She looked at me, eyes bright with excitement. “What can I do?”
“Sit there,” I answered quietly.
Blood rushed to her cheeks, and her smile softened. “I wanna help.”
“You’re here. You are.”
Her head shook, but her expression was all love and adoration as she studied me. After a while, she sighed in defeat and focused on the goats as she began talking.
Telling me all about Avalee and why she was the best thing to ever happen to her. Why I would love her, and vice versa. Talking about Seattle and how wildly different it was from Texas. The very few things she liked about it.
And it was clear as fucking day that she hated it there.
Not that she ever even hinted at that. But the instant she started talking about it there, her entire demeanor shifted. Her glow faded and her tone leveled out until there was almost no emotion there at all.
Why, why, why, Madison. Why the fuck did you go?
“What are you doing, silly girl?” she asked, a little life weaving back into her words when Baby tried to go for her pocket.
“She’s looking for treats,” I said automatically as I finished checking their food and water in the corral we were leaving them in.
“I don’t have anything,” she said sadly as she gave both cows head scratches before following me out, falling into my side as she did. “I’ve missed this.”
I have too.
Every day.
I pressed my mouth to the top of her head. “Shower?”
A contented hum sounded in her throat but ended abruptly. “Bath?” she asked instead, her tone shifting to mock-wonder. “I’m all achy for some reason.”
“For some reason, huh?”
Another hum. That one all a playful tease. “Must’ve slept wrong.”
Her laugh split through the air when I abruptly pulled her into my arms and began carrying her across the yard. Letting her head hang lower than the rest of her body.
“Hunter Lee, oh my gosh!” Her body was shaking with muted laughter when she grabbed my neck and pulled herself up.
“Need me to show you what it feels like to sleep wrong?”
She nodded, her lips pressing together to try to hide the smile there. “Possibly.”
I passed my mouth across hers in a whisper of a kiss. “Then, let’s take that bath.”
I turned onto the Dixon’s property, expertly avoiding the gravel and maneuvering my bike onto the path I’d taken countless times before. My gaze going to the gray, pre-dawn sky, same as it did every morning. My lungs expanding as that feeling of home wove through me, even though that was silly because this wasn’t my home.
But this property had always felt like home to me. A second home, I guessed.
The orchard and the animals and the people within the house.
One in particular.
But it went deeper than that, it always had. I missed the property when I wasn’t on it. I thought about it throughout the day. When asked what I wanted to do with my life, my mind went there.
Since elementary school, I’d never wavered in my future dreams. I wanted to be a dancer and take care of the Dixon’s ranch . . . and marry Hunter Dixon. The last one being the most important.
When I’d first told my parents I wanted to help at the Dixon’s ranch a few years ago, they’d laughed. Sure I was only wanting to spend even more time with Hunter. Well, they weren’t completely wrong, if I was being honest.
But I’d finally convinced them the summer I turned thirteen.
One of them had driven me to the Dixon’s place every morning so I could help with the animals before heading out into the orchard to learn what I could. That had only lasted a couple weeks before they started letting me ride my bike, and it had continued that way for the past few summers.
Ride out every morning.
Step into the world I desperately wanted to stay in for the rest of my life. Steal moments with Hunter.
Dance some nights. Spend others with Hunter, Savannah, and Beau.
I couldn’t imagine anything more perfect.
I hopped off my bike and set it up near the corner of the Dixon’s house before heading toward the barn. Every part of my soul coming alive when a voice sounded behind me.
“Beautiful.”
I turned, my breath catching the way it always did. The rush I felt every time I saw him only became stronger, more addicting. But I was pretty sure I was okay with being addicted to Hunter Dixon.
“Morning,” I said as he pulled me into his arms for a hug that didn’t last nearly long enough.
“Mads, these shorts . . .” he groaned as he leaned back, his stare dipping over me before capturing my own.
“You don’t like my these?”
His chest moved with a muted laugh, his smile wide as he bent to kiss me. “These,” he mimicked against my mouth before tugging on the bottoms of my shorts. “Your these are gonna kill me.”
“Then don’t look at them,” I teased as I pressed another quick kiss to his lips before turning out of his hold and heading for the barn.
“Yeah, okay,” he muttered sarcastically, catching up with me and wrapping an arm around my waist.
We both jerked back a step when the side door to the barn burst open just as Hunter reached for it, and Cayson came storming out. Mischievous smirk and laughing eyes replaced with frustration and hatred unlike anything I’d ever seen from him before.
“Whoa, what the hell?” Hunter snapped as I asked, “Are you okay?”
But Cayson just stalked past us, never saying a word.
“All right,” Hunter said a few moments later, sounding all kinds of confused as he led me into the barn.
“Do you think he’s okay?”
“It’s Cayson,” he said with a huff. “He probably just got in trouble for another one of his pranks.”
“That would be correct,” Mr. Dixon said, making his presence known from where he was standing on the far side of the barn, looking saddened and embarrassed by the fact. “Sorry you came all this way, Madison, but most the work’s already done.”
“Oh.” I glanced around, noting the fresh feed and water in the stalls. “It’s fine, I would be here anyway.”
Mr. Dixon snapped and pointed at me. “Figured you’d say that, that’s why I had Cayson leave the chickens for ya.”
A smile broke across my face. “Thank you!”
He clicked his tongue as I turned and started for the small chicken coop. “You got a girl who gets excited for morning tasks, Hunter. You best not let her go.”
Hunter scoffed. “There’s no way that’s happening, Dad.”
“Good, good.” Mr. Dixon heaved a sigh and started for the door we’d just come through. “Let the animals out to get some fresh air. Everything else has been taken care of.”
“Yes, sir,” Hunter murmured as he headed for the sheep in the back.
By the time I was heading back out to the barn from taking the few eggs I’d collected to the kitchen, Beau and Sawyer had finally come down.
“Almost everything’s done,” I told them. “Cayson did it all before Hunter and I even got in there—I guess he was in trouble for a prank?”
Sawyer snorted.
Beau stopped walking. “Then why the fuck am I out here?”