She shook her head, then clenched my hand tight before letting it go.
The truck started forward once again, and I thought about what I’d just told her.
She hadn’t freaked out, nor had she given me false platitudes.
It was what it was, and there wasn’t a single thing in the world that would make it better. Telling me it would ‘be okay’ like so many others had might’ve made me a little brassed off.
But she hadn’t said those words.
She hadn’t said anything, really.
And that was what made me feel kind of happy.
She didn’t want to lie.
Because it would never be okay.
I was never going to be okay.
I still had nightmares about that night.
Would forever have nightmares if it continued as my life had been previously.
“Where are we?” I asked when we rounded the corner to a small clearing where a rather large house sat in the middle of the open field.
“I have a friend,” she said as she got out. “I texted him while we were in the meeting with your ex-lawyer to tell him we were coming over.”
I blinked.
“Okay,” I drawled. “Why?”
She gestured for me to get out, so I did, not thinking to question her at all.
“Because I feel like we can use his help,” she said as a large man came out onto the front porch and crossed his arms over his barrel chest. “That’s Todd Masterson.”
I frowned. “Why does that name sound so familiar?”
“Because he used to be a really great lawyer that practiced in Kilgore, but retired a few years ago after nearly twenty-nine years in practice,” she explained.
Now that she mentioned who he was, I pictured a much younger version of the man standing in front of me. He’d been the one to deal with my mother’s will. I remember being at the office when she’d had to go and sign some papers.
I nodded my head. “You think he might be able to find someone to help me?”
She shrugged. “Something like that.”
With that, she headed up the walkway and left me standing there to watch her go.
When she got to the top of the steps, she threw her arms around the large older man and hugged him like she hadn’t seen him in a long time.
When I got up to the bottom of the steps, it was to hear her say, “This is Ace. My…”
“Man,” I supplied helpfully.
Codie grinned. “My man.” She snickered. “Boyfriend sounds kind of juvenile.”
The man on the front porch grinned, too. “You know, when I first met you, I wouldn’t have expected you to land a Valentine. I would’ve expected you to land a man that wrote you letters from prison.”
Codie’s face scrunched up in affront. “Hey, I resent that!”
“Honey.” He gestured for us to follow him. “You had a chip on your shoulder the size of which I’d never seen before. You reminded me of those little anime girls that always have a vendetta against the world. Like they’re tiny little terrors that wreak havoc amongst the general population.”
“You watch anime, Todd?” she teased.
Todd shrugged. “There’s only so much a retired man can do. And since my wife started to work with her son when we retired, helping him with paperwork and whatever else he needs help with, I’ve been left alone to fend for myself.” He gestured for us to stop at the door and then proceeded to take his shoes off. “If I don’t do this, and make my guests do this, I get my ass handed to me.”
Chapter 16
A book a day keeps reality away.
-Coffee Cup
Codie
So, that was what we both did.
Ace with his size fourteen boots that were covered in Lord knew what, and my tiny little Converse sneakers that had Wonder Woman on them, side by side, making me smile.
“You look like you have children’s shoes,” he teased as he looked at where my gaze was aimed.
I bit my lip, wondering if I should tell him that they were children’s shoes.
But his eyes took in my expression and he started to laugh.
“I always wondered if you could fit into kid clothes, but I didn’t want to be an asshole and ask,” he joked. “Now I know.”
I shrugged. “I can fit into youth extra-large, too. I’ve gotten more than my share of clothes at Justice. In fact, I got a sparkly mermaid skirt there a couple of days ago off of their semi-annual online sale.”
“I don’t know what that is,” he said. “But I can’t wait to see the skirt.”
“It’s a pre-teen clothing store,” Todd said as he made his way to the kitchen where a large bar separated the living room from the kitchen. When we arrived, there were tons and tons of papers spread over the large countertop. “Welcome to my office.”
Ace’s eyes went everywhere as he took in the papers strewn about, then the large kitchen that was nearly overwhelming with the country feel.
“My wife likes chickens,” Todd drawled, sounding exhausted all of a sudden. “Swear to God. I had to limit her to the kitchen, and she turned it into this.”
Ace’s lips twitched. “I just purchased about fifty chickens myself, but I’m not sure that I’m going to display their eggs like this.”
There were about five dozen eggs on the counters, displayed in various contraptions that were meant to show them off.
The coolest one looked like a spiral and stood about a foot high. Eggs of all shapes and colors were rounding the contraption.
It really was cool.
Then something he said struck me as awesome. “You bought chickens?”
Ace’s head turned toward me.
“Yes,” he said. “Forty of them already laying, and ten that are what they call juveniles because they’re not laying yet.”
My eyes lit with excitement. “I’ve always loved having chickens.”
“I’ll pay you in eggs if you come take care of them.” He paused. “Darby made me get them because a lady he knows needed to get rid of them all. She was moving. Her husband’s in the military. They can’t take them with them because they’re now stationed in Germany for two years.”
I nearly jumped up and down with excitement. “I’ll do it!”
I absolutely loved chickens!
Almost as much as I loved longhorns.
And now Ace had both?
I was fairly sure I was going to marry the man based on those two facts alone.
Not that he needed to know that fact just yet.
I wanted him to fall good and in love with me, that way when he realized that I had more baggage than he was probably comfortable dealing with, he’d be stuck with me.
“You can take about ten dozen home with you today,” Todd suggested, gesturing toward a counter that was filled to the brim with dozens and dozens of egg cartons.
I would. I so would.
Speaking of.
“I put you down as a reference for the police department,” I said without thought. “I hope that was all right.”
Todd rolled his eyes. “I told you when you asked the first time a couple of weeks ago that it was all right. It’s all right today, too.”
My lips twitched.
“I got the job, by the way,” I said. “I’ll be starting Monday.”
Todd extended a fist toward me, which I bumped with mine.
He winked and then gestured at the papers in the middle of the room.
“Now, let’s get down to business.”
***
An hour later, we were once again driving down the bumpy driveway, only Ace was driving this time.
“Thank you for that,” he said softly. “I was at a loss for what I was going to do.”
I grinned. “I know. Which is why I texted him while we were still at that meeting. But, just sayin’, Todd will wipe the floor with that other lawyer. It’s going to be epic.”
“How
do you know Todd?” he asked, holding out his hand for me to take.
I did, and he shifted our joined hands to the middle console to rest.
I sighed and leaned forward and sideways, repositioning myself in the seat so that my knee was tucked up under my left one and I was sitting sideways in the seat.
“I already told you I was a bad kid,” I explained.
He looked at me quickly before returning his attention to the road. “Yeah, but you didn’t tell me you were in enough trouble to require a lawyer.”
I snorted. “I wasn’t… per se. But my parents, after what Jace did, wanted to have a backup plan in case the assistant chief decided to press charges. Thankfully he didn’t. And my parents knew Todd before all my acting out went down.”
“Why?” he asked. “It didn’t seem like he knew them all that well. Only you.”
I grinned then. “I held a job at Todd’s firm. I was the go-to girl that did all the shredding, filing, and answering of the phone calls for about four hours a day. My mom was the one who found the job for me. Though, this was after I was labeled as a bad girl.”
He tossed me a quick smile then pulled a left onto the main road of Kilgore. “So… want to work out?”
I grimaced. “Not really, but Desi really is counting on me to do this race with her, so I better give it at least a little bit of a shot.”
“A little bit of a shot.” He snorted. “I like it.”
The rest of the drive went on in silence.
Not an uncomfortable silence, but a relaxing one. And he held my hand the entire way.
Chapter 17
You have to take the bull by the horns. Or the cowboy by the belt buckle. Whatever.
-Text from Desi to Codie
Codie
“You think I should what?” I asked in confusion.
“I think you should enter him in the rodeo this weekend,” Ace repeated.
I blinked. Then blinked some more.
“He’s ready?” she asked. “I thought you said last week that he still had some growing to do… and isn’t my grandfather’s bull in this one?”
Scooby was big… but he wasn’t that big.
“He’s scrappy,” Ace explained. “And yes, from what I understand, your grandfather did enter his bull. But, there can be multiple bulls entered. And you’re not there to win the cash prize or anything. You’re there to show Scooby off. I have a feeling you’ll be surprised by his performance… as will everyone else.”
“But Shaggy will be the star of the show,” I finally settled on.
“He will.” Ace reached for my hand and pulled me into the couch with him. “But I really think you should do it. I wouldn’t tell you this if I didn’t think that you could get some benefits out of it.”
I bit my lip and thought about how I wanted to spend the rest of my weekend.
And it definitely wasn’t at the rodeo.
However, Ace had explained that it was a good opportunity… and that he wanted to go watch Banks barrel race and calf rope. Me, being a supportive… what was I? Girlfriend? Booty call? Hook-up?
Whatever I was… I was a supportive person, and I wanted to go with him
But that was likely because I wanted to spend time with him, and if that required me going to a rodeo and smelling horse shit for hours sitting on cold stadium bleachers… then so be it.
“Okay,” I finally said. “But only if you pull the trailer with him in it.”
Ace started to laugh. “That’s a deal.”
Grinning, I turned so that I was tucked closer into his body, then looked over at the man who was sitting silently in the chair next to the couch.
His eyes were on the screen, but I had no doubt in my mind that he was very aware of the two of us on the couch.
He was also staring really hard at the screen as if he wanted to interject himself in the conversation but didn’t want to seem nosey.
“Spit it out,” I ordered him.
Callum grinned, then turned his head to look at me.
“I’m just happy to see my brother smiling is all,” he said. “And I’m also happy that you’re moving out of that old goat’s house. Though, I wish I would’ve known it was being offered. I offered it to Desi, too, but she said you were already going to live there.”
I frowned. “She wants to live there?”
Callum shrugged. “She’s having trouble with her ex. He’s pissed off that she’s taking money from his father. She just wants to sell the house that they bought together, and can’t because they have too much money into it. She’d lose her ass. Anyway, she’s looking for a place to live that’s cheap.”
I frowned. Why was I just now hearing this?
“When did you hear this?” I asked quickly.
“Today at the gym. When y’all were supposed to be there.” He pointed out.
I flushed.
“We went and worked out!” I said defensively. “And she should’ve called. Why didn’t she call?”
When I made to stand up and leap off the couch, Ace’s hand tightened around my waist.
“You do realize that it’s almost three in the morning, right?” he asked.
I pursed my lips.
Yeah, I probably shouldn’t wake her up. She’d hate me.
Desi was a woman who hated being woken up, whether it was a nap or sleep.
I closed my eyes and decided that first thing in the morning, I’d be contacting her.
“Shit,” I finally muttered. “And why is the house a bone of contention? I thought it was settled. She would get the house, and he would get the RV with the truck that pulls it.”
“That was originally the plan, from what I’m told,” Callum agreed. “But then the ex changed his mind.”
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.
“So to settle whatever it was they needed settling, they’re selling the house and the truck and the RV and then dividing out the cash from that,” he said.
My brows went up in surprise.
“Desi’s willing to sell her house?” I shook my head. “That’s surprising after all the bullshit he put her through.”
Callum’s brows lowered. “I highly dislike him.”
I nodded my head in agreement, instead of getting off of Ace, I leaned over him to reach my phone that was on the table next to the couch arm. When I had it in my hand, I went to lean back and instead was pulled farther into his lap.
Liking my new position, I snuggled more comfortably into Ace’s lap, pushed his ball cap off his forehead a little bit, then gave him a sound kiss on the cheek right under his eye before opening my phone.
Ace repositioned the hat on his head, then thought better of it and took it off completely.
My lips twitched when I saw the crease in his hair. The waves that were normally present were indented and even more messy than normal. It was adorably cute.
I had to practically force myself to look away and check my email, then got frustrated when not even that showed any new emails from Desi.
Sometimes when she had a lot of stuff to say she’d send it in an email. The email could be about a new recipe she wanted to try all the way to a dream she had that she wanted to remember in case she ever wanted to ‘write her memoirs’ one day.
I threw the phone down in disgust when all I had were upcoming bills due.
“Ugh,” I muttered, practically dropping my head onto Ace’s chest and sighing dramatically. “Balls.”
Ace wrapped his arms around my upraised knees, then held me like one would a child as he continued to watch the show that we were enraptured in earlier.
“I think I need to go to bed,” I finally admitted. “If we don’t, I’m going to hate myself Monday morning.”
Ace grunted something that sounded like ‘in a minute’ so I chose to allow him to continue holding me.
And before I knew it, I was sound asleep in Ace’s arms.
Chapter 18
&
nbsp; How do I block you in real life?
-Ace to Callum
Ace
The fact that she spoke in her sleep was absolutely adorable.
After ensuring that my brother had the shutting down of the house handled and that he’d texted Darby to make sure that he was alive and still able to bother the shit out of us tomorrow, I took my girl to bed.
I was honestly giddy as fuck to take her to my bed.
I had a house full of men, and I knew that every single one of them would know exactly what we were getting up to at some point tonight, but I didn’t fucking care.
What I did care about was the fact that Codie felt like she was made to be in my arms.
Also, the fact that I still had to get up in three or so hours to go feed the horses and get my day started.
But I couldn’t find it in me to care, really.
I was happy that she’d stayed up to watch that TV series marathon with me. I was also more than happy that, despite my day being a shit one, she’d somehow made it better.
Walking down the long hallway, I passed Banks who was on the way to the bathroom and grunted out a ‘you need to wear some pants around here’ to him as I passed.
He flipped me off, and I continued walking, knowing that each word I said to him would go in one ear and out the other.
Banks had always been the one that refused to wear appropriate clothing while in the house.
Honestly, I was lucky that the motherfucker had underwear on at this point.
Getting to my bedroom, I kicked the door shut with my foot and headed straight for the bed.
When I was close enough, I reached down and pushed the covers down, grateful that I’d remembered to turn my heating blanket on when I’d come in for a shower earlier.
The fact that I got to put Codie into a warm bed instead of a freezing ass cold one really made me think I was taking care of her.
Even more, I liked the fact that she looked like she was made to sleep in my bed next to me.
Reaching for her shoes, I took them off one by one, grinning and shaking my head when I saw how worn down they were.
She’d told me earlier when we’d stopped by her house that her ‘Ugg knockoffs’ were her favorite pair of shoes, mainly because they were so comfy and warm.
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