“Hes?” Blythe calls out Hattie on the nickname slip with a quirked eyebrow.
“Ugh.” Hattie pulls her hat down over her eyes with a mumble. “Shut up.”
“Tripp won’t tell Heston if I tell him not to,” I cut in. “But even if he agrees, then who’s going to get the invitation? Hattie? And then what? She just sprints down the lane and into the field across the road?”
“This isn’t going to work.” Blythe throws her head back with a dramatic whine. “You’re screwed, Hattie Jo. We haven’t even considered the cameras. They’re everywhere around here. My husband probably already knows you’re here and that we’re up to something stupid.”
“Smart guess,” a deep voice confirms.
Blythe’s eyes slam shut, and she twists her face. Slowly, the rest of us look up and over her head to see Gage standing behind her with his arms crossed.
Lucky, Heston’s dog, is sitting patiently at his side, and I start to panic that her owner isn’t far behind.
Gage frowns and gives a curt nod. “Hattie.”
“Hello, Gage,” she whispers with a grimace just as Lucky pads toward her and lays her head in Hattie’s lap. “Good to . . . see you?”
“Likewise,” Gage responds flatly with a cocked eyebrow.
Blythe finally stands. Her palm smooths up Gage’s chest, and he narrows his eyes at her before leaning down and speaking quietly right next to her ear.
“Sweetheart?”
“Yes?” she answers.
“I love you,” Gage states, “and I’ll be home as soon as I get this taken care of.”
Blythe nods happily, but swallows hard when he pulls away from her ear and she sees the quick change in his expression.
“Now, get your little fugitive off this ranch before Heston finds her and burns the whole damn place to the ground.” He looks over Blythe’s head to dart his eyes between me and Savannah. “And take the rest of your scheming little posse with you.”
I snort while trying to hide a laugh, and Savannah swats my arm.
“You’re not going to tell him about the invitation, are you?” Hattie chimes in desperately.
Gage ignores her, and after kissing Blythe, he walks away. Savannah immediately ducks her head and takes Hattie’s hand to sneak her back to the car before anyone else notices her.
I purse my lips and narrow my eyes at the bunkhouse.
“Don’t,” Blythe warns me. “We’re in so much trouble if you?—”
But I’m already following Gage inside.
EPILOGUE PART II
TRIPP
“No shit?”
“Yeah,” Monty says with a chuckle. “Pretty cool, huh?”
I smile with the phone pressed to my ear as I walk out of my closet holding Mesa’s overnight bag. It’s light, having just a few of her back-and-forth essentials while we figure out our current living situation.
Most of my stuff is already at her place, but moving out of the bunkhouse has been a slow process. Mesa and I have been procrastinating just like Warren and Savannah still are. I think we’ll always have a room here, even if we officially live somewhere else.
“A six-month chip,” I repeat Monty’s news into the phone. “Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty damn cool.”
I had every intention of never talking to my dad again after our first two encounters. There’s still a bit of tension there, but when he reached out during his twelve-step program, I didn’t have it in me to write him off for good.
