Page 13 of The Cattleman’s Unforgettable Love: Ford and Amelia (MacFarland Ranch #11)

“Me too,” she told him with a smile – but she glanced out the window again when she realized they weren’t headed down toward the park like she’d expected.

“Where are we going?” she asked. “This isn’t the way to the park, is it?”

He frowned. “No – but I can turn around if that’s where you want to go.”

“I don’t particularly. I’m just curious. I assumed that’s where we were going.”

He glanced over at her again. “I know it was one of the suggestions I came up with the other day when we talked about doing this, but we didn’t nail anything down.”

“It’s okay, I’m not saying that I want to go there,” she assured him. “It’s not like I haven’t seen it before.”

“That’s what I thought. You spent quite a bit of time down there when you first came to visit Sierra, didn’t you? I know you arrived here before Mateo and Maya did, but you kept your distance to give Sierra and Wade their time together, didn’t you?”

She smiled, surprised that he remembered. “That’s right. I did a lot of exploring before I finally came to the ranch.”

“So, since you’re not a newbie to Yellowstone – and since it’s Saturday, and that means the tourists will be out in full force – I figured we could go somewhere else. Help you get to know the valley better.”

“Thanks. Where are we going?”

“Up into the foothills. If you’re up for a hike, there’s a trail I can show you that leads to a small lake. We could have our picnic there. But if you’d rather go on a driving tour, there’s still plenty of places I can show you – and we can take the picnic down to Dailey Lake.”

“Do me a favor,” she asked him. “Don’t ever go trying to tell me that you’re not sweet. You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”

He chuckled. “I don’t know about that, but I wanted to make sure that today’s a good day for you.”

She wanted to reach over and touch his arm, but she wasn’t sure – so she didn’t.

“Well, you’ve succeeded,” she told him. “I don’t mind what we do; I just love that you put so much thought into it.”

“I don’t believe that you have no preference between hiking and a driving tour.”

“You’re right. I’d love to hike and I have my boots on just in case. But I’m thinking of you . From what the guys said, it sounds as though you don’t take many days off. If you’d rather drive and take it easy, then I don’t want to take you tramping around the mountains.”

His eyes looked a brighter green when he turned to smile at her.

“Now who’s being sweet?” he asked.

She laughed. “Just considerate.”

“Exactly! When I’m considerate, you call it sweet. Why doesn’t it work both ways?”

“I suppose it might. I just never really thought of myself as sweet before.”

“Then that makes two of us,” he said with a smile. “And to tell you the truth, as much as I appreciate you thinking of me, I’d hate to waste a day off by sitting on my ass – even if I do get to spend it in the truck with you. So, let’s hike. It’s an easy trail, the one I’m thinking of.”

“Thanks,” she told him. “I want to protest and say that I’m up for more than that – but I think this first time, I’ll just roll with it until I see what your idea of easy is.”

He glanced over at her as he turned the truck off the highway onto a gravel road.

“This first time?” he asked with a smile. “Are you saying there’s hope that I might get a second date?”

This time she did reach across and rest her hand on his arm. “I’m telling you that I’m hoping there’ll be a second one.”

“Me too.”

Half an hour later, Ford looked back over his shoulder at her and stopped walking. "You doing okay?" he asked.

"I'm good," she said, hoping that he wouldn't notice just how out of breath she was.

He frowned. "Am I going too fast? I thought I was doing okay."

"You're doing fine," she assured him. "It's me. I'm even more out of shape than I realized."

"You're not out of shape. You're in great shape." From the way he let his gaze travel over her, there was no question that he believed what he was saying. He pursed his lips when he finally met her gaze again. "I just didn't register how short you were."

She let out a short laugh. "And here I was thinking that I'm no good at the flirting thing."

"Shit. I'm sorry, I..."

"It's okay, I'm not offended," she told him. "I think normally I would be, but coming from you, I know it's just the truth. How tall are you, anyway?"

"Me?" he asked. "I'm six-three."

She nodded. All the MacFarland brothers were tall. She didn't know if he was the tallest, but he certainly seemed that way because he was bigger than the others – broader. He was all power and muscle, a heavier build than any of them. Well, except Cash.

"How tall are you?" he asked.

"Five-five," she told him. "So not all that short, really."

He gave her a rueful smile. "Not until your little legs have to try and keep up with someone who's almost a foot taller."

She smiled. "Well, since you put it that way, I'll latch onto it as a good excuse. It's not that I'm out of shape, it's just that my stride doesn't quite match yours, right?"

He smiled. "Exactly. And I'm sorry. I should have thought. Do you want to keep going or...?"

"Of course I do. I'm excited to see this lake of yours. I've seen Daily Lake, but I thought that was the only one around here."

She caught up to him, and since the path had widened again, they walked side by side – and she was relieved that he took it a little slower.

"I may have oversold it," he told her. "It's not really a lake; it's an old quarry. When the snow melts in the spring, it forms a lake. I like it because no one ever comes up here and the water always seems so blue."

That made her smile. "Then I'm more eager to see it than I was before."

He gave her a puzzled look. "Because you like old quarries?" he asked.

She laughed. "Because it's somewhere that's special to you – isn't it?"

He dropped his gaze. "I guess so. It was a place I used to come and hang out when I needed to get away."

"And you don't need to get away anymore?" she asked.

He chuckled. "It's not usually an option anymore. There's always something to do on the ranch."

She nodded, but she didn't like the idea that he never got any time for himself – if she had anything to do with it, that situation was about to change. Even if they only became friends, she wanted to make sure that he got some free time and that he got to enjoy it.

"What about you?" he asked. "I don't even know where you're from."

"I was born and raised in the Bay Area."

"Is your family still there?" he asked.

"My cousins are there, all the family I have left."

"Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't know that."

"That's okay, how could you?"

He turned to meet her gaze, and she shrugged. She didn't normally elaborate when people asked about her family – she just said that all she had were her cousins and left it at that.

She let out a breath. "My mom died when I was small. My dad died almost ten years ago, and my brother eight years ago."

Ford stopped walking again and when she stopped, he turned to her and rested his hands on her shoulders.

The concern in his eyes sent a shiver down her spine.

"I'm sorry..." He shook his head. "I hate it when people say that when they hear that someone died.

I don't mean it that way. I mean I'm sorry that I didn't know. Sorry that I didn't ask. Sorry..."

She reached up to grasp his wrists. "It's okay. There's nothing for you to be sorry for. I don't talk about it. There's no way you could know. Sierra would never have told anyone. She knows I tend to be quite a private person."

He nodded, but it was easy to see that he felt bad.

"Come on," she told him. "Let's keep walking, or we're never going to make it to this lake of yours."

As they walked on, she could feel that he kept glancing at her. "I'm fine," she told him after a while. "You haven't upset me or anything. They've all been gone for a long time; I'm used to it."

"Maybe so, but... so you don't have anyone else? Nowhere to go home to?"

"No. As you know, I've been working with the guys for a while now, but their base isn't exactly a home. Not to any of them, let alone to me. I used to keep an apartment in San Francisco when Sierra still lived there, but … she’s here now."

He nodded. "So, you think you might stay here?"

"I've been thinking about it. I mean, if Mav and Blaine move the whole operation here and set up base on Mav's ranch, then yes, I'll definitely stay, at least for as long as I'm working with them."

He frowned. "You're thinking about leaving them?"

"No. It's just that... I don't tend to stay anywhere for too long, not anymore."

When they reached the top of the next rise, Ford swept his arm out in a gesture that took in the view before them. The last steep stretch of trail had brought them up above the old quarry. And he was right, it did look like a lake, and it was beautiful.

"Wow," she breathed, "I love it."

He smiled, as if she'd paid him a personal compliment. "Are you ready for a picnic?" He adjusted the backpack he was carrying.

"I am," she told him. "That easy little hike of yours has made me ravenous. What?" she asked. "What's that smirky little smile for?"

He chuckled. "I'm just glad you're hungry. I didn't know if you'd be one of those people who eats like a bird."

She rolled her eyes. "You mean, one of those women who won't eat more than two lettuce leaves at a time in case they gain a pound?" She slapped her ass and said, "I'm definitely not one of them."