“They bring out the best in everyone!” She looked down at Taz. “Don’t they bring out the best in everyone?” She stared at the cat for a minute. “You know what? I don’t think you’re a Taz after all. You’re a Bob!”
The kitten looked up at her and let out a loud meow. “I think he agrees with you!” Adam told her. “I’ve never heard of naming a cat Bob before, but it seems to suit him very well.”
“Of course it does. He’s a Bob!”
“A bobcat?” Adam grinned at her as he waited for her to groan. “I feel like we’ve been together forever. You’re already groaning at my jokes!”
“Together? You think we’re together?”
Adam’s face grew serious. “I think I want you to be mine. I’d marry you tomorrow if I thought you’d agree and if the state of Texas would agree with it.”
“I can’t agree to marry someone I don’t know well. I just can’t. And you have to meet my mother before I can even consider marrying you.”
“When will you see her again?”
She waited to answer him while he ordered their food. “I’ll see her this weekend. I’m driving the truck I borrowed back to San Antonio and picking up my car.”
“I’ll go with you.”
She bit her lip. Never in her life had she taken a man home to meet her mother. She just had never met anyone that she was serious enough about to do that. “I don’t know…”
“Introducing me to your mother is not the same as agreeing to marry me. I promise. I just want to meet her and get to know her. She’s important to you, so she’s important to me.”
“I don’t even know how to respond to that. I’ve never known a man could be so sweet. I haven’t taken a man to meet my mother, so it will be strange…”
“Call her and see if it’s okay. I can share the driving with you.”
As soon as he picked up the food and paid for it and she had the smell of tacos in her nostrils, she called her mother. “Mom, I’m going to bring Uncle Simon’s truck back this weekend. Is it okay if I bring a man home to meet you?”
“A man? What’s this man’s name? Are you dating him!”
“Yes, I am. His name is Adam.”
“Isn’t Adam your boss? Tiffani, you can’t date a man at work!”
“There’s no rule against it.” She looked over at Adam, watching him as he drove.
“Bring him, then. I’m praying for you, honey.”
“Thanks, Mom. We’ll see you on Saturday.” Tiffani knew she’d need to call her mother later to clarify.
Adam looked over at her as he pulled into the ranch’s driveway. “She doesn’t want to meet me?”
“She doesn’t think I should date my boss or any man at work. She’s praying for me.”
“Okay. I’ll convince her otherwise.” He was going to marry her, and if she wanted to continue doing the fundraising for the boys’ ranch it would be up to her. He would hire someone else if she preferred, though. He was marrying her either way. The sooner he convinced her of that, the happier they would all be.
Once he’d parked beside her cabin, he got the bag from the backseat and took the Taco Bueno bag in. He’d never met anyone who got as excited about Taco Bueno as she did, but he didn’t tell her that. Many people thought that Taco Bueno was a Texas delicacy.
She opened her door, carrying the kitten. As soon as they were inside, she put the kitten down to let him explore. She set up his food and water bowls before she set up his litter box, and then she washed her hands.
Adam had gotten them each a glass of water, and he’d remembered to get her a separate glass of ice. In that moment, she knew she could love the man. Anyone who would be kind enough to get her a glass of ice was the man she wanted to spend forever with.
She took her tacos and burrito out of the bag. “I haven’t unpacked my plates yet, just my mugs and glasses because I needed coffee so badly. Do you mind eating off the wrapper?”
He shrugged. “I’m a guy. We eat off wrappers all the time. No big deal.”
“I can’t see your mother letting you eat off a wrapper.”
“I did spend many years in college and medical school. She has no idea what I did during that time.”
“Do you ever wish you could live with the boys like your brothers do?”
He nodded. “I always have envied Gideon. He has the power of empathy, but he can shut it off. It would be amazing if I could just use it when I wanted to.” He frowned at her. “And you don’t need to pity me. I’ve come to grips with it, but I do wish I had more freedom.”
“I can understand that.” She reached out and covered his hand with hers. “I think you’re a really incredible person, by the way. I love that you’ve chosen a career that works so well with your gift.”
“I can’t imagine doing anything else. I always knew I wanted to counsel the boys, and I figured I’d just get a degree in psychology and run from there, but I felt prodded to be a psychiatrist. I do love what I do. And I love that if my brother needs help treating people, I can jump in and help.”
“Daniel is the doctor, right?” She was starting to have a hard time keeping the brothers straight. So far, she’d only met Ephraim.
“Yup. He’s a good man too. If you ever get a minor cut go to him, and he’ll fix you immediately. We never take the boys in for stitches, because there’s never a need. He can heal them a whole lot faster than the hospital could.”
“Broken bones too, right?” She knew he’d told her all about Daniel’s powers, but she couldn’t remember specifically what he’d said.
“Yes, broken bones too. He just can’t heal the huge stuff. Diabetes, cancer, cerebral palsy. Little stuff is easy as pie. If someone is lying on the ground bleeding out, he can at least slow down the blood. He’s very good at what he does.”
She finished her taco and crumpled the wrapping tossing it toward the trash. She missed, and it landed on the floor, where little Bob pounced on it. The ball of paper was almost bigger than he was, and she laughed when she watched him play with it. “I think I’m going to love having a pet. I’ll never be lonely again.” She hadn’t meant to tell him she’d been lonely, but it just slipped out.
“I’ll make sure you’re not lonely, Tiffani. You’re never getting away from me.”
“Well, that sounds very stalkerish. You’re not going to stalk me, are you?”
He laughed. “Nope. I’m going to make you the most loved woman alive.” He looked at her, realizing then that he was in love with her already. He’d known her for a week and a half, and all he could think about was marrying her. He knew that’s how it happened in his family, but he really hadn’t ever expected it to happen to him.
She frowned at him. His emotions were so strong, and he was so truthful about them. She was pretty sure she was falling in love with him, but she didn’t feel comfortable saying so. What if he thought that meant she would marry him right away?
“I’m going to start unpacking my kitchen. If you want to help, you’re welcome to.”
He watched her for a moment before nodding. “I’d be happy to help you.” He would just have to be sure not to touch her. Being alone with her this way was really bothering him.
He walked to her living room, carefully avoiding watching her, and he began to unpack boxes. There were a lot of book boxes, so he put books on the shelves. “I’m not sure if you want your books in any certain order, but I’m just going to put them wherever. You can rearrange them later.”
“Sounds good. I usually alphabetize by author and separate into series and order in the series. I won’t ask you to figure all that out for my romances.”
“I appreciate that very much!” He had already emptied two boxes onto the first shelf. “You have a lot of books.” He did too, but they tended to be medical books. Hers were all pleasure reading. He found that intrigued him about her. “You must really love to read.”
She grinned as she found her plates, carefully stacking them on the shelf in her cabinet. She briefl
y considered washing them, but she’d packed them carefully, and she’d put them in the boxes clean. “I do. I’ve been an avid reader since I was a teenager. My mom loved romances, so I started reading them as well.”
“My mom reads them, too. I thought they were like girl porn for years, but Mom says they all have stories that end in happily ever after.” Adam found it a bit odd that a girl who read romance novels wasn’t more receptive to the idea of meeting a man and marrying him a few days later. Maybe she read the wrong romances.
“They are. I don’t read the smutty books, though there are a lot out there. I don’t look down on women who do read them, either. I figure if they take them out of the real world for a little while, then they’re worth reading.” Tiffani put away a stack of bowls. “I hate books that don’t end in happily ever after, which is why I read romance. I read a young adult recently, and it just broke me. The heroine died at the end of the third book, and I cried for days, and then I got angry. I went through every stage of grief.”
He grinned at her. “You get very involved in your books, it sounds like.”
“You don’t?”
He shrugged. “I haven’t really read any fiction since the Harry Potter books. I’m more of a medical journal kind of guy.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I can’t imagine why anyone would read non-fiction when there are so many wonderful stories in this world.”
“Let’s agree to disagree there, shall we?”
She nodded. “I guess we can.”
At that moment, Bobcat came careening around the corner and crashed into her leg, falling back onto his bum. She laughed softly, happy that he was getting used to his new home. She scooped him up and snuggled him under her chin. “You’re a silly kitty, Bob. You really are!”
Adam watched her from across the room, mesmerized by how sweetly she treated the kitten. He could picture her holding his baby. He took a deep breath closing his eyes to remove the vision. She needed time, and he was going to give it to her if it killed him.
At least she was willing to go to the Friday night cookout with him. And she was going to take him home to meet her mom when she’d never taken any other man. He’d have to let that be good enough for now.
“I’m going to head home. I’ll see you in the morning?” He wasn’t tired yet, and he could stay longer, but he felt his feelings for her building again. With the depth of his emotions, if he got even the slightest inkling that she was thinking about his kiss, he was going to go over the edge.
She nodded. “Sounds good. I’ll be right on time!”
“Plan to spend the morning touring the ranch with me again. I’ll feed you as well.”
“More Taco Bueno?”
He chuckled. “You’re a cheap date if Taco Bueno is what you really want.” He started toward her to kiss her goodnight, but he stopped himself. “Goodnight, Tiffani. Dream of me.”
As she watched him leave, she had a smile on her face. How could she do anything but dream of him? He didn’t give her a choice.
She quickly called her mother to explain. “Sorry I couldn’t say more earlier. My boss is making a hard play for me, but his parents know, and they seem to approve. It’s their company, so it just doesn’t feel wrong. Maybe it should, but it doesn’t.”
Her mother still sounded concerned. “I hope you know what you’re getting into. Men can be deceiving.”
“I know that. I’m going to be fine, Mom.”
“All right. I’ll take your word for it.”
Tiffani sighed. “I’ll see you Saturday for lunch. I love you, Mom.”
“Love you too. Take care of yourself.”
As she set the phone down, Tiffani frowned. She hoped her mother wasn’t right. She didn’t want to get hurt.
Chapter Seven
After work on Friday, Tiffani hurried home from the office to get ready for the cookout. Adam was supposed to pick her up at six, which gave her less than an hour to get ready. He’d told her that the meal usually started at six-thirty, but his mother and the boys tended to do all the work for Friday nights.
She changed into jeans and a pink gingham button-up shirt, adding a cowboy hat and her pink cowboy boots. She was just taking a moment to look at herself in the mirror and make sure she looked all right when a knock came at the door.
She scooped the kitten up in her arms, afraid he’d try to get out, before hurrying over to open the door. “Hi, Adam.”
He looked her up and down. “You look beautiful.”
“Is this outfit all right? I don’t want to stick out like a sore thumb.”
“You’ll find that everyone is dressed pretty much like you are. Of course, no one else will wear it quite like you do!” Adam took her hand and pulled her toward him. “Do you have any idea how much I want to kiss you?”
She shook her head, blushing a bit. “No, but you know how much I want you to kiss me.”
He sighed. “Maybe you should be an empath too. It would help you understand my struggles.”
She nodded. “We should just go, shouldn’t we? Do I need my purse?”
“Nope. You just need you.” He took the kitten from her and set him on the floor, taking her hand and pulling her out of her small house. “We’re going to do a lot better if we’re surrounded by people.”
She closed the door and then stopped, looking at him. “But you have a hard time being around a lot of people.”
He shrugged. “I do. I managed to make it through both college and medical school with people surrounding me, though. I’m just happier and less stressed with fewer people.”
“Do you usually go to this?” she asked, curious about the activity.
“I try to go every week, but it’s hard for me. It’s perfect for a first date, though, so I think we should do it.”
She frowned. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable just because I need to be around people.”
“I need to be around people, too. If we’re not around a lot of people, we’ll have a hard time keeping our hands off each other.”
She blushed at his wording, but she knew he was right. His shoulders alone had her drooling, but when she added in his eyes, she really had problems. “Let’s go then.”
He led her to his truck. “It’s done up at the main house, so it’ll be easier to take my truck. You’re going to be eaten up by mosquitos on the way back otherwise.”
She got into the passenger seat of his truck, looking around her. “The ranch is huge. How big is it?”
“Approximately twenty-thousand acres, give or take a few.” He knew the number sounded huge to some, but the King Ranch in South Texas was seven-hundred-fifty-thousand acres. His family’s spread was downright miniscule in comparison.
“That’s so big! How do you run it?”
He grinned. “We have two bunkhouses that each house fifty men. They do the majority of the work. We have the boys split into five work crews, and they’re expected to pull their weight. We don’t have them here for the free labor, but it helps them to learn work ethic and how to be productive members of society.”
“That makes a lot of sense to me. Do you have to pay them for the work they do?”
“We choose to pay them. I’m not sure if we have to, but providing them pocket money helps them to learn to manage money as well. We do a lot of outings, and let the boys get used to having their own money. It’s a good learning experience for them.”
She nodded. “Why only boys? Were there no girls in the original orphanage?”
“There weren’t! So we kept it as a boys’ ranch. With my family always having seven sons, we also think it’s smart to not have girls running around everywhere. The way it’s set up, the boys are perfectly comfortable running around shirtless.”
“Makes a whole lot of sense.” She really couldn’t imagine what it would be like on the ranch if there were girls running around.
He pulled off to the side of the main ranch house, and as she opened the door of the vehicle, she could smell the brisk
et cooking. “That smells so good!”
“My mom makes the best brisket in the whole state.” He took her hand as they walked toward the people. “Have you met a lot of the boys yet?”
She shook her head. “Just Nick.”
“What do you think of Nick?” he asked, his eyes automatically scanning the crowd for the boy.
“I’m not sure. He seemed to almost be disappointed to choose the calico cat because he wanted to thwart me. He just struck me as very unhappy.”
“He is. Most of the boys go through that when they first arrive. They think they are here because they aren’t wanted anywhere else. They don’t understand that for most families, this is a last-ditch effort to turn their kids into productive members of society.”
“That’s really sad. I feel bad for him.”
Adam sighed. “I do too. Sad thing is he really needs to be here. We can help him if he’ll let us.” He spotted the boy standing with his housemates along with Caleb and Benjamin and immediately headed in that direction. “Hey, Nick! How’s it going?”
“I want to go home.” Nick wouldn’t even meet Adam’s eyes as he said it. Adam knew Nick would never go home. Very few boys did once they made it to the ranch. Going home put them back into the same situation they’d been in, with all of the negative things that could happen. No, Nick needed to stay there.
“That’s not possible right now. How’s the kitten?” Adam deliberately changed the subject to positive things, trying to distract the boy from his desires.
“He’s great. I’m calling him Crush.”
“I love that name,” Tiffani told him. “I named my new kitten Bob. He’s a bobcat now.”
“That’s really bad. Old people humor always makes me wonder.” Nick wandered off, but he had a slight smile on his face. He was obviously starting to enjoy himself.
Adam frowned after him. “He’s thinking about killing himself.”
“What? No way!” Tiffani was shocked. The belligerent boy she’d met didn’t seem even a little bit suicidal to her.
“He’s doing his best to mask it. Before he came to us, he spent two weeks in a hospital detoxing. He’s so used to masking his emotions that he’s having a hard time dealing with them all now.”
Adam (Seven Sons Book 1) Page 6