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17

SAbrINA

A nni has a nice touch and a gift for weaving perfect French braids. I never turn down the chance for her to play with my hair.

“Sit still,” my sister warns. “Or the right side will be crooked.”

I touch my head and feel the outlines of two thick braids running down either side. Anni swats my hand away and I settle down on my belly with my chin propped on my hands to let her finish. I’m lying on the most chaotically colored quilt ever assembled from strips of scrap fabric. The sweet scent of grass tickles my nose and the cheerful landscape of Bright Hearts Ranch stretches out in front of me.

The ranch sits on a large piece of land just outside of town. The place belongs to Luca’s brother, Cale, and his wife, Sadie. A picturesque sanctuary for a variety of rescued animals ranging from dogs to goats to horses, I can’t imagine a happier place.

A popup canopy gives us some comfortable shade here on a grassy field between the house and the corral where the guys are working with the horses. When I look to my right, I see a fenced in yard where dogs of different shapes and sizes caper around merrily. Nearby, Sadie does her best to keep up with eighteen-month-old Margaret, a carbon copy of her redhaired mother, as she toddles around with endless energy.

Beside me, Jane naps with her little body curled into a ball atop the quilt. She’s wearing a ‘Future Gamer’ pink onesie, a gift from me.

“Mama should have come with us,” I say as Anni’s deft fingers move rapidly through my hair.

“She’s cleaning my house,” Anni says and ties off the braid tail with an elastic band. “She insisted.”

Anni finishes her work and stretches out on Jane’s other side. Her hand briefly cups the back of Jane’s head and a small smile animates the baby’s sleeping face at the feel of her mother’s loving touch.

“Janie,” I whisper into the shell of a tiny pink ear. “You are the most loved little girl in the world.”

My sister smiles at me and then turns her attention to the scene in the corral. A spirited argument has broken out between Luca and Cale Connelly.

“Are they really fighting?” I ask because all that gesturing and shoving between two imposing men looks a little rough.

“Sort of,” Anni says cheerfully. “Luca enjoys using his verbal gifts to provoke his big brother. Seems like he succeeded this time.”

Cale Connelly, who used to be one of the most feared mafia hitmen in New York, seizes his younger brother in a headlock. He grins while he messes up Luca’s hair.

Luca, no slouch when it comes to strength, struggles his way free and circles his brother like a furious tiger. Cale laughs at him.

But now they’ve attracted more attention. Peggy is the petite no-nonsense caretaker of Bright Hearts Ranch and emerges from the tiny apartment adjoining the main house. She stops after a few strides and yells at the Connelly brothers for being ‘horrible, rowdy boys’.

“Sorry, Peggy,” they say in unison.

She crosses her arms and scowls. Strands of her white hair dance in the light breeze and she turns her sharp eyes elsewhere. Anni waves at her. Next, Peggy’s gaze drills into me so I reach for a square of the cinnamon cake sitting on a plate. When I arrived, Peggy accused me of being too skinny and ordered me to eat cake. I’m not skinny, but I’ll happily eat cake.

Satisfied that people have stopped fighting and started eating, Peggy marches back to her kitchen. I confess to feeling slightly relieved. Peggy is a little intimidating.

A rhythmic sound catches my attention and my eyes lock onto the sight of Monte riding a large brown horse. They are moving fast until he pulls on the reigns and slows the horse to a quick trot.

I swallow the last bite of cinnamon cake and lean on my elbows, eagerly devouring the view.

Monte is not exactly a typical cowboy. He wears a Yankees baseball cap and sneakers. But he sure does a mighty fine job of sitting atop that horse and calling the shots.

He’s moving at a slow walk now and Cale holds the gate open for his return to the corral. Monte pauses just inside the corral and says something to Cale, who nods. Monte pats the horse on the neck and then shows off his athletic skills by casually jumping out of the saddle, landing neatly on his feet in the dirt.

I’m so busy ogling Monte that I fail to notice Luca’s arrival until he plops down on the blanket beside Anni.

“How are my girls?” He gently places a big hand on Jane’s back and then shifts closer to Anni.

She sits up and her husband immediately starts using her lap as a pillow. Not that my sister appears to mind. She runs her fingers through his hair and watches Monte walk the horse back to the barn.

“I wouldn’t have expected Monte Castelli to be a horse whisperer,” Anni says.

I’m disappointed when Monte vanishes into the barn and I no longer have something nice to look at. “He’s mentioned spending time at his cousins’ ranch. He joked that horseback riding was mandatory.”

Luca is eyeing me with a frown. “He told you about them?”

“Not much. He said he’s not close to them anymore. Why?”

Luca is the type of guy who takes just about everything in stride but something about Monte’s cousins bothers him.

“I’m just nosy,” he says and smiles up at his wife. “Did you see me getting it done out there?”

“Getting what done?” I ask him. “You fell off a horse a few minutes ago.”

“I jumped off,” he says, clearly offended.

“And landed on your ass,” I point out. “Your brother had to give you a hand to haul you out of the dirt.”

Luca sits up and zeroes in on me. He grins and a bad suspicion gurgles in my belly. I have a feeling I’m about to pay for mouthing off.

“Do we have any earplugs at home?” he asks Anni.

“Don’t.” She elbows him with a warning glare.

Luca shrugs. “Someone ought to inform little sister over here that the walls in our house aren’t that thick and remind her she’s staying in the bedroom next to ours.”

My mouth falls open. I’ve never been more sure that my face is crimson.

“Ignore him,” Anni says to me. “He’s being evil right now.”

Luca laughs like a comic book villain. He also manages to wake Jane from her nap. She lets out a precious little cry of outrage with her sweet face all scrunched up.

“Daddy is way too disruptive,” Anni scolds and scoops Jane up into her arms. The crying stops immediately.

“I’m so sorry, Janie,” Luca says. He does indeed look very regretful so I can’t be too annoyed with him, but my own mortification might take some time to fade.

Luca decides to atone for disturbing Jane’s nap by taking her for a walk around the ranch to look at the animals. He holds her on his shoulder and Anni carefully places a pink sunhat on her head.

“We’re going on a field trip, you and me,” Luca says to his daughter and keeps up a steady stream of sugary-voiced baby babble as he carries her across the grass.

“How nice,” I say. “He’s finally found a completely captive audience.”

Anni snorts out a laugh. “Yeah, he may never stop talking now.”

“Were we really that loud last night?”

My sister hesitates, grasping for a diplomatic answer. “The walls in our house really are pretty thin.”

With a groan of humiliation, I hide my face in the folds of the quilt.

“Look on the bright side,” Anni says. “You’ve given Mama every reason to believe you are a euphoric newlywed.”

I put my hands over my head and make a wish to melt into the grass.

While I’m trying to become invisible, Sadie and Margaret return.

“Brina, what’s wrong?” says Sadie.

I lift my head out of the blanket because I don’t want to be impolite. And I can’t breathe. “The entire state of Colorado has apparently heard me having multiple orgasms.”

Sadie’s mouth twitches as she tries to fight a smile. “I didn’t hear you,” she says helpfully.

“Great,” I grumble.

A small fist appears in front of my nose and it’s holding a half crushed yellow flower. Margaret gives me an endearing toddler smile and drops the flower.

“She wants you to have it,” Sadie says.

“Thank you, Margaret,” I say and stick the flower in my hair behind my left ear.

The little girl squeals, ambles over to the edge of the picnic quilt and bends down to yank out a handful of grass. Ripped shards of grass are dropped in front of me next.

“Thank you, Margaret,” I say again. She giggles and punches her chubby arms in the air.

“It’s just about nap time for someone,” Sadie says and picks up her little girl. Margaret watches us over her mother’s shoulder.

I blow her a kiss as she and Sadie retreat to the house. She giggles and hides her face in Sadie’s shoulder.

“So.” Anni drops down to my level on the blanket and nudges my shoulder. “Spill the tea.”

“I drank all my tea. Ask Peggy for more.”

“Do I need to tickle it out of you? What have you done with the girl who trash talks about sex all the time?”

The barn door opens and Monte appears with Cale right behind him. They’re both leading different horses.

I’m watching Monte and my sister is watching me.

“We didn’t have sex,” I tell her.

“Sure you didn’t,” she snorts.

“I’m serious. We did other things and they were fantastically fun things but we didn’t do the deed. Technically.”

“Technically,” Anni echoes and then shudders. “On second thought, don’t tell me what that means. You’re still my little sister.”

My eyes return to raking Monte over. The reddish horse he’s leading around the perimeter of the corral suddenly stops in its tracks and lowers its head. Monte waits, then coaxes the horse to take one step at a time.

I forgot how many horses are here, although Sadie told me the number earlier. She said most came from bad situations where they were abused and neglected.

Monte reaches into a burlap bag hanging from a corral post and pulls out a carrot. The horse gladly plucks it from his hand and he gives the animal a reassuring pat.

“All marriage mayhem aside,” Anni says, “you really like him. It’s obvious.” She can’t quite carve all the worry out of her voice.

“Monte’s a good guy,” I tell her. “He really is.”

She turns her head and studies him with clear skepticism. “Sometimes.”

I roll to my back and gaze up at the blue canvas stretched across the overhead canopy. “He makes me feel good, Anni. In a way that I didn’t think I’d ever be capable of sharing with anyone.”

“I see that,” she says. “But I’ll have to destroy him if he breaks your heart.”

“I know what I’m doing. I promise.”

My sister is humane enough not to pepper me with questions. Like what happens next? And how long are we supposed to be ‘married’? And what will we do when we return to New York?

I don’t know the answers to any of those questions. The only thing I know for sure is that I cannot wait to be alone with him again. In bed. With the lights off. I’ll try to be quieter this time.

Luca and Jane return from their short tour of the ranch. He needs to get back to the house and complete a pile of lawyer-ish paperwork.

“But your boy agreed to stay,” Luca says, jerking his head in the direction of the corral. “Cale could use his help exercising the horses and will give him a ride home later.”

Monte is on top of a horse again and he’s facing in this direction. This is an inconvenient time to be swamped with a surge of pure lust amid steamy memories of last night’s bedroom antics. I wouldn’t mind hanging out here all afternoon and crafting hot cowboy fantasies about my ‘husband’. However, I can’t turn down a chance to spend time with Anni and Jane.

Monte lifts his hand with a wave. I try to guess which of those fingers was inside me last night.

I wave back and then help Anni roll up the picnic quilt. On the walk to Luca’s car, I look over my shoulder in the hopes of catching one last glimpse of Monte’s hot ass riding around on horseback.

He’s in exactly the same spot, leaning slightly forward in the saddle. The brim of the baseball cap shades his eyes but I’m positive he’s staring at me.