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Luke laughed. “Where did that come from? We’ve been trying to figure out a date. I think it’ll be in the spring. Why?”

Tanner shrugged. “Just wondering. You guys have been engaged for a while now.”

“Yeah, but we’re not in a big hurry.”

Tanner wanted to ask why, but he knew that Luke needed to go. “You’d best be in a hurry to get back and help her with that delivery,” he said with a laugh.

“You’re not kidding. Don’t be a stranger, okay? Let me know what’s going on with you. And if you are around this weekend, you should come over for a beer or something.”

“Thanks. I’ll let you know when I figure it out.”

After he’d gone, Tanner finished up with the filly he’d been working with and made his way back up to the house.

He didn’t normally come back up here during the day, but it felt like nothing was normal around here anymore.

He made himself a sandwich for lunch and went to sit at the kitchen table. He took his phone out to scroll through his messages with Everly.

She was still off work until the end of the week, and she was trying to get things set up so that she’d have someone to watch Ashton when she went back on Monday.

He wanted to call her now, but he was holding out until later in the hope that she might let Ashton talk to him this time.

Instead of calling her, he selected Cash’s number instead.

“What’s up, Tan?”

“Just checking in.”

Cash’s laugh rumbled through the phone. “Just checking in? You expect me to buy that shit?”

Tanner laughed with him. “Okay then, what do you know? And what do you still need to know?”

“I know it all, you should know that by now.”

“Maybe so, but how?”

“I’m just that good. So, what do you want to tell me? Or is there something you want to ask me?”

“Well, if you already know it all, what do you think?”

“I don’t know what to think yet. I know all the details, what I don’t know is how you feel.”

“I think you do.”

Cash chuckled. “I think so, too, but I don’tknowso.”

Tanner swallowed. “Okay, so obviously, I can’t know for sure yet, but from the way I feel right now, she’s it for me.”

“That’s what I thought. So, what are you going to do about it?”

“I’m playing it by ear.”

“And what does that look like?”

“So far, talking on the phone.”

“No plans for you to go down there or her to come back up to the ranch?”

“Not yet. She has to get her life figured out. Her mom was watching Ashton while she worked, but her mom’s gone to Hawaii, and it doesn’t sound like she’ll be back anytime soon, if ever.”