“She has been married for thirty years and has nine children.”
“Your point?”
“Lord above, Justice, not everyone is an idiot over... that sort of thing.” She gestured wildly at him.
“If they aren’t then they aren’t doing it right.”
She cleared her throat. “So where were you really?”
“In bed. Really. I had a late night.”
Oh. That was code for hooking up. She knew Justice well.
Good for him, really.
It was fine that her sex life was sporadic.
She wasn’t jealous.
It was a hazard of an eight-year engagement to a man who’d been deployed for the majority of that time.
She wasn’tthatsexual anyway. She liked sex. She liked being close to Asher. But it wasn’t a huge factor in her life. What she liked best was the stability. The promise that he would be there for her always.
The certainty she felt with him.
He was her high school sweetheart. Her one and only. Their wedding was finally on the horizon and that wasreal.
So, Justice could wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am whoever he wanted to. That was empty. She hadlove. So there.
So very there.
“Well, at least you showed up without the scent of the work day clinging to you.” If she smelled too deeply there might be a hint of perfume, though.
She wouldn’t smell deeply.
“You coming for dinner tonight?” he asked.
She spent most nights with the King family. After her grandmother’s death last year she’d felt so alone. Her grandma had been the most constant figure in her life. She might not have raised her, but going to her house every day after she’d done school at the little one-room schoolhouse at Four Corners Ranch had been her salvation.
Her parents’ house had always been a mess of angry words and beer bottles. Rue hated the disorganization. Her own room had always been spotless.
Her grandmother’s house had been a haven of sunlight and cookies. She and Justice had both spent days there, often. Her death had been tough for him too, not that he’d actually said that. Justice wasn’t a big one for emotional sincerity.
Though, after the funeral he’d seen her crying behind the church and he’d taken her in his arms, hard and tight.
He’d smelled like the earth, the sun and Justice. So familiar, and so necessary in that moment when the church had been full of all the family she didn’t know that well, while they said goodbye to the one person she had.
She cried into his jacket and left tear stains behind.
It had helped her hold it together later so she hadn’t had to cry on Asher.
But ever since then she’d eaten dinner at the main house at King’s Crest more often than not. King’s Crest was Justice’s family ranch, part of the broader ranching collective of Four Corners Ranch, the largest ranching spread in the state of Oregon.
Sullivan’s Point was home to produce, baked goodsand a farm store. McCloud’s Landing was an equine therapy center. Garrett’s Watch was a cattle ranch, and King’s had been too up until recently. They still did their cattle, but they were expanding. They had a new wedding venue they were almost finished with. It was going to be gorgeous but she couldn’t wait for it to get done to be married there.
Also, as much as she loved King’s Crest, she really did think she needed a church wedding. It felt more grounded and traditional. But the reception would be at King’s. They’d offered her the barn and outdoor area they used for town hall meetings—the big all-ranch gatherings they had once a month to discuss their business and make new proposals, dance, eat and have a good time.
Asher had been a little bitmehabout it, but the truth was, he was always a littlemehabout the ranch.
