They all felt the impact of their parents’ absence the same way and in their own way. After all these years living on the ranch, just them boys, it was nice to have a woman in the house, a reminder of their mother in some small way.
Sadie had already left her mark. The house smelled different, felt different, was different when she was in it.
“Don’t you cowboys have anything better to do than stare at me,” Sadie called from atop her horse.
“No,” they said in unison.
Sadie laughed and so did all of them.
Rory climbed over the fence and dropped down on the other side. Sadie’s gaze locked on him as he closed the distance between them. Her gaze dropped from his face, over his shoulders and chest. He had an overwhelming urge to flex, but didn’t. Not with his brothers standing there taking in the show, watching every little nuance between him and Sadie.
Him and Sadie. He liked that. The idea. The reality. The possibilities of what they could share.
“Your horses are where you want them.” She swung her leg over the horse’s neck to slide down, but Rory caught her under the arms and lifted her off the horse and gently set her on the ground in front of him. “I can manage on my own.”
“What fun would that be for me?”
She shyly ducked her head and stepped back, so she could look up at him without craning her neck. “I’m heading up to the house to make dinner.” She turned to leave, but glanced over her shoulder. “See you later?”
“Nothing will keep me from you and dinner.”
That made her smile at him again. She walked toward the house. Fifteen feet away, she turned back. “Are you staring at my ass?”
Yep, that sexy, sweet smile just might kill him.
“What else would I be doing?”
“Go feed the horses or mend a fence or something, anything else.”
“If you’re walking, sweetheart, I’m watching.” He couldn’t help the smile. He liked the feeling. He liked the way he was with her—somehow the weight he carried on his shoulders lessened when she was near.
She spun back around and continued on to the house, checking over her shoulder a couple times to see if he watched her. The smiles she sent his way, the little extra swing she put in her hips, cast a spell over him. He wanted her, no doubt, but he found he liked her more and more. Everything about her drew him in and made him wish for things he’d only ever thought of in the abstract but now wanted to make a reality.
CHAPTER 10
Headlights swept across the front windows. Sadie’s stomach did a strange rise and fall like she’d raced down a huge dip on a roller coaster. Butterflies swarmed her belly. She tried to hold back a nervous smile, but failed. She couldn’t help it. She’d been on other first dates—too many of which never turned into a second date—but this one with Rory felt different in a good way. In a way that she didn’t quite get. Maybe because she didn’t quite get Rory, but it still felt right. He felt right.
“There’s your guy. You look real pretty, honey.” Her father stared up at her from his favorite chair in the living room, a celebrity news program on the TV. “You look so much like your mother.”
Sadie smiled, remembering her mother leaning over the counter toward the mirror, putting on lipstick to go out on a date with her father. She’d pressed her lips together and made a funny popping noise, then smiled down at Sadie. She’d kissed Sadie goodbye that night and Sadie made that same popping noise as her mother waved goodbye and left her and Connor with the sitter to go out with their dad. “I miss her so much.”
“Me too. Go, sweetheart. Have fun tonight. Be young and happy. You deserve it.”
“I love you, Dad. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
The smile he gave her was real. His eyes were clear. No sign of the confusion he suffered more and more lately.
She walked out her front door light of heart. It stuttered when Rory walked around the front of his truck and toward her wearing a navy blue thermal Henley, dark blue jeans, and black cowboy boots. The deep blue shirt made his golden hair brighter and his hazel eyes greener. He smiled at her, and her heart fluttered and lifted in her chest. She pressed a hand to her belly, but it didn’t calm those swarming butterflies.
Rory’s gaze scanned over her hair and face. She’d taken extra time to curl her long straight hair into chunky waves and added a touch of soft pink eye shadow to her usual eyeliner and mascara. She’d even dabbed on some tinted lip balm. His eyes stopped on her mouth, before his gaze swept over her rosy pink top down to the floral skirt that hugged her hips and flared out in a ruffle, ending several inches above her knees. She completed the outfit with her favorite pair of brown cowboy boots and executed a little shimmy, circling for him to see the whole outfit, hoping the cute clothes distracted him from the healing cuts across her thigh and knee, the nicks and scabs on her arms.