Page 20 of Swift and Saddled

“Wes’s brother is my daughter’s dad.” Well, that was a mouthful. So she was engaged to his brother? Cam must’ve seen my eyes dart to her ring because she said: “And no, I’m not engaged to his brother either. It’s a whole thing,” she said with a wave of her hand.

“I—I’m so sorry. I saw the ring, and I just assumed…” Foot, meet mouth.

“No, it’s okay,” Cam said with a laugh. “It’s refreshing to meet someone who isn’t aware of my entire romantic history.” She seemed so genuine. I hadn’t met anyone in Weston’s family yet besides his dad, but if all of them were like this, I was going to need to work on the fact that I always assumed the worst.

Weston, who looked like he was still recovering from the fact that I’d assumed he was engaged to Cam, said, “Now that we’ve established the fact that I’m not engaged to my brother’s baby mama”—he looked at Cam—“do you have those papers for me to sign?”

Cam laughed again. “Seriously, Ada. You made my day. It’s fun to feel like a mystery,” she said. “And yes. Just a few occupancy papers that I need to take to City Hall this week.” She set her bag on the table, and I felt bad that it was going to be covered in dust within a millisecond, but she didn’t seem to mind.

She flipped through a few files with her fingertips before pulling out a manila folder. She opened it and went through a few pages, quickly telling Weston where to sign, before she looked at me again.

“So, Ada, how are you liking Meadowlark?” Cam asked. When she smiled at me, it felt genuine.

“It’s nice,” I said truthfully. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t totally smitten by the mountains and the big blue sky. “I haven’t seen much of it, but the ranch is beautiful.”

“I mean, you’ve been to the bar and the coffee shop, so you’ve seen half the town, basically,” Cam said with a wave of her hand. I had no idea how she knew about either of those things, which must’ve been written all over my face. “Small town, remember?”

“The Hallmark movies aren’t lying, are they?” I said, hoping my sarcasm landed the right way.

“No, but we definitely don’t have as many hot inn owners.”

“But you seem to have a monopoly on hot cowboys.” I said it without thinking. It got Weston’s attention, his head snapped up to look at me. Our eyes met for a fraction of a second and I immediately regretted it.

The air hummed, and I did my best to ignore it.

Cam laughed again. “You are definitely in the right place for those.”

“Tell me more about these hot cowboys,” Weston said, leaning on the workbench in an annoyingly cocky and attractive way. “Anyone specific?” He crossed his arms over his broad chest, and even out of the corner of my eye, I could see those godforsaken dimples on full display.

“Your dad,” I quipped without meeting his gaze. I’d already made that mistake today, and I didn’t want a repeat of what happened last time Weston and I had prolonged eye contact. Cam smacked her hand over her mouth and broke into a fit of giggles, but I was saved from Weston’s response by a little human throwing herself into the back of Cam’s legs.

“Mama!” the little one squealed. Cam was still recovering from her laughter but wrangled her kid up into her arms and gave her a squeeze.

“Hi, Sunshine,” Cam said. Cam’s daughter had her hair, but her eyes were green and she had two big dimples that looked familiar to me. She was wearing what looked like a pink soccer uniform.

“Riley,” a gruff voice called from the door, “I literally just told you that you needed a hard hat before we went inside.” I looked up to see who the voice belonged to and what do you know, I was met with yet another cowboy. This one I assumed was Gus.

It was obvious that Weston and Gus were related, but where Wes wore a smile, Gus wore a frown. His hair and eyes were also darker, and he was sporting a neatly trimmed mustache. It took a special kind of man to pull off a mustache, and Gus seemed to be doing it.

“I already have a hard head,” the little human—Riley—called back to him. “You said that when I didn’t want to put my jammies on.”

“Not a hard head, a hardhat,” Gus said with a sigh. He was walking toward us now.

“I don’t know what that is,” Riley said, and Gus shook his head.

“She’s got you there,” Cam remarked. “Wonder where she gets that hard head from.” Her daughter had her arms around Cam’s neck and was looking at me as she nuzzled into her mom’s shoulder.

“Who are you?” Riley asked, looking straight at me.

“I’m Ada. Who are you?”

“Riley Amos Ryder,” she said. Cute.

“Nice to meet you, Riley Amos Ryder,” I said with a smile I couldn’t help.

“Do you have a middle name? What’s your last name?”

“Sorry,” Cam interjected. “This is one of her things right now. She needs to know everyone’s full name.” I nodded at her, letting her know it was okay.

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