Chapter 38
CHAPTER 38
FORD
One Month Later
Manhattan
“We’re moving to Texas.”
My statement sees my three friends twist around to face me with distinctly different looks on their features.
Alex’s eyes are filled with disbelief, his jaw slightly unhinged. Gray’s face is lit up with a bright smile, genuine happiness shining from eyes that, more often than not, glimmer with a loneliness I can only imagine.
And Vaughn’s dark features are as unreadable as ever until one corner of his lips kicks upwards as he murmurs, “It’s about damn time.”
Before I can question him, he holds up a stalling index finger as he stands from his seat and strides from the VIP area without another word.
“Fuck, I didn’t see this coming.” Alex shakes his head and runs his hand through his hair, musing up the front so that it falls over his brow. “I mean, I knew you were gone for Emerson the moment you took Rey’s tamales to her, but I didn’t see either of you leaving the city…” he trails off before his eyes widen in question. “What about Sentinel? How do you plan on running it?”
“I don’t.” His eyes bulge almost comically, and I snort a laugh before reaching for my Macallan and taking a small sip. “Aside from the apartment over the offices, I’m selling everything else to Damon. As far as I’m concerned, Sentinel has served its purpose.”
I place my glass back on the table, watching my friend’s reaction as his eyes brighten and a smile overtakes his face. “The love of a good woman will do the damn unthinkable to a man.”
As we chuckle together, Gray rises from his seat and walks closer to extend his hand. I rise as I clasp it in my own, my chest warming at the affection in his moss-green gaze.
“The love of the right woman.” He winks before dropping my hand and returning to his seat. Laughing lowly to himself, he settles back, plucking his Macallan from the table to his right. “And the fact that your so-called Pest of a sister is scheduled to move to Manhattan for her internship starting next month has no bearing on you moving out of state, right?”
My belly laugh rumbles through the space, and I throw my head back, meeting his eyes again only as I sober. “It’s a good thing I have such good friends in Manhattan to help her get settled, Rich Boy. Both Wren and Reyna have already reached out, and Hayley has told Emmy that she’ll be on hand should Faith need her.”
I sigh heavily, already conflicted about the move and not being here to support my sister in her big transition, even as I know Emmy feels similarly about leaving Tristan and Hayley, despite the fact the relationship between all three of them has solidified these past weeks.
“I feel guilty?—”
Gray cuts me off before I can utter another word. “You’ve put your life on pause for long enough, Tex. I’m sure we can all chip in and help her acclimate.” He scrunches up his face as he adds, “I sound like a complete dick, but you’ll need to remind me. Which sister is she again?”
“Well, you’ve never met Fallon ’cause she’s never visited. And Lissie is my shy sister, the one with the blonde hair who can barely make eye contact.”
He jerks a nod. “I know the small, dark-haired one. Is that her?”
“No, that’s Finley. Faith is blonde like Lissie, but she’s got big brown eyes. An honest-to-God angel to look at, but the woman is a damn she-devil if you ask me.”
Alex chuckles as he sips his Macallan. “I can vouch for that, but honestly, from her internship application, I reckon she’s done a lot of maturing in the two years since I last saw her.”
I lift a shoulder with a slight tilt of my head. “Well, I guess you’re about to find out, DeMarco.”
Vaughn’s reappearance puts an end to further speculation, though my stomach still niggles at the idea of Faith in Manhattan even as I know I need to let her find her way, just as I did.
“I’ve been waiting what feels like for-fucking-ever to give this to you, Holloway.”
My friend extends a thick envelope, nodding that I should take it. He smirks when I take it from his hand, and then he sits back down in his seat to my left.
“I’m assuming you’re in the process of house shopping, or maybe that should be ranch hunting.”
I slide my finger underneath the seal of the envelope as I nod. “Yeah, though there’s nothing either of us like within an hour of Whispering Willows.” With a shrug, I pull out a stack of papers, placing them on my lap. “We’ll keep looking. If we’re moving all that way, we’re gonna make sure we wait on the right ?—”
My voice stops working and my vision goes blurry as I stare at the documents before me—documents that are, in fact, the property title for Circle H Ranch.
The ranch I’d always dreamed of running one day. The place I’d often envisioned settling down with Emmy. The home of my childhood. The one that had been so cruelly snatched away alongside so much else through the machinations of one man.
I blink several times before shaking my head. Because right there, in black ink, is my name . And I’m listed as the sole owner.
“It took some finagling, but I managed to get my hands on these a little over four years ago when the property was put up for auction.”
I try and fail to swallow past the lump in my throat before I swipe the back of my hand across my eyes, dashing away the tears that have temporarily blinded me.
“But how…why…I don’t understand…” Words fail me as I lift my gaze to Vaughn’s.
One side of his mouth lifts in a smirk. “I think you’re aware that I have more money than I could spend in a million lifetimes, so that answers the how . As for the why , well, simply put, Holloway, you can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy. How you’ve lasted five years in this city is beyond me…”
Alex and Gray chuckle as Vaughn’s smirk becomes a full-blown shit-eating grin that shines from his eyes. “And as for your lack of understanding, allow me to confirm it once .” He quirks an eyebrow. “So listen up, because this is a one-time admission you’re not likely to hear ever again, okay?”
I nod solemnly, my heart swollen almost to bursting as I regard the man who’s so much more than a friend to me. His almost midnight eyes are serious as they hold mine when he states without inflection, “I don’t let many people in. But those select few who make it past the hard exterior, the few who worm their way through my deep-seated defenses, the few who truly matter to me…there’s next to nothing I wouldn’t do for them.”
His forehead creases, and I feel the power of the emotions behind his declaration as he gives me a hard stare. “And I’m damn lucky to count you among those few, Ford. The day you walked in here asking for a job was the first time in a long fucking time that I took a chance on someone. And this ?—”
He gestures to the property title in my grasp. “This is a small token of my gratitude to you for helping shape a future I’d never have believed possible. Because in taking a chance on you, it opened my eyes—and my heart—to these fuckers here?—”
“Hey!”
Alex and Gray’s joint cry of indignation has Vaughn and I sharing a grin before he sobers, his lips rising in an almost secretive smile.
“And my wife, who’s made my life richer in a way money could never buy.”
Then he winks, his teeth flashing in a Cheshire Cat smug grin. “And I can finally confirm that Sia’s going to be a big sister. Baby number two is due on Christmas Day.”
The sound of Emmy’s sweet singing greets my ears as I step off the elevator of what’s rapidly become our apartment above Sentinel. Once I’ve deposited the property title inside the safe in my office, I follow her dulcet tones, finding her having just climbed from the oversized tub that overlooks the city in the main bathroom.
Water drips down her body as she sings “Iris ,” almost under her breath, and she stops suddenly when her eyes meet mine, a smile lighting up her entire face. I step inside the large bathroom, grabbing her fluffy white dressing robe from the back of the door before crossing the floor to slip it over her shoulders.
Looping my arms around her, I draw her back against my chest and press a kiss to her cheek. I can feel her smile as she snuggles closer to me, and I pull back just enough to whisper against the shell of her ear. “Coming home to you still feels like I’m living in a dream, baby.”
She spins within my embrace, looping her arms around my neck with a wry smile. “If I’m dreaming, I don’t ever want to wake up.”
I drop my brow to hers, my gaze locked on her bright blue eyes as my hold around her tightens. “How do you feel about moving this dream to Texas?”
There’s laughter in her voice when she murmurs, “Haven’t we already started ranch shopping?”
When I hoist her into my arms, she squeals, and I chuckle as I palm her bare ass beneath the robe so she can wrap her legs around my waist. “I received the strangest…gift today.” Her eyebrows pucker in question, and I huff a disbelieving laugh as I quickly tell her of Vaughn’s surprise purchase of Circle H.
Her mouth goes round as her eyes grow wide before she shakes her head. “He gave you back your family’s ranch? What the— Oh my God…” Suddenly, her brow creases, and she tips her head to one side. “How do you feel about moving back there? To the house he owned?”
The concern in her voice makes my chest tighten, and I’m again filled with awe at the thoughtfulness that comes as second nature to the woman in my hold.
“It’s not the house that makes a home. It’s the people who fill it.” My voice drops as I hold her gaze intently. “Since the day we shared our first kiss in the barn at Circle H, I’ve known that sharing my life with you is all I wanted. You are all I need, Tink. Everything else is just window dressing.”
She smiles contentedly as she leans down to press her lips to mine in a lingering kiss, drawing back enough to smooth my hair away from my forehead as her eyes follow the action before flicking back to mine.
“That was smooth, Cowboy. Real smooth.”
As my feet move along the tiled floor, I wriggle my eyebrows suggestively as a smirk plays on my lips. “Allow me to show you just how smooth I can be.”