Carter (Remington Ranch Book 3)

by SJ McCoy

~ ~ ~

  Once they’d gone, Summer snuggled into Carter on the sofa. He wrapped his big arm around her and smiled down at her.

  “I really enjoyed this evening,” she said. “Did you?”

  He nodded. “I did. Thank you. You know how much I love spending time with my brothers. Tonight was great to me. I’m looking forward to doing it again next week, too.”

  Summer smiled. So was she. “I think we should make it a thing, you know, a tradition. We can all take turns to host and get together every week. I’d love that.”

  “Do you think you’ll stay long enough for it to become a tradition?”

  She nodded. “I do. I’d love to think that we’ll be doing it for years and years, and down the line, there will be children, too, playing outside while we make dinner.”

  Carter’s eyes widened at that. Oops! She’d never thought to ask him if he wanted kids. She’d just assumed he would. He was so big on family, and he would make an amazing dad. “You don’t like that idea?” she asked.

  He tightened his arm around her shoulders and drew her closer. “I love that idea.” He held her gaze. “Especially if you mean our kids? I mean, yes, nephews and nieces will be awesome, but our kids? You and me? Is that what you meant?”

  She nodded. “I did. I know it’s too soon to talk about that, but I just pictured it and had to say it.”

  His eyes shone happily. “I would love that, Summer. More than you know.”

  She rested her head against his chest and they sat there in silence for a few minutes. Both lost in their own thoughts.

  “If I bought this place, would you move down here with me?” she asked. She’d been wondering about how it all would work and now that they’d talked about kids, she felt a little more confident to ask about where they might live—it didn’t occur to her that she might need to ask if he wanted to live with her—just where.

  He nodded. “I could hardly ask you to move into my place, could I?”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s not exactly up to your standard, is it?”

  She sat up. “I love your place!”

  He chuckled. “You love it while it’s mine and it’s just a simple guy place. I don’t think you’d love it if you had to live there.”

  He was right, even if she didn’t want to admit it. “I like it down here in the valley. You’re all the way up in town. I thought you might like to be back down here, closer to your family again.”

  He smiled at her. “I just want to be close to you, wherever you are.”

  She smiled back. “Well, where I am right now is on the sofa. Next to you.”

  He lay back and pulled her with him. “And I want to be close to you.”

  She looped her arms up around his neck and pressed her body against his. “Like this?”

  His eyes shone as he shook his head. “Closer.”

  She unbuttoned his shirt and ran her hands over his hard chest. “Like this?”

  He was unfastening her jeans, pushing them down over her hips. “Closer still.”

  When their clothes lay in a pile on the floor, she rubbed her hips against his. “This close?”

  He nibbled her bottom lip and his hands closed around her breasts making her moan. “Almost.” He muttered as he claimed her mouth. She loved the way he kissed her, deep and slow. He explored her with his tongue and while he did he turned her on her back. She clung to him as he spread her legs and positioned himself above her.

  He thrust his hips and entered her. “This close,” he said.

  She smiled and moved her hips in time with his.

  He set up a pounding rhythm and she wrapped her legs around him to hold on for dear life. He was so gentle, most of the time. It always took her by surprise when his lovemaking was wild as it was tonight. He took a handful of her hair and pulled her head back so she was looking up into his eyes. She dug her fingernails into his shoulders and spurred him on. He was carrying her away and there was nothing she could do. There was nothing she wanted to do except go with him. He gasped out a ragged breath and she felt him tense in the moment before he found his release. She writhed under him as her own orgasm took her and the pleasure crashed through her.

  When they lay still he lifted his head to smile down at her. “I love you, Summer.”

  She clung to him. “And I love you.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Summer went to peer out of the window when she heard a car coming up the driveway. Carter was working up in town, so she doubted he’d be back here midmorning. She didn’t know who else might be coming by. She wasn’t used to having visitors, so she was a little apprehensive. She was relieved to see Cassidy’s new blue Tahoe pulling up outside.

  She went to open the front door.

  “Hey, chica,” called Cassidy as she got out.

  “Hi, how are you?” Summer’s voice cracked as she spoke. It took her by surprise, she’d been doing so well.

  Cassidy ran up the front steps to join her. “I’m better than you, by the sounds of it. How long have you been like that?”

  “I haven’t,” croaked Summer. “I was fine until I saw you.”

  Cassidy laughed. “Great. Are you saying I’m bad for you? I hope not. I’ve given myself the day off and came to see if you want to go riding with me?”

  That took Summer by surprise. She’d have expected Cassidy to want to go shopping in Bozeman rather than riding. She liked the idea, though. “I’d love to.”

  “Good. I’ve been practicing riding on Lady. I started out on Cookie, because he’s such a sweetheart, but Lady is more my style.”

  Summer had to smile. After she’d learned the stories of all the brothers’ horses, she’d wondered about Lady. Carter had told her that Lady was a good horse, but she needed a strong rider since she had a mind of her own and liked to dominate. She should be Cassidy’s horse! “Do you think we’re ready to go out by ourselves?”

  “If we take Cookie and Lola. Shane won’t let me take Lady by myself yet.” She grinned. “Normally I wouldn’t take orders from him, as you well know, but in this case I’ll make an exception. Lady’s a little strong willed to say the least.”

  Summer had to laugh. “She’s your perfect match.”

  Cassidy rolled her eyes. “That’s what he said.”

  “He’s right. Come on in while I get ready. It won’t take me long.”

  A few minutes later she came back into the living room where Cassidy was stroking Hero and looking at the kittens. “They’re still so tiny,” she said.

  “They are. Aren’t they adorable?”

  “What’s adorable,” said Cassidy, “is that man of yours. I just love that he took in a stray cat and helped deliver her babies. He looks like a big, mean, tough guy on the outside and on the inside he’s just a big old softie.”

  Summer smiled. “He is, Cass. He’s amazing.”

  Cassidy grinned. “Look at you! All gooey eyed. I’m so glad you and Autumn figured things out so that you can stay. Have you heard anything from her? How’s she’s getting on with setting up the tour?”

  “I haven’t spoken to her in a while. I need to call her.” Summer was a little concerned. She didn’t like not hearing from her sister. She was hoping everything was working out okay.

  “Say hi from me when you do. Are you ready? Let’s get going.”

  They stopped halfway down the steps. Another vehicle was coming up the driveway. “This is unbelievable,” said Summer. “No one ever comes out here and now I have two visitors in one morning.”

  “Isn’t that Beau’s truck?” asked Cassidy.

  “Oh.” It was. Summer hoped he wasn’t bringing James and Carly to have a look around. She’d assumed he’d call to set it up before he did that. It seemed like he was though, he wasn’t alone in the truck.

  Cassidy raised an eyebrow at her. “Did he not tell you he was coming?”

  Summer shook her head.

  Cassidy scowled. “That’s just rude! Tell him he’ll have to come back another t
ime.”

  Summer knew that her friend would do just that. She couldn’t bring herself to though. “I’d rather get it over with. You go on without me if you want.”

  “No way. I want to ride with you. I’ll wait. But I tell you now, I’m not going to let them linger too long. Beau should have called first.”

  “I know, I know.” Summer put a smile on her face as the truck came to a stop. Beau, Carly and James got out.

  Then Summer heard a squeal. “Summer Breese!” Ruby shot out of the truck and came running toward her. She had to smile to herself. This should prove interesting, with Cassidy wanting her to hurry up and leave and Ruby no doubt wanting to stay. That could be a battle of wills to witness.

  “Is your voice better yet? Can you sing me a song?” asked Ruby as she wrapped her arms around Summer’s legs and smiled up at her.

  Summer shook her head. “No, I can’t sing for you, Ruby.” Her voice still sounded raspy.

  Beau looked concerned. “Are you okay? I hope you don’t mind us just stopping by. We were on our way up the valley and I thought we’d stop on the off chance.”

  Carly gave her an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. We can come another time.”

  “It’s okay,” Summer said. “Beau did ask if you could come and take a look around. You may as well while you’re here.”

  “We can’t stay too long, though,” Cassidy gave Beau a stern look. “We were just on our way out.”

  Summer smiled to herself. Cassidy wasn’t going to just let it slide.

  Beau wasn’t going to let her get to him either. “We won’t be long at all, thanks.”

  “Come on in then,” said Summer.

  Ruby let go of her legs and took hold of her hand as she walked up the steps.

  Summer’s phone rang as she opened the front door. It was Autumn. “I need to take this,” she said to Beau. “Go right on in. It’s not as if you don’t know the place, is it?” She smiled at Cassidy who followed Beau and the others inside with a grim look on her face. Summer knew she wouldn’t let them linger too long.

  She walked back out onto the deck before she swiped to take the call.

  “Hey, is everything okay?” She realized she’d answered in the same way Carter always did.

  “I don’t know. I’m hoping it will be, but I wanted to give you a heads up.”

  “About what?” Autumn sounded worried.

  “That things aren’t going as smoothly here as we’d assumed they would.”

  “Why what’s going on?” Summer was worried now, too. She hoped things weren’t going bad for her sister already.

  “Ashley said there’s no way McAdam Records would release you.”

  “Oh.” Summer had only been worried about her sister. She hadn’t even considered that this might be about her. “Why on earth would she say that? It’s not what Clay said. And besides, it’s not even something we need to think about for another couple of months yet.”

  Autumn sighed. “I know, but I was in her planning meeting for the next six months. She was talking about how to schedule a big comeback for you and how that would fit into the promotional calendar. I reminded her that we don’t even know if you’re going to be able to come back and she got really nasty. She doesn’t believe you won’t come back. I don’t know what she’s set up, but she seems to have a lot riding on you. She said even if you can’t sing, you owe the company promo time and there’s no way she won’t get her money’s worth from you.”

  Summer’s heart sank. “Oh.”

  “I know. I’m going to do everything I can to change her mind, but I just wanted to warn you that whatever you’ve got going on with your cowboy, it looks like you can’t leave Nashville completely just yet.”

  “I see.”

  “Is that what you were planning?”

  Summer nodded, then remembered that she needed to actually speak. “Yeah.” Her voice cracked again.

  “You sound like crap by the way.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Sorry. I’m just surprised. You were doing so well when I was there.”

  “I was, but it seems to be worse than ever this morning.”

  “Well, I’ll let you go then. I’ll email you and we can talk that way.”

  “Okay. Is everything okay with you, though? With Matt’s tour?”

  Autumn sighed. “Yeah, everything’s great. It’s going to be awesome and I think that might be part of the problem. Matt was telling a couple of the guys what a great job I was doing and apparently Ashley has had a few more requests for me to work on tours and release campaigns. I think she doesn’t like that I’m suddenly in demand and part of her wanting you back here is to make sure I’m kept busy on your stuff and not taking over anyone else’s.”

  Summer frowned. “I don’t get it. Why wouldn’t she want you working with the other artists? Especially if you’re doing such a good job?”

  “Because I’m making her people look bad by comparison. It’s a stupid business decision, but it’s not about business. It’s about her covering her own ass.”

  Summer sighed. There was so much of that in the industry. Good people got screwed over every day when they got in the way of someone else’s ego or power trip. “You should talk to Clay.”

  Autumn sighed. “Ashley thought I might do that, she’s already warned me off.”

  “She’s a bitch!”

  “Of the first order! Listen. You sound terrible and I need to get going. I’ll email you.”

  “Okay, bye.”

  Summer hung up and looked down at Ruby who was tugging at her sleeve.

  “Who’s a bitch?”

  Summer sighed. She didn’t know the kid had been there listening! “What are you doing out here? I thought you were looking around the house.”

  Ruby pouted. “I didn’t come to see the house. I came to see you!”

  Summer forced a smile onto her face. “Thank you, it’s nice to see you, too.” She held out her hand and Ruby took it. “Let’s go back in and see what they’re doing, shall we?”

  Ruby nodded and went with her. When they reached the front door, the others were just coming back out.

  “Thanks,” said Beau. “Told you we didn’t need long.”

  Summer nodded. She was glad they were leaving.

  Carly gave her an apologetic look and held her hand out to Ruby. “Come on.”

  Ruby shook her head. “I want to stay with Summer Breese!”

  “I have to go myself now.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “We have to go out,” said Cassidy with an air of finality. She closed the front door behind them all and started down the steps. “And we’re going to be late.”

  Ruby seemed a little taken aback and let Carly take her hand as they followed Cassidy.

  Summer smiled and climbed into Cassidy’s Tahoe. She was grateful that her friend was taking charge, she smiled at Ruby and waved at the others as Cassidy pulled away.

  “Sorry if you think that was rude. I just wanted to get you out of there.”

  She shook her head. “I’m grateful. Thank you.”

  “What was the phone call? You don’t look like it was good news.”

  Summer shook her head. She hadn’t had time to fully process what her sister had told her yet—or what it might mean. “It was Autumn. Apparently the label isn’t going to let me go. And it sounds as though things are getting difficult for her, too.”

  Cassidy looked across at her before she pulled out on East River Road. “And what does that mean? Will you have to go back to Nashville?”

  Summer shrugged. “I don’t know yet, but I hope not.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Carter sat in the office at the nursery and stared out the window. He was supposed to be taking inventory, but he kept letting his mind drift off. He was daydreaming! About him and Summer. He smiled, thinking about them having kids. About the life they could have together. He was finally allowing himself to believe—to get a bit carried away, if he was honest.r />
  He looked up when he saw someone pulling up in the yard. It was Beau. Carter stood and went out to greet him. He had that couple with him again.

  Beau grinned when he saw him. “Hey, Carter. You’ve met James and Carly, I believe?”

  Carter tipped his hat at them. What did they want now?

  “They’re thinking they’d like to build rather than buy. We’ve been looking at some of the lots out at Cowboy Lake. Carly was curious about what kind of native landscaping possibilities there might be. I told her that’s not my area of expertise, but the valley’s ultimate authority happens to be my little brother.”

  Carly smiled at him. “I’m not even sure what questions I want to ask you yet. We haven’t decided on a lot or anything, but when Beau said you had the nursery here, I just wanted to stop by and have a look around.”

  Carter nodded. “Feel free. And if you’re really interested in native landscaping, then call me before you settle on a lot.” He handed her his card. “If it’s important to you, then you need to understand the possibilities before you buy a place that isn’t going to be able to support your ideas.”

  She smiled. “Thank you.”

  Carter didn’t know what else to say. They may become clients if they did end up buying somewhere, but for some reason they always made him feel uncomfortable. Maybe it was just because he saw them as a threat to Summer’s privacy. He probably wasn’t being fair. They seemed nice enough, but to him they represented the outside world, the fans, the pressure—everything that might take Summer away from him.

  He looked up at a loud knock on the office door. It stood open and Shane peered around it, his hat coming first, followed by his big grin. “Hey guys. What is this, a family reunion?” He stopped when he saw Carly and James.

  “Actually, it’s business,” said Beau.

  Carter thought he could have been nicer about it, but Shane wasn’t fazed anyway. Nothing much ever fazed him.

  “It’s okay,” said James. “Good to see you, Shane.”

  “You, too. Have you decided on a place? Carter here is the man if you need landscaping. He’s awesome. The grounds at the lodge are all his genius.”

  Carly smiled at Carter. “I was hoping so! I love what you’ve done there.”