Page 98 of A Rancher's Love

“Frustrating, I know.” Tucker pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Now, I said something about a reward for new information, and there’s been mention of a rope, and kinky sex. I vote we go inside and see what kind of mischief those three things can combine into.”

“You’re distracting me again,” Ginny said, but she was on her feet and tugging him after her into the house. “Get naked. I’ll get the rope.”

“Nice try.” He caught her by the hand and pulled her flush to his body for a moment. “You get naked.”

She stepped back far enough to take an appreciative glance at him from top to bottom before reaching for her buttons. “How about we both get naked?”

Naked time with Tucker was truly the best way to drown disappointments.

Another good distraction was set up for a few days later as some of her friends gathered in Kelli’s house to help Ginny work on some of her herbal body products.

Because her future direction had begun to come clear. It involved a steep learning curve but also a lot of fun.

Kelli stood at the stove and stirred the pot in front of her slowly as directed, sniffing cautiously. “I’m not a very good cook,” she warned.

Ginny laughed. “It’s for outer body application, not inner, remember? Keep going, you’re nearly done.”

“Thank you for keeping us at the island, because I was worried that we’d mix up the stuff we can eat with the stuff we can’t,” Tansy teased. She and Yvette were busily stripping leaves from stems as Ginny had demonstrated. None of the herbs were fresh grown from the Silver Stone garden yet, but Ginny figured making mistakes with store bought supplies would hurt her ego less.

“You have plenty of experience cooking,” Yvette said. “Now if it was me having to decide if this was a body product or a pizza seasoning, then we’d be in trouble.”

“Wait till I really confuse you and we make a basil body cream,” Ginny said with a smile.

“Do Iwantto smell like a pizza?” Yvette asked.

“Are you kidding? How many people love pizza?” Kelli glanced over her shoulder and gave a knowing wink. “I’m pretty sure it’s a good way to get someone to start nibbling on you.”

Tansy and Yvette snickered while Ginny looked around the room with satisfaction. She still had a long way to go, and yet every step of the way had become part of the adventure.

Doing the next thing was working.

It wasn’t just about the herbal concoctions, either; it was about community. About spending time with these friends and others, and making a small difference, one day at a time.

Ginny carefully poured the batch into tester containers, one for each of them. The girls sniffed appreciatively.

“Smells delicious.”

“Peppermint foot cream. I’m looking forward to my next foot rub from Luke. Hey, that reminds me.” Kelli grabbed something off the side counter and held it out to Ginny. “He said you wanted to see the cross-stitch he got in that mystery gift package.”

“Ohhh, more puzzle solving.” Tansy rubbed her hands together then wrinkled her nose. “I have herbal hands.”

Laughter drifted over the room as Ginny accepted the home-crafted picture, examining it closely.

“It’s definitely my mom’s work.” A single filly, brown with a black mane. Simple, nothing fancy. She flipped it over and discovered a date written on the back in Sharpie, bracketed top and bottom by a seagull shape. “February twenty-eighth. That’s right. Luke was lucky he’s not a leap year baby.”

“He’s a Pisces, though. Through and through,” Kelli insisted.

“Likes water sports, does he?” Tansy asked as deadpan as possible. Her stoic expression failed an instant later as shrieks of laughter rang through the room.

Kelli shook a finger at her. “You’re terrible.”

“Yup,” Tansy agreed, hand held forward for the cross-stitch. She examined it as she spoke, flipping it over. “Pisces—oh my God, Ginny, where’s your gibberish page?”

Hope rushed in as Ginny shoved a copy forward. “You see something?”

Tansy nodded, scanning the page then stabbing one image firmly. “It’s half of a Pisces symbol and constellation, the latter drawn with a ton of artistic license.”

“What? Wait—thezodiac?”