Herd That ARC

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  My next order of business was the eggs, which I found in a couple dozen pink cartons at the corner of the kitchen, right on the edge of the counter that separated the kitchen from the informal dining area.

  Once I had those where I wanted them, I went back to the coffeepot, pulled it out long enough to fill my cup, and then shoved it back under in hopes that I hadn’t just leaked half the pot into the drip tray underneath.

  Once I had my cup fixed to perfection, I took a cautious sip and pulled down a frying pan that was hanging on the wall.

  I grinned and hefted the weight, loving the way the old cast-iron skillet felt.

  My mother had always cooked on one, but I hadn’t had one since I’d moved out of my parents’ house.

  Well—at least not one that had been seasoned.

  Touching the old iron with the tip of my index finger, I found it sufficiently slick, then placed it on the gas burner.

  Once I had the skillet heating up, I went about getting breakfast fixed.

  It was only after I had enough breakfast sandwiches made to feed an army that I placed them all into an empty cardboard box lined with paper towels and headed out back.

  Ace had said that he was heading to the back section of fence that they hoped would one day border their new land—land that they hoped to purchase soon with the life insurance payout if the insurance company ever stopped dragging their heels.

  Thinking that I’d do better on horseback, I walked cautiously to the barn and found Poppy, the horse from hell, was the only one there.

  Grimacing, I saddled her up, poked her in the belly when she held her breath, and then grinned in satisfaction when I got the saddle sufficiently in place.

  Once I had everything situated, I grabbed the box, said a silent prayer that the ol’ hag wouldn’t buck me off with all the breakfast I’d just spent an hour preparing and went in search of the men.

  I found them about a ten-minute ride from the barn.

  Ace and Banks had their shirts off as they pulled fence. Callum was working the tractor, drilling fence post holes with the auger, and Jensen and Darby were setting the new poles up while Colt poured concrete into the holes beside them.

  That was when I saw the newcomer, Remy, about half an acre away, trying to talk on the phone. He had one finger in his ear as he spoke, and the other hand pressed to his ear with the phone in it.

  Grinning as the tractor started up again, I turned back to find Darby’s eyes on me with a look of pleading filling his baby blues.

  “Please, oh please, tell me you have some breakfast in that box and not a box of puppies,” Darby begged.

  I looked at the box, then back up at him.

  “Was the box of puppies an option, because I always wanted a dog. But my dad said that dogs would eat our chickens and that I couldn’t have one,” I teased.

  Ace looked up at the sound of my voice, and his grin got huge.

  I pulled the horse to a stop next to Ace’s truck, then bent over and handed the box of breakfast sandwiches to Banks, who held his hands up.

  “Thank you,” I said as I started to dismount.

  Before my feet could fully touch the ground, Ace’s sweaty body was there, pressing against my backside.

  I grinned at him over my shoulder, then turned in his arms the moment my feet touched the ground, and pressed a kiss to his sweaty cheek.

  “Ew.” I rubbed my mouth on the sleeve of my shirt—of Ace’s shirt—that I’d worn to bed last night.

  I had slipped leggings on underneath the shirt so it wasn’t totally indecent.

  I hadn’t, however, slipped on a bra.

  So I was quite bare when he pressed up against me and ran his fingers up my arm teasingly, saying, “I’m not sure if I want to throw my jacket on you, or commend you for allowing me to see those tits bouncing as you rode up.”

  I scrunched up my nose as I said, “You didn’t see me coming.”

  “Yes, I did,” he countered. “I saw you the moment you topped the hill there.”

  He pointed at said hill, and I turned back to him with a grin. “So you watched me like a perv?”

  He shrugged, uncaring. “I watched my soon-to-be wife…”

  “Soon-to-be wife?” Callum barked. “What?”

  I covered my mouth with my hand.

  “Well, shit,” Ace grumbled. “Y’all forget I said anything. I was going to talk to Codie’s parents first. That’s why we’ve been scarce the last few days.”

  “I was thinking it was because you couldn’t get enough of her,” Banks teased.

  “That, too,” Ace agreed.

  ***

  Later that night, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that our little ‘secret’ was no longer a secret.

  That was partly due to my best friend’s large and in charge mouth.

  I’m not really sure how she knew. I hadn’t said a word. I wasn’t wearing the ring.

  And my parents were set to be picked up at the airport in less than forty-eight hours.

  After I’d called them to tell them a little about Ace, my mother had insisted that she meet my man. An hour later, I’d gotten notice that they would be arriving shortly and that I was to pick them up at the airport, or else.

  Honestly, I was being smart.

  But my best friend just had those smarts about her, I guessed.

  “You’re getting married?”

  Desi’s overly excited voice practically skittered across the gym we were standing in as everyone that was within the large space turned to see who was ‘getting married.’

  I flushed. “Desi, shit!”

  A cheer went up, and all of a sudden, the entire gym was surrounding us.

  Ace was getting back slaps from his friends.

  I was getting squeals and congrats from the women.

  And my best friend was practically hopping in place as she clapped her hands excitedly.

  “When are your parents coming into town? I can’t wait to see their faces!”

  ***

  Two days later, Ace and I were waiting at the airport for my parents’ plane to disembark.

  “Are you nervous?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “No. I just hope that they haven’t heard every gory detail about us. My grandfather said he wouldn’t tell them, but he’s still mad at me over losing to Scooby last weekend. He’s still not talking to me.”

  Ace’s face shone with humor as he said, “He talked to me. He told me just this morning that if I didn’t treat you right, he would feed me into his woodchipper.”

  My mouth fell open.

  “He did not!” I cried out.

  Ace looped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer, his eyes on the departure gates.

  “He did,” he confirmed. “He also told me he would fertilize his hay field with my remains if I made you cry.”

  I couldn’t help it.

  I nearly burst into tears right there in the airport.

  My hand covered my face, and tears started to burn my eyes.

  Which was right around the time that my dad popped out of nowhere like a ninja and slammed his cane into Ace’s shin.

  “You, let her go!” my father ordered, wielding his cane like the weapon that it was.

  At one point in time, my father had been pretty gung-ho about knife arts. He’d wanted to compete in competitions with his samurai sword.

  However, then he had me, and I apparently ‘took up too much of his time.’

  Ace let me go and stepped away, luckily not looking the worst for wear.

  “Daddy!” I cried out, jumping in between Ace and him. “What the hell! Don’t hurt my fiancé like that!”

  “Fiancé?” my mother’s voice called out from behind my dad. “What’s this about a fiancé?”

  I would’ve slapped my hand over my mouth had I not been separating my father from Ace.

  That was when my mother appeared from behind my father, not much tal
ler than me, and looking like she’d seen the Holy Grail when she spied Ace over my head.

  “You’re her fiancé?” my mother asked incredulously.

  “Yes,” Ace said simply.

  “Oh, thank God,” she breathed. “I thought she’d get knocked up and have to sell her body to pay for diapers one day. You look like you have your stuff together.”

  Ace’s lips twitched, and this time I did cover my eyes with my hand.

  “Really, Mother?” I asked.

  “Well, you were an awful kid,” my mother muttered.

  Ace’s arm looped around my belly and I was pulled back into his really hard body.

  “Are y’all hungry?” Ace’s voice rumbled from behind me. “We’d love to go out to eat, talk about this. Maybe plan a day for us to do this while you’re here.”

  My mother’s voice this time was awe.

  “You’re getting married this weekend?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Ace said, sounding sure.

  I wasn’t.

  I was blinking rapidly and staring at the back of my hand like it had the answers to all that confused me.

  “We’re not getting married this weekend!” I huffed.

  “We’ll see,” Ace teased.

  Chapter 24

  I have been known to scream profanity.

  -T-shirt

  Ace

  We were married that weekend.

  In fact, we were married on that Friday, in the middle of a pasture, with Scooby leaning against the fence separating our field from his, and chickens pecking at our feet.

  We had a photographer—Desi—taking pictures.

  We had a preacher—the old one that used to guide us every Sunday when we were younger.

  We also had a flower girl—though my niece was very unhappy about that aspect of it.

  But, threatened by her mother with no ice cream for a month, she agreed—barely.

  “Do you, Ace LeRoy Valentine, take Codie Rayann Spears to be your lawfully wedded wife?” the preacher asked.

  I looked down at my wife, who had walked out to me in white, on her father’s arm, and taken my breath away with each step in my direction.

  “I do,” I confirmed, my voice loud and final.

  Codie’s lips twitched.

  “And do you, Codie Rayann Spears, take Ace LeRoy Valentine as your husband?”

  Codie mouthed the word ‘LeRoy’ and scrunched up her nose.

  I supposed in our epic whirlwind courtship, I’d neglected to tell her my middle name.

  My bad.

  “It’s not as cool as Ace, but I think that makes you just a little bit more human,” she whispered, then more loudly, she said, “I do!”

  It was chipper, quick, and squeaky, causing everyone around us to laugh.

  My brothers and sister.

  My friends.

  Her friends.

  Her parents.

  Her work colleagues who, apparently, had fallen in love with her in the few days she’d been there.

  Chickens.

  Bull.

  Okay, well the animals hadn’t laughed.

  But they were still there, so I counted them.

  “The rings?” the preacher asked.

  I turned and held my hand out to Banks, who was my best man.

  He handed me Codie’s ring, a beautiful diamond band that was the perfect fit up against the diamond engagement ring.

  Surprisingly, it wasn’t seeing the band slip over Codie’s finger that caused my heart to race.

  It was watching the ring slip over mine, the one I’d wear for the rest of my life, that made me feel like I was about to explode. Or my heart, anyway.

  “…to love and to hold, from this day forward,” Codie repeated.

  I swallowed hard as something made my eyes sting—and I refused to admit that it was tears.

  Codie’s trembling fingers finally got the ring in place, and the emotion in her eyes as she looked up, her gaze catching mine, made me weak in the knees.

  “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss…”

  I had Codie in my arms seconds later. I didn’t even hear the ‘bride’ as I devoured my wife’s mouth.

  The fact that she was now mine, officially and irrevocably, was life-altering.

  Mine.

  Mine.

  Mine.

  Nobody’s but mine.

  She pulled away with a hiss as she inhaled deeply.

  The smile that overcame her face afterward, though? I would remember it for the rest of my life.

  “You, Ace Valentine, are trouble.” She giggled breathlessly.

  I gathered her into my arms, dropped my forehead to rest on hers, and said, “That’s okay seeing as you are, too.”

  Epilogue

  Part of parenting is using your outside voice to tell your kids to use their inside voice.

  -Codie to Ace

  Codie

  Three years later

  “We have too much land.”

  I never, not in a million years, thought I’d say that, but it’d literally just come out of my mouth.

  “What is the problem, darling?” our housekeeper/cowboy keeper as I liked to call her, Margay, asked.

  I studied the sprawling pastures out of the kitchen window and then looked over at Margay.

  “I was going to visit with Ace, but I don’t know where he’s at,” I admitted.

  “Have you tried his cell?” Margay suggested.

  I nodded with a sigh. “Yes. He’s not answering.”

  “Have you tried Colt’s? Or Jensen’s?” She paused. “I think Remy is in the barn with Banks and Callum.”

  I nodded solemnly. “He is. And I did.”

  She pursed her lips.

  “It’s only an hour until supper time,” she admitted. “Do you think that it can wait?”

  I thought about that for a long second, then shrugged. “Possibly.”

  Maybe.

  “He needs to start carrying the two-way radios with him again,” she muttered.

  I agreed. Wholeheartedly.

  Especially right now seeing as nobody was answering, and I wanted to speak to my husband.

  “He’s probably over there on the new land,” Margay explained.

  The ‘new land’ was the newest of our ‘new land.’

  In the three years that I’d been married to Ace Valentine, we’d gotten thousands and thousands of acres.

  At this point, we had so much that we needed a full-time crew just to patrol the fence lines and make sure that we didn’t have anything wrong. Which, I had a feeling, we would be adding to our crew fairly soon.

  All the men that started on the Valentine ranch a little over three years ago had become a partner in said ranch. The Valentine operation had grown exponentially since they’d won the insurance payout from the life insurance their mother had purchased.

  The first order of business after getting that payout was buying the land on the backside of their property.

  And, a few short months after that, Scooby became the most requested bull in the entire professional bull rider’s association.

  Now, when we weren’t working the ranch, we were traveling from state to state with Scooby tagging along behind us. Though, that was becoming a thing of the past since we’d passed along control of that part of our business when Banks pointed out that he was already going to be at the events anyway, and it made more sense for him to drive the bull than for us to go as well.

  Just last year alone, Scooby made us over five hundred thousand dollars on promotional events only.

  That wasn’t even including his extremely high stud fees we were now collecting each time someone wanted to breed their cow with him.

  After some smart investing on the large payout that the Valentine boys got, paired with Scooby’s royalties, on top of the income that the ranch got, well, let’s just say we wouldn
’t be worrying about money any time soon.

  Though I still worked… which was what I had been doing the entire day.

  Being called out to a murder scene at two a.m. wasn’t my husband’s favorite thing to do in the world, and it definitely wasn’t his favorite thing not to talk to me all day.

  Though Desi was still my bestie, Ace had turned into my lifeline.

  The man who I spoke with about my troubles. The man who was there for me when all I wanted to do was binge eat and watch Netflix all day long in my pajamas. The man who was there for me whether I looked like a homeless woman or a model.

  The man who still stood up for me when the bitches in town decided that I needed to be reminded that I wasn’t always the town’s little princess.

  Though, technically, I’d never been, nor ever would be, the town’s princess.

  Marie just liked to give me shit because her life had turned into something she didn’t recognize.

  “You’re really worried?” Margay asked.

  I shrugged.

  “There’s really only two spots they could be. Why don’t you just ride down there and see?” she suggested.

  I bit my lip.

  I wanted to.

  I really, really wanted to.

  However, Ace would likely kick my ass.

  He didn’t like me riding alone.

  Not even a little bit.

  “On a scale of one to ten, how badly do you think he’ll beat my ass when I show up?” I asked teasingly.

  Margay laughed. “Only one way to find out, honey bee.”

  I looked over at where Ace’s son—my little hellion—was asleep on the recliner. “You can watch him for a little bit while I’m gone?”

  Margay rolled her eyes. “I have a book to finish. It’s as if you are asking me to do myself a favor and curl up to that little lovebug and read my heart out. Of course, it’s no trouble.”

  I grinned. “Okay. I’m going to go.”

  “Maybe you should take some cookies,” Margay suggested, pointing to the counter. “You know how that always sweetens him up.”

  I grinned, loving the way her mind worked.

  “Thanks, friend.” I winked. “I’ll be back.”

  It was when I reached the barn that I looked at Poppy, my baby, and grinned. “You’re not going to get a wild hair and buck me off today, are you?”