chill of the morning caressed her face.
Up ahead, Mikey pushed through the trees with a confident stride, his huge shoulders swaying as he moved, his muscular arms swinging freely. As soon as he laid eyes on her, his gaze stuck. It was still obvious he was on the verge of rushing.
“Good morning, baby. How did you sleep?” he asked as he got closer.
“Great, actually, I—” She cut off as he swung her up into his arms for a tight hug. His lips found hers, tender and sweet.
He set her down gently, only allowing a few inches between them. “You scared the hell out of me last night. I thought you’d go back to him.”
She felt up his chest and scanned his handsome face. “I was just so happy that he validated me. I wasn’t thinking.”
Mikey’s lips met hers again. “I love you. Will you move in with me?”
“No. Not yet. I want to date for a while. I want to be taken out and doted on.”
A grin curved Mikey’s full lips. “Easy. Date number one will be tonight. I’ll pick you up at, what, eight? Seven?”
“Seven thirty.”
“Great. How formal? Tux? Suit? Texan suit? Birthday suit?”
Giggles erupted in her chest and bubbled out of her mouth. “What’s a Texan suit?”
“Jeans and a nice shirt for me. Whatever you want to wear for you. You’ll look beautiful in anything.”
She slipped her arms around his waist and leaned against his chest. “I don’t want to move in with you, but I’m not opposed to staying at your house sometimes.”
“Like tonight, maybe?” He laughed, dropping his arms around her. “I do want to talk about the future, though. We need to figure out what happens after this summer gig. Where you want to go, and if it’s not here, how I’ll try to… make that work.”
She backed up to look at his face. Those spun-honey eyes showered her in love. “You’d give up all this if I wanted to move?”
“We belong together. We’ll never be happy apart. So if you have to leave, if you don’t want to stay, then I’ll need to follow. It’ll take some doing, but I can figure it out.”
“Huh.”
He smiled. “Let’s go talk to Dan and May. We need to figure out what we can do about Duke. They are loyal to their staff, so they won’t want to let him go.”
“And you think we can convince them?”
“We have to try.”
* * *
It was widely believed that Mikey was the star attraction to the ranch. He brought in a horde of people every summer to take his survival classes. The cost for the classes rose, and still they were sold out. Fees got higher, with only special days for those less fortunate, and the ranch had to continually offer more classes. When it came to pulling weight, he had a bunch to pull.
And then there was Sara. If anything, those four days of her absence, after only a month in her newly created operational position, shouldn’t have left much of a mark. Instead, three orders had been wrong, staff became confused, lessons started late, and supplies ended up in the wrong place. In short, it went right back to normal—the old normal. It was universally accepted that the old normal was for the birds, and Sara had a position for as long as she wanted it. May and Dan made this clear shortly after Sara and Mikey walked into the office.
May and Dan also made it clear that they hated to think the worst of anyone. Mikey had a huge pull, and Sara had hers as well. They had Duke’s note, and Duke’s reputation, but the older couple still shook their heads in disbelief. It eventually took Jake to put his foot down to drive the point home. And that was with Sara explaining the liability issues in a mistake this huge. She could sue—she wouldn’t, she had rushed to say—but she could. If this were to happen again, and worse had happened… Well…
And he totally planned it! Open your eyes, people!
Finally, after two hours of convincing, May and Dan finally agreed to let Duke go at the end of the season. He could finish out his job, but would not be welcome back. Noah, a very promising ranch hand, would step up in his place—as soon as Mikey was sure that Noah truly did not know it was a setup.
“Oh, and one more thing,” Mikey said as they were getting ready to leave.
May and Dan paused in polite