When she turned back, she saw me staring.
“He would have died if we didn’t help him. Didn’t you see him?”
“I saw him, but I would’ve drove over him.”
Her mouth fell. “Jonathon Turner, you could have run him over.”
“No, I straddled him.”
“Okay, but what about the next car or the next? The poor thing was terrified.”
I laughed. “How do you know he was terrified?”
“Wouldn’t you be if a giant truck straddled you?”
Trying not to laugh, I said, “I guess I would be.”
We headed back to the truck and I walked over to the passenger side. After opening the door and helping her up, I leaned in. “Do you always pull over and save them?”
She looked at me like I had asked her the stupidest question ever. “Um…yeah. Don’t you?”
I do now.
“I love your kind heart.”
She grinned. “You avoided the question.”
“Well,” I said, reaching for her seat belt and pulling it across her. “I certainly do now. Especially knowing how important it is to you.”
“Thank you. It goes for all animals, you know. If you see them loose or in trouble, you have to stop.”
“I do?”
“Yep. I once chased about six donkeys down the street until we got them back through their owner’s ranch gate. Then there were the goats I made my father round up. The best one was the longhorn who kept trying to attack Tripp.” She laughed as the memory came back. “Yeah, that one was funny as hell.”
I shook my head and chuckled as I shut the door.
Talking to myself as I rounded the truck, I mumbled, “Life with this woman is going to be interesting.”
I pulled onto the road and found myself frantically watching for damn turtles.
For the love of Pete! What does this woman do to me?
“Do you like Christmas?” Waylynn asked out of the blue.
“I love Christmas. Do you?”
She smiled. “It’s always been one of my favorite holidays. Your sister wasn’t kidding about your mom liking to decorate. How many trees does she have total?”
“Hmm, let me think. I know of at least five.”
“Five!”
Laughing, I added, “Maybe six if she puts the one up outside.”
“Holy shit. Why so many trees?”
I shrugged. “Beats me. Hope has one in her room and each year the theme changes. Last year, I think it was fish.”
“Fish?”
“It was a phase she went through.”
Waylynn giggled. “Well, I want to do a themed tree.”
“Oh yeah? What would it be?”
“I’m thinking red and white. That would be fun. Or red and silver. Or silver and blue. Oh! A moose-themed tree!”
Glancing her way, I asked, “A moose-themed tree?”
“I like moose.”
“I’d say, if you want to do a whole damn tree of them.”
“No themed tree for you?”
I thought about it for a few seconds as I turned down ranch road 47 that led to the Frio River Ranch.
“Let me think, if I did a themed Christmas tree, what would it be? Probably hunting.”
“No. Pick something else.”
I glanced at her before looking back at the road. “What’s wrong with a hunting theme?”
She shook her head. “Maybe in the garage.”
“The garage? You’d put a Christmas tree in the garage.”
Facing me, she winked. “If it was a hunting-themed one, yes. Pick something else.”
I chuckled. “Okay. Tools.”
This time she laughed harder. “Oh my gosh, how cute would that be?”
“What if we did tools on one side and dancing stuff on the other?”
Feeling her stare, I looked at her. “What’s wrong?”
Her eyes softened and seemed to shine a little more. “Nothing.”
“You don’t like my idea?”
Her fingers laced in mine. “I love that idea.”
We pulled up to the gate of the ranch and I punched in the code.
“Remind me to give you a remote to open the gate.”
“You planning on me visiting a lot?”
She grinned. “I know you live closer to town, so I’m guessing I’ll be staying with you more than you’ll be staying here.”
“Makes sense. I hope you like classic rock. I fall asleep to music playing each night.”
“Really? You haven’t so far.”
“That’s because you exhaust me with all the sex, and I pass the hell out.”
“I can back off if you want.”
“Fuck, no! I don’t want that. Especially now that I get to have you bareback.”
She squeezed my hand. “I thought that might be your answer.”
We drove down the long driveway and planned out which days I would stay with her and which she would stay with me. We settled on her coming and staying with me for the next few days since so much would be happening at the dance studio, in order to get things ready for the open house.
“Looks like everyone is here, except for Tripp. I don’t see his truck.”
I pulled in next to Mitchell’s truck. “Maybe he’s working late.”
“Pssssh. No, he always comes late because he hates doing this. He used to love it when he was dating Harley. She was always big into decorating.”