Page 70 of Wildest Forever

“I know,” I repeat my words.

Our chatter falls quiet as I glance over at our neighboring ranch and my brows lift.

“We have new neighbors,” I say quietly to Dusty as I halt my horse.

“Oh yeah, so we do,” he pauses.

“Shall we go and say hi?” I ask, nosiness getting the better of me.

“I mean...” he pauses as he glances at his watch. “It's eight a.m. I'm not sure they would be happy to have some strangers knocking on the door and waking them up.”

“How do you know they'll be asleep?” I furrow my brows.

“Morgan...” he laughs, shaking his head from side to side. “How about we go and move the heifers and then we can go and introduce ourselves before lunch.”

I roll my eyes in an over-exaggerated manner which gets a low chuckle from my friend.

“Fine, let's go,” and just as the words slip past my lips, I am kicking my horse into a gallop as we move down the fields and towards where the cows are happily grazing.

The move takes longer than we planned and I feel mentally and physically worn out. Dusty closes the gate and he dusts his hands.

“Please tell me it wasn't just me that struggled with that?” he sighs, climbing back onto his horse and turning him around.

“Nope, not just you,” I wipe the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. “I felt like they were feeling rebellious today,” I smirk as I turn my own horse.

“They were,” he smirks back at me and he begins to walk away.

“Where are you going?” I call out then begin to move forward.

“To meet the new neighbors!” and I kick my horse on to catch up with him.

“Wonder what they're going to be like...” I trail off as we approach their driveway.

“We'll find out soon enough,” he gives me a wink as we approach.

A few horses are grazing in the fields. The house is cute, tucked away with the mountains behind.

I wait for a moment to see what Dusty is doing but he is already off his horse, so I follow his lead, swinging my leg off Barley and holding onto her reins as we walk forward.

“Let me knock,” I whisper as I climb the steps and hover my hand over the door, inhaling heavily I knock.

I side eye Dusty and within seconds it swings open and a young, pretty red head opens the door, her eyes volleying between mine.

“Hey,” I tuck my spare, sweaty palm into the back of my jeans. “I'm Morgan, this is Dusty,” I nod my head towards him. “I own Cottonwheel Ranch, next door,” I continue, “we were riding up the field to the cows and saw we had new neighbours.” I pause for a moment, and she smiles wider. “Well, we just wanted to welcome you to Blossom Cove.”

“Hey back,” she says and she has a New York accent, “I'm James...” and before she can carry on, a little blond haired boy runs up behind her, his arms wrapping around her leg and she glances down at him, her hand on the top of his head. “This is Tanner,” she smiles, “we have moved here from New York, my grandparents used to live here, but then I moved to the city as a teen and well, I decided I wanted to come back,”a warm laughter surrounds her and the sound of footsteps have me lifting my eyes from hers and over her shoulder.

Dirty blond hair, black rimmed glasses and dressed in a loose tee and jeans, he wraps his arm around her waist and nuzzles his chin into her shoulder.

“These are our neighbors,” James says softly, looking at him then her eyes are back on me as he stands a little taller and swoops the blond haired boy into his arms. “Morgan and Dusty...” she trails off and I give her a nod. “They live up at Cottonwheel Ranch,” and he extends his arm for Dusty to shake, then moves it to me.

“I'm Nate, nice to meet you,” he says with a smile.

“We have friends who have moved over to Lovelock Bay, followed us from New York,” she pauses. “So even though we're far away from home, we have some friends here, but it would be nice to make some new ones,” she gives me a lopsided smile.

“Sure, we can sort out a coffee or a lunch...” I trail off for a moment.

“Cool, I'll get your number?” she pats herself down for her phone and I nibble on my bottom lip.

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