Cowgirl Up and Ride (Rough Riders #3)(93)

“Race you to the butte.”


He heard her laughing and knew his playful side surprised her, hell it surprised him too, but he didn’t let the reckless feeling deter him from winning for a change.


“I deserved that.” She urged Nickel to the left to skirt the base of the butte as she shaded her eyes and looked up. “You ever climbed to the top of this?”


“Long time ago. Why?”


“How far can you see?”


“Pretty far. Not like on that plateau by Devil’s Tower where everything is spread out for two hundred miles.”


“There’s a butte on our place—well, your place now—that I used to climb. Never imagined when I climbed it two years ago it’d be the last time.”


They rode in silence until Cord realized it was an unnatural silence.


“I’m really gonna miss all this like crazy.”


I’m really gonna miss you like crazy.


Cord checked his watch. “We should be gettin’ back. I’ve gotta call Ky pretty soon.”


“He ready to come home yet?”


“I have a sneakin’ suspicion he ain’t completely unpacked.”


AJ smiled. “Last year when I watched him he showed me his ring bearer outfit for Macie and Carter’s wedding, complete with ‘packin’ leather shoes. At first I didn’t know what he was saying. When I figured out patent leather, I’ll admit I asked him to repeat it a couple of times because it was so damn funny. I didn’t laugh at him, but that kid cracks me up.”


He grinned. “Me too.”


“Channing said she wasn’t picking out girl’s names because she knows she’ll have a boy.”


“Sometimes I wonder how many brothers I’d have after Carter if Ma hadn’t broken the hunnerd year drought and birthed a girl McKay.”


“Lots of girls in my mother’s family. When I loaded up boxes today I found a whole bunch of pictures and letters. Was weird to think of them as relatives. Even weirder to think there’s a whole bunch of family history I wasn’t aware of. It’s gonna be fun going through that stuff later, but packing has been a lot harder than I thought.”


“Physically?”


“No. Emotionally.”


They’d reached the backside of the fence. Cord dismounted and led Jester to the side closest to the barn. He didn’t offer to help AJ; she knew her way around.


After she’d hung up her borrowed tack in the barn, she carried out two buckets of oats as he brushed the horses down. Once Nickel finished his portion, she gave Jester his bucket. She rested her butt on the fence and gazed across the horizon.


Cord wrapped his arms around her from behind and set his chin on her shoulder.


AJ snuggled into him. “Mmm.”


“Whatcha lookin’ at?”


“The sunset.”


“Gonna be a pretty one tonight.”


“It’s pretty every night. I love the sky as it starts to fade from light blue to indigo to purple to black. You’d think I’d get tired of it, but I never do.”


How many times had he sat out here, content to watch the sunset? He never tired of it either.


Tonight he’d forego Mother Nature’s display because he wanted, needed to be with her.


“AJ. Come inside. I’m dyin’ to put my hands on you.”