“Yeah,” she said.
He looked vaguely horrified by that.
“We’re getting married. If you’re going to be part of the family... I guess you better be part of the family.”
She took his hand and led him to the front of the house. “Dad,” she said. “Can Wolf stay with us for a couple of days?”
“Of course,” Cain said, his eyes landing on Wolf, his expression far too cool. “We’ll get a guest room ready.”
She was going to argue, but then, if she was honest with herself, there wasn’t a world in which her dad was going to be cool with her and Wolf sharing a bed under his roof. If they were lucky, by the time they were married he would be fine with it. She tried not to think about what she had learned about her dad and bakery tables since yesterday. But if she was just a little bit more brazen, she might mention it, but then, she imagined it wouldn’t matter even if she did. Because she was his daughter, and he would unashamedly have double standards.
“I don’t want to impose,” Wolf said. “I can always stay with my cousins.”
“Nonsense, son,” her dad said, clapping his hand on Wolf’s back. “It’ll be good to get to know you more.”
The words were friendly, but the tone was something else.
And she had a feeling that no matter how accepting her dad was, he was not going to be entirely on board or accepting of the entire thing for a while.
She sat on the edge of the bed in the guest room while Wolf put things away.
“So what brings you here?”
“You,” he said.
She felt like she’d been wrapped in a fuzzy blanket and laid down on a cloud. In other words: she felt really warm and really good.
“Well, I like that.” She lay back on the bed, looking up at him.
He arched a brow. “Don’t start things you can’t finish,” he said. “I’m not about to get killed by your father. And before you say anything, hewouldkill me. He is clearly not actually all that thrilled that I’m here. Or that I exist.”
“Oh, I wasn’t going to argue,” she said. “Because you’re right. My dad would one hundred percent kill you. He’s not actually all that chill.”
Wolf snorted. “I noticed.”
“I’ll show you around the ranch.”
“I’d like that,” he said. “It’s interesting. I like to see the way other people have their spread set up.”
“You’re a ranching geek,” she said.
He laughed. “Is that a thing?”
“If it is, you are one.”
“I like to just think I’m a professional in my field.”
She stood up and he caught her arm, drawing her toward him. “How are you feeling?”
“Good,” she said.
And what she wanted to say was, good now that you’re here.
They walked down the stairs together, and the coast was clear of her family, which she found herself almost relieved by. They walked outside and stopped. And she took a deep breath, really luxuriating in the view. She had missed it.
“So you grew up here,” he said.
“Well, not really. I was seventeen when we moved here.”