Page 8 of Ropers Can’t Tie Knots (Kissing Ridge Cowboys #3)

seven

Gabe

M ost people dream of their wedding day. The first kiss, the first sight of your partner at the altar. Hell, even the food they serve their guests.

Marriage wasn’t something I ever gave much thought to. I knew I wanted to share a life with someone forever, but marriage wasn’t a deal breaker. It’s just a piece of paper, after all. I may be a lawyer, but today I realized just how powerful a single sheet of paper can be.

After posing for photos in the park that I blamed on Riley, our marriage certificate firmly in my inner suit pocket, the enormity of this sat on my chest in a way I didn’t expect. Riley drove my car home because Hunter insisted he wanted to drive.

The silence in the truck cab is heavy, and instead of happiness, a blanket of sadness sits.

I should be elated that this man kissed the breath from me, finally.

If someone hadn’t cleared their throat, I might have let my hands wander to places not suitable for public eyes.

Instead, my thoughts have turned to the family I miss who couldn’t be here to watch me get married.

It may be fake, but it still would have been nice to include them somehow .

“Did you want to get an early dinner before we get home? Maybe takeout? People usually eat after getting married, don’t they?”

Hunter interrupts my maudlin thoughts and I’m grateful for the distraction.

“I, uh…I arranged for that. It should be at the ranch already.”

Hunter’s gaze remains forward as he drives, and he clears his throat.

“Cool.” His fingers flex on the steering wheel a few times and I catch the flash of the ring on his left hand. “So, now that we have a legal document to bring to the lawyer, I should be able to just drop it off, right? Or should we do it together?”

“We should go together. They will want our identification and all that to confirm I’m real. I can clear my afternoon on Friday if you can set up a meeting with them.”

Hunter nods. “Great. I’ll do that.” A long pause sits between us, and things feel more awkward now than they did before. “Thank you.”

Hunter pulls into the ranch yard, and I’m once again struck by the peacefulness this place radiates. I’m still not sure I can adapt like I need to in order to be successful here, but with Hunter’s unexpected gift today to offer to introduce me, I’m cautiously hopeful.

After we step out of the truck, a single sharp whistle sounds, and I jump. Hunter’s low chuckle aimed at me shouldn’t stoke the fire to have him. I should be pissed he laughs at me for being scared of a wild animal with giant teeth, and yet…part of me wants him to always laugh at me like that.

“It’s just Lewis, Gabe. He says hello when he hears the truck. ”

“Sorry. I’m not used to wild animals and their noises.”

Hunter’s eyes sparkle with a mischief that makes me take a step back, but he reaches for me, and his hand grips my wrist. “Come with me, counsellor.” When I don’t move, he softens his grip. “You can trust me, Gabe.”

With a slight tug, he guides me to the barn and shows me where he has a bucket of carrots stashed for the horses and Lewis.

“I fill it up every few days. The smaller ones are for Lewis and the large ones for the horses. Sometimes they get apples, but carrots keep longer out here.” He ducks his head as he fishes out two big carrots and one small one. “I only treat the horses with sugar cubes on Christmas.”

Hunter doesn’t make eye contact with that admission, but something in his voice tells me I might be the only one who knows that.

“Come on. You need to meet your new family.”

“My what now?”

Hunter whistles and clucks his tongue before handing me a large carrot.

“My horses.” He grins, and it’s easy for me to picture him as a young boy out there with horses and his grandmother making sure he doesn’t wear white.

“Dixie is the one I ride in rodeos. She’s been my rock for almost fifteen years now and I need to think about training her replacement.

” He whistles again and three horses finally come into view.

“My other horse is Mack. She’s extra feisty and I need to spend more time with her. The third horse is Jackson’s.”

He breaks his carrot in two, and all three horses pause at the fence.

They’re huge this close and I step back, but this time Hunter grabs my elbow and pulls me closer to him.

“They’re gentle. Don’t be afraid,” he soothes, and despite my nerves, I let myself relax.

He holds a half carrot to Dixie, who takes it with giant whiskered lips and crunches it down.

Pieces fall to the ground, and she dips her head to pick up the pieces.

Hunter takes my hand with the large carrot and covers my hand with his.

“This one is for Jackson’s horse.” He gently pushes the head of Mack aside so Jackson’s horse can take the carrot from me.

Hunter holds me steady, and the horse takes the carrot from my hand, chomping off half while I try not to scream like I did with the groundhog.

“See? Not so bad, right?”

Hunter feeds the third horse the other half carrot and pets their ears. Three giant heads stretch over the fence towards him, and Dixie nudges her nose against his suit jacket with a snort.

“I know, girl. You won’t see me dressed like this again.” He smooths a hand along her face and turns to me. “Would you like to pet her? She’s curious about you.” Dixie stretches towards me, and I lean back. “She’s not a biter. Mack might nibble, but not Dixie.”

I want to do this for him. He’s so comfortable around these animals, and if I want to really know him or fit into this town, I need to be comfortable with the horses. He’s a damn cowboy. What kind of fake husband would I be if I can’t handle horses?

My hand shakes as I reach over to touch where Hunter’s hand rests. Dixie’s big brown eyes stare at me as she stretches closer. She huffs, and I jump while pulling my hand back.

“What’s that mean? Does she like me?” My voice carries a hopefulness I hope Hunter doesn’t pick up on.

“Yeah, Gabe.” There’s no laughter in his voice this time.

His expression is nothing less than tender as he strokes Dixie’s neck.

“ She’s just feeling you out, but she likes you.

If she didn’t, she’d pin her ears back and not get so close.

She trusts me implicitly, so she feels safe to check you out.

” He turns his soulful brown eyes towards me.

“Just like you should know that I’d not put you in danger. ”

No, I don’t suppose he would. Hunter might present like someone who doesn’t care, but watching him now? The man has a heart the size of the Rocky Mountains.

Dixie snuffles around Hunter a little longer until he playfully pushes her away with a promise of seeing her later. He’s so relaxed here with his horse. He’s not like the Hunter from the rodeo ring or bar with a ring of barbed wire around him. There’s a definite change here in his demeanour.

Here, he’s perhaps a little softer than most people see, and he just gave me that glimpse into what he’s really like. The layers of this man must be plentiful, and I wonder if he’ll show them all to me.

“If you throw that little carrot towards Lewis, he’ll be your friend.”

“He’s not there.”

Hunter shakes his head with a small laugh and points to the grass behind Lewis’s hole where Lewis sits on his back legs, waiting.

“I thought they were called prairie dogs if they sit like that and not groundhogs.”

“That’s an entirely different animal and thankfully one I don’t get here.”

“Why?” I toss the carrot towards Lewis, and when it thunks on the ground, he waddles off his hill for it .

“Those are the ones I can’t let stay here. They dig all over and make too many holes for the livestock to step in and get hurt.”

“Oh. Lewis doesn’t do that?”

“Nope. That’s his only hole, and it’s outside the pasture area.”

I watch as the chubby animal eats the carrot, and he’s rather cute.

“Hey, now that we’re married, could we get a real pet? Like one that lives in the house and doesn’t intimidate me?”

Hunter walks towards the house, still in his wedding-day suit, and I follow.

“You think talking about pets is the most important issue we have to cover right now?”

“It seems like a safe place to start. What do you want to cover first?”

Hunter pauses as we reach the front door and glances my way.

“Sex.”

The air leaves my lungs, and I suppose that’s important enough. I mean…we all need it, right? God knows I’ve wanted it since I first saw him.

Hunter enters the house, and I follow. He leaves his boots at the door as he always does and heads down the hall to the living room.

“Gabe…” His voice trails off as I catch up to him and observe what Riley’s help accomplished for my dinner surprise.

“Oh. This is…more than I requested.” I laugh, a high-pitched squeaky noise, when Hunter stares at me. “I thought it would be nice to eat together out of the public eye while we figure out our next moves. Jackson said you like simple things, so it’s—”

“You asked my friends what my favourite foods are?”

Hunter’ s gaze pins me in place, and thoughts of a sex talk evaporate. Have I offended him?

“Jackson said you love hot dogs even though they give you heartburn and that you’d appreciate all the toppings. So yeah, I asked and…I guess I delivered.”

We have to cook the dogs, but a table sits in the living room with every single hot dog topping possible in small containers or chilling on ice.

A row of foot-long hot dogs sits on a silver platter waiting to be grilled, and it would all feel like a kid’s birthday party if it weren’t for the bouquets of roses all over the room and the banner saying ‘ Husband and Husband .’

Hunter remains silent, and I think it might be too much, but he throws his head back in laughter.

“Hot dogs and roses.” He snort-laughs again, and I think that has to be a good thing. “I need to get out of this suit. Then we’ll talk.”