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“We’ll have to try it next time.”
My lips lifted with a smile. “There will be a next time?”
“If I have a say in it, there will be a next time, and a next time, and a next time.” He nuzzled his chin into my collarbone, tickling me and making me giggle.
I hugged his head to stall him and kissed his crown. “Good. I want that too.”
He spread his arms so I could rest on his shoulder, and I curled into the nook, pulling the sheets over my chest. I loved the warmth of his naked body against mine under a cocoon of sheets and blankets. With his arm behind his head, I could see the tattoo on his bicep more clearly. It looked like a windmill, but just the blades... I traced my fingers over the spokes.
He watched my hand, then looked back at the ceiling. “My siblings and I got them together, after Gage’s falling-out with my parents.”
I watched him, taking in his beautiful eyes. “What was their fight about?”
“Gage wanted to take over the ranch and help Dad grow it so it could be big enough to support our entire family.”
“And your dad didn’t want that?”
He shook his head. “Dad thought Gage’s idea was a pipe dream, something that would drain all our money and break their hearts in the process. And Gage told Dad that he was just scared and using money as an excuse. So, of course, Dad punched back, with his words. Said Gage was greedy and needed to stop talking about land grabbing from other families like us.”
My heart already ached for Gage, for the rift all of it must have caused their family.
“Rhett was only twenty, too young to have much of a say, and my sister told Gage to stop arguing. I was already set on getting a job, and nothing I said could convince Dad to change his mind or take it back. So Gage was going to leave, join the military and never come back.”
“Wow,” I said. “It must have been awful.”
“It was. Mostly because it was the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. He would have gotten sent abroad, and so many people were dying. I was selfish—didn’t want him to be one of them.”
I nodded. “I would have done the same thing if one of my brothers had wanted to enlist.”
Tyler took a deep breath. “So I told him to prove Dad wrong. To build a business from nothing and buy a ranch twice the size of Dad’s out of sheer spite.” He laughed. “Now he’s a billionaire with the biggest real estate investment company in Texas.”
“Has he bought the ranch?”
Tyler shook his head. “It was never about the ranch. It was about keeping our family together, rescuing them. And now that the family’s all split up, well...”
I trailed the path of his tattoo with my fingertip. “Not really much of a point anymore.”
He tapped my nose, making me smile. “But the four of us siblings all got tattoos. My sister’s idea. She was only twenty-two, but I think she could sense all of us drifting apart.”
“Why windmills though?”
“Because they always move but never leave.” He kissed my temple. “You can count on them, day in, day out, to give you water, life. And you can never miss them. Even in a big pasture, it’s like a country lighthouse telling you to come back home.”
“That’s beautiful,” I said.
“It is, isn’t it?” The slight smile on his lips touched his eyes. “Willa Cather always said anyone could love the ocean or the mountains. It takes a special person to see the beauty in the plains.”
“I hope I can see it someday,” I said.
“You will,” he promised, shifting to get up. “I’m going to use the bathroom. Be right back.” He kissed my forehead and got off my bed, walking that beautiful naked body to the door.
As soon as it shut behind him, I rolled and put my face in the pillow, squealing. I’d just had my first time, and it had beenamazing.
After allowing myself a few moments of celebration, I rearranged myself on the bed, fixing my hair and pulling the sheets and blankets neatly up over my breasts like the women always did in the movies, waiting for him to come back.
As he walked back through the door, I smiled at him, until I noticed the frown on his lips, the crease between his eyebrows. And then I saw my phone in his hands.
“Henrietta, what the hell is this?” He held up my phone, showing a text I couldn’t make out. But I could certainly imagine what was on the screen.