Chapter 22
Nick
“Well,” I said as I pulled my horse up next to Angelo’s. “I see the place didn’t burn down while we were gone.”
Angelo just laughed. “I think I can handle a single night running this place by myself.” He gave me a knowing smirk. “Have a good time?”
“Actually, yeah,” I replied. Ever since the dinner with my family, there was a newfound camaraderie between Angelo and I.
While I was still the boss, it felt like we were getting closer to being actual friends.
“I didn’t realize how bad I needed a break until we got out of here.
Out there I felt free, but being back on the ranch…
” I shook my head. “It’s like I can feel the past pressing in from all sides. ”
“I know what you mean,” Angelo nodded. “Back home I was supposed to be a certain kinda guy. But out here I can be whoever I want.”
This man, as dumb as he acted sometimes, was actually insightful. Then again, we’d both had our words turned upside down, so maybe we just had more in common than I thought.
“Where’s the boss?” Angelo asked. “He comin’ out today or is he still too… sore?”
I couldn’t help but grin at the implication in his words. “He’s cleaning up some paperwork back at the house. I’m sure he’ll be out before dinner though.”
“Thanks for making him happy,” Angelo added, his gaze fixed on the hills in the distance. “He deserves that.”
I tried to formulate an appropriate response, but the sound of approaching hooves pulled my attention back toward the house.
I looked up and there was Heather, riding atop her solid black gelding, galloping in my direction.
Angelo saw her too and he straightened up in the saddle, puffing his chest out.
I might’ve been imagining it, but it looked like he was flexing a bit too.
“There you are,” Heather said, slightly breathless as she came to a stop a few feet in front of me. “I saw the truck, but you weren’t at the house.”
“Is everyone alright?” I asked, my heart rate picking up immediately.
“Everyone’s fine,” she said, pushing her hair back from her face. “I… I just wanted to see how your trip went.”
My brows furrowed as I stared at her. Last thing I knew, Heather hated my fucking guts for yelling at her about Dante. We hadn’t spoken since that night. But now she was here asking how my trip with him had gone as if everything was just fine.
“H-Hey Heather,” Angelo said, waving shyly from his saddle. “You l-look beautiful today.”
Heather immediately rolled her eyes. “Fuck off, Angelo. I want to talk to Nick in peace.”
“Of c-course,” he nodded, turning his horse around. “Will I see you later?”
“We live in the same house,” she grumbled, clearly irritated by that fact. “So probably.”
“Okay,” he nodded. He waved again as he cantered back toward the house. “Bye Heather.”
I just sat there, completely confused by their exchange. “What the hell?”
“Ugh…” Heather groaned, rolling her eyes again. “Don’t get me started on that idiot. He’s been following me around like some big, stupid, lost puppy for weeks.”
I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me. “Angelo? Following you around?”
“It’s not funny, Nick,” she snapped, but I caught the faintest hint of pink in her cheeks.
“He’s always there. Offering to help with chores I’ve been doing myself for years.
Asking if I need anything. Yesterday he tried to teach me how to rope a calf.
Me! Like I haven’t been doing it since I was eight. ”
I bit back another grin. “And this bothers you because...?”
“Because he’s—” She stopped, her jaw working as she searched for words. “He’s one of them. One of Dante’s people. And he’s just so... persistent.”
“He likes you,” I said, stating the obvious.
“I know that,” she said sharply. Then, quieter, “That’s the problem.”
I studied my sister, taking in the tension in her shoulders, the way she wouldn’t quite meet my eyes. This wasn’t just about Angelo being annoying. There was something else going on here.
“Heather,” I said carefully. “Do you like him back?”
“No!” The denial came too fast, too forceful. “Absolutely not. He’s not my type at all. He’s loud and goofy and he tucks his pants into his boots and—” She trailed off, her hands tightening on the reins.
“And?” I prompted.
She was quiet for a long moment, her gaze fixed on the horizon. “And he makes me laugh,” she admitted finally, so quietly I almost didn’t hear it. “When I don’t want to. When I’m trying to stay mad at everything.”
My chest tightened with understanding. Heather had been carrying so much anger since we lost the ranch—anger at our father for the bad decisions, anger at the Valentis for taking advantage, anger at me for going along with it.
Maybe Angelo’s persistent cheerfulness was starting to crack through that armor.
“That’s not such a bad thing,” I said gently.
“Isn’t it?” She finally looked at me, and I saw fear in her eyes. “If I let myself care about him, if I let any of this feel normal, then what? Then I’m just accepting what they did to us. To you.”
“Heather—”
“I came here to apologize,” she interrupted, her voice thick. “For what I said at dinner. For outing you and Dante like that. It was cruel and I knew it would hurt you and I did it anyway because I was angry.”
I hadn’t expected that. My sister wasn’t one for apologies. She had never been good at admitting when she was wrong. The fact that she was doing it now meant something.
“I appreciate that,” I said. “But I think we both said things we regret that night.”
“You defended him,” she said. “Over me. Your own sister.”
“I defended what we have,” I corrected. “There’s a difference.”
She shook her head. “I don’t understand it, Nick. How you can just... be okay with all of this. How you can look at him and not see the man who bought you.”
I thought about that for a moment, about how to explain something I was still figuring out myself.
“I do see that man sometimes,” I admitted.
“But I also see the guy who threw himself in front of a charging heifer to save me. The guy who’s been working his ass off to learn ranching even though it’s nothing like his old life.
The guy who...” I trailed off, not sure how much to share.
“The guy who what?” Heather pressed.
“The guy who makes me feel like I matter,” I said quietly. “Not as a business arrangement or a contract obligation. Just as me.”
Heather was quiet, processing that. Her horse shifted beneath her, and she reached down to pat his neck absently.
“I still don’t like him,” she said finally.
“You don’t have to,” I replied. “But maybe you could try not hating him quite so much? For my sake?”
She sighed, long and heavy. “I can try. No promises though.”
“That’s all I’m asking.”
She started to turn her horse, then paused. “Nick? Are you... happy? Really?”
I thought about last night—the movie theater, the hotel room, waking up with Dante wrapped around me like he was afraid I’d disappear. I thought about the way he looked at me when he thought I wasn’t watching, like I was something precious and rare.
“Yeah,” I said, and realized I meant it. “I think I am.”
Something in her expression softened. “Good. That’s... that’s good.” She cleared her throat. “I should get back. Mom needs help with something.”
“Heather?” I called as she started to ride away. “About Angelo...”
“Don’t,” she warned.
“I’m just saying, he’s a good guy. Loyal. Kind. And he clearly thinks you hung the moon.”
“I said don’t,” she repeated, but there was less heat in it this time. “Besides, even if I was interested—which I’m not—it would never work. There’s no way he’d actually want to stay here. He just came to help Dante get set up. That’s all.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that…”
“Oh please,” she groaned. “As if some east coast mobster wants to play Little House on the Prairie with me. Get real.”
I watched her ride off, her back straight and stubborn as always.
She was wrong about Angelo. I’d seen the way he talked about Montana, about the ranch, about the life out here.
He wasn’t just marking time until he could go back to Jersey.
He was putting down roots, whether he’d admitted it to himself yet or not.
But that was their problem to figure out. I had enough on my plate with my own complicated situation.
I turned my horse back toward the tiny house, suddenly eager to see Dante.
The day stretched ahead of us—paperwork to finish, cattle to check, a hundred small tasks that made up ranch life.
But underneath all of it was the knowledge that tonight we’d fall into bed together, that his hands would find me in the darkness, that I’d wake up with him beside me.
It was becoming routine. Normal. And maybe that was what scared me most, how easily I’d adapted to this new life, how natural it felt to call him my husband.
When I reached the house, I found Dante exactly where I’d left him, hunched over the desk with papers spread out in front of him. His reading glasses were perched on his nose, and he was frowning at something on the computer screen.
“You know,” I said, leaning against the doorframe, “you’re sexy when you’re being all business-like.”
He looked up, and the smile that spread across his face made my chest warm. “Yeah? You think spreadsheets are sexy?”
“I think you’re sexy,” I corrected, moving into the room. “The spreadsheets are just a bonus.”
He pushed back from the desk, reaching for me as I got close enough. I let him pull me down into his lap, careful of his ribs even though they weren’t giving him much trouble anymore.
“How’d it go out there?” he asked, his hands settling on my hips.
“Good. Heather showed up.”
His body tensed immediately. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, actually. She apologized. For the dinner thing.”
“Really?” He sounded genuinely surprised. “That’s... unexpected.”
“I know.” I traced the collar of his shirt with one finger. “I think she’s starting to come around. Slowly. Very slowly.”
“I’ll take it.” He pressed a kiss to my jaw. “What else?”
“Angelo’s got it bad for her.”
Dante laughed, the sound rumbling through his chest. “Oh, I’ve noticed. The poor bastard’s been mooning over her since week one. I tried to warn him that she’d eat him alive, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“She likes him too,” I said. “Even if she won’t admit it.”
“Those two are gonna be a disaster,” Dante said, but he was smiling. “A beautiful, chaotic disaster.”
I settled more comfortably in his lap, and his arms wrapped around me, holding me close. Through the window, I could see the ranch stretching out in every direction—the land my family had worked for generations, the land we’d nearly lost forever.
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
“For what?”
“For last night. For this.” I gestured vaguely at everything around us. “For making this feel like it could actually work.”
His hand came up to cup my face, his thumb brushing across my cheekbone in that way that always made my breath catch. “It does work, Nick. We work.”
And looking into his dark eyes, seeing the certainty there, I found myself believing it. Found myself wanting to say the words that had been building in my chest for weeks now, the ones I’d been too scared to voice.
“Dante, I—”
The sound of a truck engine cut me off, and we both turned toward the window. An old truck was pulling up the drive, dust billowing behind it. The moment I saw it, I knew exactly who it was.
“What’s Evelyn doing here?” I asked, glancing at Dante.
He just shrugged. “Another casserole maybe?”
I got up from his lap and headed for the door, pulling it open before she even got the chance to get out of her truck. Instead, she rolled the passenger window down, calling out to me.
“I won’t bother you long,” she said with a smile. “Just came by to invite y’all to dinner tomorrow night. We’re doing barbecue.”
I glanced back at Dante. He didn’t seem upset by the idea.
“What time?” I called back.
“Shoot for seven and we’ll see what happens,” she replied. Her truck roared back into life. “Just bring yourselves. We’ve got the rest covered.”
I nodded, waving to her as she put the truck in drive. “See you then!”
Dante stepped up behind me as she pulled away, his arms wrapped around my waist. “God… it’s almost like this is normal.”
“This is normal out here,” I replied, turning in his arms to kiss him. “Now what do you say about leaving those spreadsheets and taking a nap with me?”
“A nap?” he grinned. “Is there any actual sleeping involved in this nap?”
I shook my head. “Not even a little bit.”