Page 74 of The Cattleman's Unforgettable Love

Brody laughed. "Sawyer didn't say anything, but I can read between the lines. When I asked him to give you a message, it seemed like he would have been happier if I'd asked him to go hand feed the wolves."

Ford rolled his eyes. "Okay, so I guess I've been in a bit of a mood this morning."

"Right. And now that you're up to speed on the situation," Brody said with a laugh, "do you even know why? Or is it just one of those days?"

Ford looked down at his sandwich.

"Right," said Brody. "So it's about Amelia."

"What makes you think that?"

"Because you don't know what to say. You can handle anything – anything except women. Especially emotional ones. Oh, shit. Did she get all emotional on you?"

Ford shook his head. "Not in the least." He sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "Don't give me any shit when I tell you this, but... I'm the one who got all emotional on her."

Brody set his sandwich down and sat back, looking skeptical. "You're shitting me, right?"

Ford shook his head slowly. "I don't know what to tell you – that little lady gets to me."

Brody smiled. "Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?"

"I'd like to think so, but I might have gotten a bit ahead of myself. I mean, I didn't do it intentionally. I didn't mean it the way she thought I did. I..."

"Slow down," Brody said with a puzzled smile. "Walk me through it."

"Okay. So things have been going well between us."

Brody raised his eyebrows. "You mean, like, really well?"

Ford wasn't sure he even wanted to answer that. Luckily, Brody picked up on it. "Well, shit, then this is serious if you don't even want to brag about it."

Ford pursed his lips. "I'm not saying anything."

"I respect that, and I apologize. I'm just not used to it being important to you. Now I know that it is." He gave Ford a sly smile. "And I know that you've been there, or you wouldn't be defending her honor so hard. But anyway, carry on."

"Asshole," Ford ground out with a grudging smile.

"You wouldn't expect anything less from me, would you? But carry on with the story. Things have been going well between you," he said with a smirk. "But now you're getting ahead of yourself. What does that mean?"

Ford rested his elbows on the table and pressed his fingers to his temples. "I said something stupid this morning."

"So tell me what it was. We only have an hour at the most for lunch. You can't drag it out like this."

"Fuck you," Ford said with a laugh. "Okay, so she stayed with me last night. This morning, Ty stopped by early. Tanner texted, Laney, and Janey both called." He sucked in a deep breath, still feeling bad about the way he'd complained about his family when Amelia had no one. "I was bitching about them all – only joking, but Amelia doesn't have any family left."

"Ouch," Brody said with a cringe.

"That wasn't the problem, though. She's cool. I apologized and she was fine. She doesn't expect me to feel bad about having more family than her or about her not having anyone at all. She was glad that it even occurred to me to apologize. But..."

"Come on," said Brody. "We're getting to the point now. But what?"

"But I told her that I have more family than I need and I'd be happy to share them with her."

Brody choked on his sandwich before setting it down and taking a gulp of soda. "Jesus, Ford. I didn't think you'd be following in your brothers' footsteps quite this fast."

"Why not?"

Brody stared at him for a few moments before he smiled. "Because I didn't think you had it in you. But now I'm guessing that Amelia brings it out of you. Am I right?"