32. Dani
32
dani
Graham walks General around the arena, his back straight, his hands relaxed like he’s done this a thousand times—which he has. It brings me a wealth of happiness to see him riding again. This is his first session where he was able to get on and walk off with confidence.
General is a gem, too. He is such a calm horse, even when he can feel the anxiety of his rider.
I want to call out to Graham, telling him he’s doing such a good job, but I know it’s not necessary. I can tell by the way his right hand strokes across General’s neck that this is the moment he’s been waiting for, the one where he finally feels ready.
It’s a major accomplishment.
He ends the ride after a few more minutes and dismounts his horse, then he turns to me where we’re both standing in the middle of the arena, and he wraps me in a big, brotherly hug that I return. While hugging me still, he says, “Thank you, Dani.”
I nod against him and give him a tight squeeze back.
We walk out into the alleyway where Cade is in the tack room, looking at a laptop screen with a spreadsheet on it. I leave Graham to it after scheduling the next appointment and make my way into the tack room.
“Hey there,” I say, leaning against the doorway.
He turns and lets out a sigh, sitting back in his chair. “Hey.” He smiles. “I may have peeked in there, saw that Graham was on.”
I smile proudly. “Yeah, he looked good, huh?”
He nods. “Like a natural.” Then he says, “You’re amazing.”
I cock my head. “What do you mean?”
“You. Just…” He shakes his head, his eyes studying the wall that houses pictures of the farm, of the family, of us. “The way you talk with him, how patient you are with him, you’re amazing.”
I can feel myself flame with a blush. “Well, thanks. I love doing it.” I check my watch. “I should probably head out, but you wanna do dinner?”
He stands and walks over to me, grabbing me around my hips, my hands go to his shoulders, and he smiles at me. “You should work here.”
I frown. “Work here?”
He nods. “Yeah, set up an equine therapy center here. You could take other clients, open your own business.”
“That takes some work,” I comment, not fully grasping what it is he’s saying. Set up my own facility to run a program? It’s a dream come true.
“I know it is. I’ll bet we’ll need to apply for a grant or something to try and get the special equipment you need. Plus, we’ll need to alter the new logo to add your specialty to it.”
“Wait, wait,” I stop him, pressing my hand against his chest. “This is a lot.”
His brows pull together. “You don’t want that?”
I shake my head, my brain and heart both overwhelmed. “It’s not that I don’t want it. It’s just a terrifying thought. There’s so much that would go into it.”
For a moment, he doesn’t say anything, just observes me. I let him take his time.
Finally, he nods. “I understand, but I think you could do it. I think, as a team, we could make that happen for you here.”
I smile at the thought of being a team again. “It does sound like a nice thought. Just…let me think about it, okay? I mean, it’s better than moving to Texas.” I say the word nonchalantly, not realizing I am mumbling them to myself when he freezes.
“Texas?” His voice interrupts thoughts of how that would look, me working here full time, with Cade by my side. He squeezes my hips. “Dani, Texas?”
“Huh?” I blink at him and shake my head. “Oh, yeah. I got offered a job at a place down there.”
His eyes watch me warily as he pulls his hands back, resting them on his hips. “You applied for a job in Texas?”
I take a moment to decipher his tone and try to see from his perspective. “Yeah, but that was before we…” I gesture between us. “Before we reconciled.”
He takes a deep breath, relief palpable on his face. “Oh. Got it.” Cade smiles at me. “I was…”
I shake my head again. “Sorry, no, I’m not going to take it. I just…” I shrug. “Texas had the job I wanted, but now Colorado has the man I need. I’ll figure out the work stuff.”
For a moment, we’re both quiet. “I could…” He pauses, and I wait patiently to hear what he wants to say. “I could find work in Texas.”
I blink at him, a shocked laugh escaping me. “ What? No, you can’t. You can’t leave the ranch…it’s your ranch.”
“You’re my future,” he replies bluntly. His eyes hold mine for a long minute as he lets me absorb this declaration.
I nod, a smile tugging at my lips. “Okay, well, in that case, I refuse to leave this ranch. How’s that?”
Cade smiles down at me, something adoring in his expression, and nods before changing the subject. “Speaking of dinner.”
“We weren’t speaking about dinner.”
“You asked me to dinner,” he replies.
I roll my eyes and push him playfully. “Anyway…”
“Anyway.” He tugs me closer again. “I happen to have a place we can go and have that dinner without people around.”
I raise a skeptical eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”
“Follow me.”
He leaves Graham to lock up the tack room before we head outside, where he escorts me to his truck. He opens my door and pats my butt when I hop in. I turn to give him a playful evil eye, and he just winks at me, his boyish grin in place.
It’s not two minutes later that he’s pulling up to the old storage barn. I haven’t been in it in ages, but we would come and ride past it a lot when we were teenagers. Sometimes, we’d go in there to hang out and pretend we were cool.
He tells me to wait, then rounds the front of the truck.
“You live in an actual barn now?” I tease. “I suppose it was only a matter of time.”
“Hilarious, smartass,” he replies, taking my hand and interlacing our fingers before dragging me forward.
We enter the barn, and it looks the same way it always did. Old parts and pieces of tractors are covered in dust. The barn is huge and could be used for something, but not with all this extra stuff in it.
Leading me by the hand, he ventures up some stairs. I don’t even remember them being there, but again, it’s been ages since I’ve been inside this building.
He opens the door at the top, and I’m immediately hit with a clean scent, one that doesn’t hold the same musty dust smell.
I walk in around him and glance around. There’s a small—tiny—living room to my left, complete with the smallest TV mounted on the wall. There’s only a love seat and a rug in front of it, no side tables or anything else. To my right, in the same room, is what looks to be a kitchenette. It has a sink, an oven, a counter running along about six feet of the wall, and some cupboards attached to the wall.
Then, looking further into the room, there’s a king-size bed. It’s neatly made and has nightstands on each side. There’s a soft glow coming from the lamp on one nightstand. Even further back looks like a tiny hallway, which I’m guessing leads to a bathroom.
“When did all of this happen?” I ask, my hands on my hips, completely flabbergasted.
“Graham did it.” He steps around me so he can see my face. “When he got home from the Army, he needed some space. I…” He rubs the back of his neck. “I wasn’t exactly the nicest when he got back, so he didn’t want to live with me.”
“I see.” I wasn’t totally sure I did, but I was sure I’d hear that story eventually.
“So, he made what used to be an office into an apartment.” He waves a hand around. “It’s not much, but it’s private.”
“So…” I pause, looking around. “This is Graham’s place?”
“Ah, well.” He takes my hand. “Since he and Quinn are now engaged, they decided it was time he lived at her place, which they’ve wanted for some time now. So, he’s all moved out and suggested I take this spot over.”
I raise a brow, a smile on my face. “I see,” I repeat slowly.
“What do you think?”
I pause and lift a brow. “I think…I see a bed.”
“Mm,” he hums, pulling me closer and tugging at my shirt. I don’t hesitate to let him take it off.
“And I don’t see anyone here.”
“True,” he agrees, unbuttoning my jeans.
I reciprocate, taking his ball cap and tossing it toward the love seat, I’m pretty sure I miss, but neither of us cares.
“So, we have a bed and privacy.”
“It’s like a sign,” he says before he leans down and sucks on my collarbone, making my spine tingle and a gasp escape my mouth.
“It-it-it seems that way,” I fumble, reaching for his belt and undoing his button and zipper.
Next thing I know, I’m in the air and tossed onto the bed. Giggles escape me, and Cade shucks his boots and pants, ripping mine off in the next moment. “You sure like to pick me up.”
“Nah,” he retorts, crawling over me and taking my lips with his own. “I like to hold you. I like to touch you whenever I can to make up for time lost.” He kisses me again, leaving me breathless. “I like to love you like I was supposed to over the last few years.”
My eyes shine, and I let loose a small smile. “You love me?”
“Try and make me stop,” he replies instantly.
I pull him down to my lips and take and take and take what I’ve missed. These last few weeks have been amazing between us, but there’s more to it than just finding your person. There’s a reignition of hope that flames the spark between us.
“Roll over,” I whisper, and he listens immediately. I pull his boxers off and take him in my hand.
“Honey, I don’t know if I’ll last long if you do that.”
“That’s okay,” I reply before I take him in my mouth, sucking hard and relishing in the moans he releases. His hand finds my hair, and he simultaneously pulls and pets, cupping the back of my head and loving on me while trying to maintain his composure.
There’s something powerful about a woman being able to knock a man to his knees so fast.
“Dani,” he moans. “I want to be inside you.”
As much as I want to keep going, I want that too, so I let him go and crawl over him, guiding him to me after I straddle his hips and sink down, a moan escaping me as he fills me.
“Dani, fuck,” he says, moving his hips in sync with mine, his hands go to my breasts, and he squeezes before reaching around and pulling me to him for another kiss.
This one is filled with passion and love and heat, and I take every moment of it, relishing in being here with him, in how he’s making me feel, in how he’s loving me.
“Cade,” I gasp when I feel the sensations of an orgasm tingle at the base of my spine.
“Yup,” he says in reply, clearly nearing his own orgasm.
For some reason, though I’m feeling overwhelmed by our connection, his reply makes me giggle.
My orgasm hits me as I laugh, and he lets out his own chuckle, though it’s strained because he’s also coming at the same time.
I’m still laughing as we calm down, and he chuckles at me, pulling me down and twisting us so I’m underneath him.
“Only you could make someone laugh while coming,” he says, placing a soft kiss on my lips.
“Well, it’ll only ever be you,” I declare quietly. “So I guess we’ll never know.”
His eyes heat at my words. “Damn fucking straight, honey.”
He gets up and cleans me, we make eye contact when we realize we didn’t use a condom, and I sigh a little. “I’m on the pill, though…”
“Not always effective,” he comments.
There’s a beat of silence, then I break it. “You know what? We’re not gonna worry.” He looks at me with relief. “If it happens, it happens. Our baby would come into the world knowing its parents love each other. That’s all that matters.”
He comes closer and kisses me, then pulls back slightly, mumbling against my lips, his eyes searching mine. “You love me?”
I wrap my arms around his shoulders. “I never stopped.”
Cade kisses me again, deeper this time before he hops up. “Well, let me feed the woman I love.”
“You can cook now?”
He gives me an incredulous look. “Of course I can.”
He can’t, but that night, he sure as hell tries. After undercooking pasta for spaghetti, burning a frozen pizza, and having to crack an eighty-year-old window open and the door to let smoke out, Cade makes us some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
We sit on the love seat, me in one of his shirts, him in boxers, and we eat.
And I can’t name a time that I’ve ever had so much fun.