Ginger looked at it, trying to see what Nate did. The homestead was really two houses connected together with a three-car garage in the middle. The garages had doors on both sides, so she could get to the road she was driving down now, or out onto the ranch in the opposite direction. When they were open and the sky shone through the gaps, it really was spectacular.
But they were closed today, which only made the house seem much bigger than it was.
“I live on the left side,” she said. “The West Wing, we call it. Like the White House.”
“Alone?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “I have three women that live there with me. We all work on the ranch. Emma, my assistant, is there. Jessica is my stable master. She lives there. And Jill is a ranch hand. She works in the behind-the-scenes stuff the most. She lives there as part of her room and board.”
She passed through the front gate, where the fields ended and an unruly patch of grass barely passed for a front yard. “On the right is where the cowboys live. The Annex. You’ll live there with Connor. Emma put you on the main floor, where there’s only three bedrooms. A great guy named Spencer Rust lives in the other one. Downstairs, we have three more bedrooms and three more bathrooms, and the boys double up down there.”
Nate said nothing, and Ginger really wanted to know what he was thinking. So she asked, “What are you thinking about?”
“I get the whole bedroom to myself?”
“Yes,” she said. “And Connor can have the other one. If you’d rather sleep in the same room, that’s fine. We weren’t sure—”
“It’s fine,” he said. “Anything is fine, honestly.”
She reached up to press the button to get the far left garage door to lift.
“I lived in a dormitory with sixteen other men,” he said. “I can’t even remember what it feels like to have an entire bedroom to myself.”
Ginger had been told that before, and she hated that she hadn’t remembered. “Emma and the other girls have been working on a babysitting schedule for Connor. You’ll come over to our kitchen tonight, where she also has a feast waiting for us. Then I’ll take you to the men’s wing—what we call the East Annex. Or just the Annex.”
She pulled into the garage, her heart thumping in a strange way. “And that’s it. You can’t come to the West Wing whenever you want. It’s off-limits to cowboys.”
“I don’t know if you know much about me,” he said. “But I’m not a cowboy.”
Ginger grinned at him, feeling a little out of control. Definitely tired, which probably spurred her to say, “You will be, Mister Mulbury. Trust me on that,” in a flirty tone. She didn’t add a giggle to the statement, thankfully, and quickly got out of the truck.
As she busied herself with her luggage from last night and all the paperwork she’d been given at the FCI, she kicked herself for saying anything about Nate becoming a cowboy. She also couldn’t allow herself to flirt with him again. She needed him on the ranch; that was all. He didn’t get to know about her private life, and she’d had plenty of experience with keeping things professional between her and the cowboys. She could do it with him too.
Nate had a waking-up Connor in his arms while he waited near the tailgate, and Ginger hurried to go up the steps in the garage that led into the utility room. An entire wall of cabinets greeted her, as did a washer and dryer and four boot racks.
She passed everything, keeping her boots on, and went around the corner and into the kitchen. The scent of sizzling meat met her nose, and her taste buds perked right up.
“There you are,” Emma said, turning from the oven where she’d just pulled out a tray of foil-wrapped potatoes. She stepped over to Ginger and hugged her. “Long day, right?”
“Really long,” Ginger said, setting her folder on the counter and her bag next to the island. She indicated Nate behind her. “This is Nathaniel Mulbury, and his nephew Connor. He goes by Nate.” She smiled at Connor. “And you go by Connor, right bud?”
The boy nodded as if she were asking a serious question, and she reached out and lovingly swiped the hair off his forehead. “He just woke up, so he’s a bit shy right now.” She stepped further into the kitchen. “This is Emma Clemson,” she said. “She’s my right hand and my left hand. If it looks like I know what I’m doing around here, it’s because of her.”
Emma just smiled and shook her head, sending her dark curls cascading around her shoulders. “Not true.”
“Come in, come in. Let’s get over to the table.” Ginger stepped that way, unsurprised to see Emma pick up her folder of important documents and move them to the file holder on the opposite counter, out of the way.
“I’ll go grab the others,” Emma said. She picked up Ginger’s suitcase and took it with her, calling, “Jess, Michelle. They’re here.”
Nate still hadn’t said anything, and he sat in a chair at the corner of the table. Connor stayed in his lap, and Ginger didn’t know what to do to break the tension. She reminded herself that the first night was always like this, that he just needed some time to adjust to a new way of living. One where he didn’t have to share a bathroom with dozens of other men.
Ginger sat beside him and folded her hands in her lap. “Do you like steak?”
He turned his head toward her as if in slow motion. “I haven’t had steak in years. But yeah.” He spoke slowly and nodded his head. “I think I used to like steak.”
“Emma’s a really good cook.”
“Do you cook, Ginger?”
She really liked how he said her name, with all the tenderness of a really good man. She sighed and shook her head. “I mean, I can if I have to, but Emma’s here, so I don’t have to.” She gave him a smile, and for the first time, he returned it. He obviously had no idea what a smile transformed his face into, though he probably had at one point in the past.
“All right,” Michelle said, her voice too brusque for their current conversation. She breezed into the room like a hurricane and took the chair on the other side of Nate. “Do you want to do the business first, or eat, and then talk afterward?”
“I’m exhausted,” he said. “So let’s get this over with, and then I can go to bed after dinner.”
Michelle’s gaze barely flicked toward Ginger, but she still caught the anxiety there. “Good plan. So this outlines the rules of Hope Eternal Ranch. You can go over it whenever. Ginger will talk to you about your assignment, probably in the morning.”
“Or a day or two,” she said. “It’s Sunday tomorrow.”
“Oh, right.” Michelle barely missed a beat. “We need you to sign this one for the Bureau of Prisons. The BOP really likes all their paperwork in line as soon as possible.” She held up a page and set it on the table in front of Nate.
“What is it?” he asked, though he was already reaching for the pen.
“It states that you understand that you work here. That you’ll get paid. That we’ll provide adequate housing for you and Connor.” She paused as she looked at the boy. “But you’ll have to pay for your own groceries, gas—a vehicle should you choose to purchase one.” She let another beat or two of silence pass, because most inmates usually had questions about their pay, their budget, or how they were supposed to pay for things.