relief, shaking his head before pressing his forehead against mine.
“I watched Stevie ride and got to brush some of the horses, then Colt told me a little about what he and the others do before Lane claimed he could rope better. I’ve been watching them ever since.
Apparently, I’m the judge even though I know nothing about what makes someone better at roping than another. ”
“Well, the guest house is ready,” he says before lowering his voice. “I can show you, if you like.”
My cheeks flush and I bite my lip, the image now flashing in my mind and I catch myself squeezing my legs together. “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
“You never cease to surprise me,” he tells me, tracing his finger slowly down my jawline and the side of my neck before his hand gently lands on my throat. “What else do you have for me?”
“Get me alone and find out.”
Wordlessly, Levi takes a step back and bends, resting his shoulder against my waist and stands. I laugh as my hands push against his back, his hand firmly on the back of my thighs so I can’t move.
“Levi, I can walk,” I say through my laughter.
“I like my view better this way,” he responds, giving my butt a smack. I hear some of the cowboys’ whistle and my cheeks heat more than I thought possible. “It’s your birthday, baby. I’m going to make it your best one yet.”
My entire skin ignites in anticipation. Up to now, we have done everything we can without actually having sex.
If it wasn’t my work interrupting us, it was his.
If it wasn’t picking up Claire, it was having to bake for her school fundraiser.
If it wasn’t a busted pipe at Levi’s condo, it was our friends insisting that we go grab a drink.
But now here, in Montana, with nothing but the two of us in a small cabin, we are finally free from distractions and outside factors—and I’m eager for him to show me exactly what I’ve been missing.