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Rolling her eyes, Mieka shook her head, but the smile on her lips was something she couldn’t control. “He did a bang-up job convincing me today, I will admit it.”

“Now he just needs to bang you in other ways.”

“Uh, no. The man is virile, we don’t need to make that mistake twice.”

“Wear a condom.”

Mieka sighed. “Yeah, I suppose …”

Triss snorted and scooted back over to her seat, refastening her belt and putting the truck back into drive. “You didn’t use protection, did you?”

“You saw me at the wedding. I was hilariously, fall-down drunk.” She held up one finger. “But our coitus was one-hundred percent consensual before you ask.”

“I wasn’t going to. Nate is a lot of things, but he’d never take advantage of a woman.”

“He double-checked that with me, too.”

“Because he’s a great guy.”

“Yeah,” Mieka sighed.

“You and Rayma did get pretty plastered after mom and dad went to bed.”

“Rayma was fucking nuts. Dancing on the table, talking about going to see if she could ride a goat. Poor Jordan was having a hell of a time keeping her from breaking her neck. I wasn’t that bad.”

“No, you just went and rode a cowboy instead.”

“Rancher,” Mieka corrected, which caused them both to erupt into giggles.

They were still giggling when Triss pulled into the parking lot of the small shopping complex. There wasn’t much, but there was a little bit of everything. A small tack shop, a small hardware store, a post office, a pharmacy, a bakery and a grocery store.

“Thank you,” Mieka said as they climbed out of Asher’s truck and Triss looped her arm through Mieka’s while they walked toward the door to the bakery. “I hated keeping it from you, but I just … I didn’t want to jeopardize your relationship with Nate in any way and I thought if you knew he knocked me up you might get mad at him.”

Triss smiled serenely and held open the door for Mieka to step in, she was instantly hit with the decadent aroma of yeast and sugar. Her belly made an angry rumble. “Never be afraid to tell me anything, Mieks. I know you. I love you. I know Nate. I love Nate. But I’m also an adult and can see the big picture. I wouldn’t have gotten mad at him. Though, I appreciate the thought behind your omission.”

They approached the glass case that was still teeming with pastries. Mieka wanted one of everything.

“Is it wrong that I just want to fill my face while I’m here so I can finally grow tits and an ass?” she asked as her mouth flooded with saliva.

Mieka chuckled and approached the counter. “We’ll take four of everything, please, Daniel.”

Mieka’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Four?”

“Well, I’m growing a person, and my husband and his brother would kill us if they found out we went to Daniel’s and didn’t bring them back anything. Plus, I can never decide, so it’s easier to just not decide.”

Mieka wrapped her arms around her belly as it grumbled and roared. She and Triss stood back and watched Daniel fill a big white cardboard box with all the different pastries.

Triss leaned over so that only Mieka could hear her. “I can not only see the big picture, little sister, but I can also see into the future, and I see us, and our husbands watching our children play in the field, loving life on the ranch. The fresh air, the wide-open spaces and the freedom.” She bumped Mieka’s shoulder. “Or maybe I’m deliriously hungry from the pregnancy and seeing things. Who knows?” She stepped forward and took the box from Daniel then paid him.

Meanwhile, Mieka suddenly had a very clear view of the image Triss had just painted. A blue bird sky, waist-high grass, children laughing and a husband staring at her adoringly. The only thing that was blurry was her husband and children’s faces.

She did, however, know that all of their eyes were blue.

Blue like the Atlantic Ocean at sunrise.

And there was only one man she knew with eyes like that. Eyes that made her body tingle and her heart clench. And he was waiting back at the ranch for her, determined to convince her that this was the life for her.

Too bad she wasn’t so sure it was.