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Her lips twitch as she scoots across the bench to sit closer. “I could’ve slept in alittlelater.”

“You were awake.”

She’d rustled the sheets and sighed at half past six, so I did what any man waking up next to a beautiful woman would do. I kissed her neck and slipped a hand between her legs.

She’d laughed. I rolled on top of her, catching her leg with my arm so I could press her knee to her chest. Then I’d slipped inside her, the room quiet save for Mollie’s moans.

I love how she wakes up wet. Always ready.

Always hungry.

“I was,” she admits with a smile and puts a hand on my knee. “But I could’ve easily gone back to sleep.”

“How about a nap later?”

“I’d love that.”

Her eyes catch on mine. My stomach flips at the clear, liquid gleam in them. She’s happy. Incandescently so.

It’s the kind of happiness that fills my chest to bursting. I never thought I could feel this much, risk this much, and not stumble somehow. Not be let down or devastated.

But here we are, Mollie and me, taking a drive over to Rivers Ranch together after a glorious morning of sex and food and sun, contentment filling me from head to toe.

Here I am, indulging in hope and the promise of rest.

“You know, you’ve come so far, Cash,” Mollie says, reading my thoughts. “Remember how I had to beg you to take a day off? Now you’re taking whole weekends off, and you’renapping.”

“You didn’t have to beg me.”

She rolls her eyes, still smiling. “Keep telling yourself that. Maybe I just had to hate you for a little while to light that fire under your ass.”

I laugh. “Lord, did you hate me.”

“Pretty sure the feeling was mutual.”

“You’re too fucking beautiful to hate. Inside and out.”

Her turn to laugh. “Glad you learned your lesson.”

We pull into Rivers Ranch. I don’t have to swerve toavoid any potholes or divots. When Mollie and I signed the papers that officially created Lucky River Ranch, we agreed that our first order of business would be to get all our roads in shape. That way, the crews we’re hiring to help us with overhauling this side of the ranch won’t have any trouble accessing it.

My pulse skips a beat, then another, as we drive across my family’s land. I still have to pinch myself sometimes. It’s happening.

The dreams I’ve had for this place—Mollie and I are making them come true.

I vividly remember driving down this same road after I first met Mollie that day at Goody’s office downtown. The despondence I felt then—it was the lowest of lows. I saw no future for this land or for my family.

Funny how much can change and how quickly.

I park in front of the old hay barn. Mollie wanted to see it after I mentioned it as a possibility for Bellamy Brooks’s future storage facility.

We walk hand in hand to the entrance, the air filled with the smell of recently cut grass. The sun is deliciously warm on my shoulders and back as I open the rickety door for Mollie.

I shamelessly check out her ass as she strolls inside the barn, my dick taking note of just how good she looks in those jeans. Glancing over her shoulder, she catches me ogling her.

She slips a hand in her back pocket and smirks. “You’re an animal.”

“Yep.” I pull the door closed behind me with athunk.“Turned into one after I met you.”