Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 89170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
“What about Avery, Josh, and Nathan?”
“I don’t need to talk to them simply because of their age. Um—” She started to look through a notebook she had pulled out of her purse, which actually looked more like a travel bag. “Avery is fifteen, and Joshua and Nathan are both fourteen, right?”
Nodding, I replied, “Yep. Still in high school. You should be warned: Josh and Nate are both really good at team roping and have already won a few events.”
“Really? Do either of them bull ride?”
“Both of them do.”
“Goodness.” She laughed. “Your poor mothers. I can’t imagine having to watch my son climb on top of a bull all the time.”
“Josh has been on bulls for as long as I can remember. I think Kaylee has a photo of her and Josh riding on one of the bulls when he was like three.”
Georgie turned her whole body to face me. “What! Isn’t that dangerous?”
This time I laughed. “You’ll see that these bulls live a very different life away from the arenas.”
“What do you mean?”
I looked at her quickly. “You can ride some of them like a horse. They’re gentle giants.”
“Ha! I’ve been around enough of them to know that’s not true.”
“You’ve been around them at events, Georgie. Don’t you remember when we went over to my Uncle Ty’s place and watched him train the bulls?”
She thought for a moment. “I do remember petting them. Wait, we even walked out into a field once and you and Ryan jumped up and sat on one.”
“You wouldn’t do it, and you cried.”
“I did not cry.”
“Oh yes, you did! You ran back to the barn crying your eyes out because Ryan said you were afraid.”
“As any ten-year-old girl would be! You two were insane.”
“Still are.”
She huffed. “I believe it.”
“I still don’t see why you feel like you have to interview me.”
Her body slumped. “Blayze, I just found out I was going to be interviewing you not even forty-eight hours ago.”
“What?”
Her phone started to ring. “Crap, this is my new editor—he’s my go-to for the interview, do you mind?”
“Not at all,” I replied.
“Hi, Doug. Yes, I made it fine. Okay.”
Georgie started to bounce her leg and I glanced over at her, noticing all the color had drained from her face.
“I, um, I don’t think that is going to work for me.”
I looked back at her quickly. Her brows were pulled down into a frown.
Focusing back on the road, she said, “I’m going to have to get back to you, Doug. That’s not something I’m comfortable with. And…well…hello?”
She pulled her phone away from her ear and stared at it. Did the dick hang up on her?
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
Turning to look at me, she forced a smile. “Everything’s fine.”
I could tell by the look on her face, everything was far from fine.
I pulled into the gate of our ranch and headed toward the main house. Georgie had hung up with her editor about fifteen minutes ago and had been writing in her little notebook ever since. She bounced her leg up and down, suddenly seeming uneasy. Nervous. She didn’t even notice when I turned off the main road that led to my grandparents’ house. After a few more minutes of driving, I pulled up to my log house.
“Here we go.”
Georgie lifted her head and gasped at the sight before her. “What is this?”
“A house,” I replied as I got out and opened the truck door to get her bags.
Georgie got out, too, and shut the door before she made her way closer to the house.
“I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life.”
A stunning rock-and-log home stood in front of me. It wasn’t overly big, yet it wasn’t a small house by any means. Large, round timber logs held up the wraparound porch that overlooked a beautiful meadow dotted with horses and cattle. A stunning view of the mountain ridge at the far side of the ranch made my breath catch in my throat.
I smiled as I followed her gaze.
When I became the foreman for the ranch and started taking over more of the day-to-day operations, my grandfather gifted me with fifty acres of land.
“This house hasn’t always been here, has it? I feel like I know this meadow. Do I know this meadow?” she asked, turning to look at me over her shoulder.
A sense of pride bubbled up inside of me. I loved this house and was so proud it was mine. “No. I had it built last year. And yeah, you’ve been to this part of the ranch when we were younger.”
She spun around. “This is…this is…your house?”
Looking at my home, I grinned. Rose Marie, one of my younger cousins, Uncle Ty and Aunt Kaylee’s oldest, and I had worked on the design of the house for months before my father’s good friend, Michael, had drawn up the plans for it.