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Page 42 of Huckleberry Hill (Saddles & Spurs #1)

Chapter Forty-One

The Ranch

Salem

Well, we’re dying here.

Poet

Yeah, how did the appointment go?

Me

I’m pregnant.

Wyn

We know that already. we want all the info.

Salem

What’s the sex?

Me

It’s too early to know. But we do know our due date . . .

Poet

Tease! Come on

Wyn

Tell us

Me

My due date is Christmas Day.

Salem

Stop it that’s too perfect.

Poet

omg!!!!

Me

I don’t know if it’s good. Won’t he or she’s birthday be overshadowed by Christmas?

Salem

Nah. Just means double the presents

Poet

I’m shopping for Christmas onesies right now. OMG this one has candy canes on it

Wyn

I found one that’s green with matching striped socks. An elf!

Salem

and just like that, three aunts were born.

Poet

The three wise aunts.

Wyn

Hmm. You sure about that?

Poet

Fine. One wise aunt and two knuckleheads.

Salem

better. I can’t wait to spend Christmas at the ranch.

I held my breath.

Wyn

Absolutely. I’ll be in Telluride for the first half of December with the Carringtons. Colorado is just a hop and a skip to Idaho.

Poet

Switching gears and looking at plane fare . . .

Salem

Hey, did you open the rest of your boxes?

Me

I was about to do that.

Salem

Hurry up.

Me

Do you want me to make a video and film my reaction?

Wyn

Could you?

I sighed.

Me

Yes. Hang on.

I was setting up my phone to record when the doorbell rang. Muddy was out running errands, so I got up off the bed and walked downstairs. Tempest followed me.

The bell rang again.

“I’m coming,” I yelled.

I got to the door and all but yanked it open.

Shock rippled through my body and my jaw dropped. “ Gianni? What are you doing here?”

My ex-fiancé stood on the porch, dressed in a pair of dark Japanese denim jeans and a gray wool sweater with product in his luscious, dark hair. “Hey, Hadley.”

“How did you know I was here?”

“Nico. He said you went home for a visit.”

“ Okay, but what are you doing here?” I demanded again.

“Can I come in?”

Tempest stepped outside and sniffed Gianni’s leg.

“That’s a goat,” he said.

“I live on a ranch,” I clipped. “What do you expect?”

His expression softened. “I don’t blame you for being mad at me. But please, Hadley. Give me just a few minutes?”

I was a recovering people pleaser. And though the shock was wearing off at seeing my ex, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about why he was on my doorstep.

Without a word, I stepped aside.

He came into the foyer and stopped, looking around in curiosity. Tempest entered behind him and then went to her water and food dish in the corner of the kitchen.

“It’s just like you described it,” he said.

“Yep.”

His expression softened. “I should’ve come home with you when you asked.”

I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now.”

“It doesn’t?”

“What do you want, Gianni?”

“You. I want you .” He reached into his pocket and pulled out my engagement ring. “I flew to New York to get this before coming here. I gave it to you when I proposed, and it belongs on your finger.”

“How did you know where the ring was?” I asked in confusion.

“Salem texted me that she’d left it on my nightstand.”

“Oh. Right.”

I looked at the ring again.

“I want you to come home. I want us to be together.”

I frowned. “This is my home.”

“What about New York? We had a life there.”

“No, Gianni, you had a life there,” I said. “And you walked out on me the minute there was a problem.”

He sighed. “You don’t know how much I regret that. I was in Italy without you, but everything reminded me of you. I made a list of the wines I knew you’d like, the dishes I couldn’t wait to make for you, the sights I want to show you on our honeymoon . . .”

I rubbed my third eye.

We were having this conversation in the middle of the kitchen, and it felt like it was happening to someone else.

“Please give me another chance,” he begged.

The front door opened. “Bear snack, sorry I’m late. I stopped by Sweet Teeth and grabbed you some chocolate chip?—”

Declan came to a halt when he entered the kitchen and saw me standing with my ex-fiancé.

“Bear snack?” Gianni asked, his gaze bouncing between me and Declan. “What is that, a nickname?”

“Ah, yeah,” I said awkwardly.

The two men were sizing each other up, neither one saying anything. They were both nearly the same height, but Declan was more muscular, while Gianni had a leaner build.

I felt the tension between them, but I wasn’t sure how to diffuse it.

“Declan, Gianni. Gianni, Declan.”

“Declan,” Gianni repeated.

“Her boyfriend,” Declan stated. “And the father of her child.”

I winced.

“Father of her . . .” Gianni looked at me in shock. “You’re infertile.”

Declan dropped the bakery bag on the kitchen table. “Not anymore.”

Gianni’s expression tightened. “So let me get this straight. We break up and you come home and jump in the sack with the first guy you see? And now you’re knocked up in a couple weeks? Hadley, what the?—”

Declan’s punch interrupted Gianni’s tirade, and the next thing I knew fists were flying.

“Stop!” I yelled. “You can’t fight in here! If you break my grandmother’s china, she’ll kill both of you!”

Neither of them heard me.

Declan had sprung into protective boyfriend mode and Gianni was . . . well, he wasn’t going to take a fist to the face and not do anything about it.

I hastily went to the sliding glass door. “Out! Both of you!”

Gianni swung and clocked Declan across the jaw, momentarily stunning him.

Somehow, I managed to coerce them in the direction of the back porch. With fresh mountain air, and no hindrances, they went hard for each other.

I closed the door and watched from behind my hands, closing my eyes whenever one of them got in a particularly nasty punch.

The front door opened, and Muddy called out, “There’s an expensive rental car parked outside.”

“Gianni,” I replied.

Muddy came into the kitchen, her eyes widening when she stood next to me and witnessed the public display of masculinity going on outside.

“And they say nothing happens in Huckleberry Hill,” Muddy murmured.

“We have to stop them,” I said.

“Why?”

“Well, because . . .”

“Better to let them get it out of their systems,” she said. “Declan’s defending you. We should let him do it.”

Despite the violence, my heart tripped with appreciation at Declan’s action.

“So, should we make popcorn or . . .”

“Muddy, you’re shameless.”

“Are you going to give me the rundown of what happened?”

“Gianni showed up and was in the middle of proposing to me again when Declan walked in.”

“He what? ”

“Yeah.” I looked behind me and down at the floor. “I think he might’ve dropped the ring when Declan socked him in the eye.”

I looked outside and saw that the two of them had moved to opposite sides of the porch and were attempting to regain their breath.

“Oh, so Declan started the fight?”

“No, Gianni started the fight when he accused me of running home and jumping in bed with the first guy I saw and getting pregnant.”

Muddy raised her brows.

I rolled my eyes. “Fine, so he wasn’t wrong.”

“And how did Gianni find out you were pregnant? Did you tell him when you refused his proposal?”

“Nope. Declan decided to drop that little piece of news for me,” I said. “After he announced that he was my boyfriend.”

“Someone was feeling a little territorial.”

“Is it wrong that I liked it?” I asked. “Help me find the ring, would you? I think the fight is over.”

“Yep, I think you’re right.”

I found the engagement ring underneath the china hutch. I was just pulling it out and dusting it off when the sliding glass door opened.

Gianni and Declan came inside. Declan’s lip was busted and he had a lump on his jaw. But Gianni’s nose was crooked and bleeding bad, and one of his eyes was beginning to swell shut.

“Gianni, is it?” Muddy asked.

He nodded.

“I’m Hadley’s grandmother,” Muddy explained.

“Nice to meet you,” he mumbled.

“Can you guys give us a minute?” I asked, looking at Declan and then at Muddy.

“Sure thing, sugar. Come on, Declan. Let’s go ice that lip.”

Declan walked toward me and stopped. “You okay?” he whispered.

“I should be asking you that,” I whispered back.

“I’m fine.” He touched my cheek and then kissed my forehead. “Come find me when you’re done?”

I nodded.

“Come on, Tempest.” Muddy scooped up the goat and the three of them left. The front door shut, leaving me alone with a man I’d once loved. A man who now felt like he belonged to another version of me. A version of me who had lived another life.

A lesser version of me.

I held out the engagement ring to him. “Even if there was no Declan and there was no baby, I still wouldn’t go back to New York with you.

You told you me you loved me. You told me my infertility was something you could deal with.

But then you did the one thing in the world that you can never come back from—you left me , Gianni.

You left me and you didn’t look back and now it’s too late.

I don’t want to be with someone who isn’t strong enough to stay with me through thick and thin. ”

He stared at the ring, and the with a deep, regretful sigh, he took it back. Gianni opened his mouth like he wanted to speak, but at the last moment, he closed his lips.

There wasn’t anything more to say.