Heart & Hope (Rosewood Ranch #2)

Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

REED

R uby on my lap on this rough dirt road is a special type of torture. She’s quiet. And I don’t know if it’s the string of hard-ons I’ve had since we left the fence line or something else. But I would do just about anything to see happiness light up her face, so I wheel the Case into the paddock by one of the streams on the ranch.

It’s almost as good as the one at Harry’s. But at this one, it’s only us.

So it’s fucking perfect.

I park by a bunch of trees and let the tractor idle for a minute before shutting her down and pushing the door open. I love my machines, but after hours on end of being cooped up in the cab, even I want out. Ruby jumps down, heading for the stream. She pulls out her phone, taking photos then sliding it into her dress somehow.

I walk up beside her and wrap an arm around her shoulders. “What about this spot?”

She glances up at me, resting her head on my shoulder with a sigh. “It’s beautiful.”

“You wanna go for a swim?” I ask.

She straightens up and wanders away into the trees without a word. Pacing through the trees, she runs her hands through her hair. Something’s not right. She’s strung out.

Shit.

I follow her, leaning on rough bark a few feet from where she is walking a tight circle.

“Rubes, baby. What is it?”

A lump the size of a boulder forms in my throat when her worried brown eyes finally land on me.

“I can’t do this . . .”

I push off the hardwood, air straight-up sucked from my lungs before the next heartbeat can flop. “What are you talking about?”

“This fake marriage, lying to people. It’s not who I am. I can’t do it. God.” She moans through a strangled laugh. “I can’t even manage one decent lie. I’m going to lose my job, Reed.”

Her face is twisted with a fear so desperate it cracks my heart. As if her career is the only thing she has in life worth holding on to. Fucking unacceptable.

I close the distance and wrap her into a hug. “You’re not losing your job, Rubes. You are brilliant at it. And those fuckers are lucky to have you. You can do this. We can do this. Even if it means we have to...”

“Means what?” Her eyes search my face for the meaning of the stupidest, most right thing I have ever thought.

“Even if we really gotta get married, baby.”

She steps out of my hold. “Reed.”

“Sorry, that was?—”

“No, it was generous and kind, and so you . But I can’t let you do that purely so I get what I want. Besides, it’s a permanent solution for a temporary problem.”

I can’t speak.

Not a single word is able to edge its way out as Ruby wanders back toward the stream. I follow, but I sink to the ground by the nearest tree, leaning back. She pulls off her shoes and tiptoes through the waterline, skirt bunched up in her hands. Her wavy hair dances over her shoulders. She kicks up the water and it sprays my face.

“Hey!” I spring to my feet, tossing my hat off, tugging my boots off one by one. It takes all of three strides before I sweep her off her feet and into my arms. Launching us from the muddy edge, I cannonball into the water. She squeals as we hit the deep stream with a thwack .

And my heart all but stops.

We sink into the blue-grey depth, her dress billowing around her, my shirt making the perfect blue button-lined balloon before the air escapes, and we slow under the surface. Ruby’s hands trace the line of my jaw. Her brown eyes locked on mine, her lips part, bubbles racing to the surface. I stay still as her fingers explore my face here beneath the water, where the world can’t find us.

When she dots a kiss to my cheek and pushes upward, swimming her way up, I stare at the blank watery space where she was until my lungs burn. Water churns above me as she makes for the water’s edge. The fire that lances through my tight lungs is nothing compared to the weight crushing my chest right now.

The homestead comes into view as the tractor bounces along the narrow dirt road. Ruby is on my lap. But this time, her shoulders rise and fall with a depth I’ve not seen from her before. And it may be the blood thundering through my veins right now, or the fact that I’ve been hard since we left the stream, but this cab is alive with electricity.

When I let Red roll into the barn and reduce the throttle to an idle, Ruby’s palm presses over my knuckles. The sensation sends heat through my core. I pull the hat from my head and toss it to the small side seat. Her breath hitches. And I drop my forehead to her back.

“You would do that for me?” she whispers.

Ah, the stupid marriage idea. The real version, that is, not the fake one we are currently sporting.

“In a heartbeat, beautiful.”

She stands and turns. I reach for the ignition. But she catches my hand, lacing our fingers. “Leave it on.”

When I meet her gaze, it’s pure fire. Her breaths are so ragged, her face is flushed, her hair disheveling as she runs a hand through it.

“Rubes . . .”

“No one has ever wanted to do things for me, Reed. Not even the smallest thing. And then you came along. You have changed the entire way I think about family. Lou and your brothers helped, too. Even Harry.”

“Ma sure likes havin’ you around.”

She straddles my lap, lifting her dress, as the hat on her head is plucked off and dropped to the floor. “We really don’t have to talk about your ma right now.”

“No, we don’t. But, Ruby?—”

Her mouth is on mine and her hands crawl through my hair. The raging fire in my core that has been steady for the last half an hour flares to life, sending me impossibly harder.

Ruby moans but pulls back. “So we are clear, I am not marrying you, Reed Rawlins. I would never do that to you, you deserve so much better than some arrangement of convenience.”

“Sure thing, baby,” I rasp.

The sucker punch that my gut took with her words rolls away, and I tuck the disappointment and grief away somewhere small and inaccessible, forcing my mind to focus on her movements.

The rational part of my mind knows she is talking about a fake marriage for her job’s sake. But the part of me that adores her with every inch of my soul may never recover.

“God, I am so wet. How do you do that to me?” she utters, leaning her head back with a grind of her hips. My hands snap to her waist, tight.

“Goddamn, baby. Don’t do that.”

She circles her hips despite my hold. “What? This?”

I growl at her, and she giggles. But I nip at her dress, over her nipple that is now a hard peak. I would rip that pretty thing off her body and eat her alive if she gave me half a chance.

“Please, Reed.” She stops moving, hands cupping my face.

I reach under her dress, fingers trailing down the inside of her thighs. Kissing me, she parts her lips. I sweep inside, desperate for her, always. But the kiss is brief. When she breaks away, her legs widen as my fingers trace up her soft skin and into her pant—nope, no panties. Sweet Jesus, Ruby Jane.

“So fucking wet, beautiful.”

“You do that to me.” Her hand slides downward, over my stomach, before finding the hard ridge in my Wranglers. The cab windows are completely fogged up, and we can’t see a thing outside. Too bad if Harry’s waitin’ around. I chuckle at the thought.

“What’s funny?”

“Just thinking of Harry having to wait for us.” A cheeky smile pulls up on her lips and she tugs her dress down over her bare breasts. No bra. How the hell did I miss that, too?

“Making Harry wait make you hotter, baby?” I ask.

“A little.”

I swirl my tongue around her nipple before pulling it into my mouth, sucking hard. She arches into me with a whimper. I slide two fingers through her wet heat. Sweet Jesus, she feels so good. What I wouldn’t give to be buried deep in this woman right now.

Ruby Robbins, the only girl I’ve ever wanted with my heart and soul. And the one I can’t fucking have.

That almost wrenches my heart from my chest.

She is doing so much for me and I?—

What if I can’t make this resort ranch thing work?

Hell . . .

I move my hands to her hips as the inkling of prickling heat crawls through my veins and my breaths shallow out. I tense up on the seat, my grip on her hips too tight. She gasps.

I try to breathe past the stone in my throat with each burning, shallow breath. My fingers tingle.

No, fuck.

Heartbreak cracks me right in two, stealing the last of the air in my lungs.

I gasp for breath.

“No, no, no, no...” Ruby whispers frantically, hands on my face. Her face blurs, right in front of me. “Reed, breathe.”

The door to the cab swings open, her foot propping it wider. Cool air floods in. Ruby’s thumbs run over my cheeks, palms pressed into my jaw. “You’re okay. You’re okay, please. Breathe, you have to—” Her head hangs. “Please be okay.”

Sobs tumble into my now shallowly rising shoulders as she moves a little, hands gripping my shirt. The sound of her in tears is a slap to the face. I straighten, angry at myself for making her upset. For causing her anything but happiness.

“Ruby,” I rasp. “Baby, I’m alright.” I fight with the tightened muscles in my torso, forcing air into my lungs. She chugs a sob, and the last of my reserve splinters. Tears burning the back of my eyes, I hunt for her face through her hair with both hands, desperate to find her brown eyes.

“Beautiful, look at me, please.” When she finally pushes up, and I snag her gaze, her face is broken. “I’m sorry, Rubes.”

She shakes her head. “No.” Her hands tremble as she wipes away moisture from my cheeks. Shit, I didn’t realize it was there. I swallow hard, and she kisses my lips, tender and loving like the beginning of something else entirely.

“How can I ever leave you here? What kind of friend does that?” she sobs.

“You have to, baby. You have a life to lead.”

She stares at me, flattening the wobble that threatens to steal her composure, before standing and picking up her hat. When she’s safely down the tractor and out of the barn, I scrub my hands down my face.

Life is utter bullshit.

Ruby dances around the kitchen, prepping a tray of food for us to eat by the fire in the backyard. It’s something else, the way she fits here. Her music is loud and fast, white headphones sitting over her head as she munches on a celery stick.

I am so not eatin’ that.

I draw the line at carrots.

I take the plate of meats to cook on the grill out back and pad through the back door. The backyard is small, but intimate. A fire pit sits in the center with four white Adirondack chairs bordering it. Ruby found some old-fashioned lanterns in town and has them lit up and dotted about the garden along with copious amounts of fairy lights. It’s amazing. And so Ruby.

An hour later, the meat hisses on the heat and the smoke billows into the cool night air. Addy and Huddo are coming over. It’s been an age since we saw them. And things have been so busy with the ranch and planning the holiday experience aspects, time got away from us.

The back door snaps open, and I find Ruby leaning on the doorframe, tray in one hand, a glass of wine in the other. She’s dressed up a little now. Tight, dark jeans and a boatneck top that looks like it was made for wearin’ on a fancy yacht in international waters, not middle-of-nowhere Montana. Her face is done up with a touch of makeup. Her hair ironed, I think that’s what they call it. It’s dead straight, anyhow.

“Hungry?” She shoves the food under my nose as chatter comes from inside the house.

“Can I eat you instead?” I ask, looking from the tray up to her.

“Save it ’til we’re gone, Reed,” Huddo quips, striding through the open door, a bottle of whiskey in one hand, rolled up papers in the other.

Fuck.

Ruby strangles a smile, scoffing back a laugh. I snatch the roll from Huddo’s hand. “What you got, bro?”

“Your cabin designs.”

“Oh wow!” Ruby pushes off the door and comes to stand beside me. I put the tongs down and roll the papers out, holding them up. The blueprints for the one-bedroom accommodations are lit up by the fairy lights.

“Geez, Huddo. This is great,” I utter as Ruby takes the plans and moves closer to the firelight.

“Should be straightforward to build. And with the four of us, we can have two or three up in a month.”

“Four?”

“Yeah, Harry’s pitchin’ in.”

Addy walks through the door, her happy smile landing on my puzzled expression. “He told you, then. Hey, Reed.”

“Hey, Adds.” I lean over to give her a tight hug.

“You better be taking care of my girl well, Reedsy,” Adds whispers.

“Who, Mira?” I quip. She slaps my shoulder, glancing at Ruby, who is now standing by Hudson, running a finger over the plans.

When I track Addy’s gaze, she’s looking at my big brother like he’s the last man on earth. What I wouldn’t give to have Ruby stare at me that way. I wrap an arm around her. “He gets more Harry every time I look at him.”

She laughs and pecks my cheek. “You’ll keep. But I’m serious, Reed, about Ruby.”

Now, I let my arm fall and turn to face her. “Me too.”

She smiles before messing up my hair with her hand. Always the little brother to this lot. Guess it could be worse... I could have Ruby’s trash bag family.

“Reed?”

I snap my attention to the pretty brown eyes I know so well, now topped with furrowed brows.

“Yeah?”

“Hudson wants to know what you think.” Ruby beckons me over with a finger. I’m by her side a heartbeat later.

“Do you want them all identical or different? Floor plan wise, that is.”

“Whatever you think is the most cost effective. I want to make more changes, so sticking to the budget is a must.”

“Who the hell invited Harry to this party?” Addy snorts, almost losing the white wine she just sipped.

“Ha, ha. I don’t wanna screw this up, Adds.” I let my eyes slide to Ruby. “...It’s too important.”

“Yeah, well. I’m proud of you, little bro, taking the helm, so to speak. Going against Harry is never easy, but you two seem to have pulled it off, and unscathed, too. You’ll have to tell me your secret,” Huddo says with a half smile.

“You do just fine with Pa, Hudson Rawlins, now sit down and have a drink before this night goes from fun to all business.” Addy ushers him into his seat the same way Ma would to the old man.

Uncanny, really. But it’s sweet, and I’m happy for them. They both deserve something amazing and all-encompassing.

Ruby is still poring over the blueprints as she sips her red wine, sunk into a chair by the fire. And for the first time in my miserable existence, I wish time would slow down. Because her leavin’ when this holiday ranch is a roaring success and her events are all lined up and she can phone it in, that’s gonna leave a gaping hole.

Not even Harry’s approval or Ma’s cooking could fill that.