Page 101 of The Lies We Told Ourselves

Delaney seemed to hold her breath, hoping that Booker wasn’t about to take up the questioning where Xander had left off, and I frantically started to rack my brain for some other excuse to occupy him.

“The ranch expansion is off,” Booker said, shrugging like it was no big deal. “You’ll have to count me out of your regeneration plans.”

“What?” Delaney suddenly bolted upright, concern lining her face. “What do you mean, it’s off?”

“Burger? Hot dog? I thought I’d wait for everyone to get here before I threw on the steaks.” Booker turned to the grill, clearly thinking that was the end of the conversation.

Men could be so oblivious at times.

“No!” Delaney said sternly. “You don’t get to drop that bombshell and then pretend it’s no big deal. And I want a burger, please and thank you.”

“Burger coming up. Trace?” Booker pointed some tongs at his brother, who looked just as shocked as Delaney did.

“I’ll take some answers with a burger on the side and a hot dog for Cade.”

“Blake will want a hot dog too… wait, no, back to the answers first.” Delaney shook her head, clearly trying to get past Booker’s apparently flawless distraction method.

“We lost most of the backers. The funds are gone. We’ve got two of the cottages up, so we can add to some of the accommodation numbers you wanted. The rest is going to need to wait a couple of years until the drama dies down.” Booker shrugged and then turned back to the grill as I sighed and went to sit down.

Damn, this was all my fault, and Booker might seem to think it wasn’t a big deal, but I’d feel guilty enough for the both of us.

“Camden,” I said sadly, wincing as I did. “He or his father or someone has gotten the investors to back out.”

“That little piss weasel ex of yours?” Trace asked, surprised.

Booker snorted at Trace’s accurate description, and Trace looked at his brother like he might have lost his mind.

“Apparently, he didn’t appreciate me making him piss himself in fear before I punched him in the face.”

“To be fair,” I added, “I think you actually punched him in the face and then threatened to bury his body out on the ranch somewhere.”

“Nice!” Delaney chimed in, grabbing a cherry tomato out of the salad bowl and popping it in her mouth.

She groaned like it was the best thing she’d ever tasted and then sank back into her chair as she chewed in satisfaction.

Trace smiled softly as he watched her before sitting down and pulling the salad bowl in front of him.

“So—we’re not angry?” he asked as he picked out the cherry tomatoes and put them on a napkin.

“Nah. It will all come together at some point. For now, I’m just going to keep doing what I was doing before. Maybe keep the extra ranch hand on and take a bit more time off.” Booker shrugged, waving the tongs in the air to make his point, and then went back to the meat.

“Okay. That doesn’t sound terrible,” Delaney admitted, giving Trace big, dreamy eyes as he placed the napkin of tomatoes in front of her. “So—we’re happy then.”

“Super happy,” Booker said. “Especially now we’ve got that new rugrat of yours to add to the family.”

Trace ducked down and kissed the top of Delaney’s head before she tipped her head back, and he kissed her lips as well. Apparently, Booker was a bit more observant than I gave him credit for.

“It’s going to be a big family,” Trace said, looking around at us all.

For the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged. And as I watched Booker grilling our lunch and Cade and Blake chasing each other around the yard, I decided that maybe I’d like to add to this family, too.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

BOOKER

Dex looked around at the group of us sitting at the table as he chewed on his burger. His hand kept moving around as he pointed to everyone including Val, frowned, and then repeated the process again.

“What are you doing?” I hissed when I couldn’t take it any longer.

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