Page 67 of A Rancher's Bride
It had been a long week, and he hadn’t given her much space to herself.
Luke turned on some music and relaxed, enjoying the easy drive back to the ranch. He worked through a few mental checklists, but even as he did, contentment stole in. Their time at the gala had been a complete success.
His mistake had turned out to be pretty much the best thing he’d ever done.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow they’d sit down and make a joint list of everyone they should follow up with via an email or phone call, but for the next twelve hours he would get them home, have a hot shower then fall into bed. Somewhere in there they would offer the family a hopeful news update, but definitely a shower and bed were first priorities.
Maybe he’d drive straight to his house. They’d have to grab Kelli’s things out of her bunk room, but it didn’t have to be done right away. No reason why he couldn’t throw all their dirty stuff in the laundry at his place.
He looked forward to seeing her in one of his shirts, wandering around his house. Although there was a certain charm to her Spiderman pyjamas.
When they hit the outskirts of Heart Falls, Kelli folded up the work in her lap and packed it away, glancing at him. “Stop at the dry cleaners, please. I should drop off Hanna’s dress.”
He was a breath away from offering to buy her a duplicate, but something about her face warned him she was too tired for teasing. “Good idea. I’ll drop off the things Josiah lent me.”
A few minutes later they were back on the road and nearly home.
Kelli twisted toward him with a little of her old enthusiasm back. “Thank you for everything. I really think it went well. Everyone thought Silver Stone sounded fantastic, and I bet the orders are going to start coming in.”
He reached around the bag on the seat between them and caught her fingers, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. “Everyone thoughtyouwere fantastic. Told you they’d love you.”
She made a rude noise. “Yeah, well, it turned out better than I expected, but it’s not the kind of setting I want to be in on a regular basis.” He was just about to ask if there was anything she absolutely needed from her room when she pointed at the house. “Everyone’s here. Did something happen?”
He let go of her hand, suddenly concerned. There were a whole lot of trucks parked outside the house. “Oh my God, what if something’s wrong with Tamara?”
They were only a minute away from the house, but Kelli was already texting.
Tension rose as he pulled into the open space beside Walker’s truck, releasing as she breathed a sigh of relief. “Tamara’s fine.God, but I’m going to kill her, though.”
“What’s going on?”
Kelli pushed open her door, still reading her phone. “She says it’s a family meeting. They’ve been waiting for you.”
Fear was replaced with annoyance. “Would have been nice if they could have sent me a heads-up this morning,” he grumbled.
He headed toward the back door, pausing after two steps when he realized Kelli wasn’t with him. He pivoted to find her marching resolutely down the snowy road, suitcase in hand.
“Hey. Where’re you going?”
She stopped, her shoulders visibly stiff even from this distance. “To unpack.”
Something was definitely wrong. “You need to come.”
Her face tightened. “Luke, it’s afamilymeeting. Go. They’re waiting for you.”
Something snapped. He stomped across the snow to her side and grabbed hold of the suitcase, jerking it from her hand. “What the hell is wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I told you, I need to get unpacked, have a shower and get to work.”
“Really?”
Kelli looked confused. “Does that sound off?”
“Very fucking off.”
Before he could read her the riot act or grab her by the shoulder to shake some sense into her, his name rang out.
They both twirled toward the house where Caleb stood on the back porch. “Hey. Sorry I didn’t give you more warning, but it’s the only time we could get everybody together. Get up here, we need to talk.”
