The Delivery of Decor (Shiloh Ridge Ranch in Three Rivers #7) - Liz Isaacson Page 0,63
a rare breed of child, as he loved everyone and everyone loved him. Even Ward was already wound tightly around Stetson’s tiny pinky.
“I’ve always wanted kids,” Dot said easily. “Seeing those two boys today and helping Stetson, I could see myself being a mom.” She smiled at him. “I can see you being a dad too. You’d be all stern with them, and then sneak twenty-dollar bills into their lunch sacks.” She laughed, and Ward actually took a moment to think about what she’d said.
“Maybe,” he admitted.
“One of us has to be the bad guy,” she said. “In my family, it was my mom. She actually told my dad he didn’t get to be mad at the kids. They needed one person they knew loved them all the time.” She took his hand and tugged, like she wanted to walk around to the front of the truck so they could go deliver this feed and be done with their chores. Ward wanted that too, but she’d said something to freeze his feet to the ground.
“One of us?” he asked. His heart throbbed in his chest in time to the words. One. Of. Us. One-one. Of-of. Us-us.
Dot looked up at him, her eyes rounding. “I just meant…one of the parents.”
“What if it is me and you?” he asked, his voice gruff. “You’d come live up here? You know I’m going to live in that house where I live now. One of my kids will probably live there after I die.”
Dot made a show of gazing around the ranch. They did stand in a pretty part of it, with plenty of trees surrounding this supply shed. Directly on the other side, though, the ranch buildings spread out, with plenty of noise, people, vehicles, and animals. For the most part, ranch life was a good life, but it could be busy and it could be intense from time to time.
“Yeah,” she finally said. “I think I could live in that house with you.”
He had no idea what that really meant. Did that mean she loved him? Or that she thought she could live in Bull House and put up with him? Those weren’t the same thing, and Ward knew it. Mister lived with and put up with Ward. They weren’t sharing their lives with each other. They weren’t building anything together.
Ward wanted to share his life with Dot. He wanted to build a relationship and a life with her. A family.
His phone rang, and Ward blinked his way out of his thoughts. “It’s Ace.” He answered the phone and went with Dot around to the front of the truck. She got behind the wheel as he said, “What’s up, bro?”
“Where are you with that feed? It’s all we need to be done.”
“Comin’ now.”
“You got sidetracked by that pretty woman, didn’t you?”
“No.”
“Did I interrupt you kissin’ her?” Ace teased.
“No,” Ward said again. He got in the passenger seat and nodded to Dot. “It’s too cold to kiss outside anyway. We do all of that indoors.” He grinned at Dot as Ace threw laughter into the sky.
“Wow, Ward,” Ace said, still chuckling. “You aren’t shy.”
“Nope,” he said.
“So it’s serious with Dot.”
Ward looked out the window at the trees as they gave way to the rest of the ranch. “I mean, yeah. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Didn’t she break-up with you a while back?”
“We did just get back together, yes,” Ward said coolly. “But I think I’m growing on her.” He turned toward her, and Dot rolled her eyes, her grin a mile wide.
“You’re not a fungus, Ward. Don’t say stuff like that,” Ace teased.
“Okay, Mother. I see you. I’m hanging up.” He did just that.
Dot parked in front of the group of cowboys, Ace included, and they started unpacking the feed from the bed. “Why do you always call your mom Mother?”
Ward looked at her in surprise. “Uh, I don’t know. We just do. Daddy called her Mother. I grew up calling her Mother.”
“It’s very formal.”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“I don’t want to be called Mother.”
Ward gaped at her.
“Doesn’t feel like it fits. Does it?”
“No,” he said, hoping that was the right answer.
“Maybe Mom or Ma. I like Ma. Very old west.”
“Ma?” Ward repeated, sure she was joking. They laughed in the same instant, and Ward knew she was kidding then. They got out of the truck to help with the feed, and the whole time, all Ward could think about was how well he and Dot got along.
They’d had some rough patches here and there. She wouldn’t