Page 32 of Rancher's Pride

Lark let her head fall back onto the soft cushion of the chair. “Mine was Sam Hastings.” She sighed his name. “I wonder whatever happened to him,” she said wistfully.

“Your dad didn’t fire Rhett. He went back to Texas because he was homesick.” We all looked up at Nash,who was leaning on the banister. “Sam moved to Seattle and is very happy with his partner Josh.”

“His partner?” Lark asked and Nash nodded. “Who knew? Good for him.” She smiled as she crossed her arms and looked like she was lost in a memory.

“And well, you know where you can find Jake.” He said, looking at Tayla. Somewhere in me, I wondered if he knew more of the story about Tayla and Dr. Jake than he was willing to say. “You three look cozy there. Are you two staying for supper?” Nash said as he leaned against the wall and waited.

“Oh, that’s what we were supposed to tell you.” Lark said as she clapped her hands together. “We’re all supposed to go to Mom’s. She said now that we’re all in one place, she has something to tell us.” Lark wasn’t ever the person to leave a message with, but she’d remembered the same day this time.

“I wonder what she has to tell us?” Tayla said off-handedly. I looked up at Nash and I could see he was thinking the same thing I was. “What do you two know?” Tayla said as she punched my shoulder.

“Mom’s seeing someone,” I blurted out, and then covered my mouth. Nash shook his head and clenched his jaw.

“She’s what? How do you know?” Lark elbowed me.

“The night I got here, she said Phil had been at her house and well, they thought I was sleeping, but yeah, right.” I rolled my eyes. “She’s been seeing him for a bit, and she says he’s really nice.”

“None of you can breathe a word of this until she says something.” Nash pointed at us from across the room. “You were supposed to keep your mouth shut.” He moved to just point at me.

I shrugged, “what can I say? I’m bad with secrets.” As soon as it came out of my mouth, I regretted it.

“Not all of them,” he grumbled as he walked out of the room. My sisters wrapped their arms around me and hugged me tightly.

“Mom has a boyfriend.” Lark whispered, and we all squealed as we kicked our feet.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

NASH

We all ended up over at Julie’s at the same time. She was standing on the porch smiling as we all filed in. It was just like years ago when all was right on this ranch. “Nash, give me that baby.” She reached out and took Lottie from me and walked into the house as I held the door open.

“Phil, I smiled as he came out of the kitchen.” I shook the man’s hand and smiled at him. His tight smile led me to believe he needed a friendly face.

“All right, everyone, sit down.” Julie said as she held Lottie close to her. “I didn’t plan on doing this before supper, but here we are.” She reached out for Phil’s hand and he took it.

“Phil and I have been seeing one another for a few months. As most of you know, we’ve always had a nice time together and things progressed and we’re in love. I hope you can all accept us being together.” They bothsat down and the table was quiet. I watched Kipp and could see his wheels turning, but he stayed silent.

“I think it’s great Mom.” Lark said as she picked up the bowl of potatoes and let the spoonful splat on her plate. She looked up at her mom and smiled.

“Yeah Mom, I mean Phil’s a good-looking guy. Good thing you scooped him up.” Tayla grabbed a roll and pulled it open. Awkward silence hung in the air as cutlery scraped on plates and food was passed around the table.

Julie’s eyes shifted to Fallon and I. “It was her,” I said, pointing at the gorgeous woman sitting beside me and I felt like there was a collective inhale by everyone else around the table. If it was anyone else, it would have been funny.

Fallon turned and smacked me on the chest. “Seriously? It took you all of five seconds to sell me out.” She frowned at me and shook her head. “Sorry Mom, you know what it’s like talking to those two.” She motioned to Lark and Tayla.

“Yeah, no, they didn’t grill you, you blurted it out.” I quipped as I stabbed my fork into a piece of the roast beef on my plate, refusing to look at Fallon. I should have paid more attention to where her knife was because I might just get it in the thigh.

“Nash, I don’t think you’re helping yourself.” Phil said, as he tried to hide a chuckle while putting roast beef on his plate. Fallon glared at me, and I couldn’t help but laugh. She was always trying to be so fierce,but I knew she was loving being back with this crazy group.

Kipp had stayed silent and broody though supper and I desperately wanted to know what he was thinking. “How many of you knew this was going on?” He asked as he wiped his mouth, before throwing the napkin on his plate.

“Hey, we only found out this afternoon.” Lark said, holding her hands up in surrender. Tayla nodded beside her.

“I’ve known since I gave birth to Lottie,” Fallon said quickly. Because if she said it faster, it might not quite sound like betrayal? I knew my him and he’d be hurt we all knew and didn’t say anything.

“Found out that night too, man,” I said, leaning back, absentmindedly putting my arm behind Fallon. Realizing I’d eaten far too much and wanted to groan but I stopped myself.

Kipp turned to look at his soon to be wife and arched his brow. Nora bit her lip as she tried to smile at him. “A while.” Her eyes darted from him to Julie, and Julie nodded. “Since it started.” She winced. If he was a cartoon, steam would have been coming out of his ears. He looked up at Griff, Linc and Ryder and they all shook their heads. Even if they did know it was probably better that they said no. My best friend was hanging on by a string and it wouldn’t take much for it to snap.

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