The Delivery of Decor (Shiloh Ridge Ranch in Three Rivers #7) - Liz Isaacson Page 0,113

native plants, so we’re going to dinner tonight.”

“I’m invited to that?”

“I’m inviting you right now,” she said. “Fair warning, Tyson’s gonna be there, and so is my sister. She’s coming from Amarillo with her husband.”

“Oh, boy,” Ward said, chuckling. “Won’t Tyson feel awkward without someone with him?”

“Hmm, I’ll call him and tell him to invite Melanie.”

“The woman he hasn’t even been out with yet? To a family dinner for your dad’s birthday?” Ward shook his head. “Bad move, Dot.”

They laughed together, and Ward agreed to pick her up at six so they could get to the restaurant on time to meet her family. When he turned back to Ranger and Mister, he said, “The delivery is eight days away. Can I call an emergency planning meeting to make sure this proposal goes exactly right?”

Ranger lifted his phone. “I’ve got Bear, Bishop, Ace, Etta, Ida, Mister, Preacher, and Judge on this text.”

“And me,” Ward said. “And Cactus.”

“So the only person you’re not going to invite is Zona?” Mister asked. “She won’t like that.”

“Put it on the family string,” Ward said. “I’ll take all the help I can get.” He was sure he was going to regret that, knowing the women now in this family, but Ward really did want to pull out all the stops for Dot when she came to the ranch for the delivery.

And twenty heads had to be better than one…right?

Chapter Thirty-Five

Dot could barely get Brutus around the turn that led across the eastern part of what used to be the lawn at the Ranch House. The main road that went right by the homestead still hadn’t been fixed, though progress had been made.

Someone had come to clear the debris and start making the road bed again. She knew it couldn’t be done overnight, not if the people driving on the road wanted it to last and be right, and of course, the Glovers wanted everything to be right and last forever.

“Come on,” she said, cranking the wheel so hard to the left that Brutus groaned and the steering wheel shivered beneath her fingers. “There you go,” she said as she made it around the sharp turn. “Good boy, Brutus.”

She hadn’t brought George with her today, because she really just wanted to have Ward feed her something warm and delicious and then kiss her for an hour or two. She hadn’t seen him since Sunday when he’d accompanied her home after the sermon and heated up lunch for the two of them.

He’d stayed that afternoon, and there had been plenty of kissing. Dot smiled just thinking about the tall, dark cowboy, and she rumbled to a stop in front of Bull House a few minutes later.

She called Ward as she slipped from the truck to the ground, and he answered with, “I’m so sorry, Dot, but we’ve got an issue out in the hay loft. Do you wanna come out here for a few minutes? Then I promise lunch will be ready, and you can drop that gravel on the road out to the Edge. I’ll have my cowboys move it.”

“Sure,” Dot said, facing the house and catching a whiff of something browned and meaty. He’d put something in the oven or slow cooker, and her stomach growled at her to find it and eat it before she went out to the hay loft. “I’ll see you in a minute.”

She rounded the truck and started the walk to the loft. It sat to the southwest, on the other side of the cowboy cabins in the middle of all the outbuildings. It was probably a decent fifteen-minute walk, but Dot took her time, so it would likely take her twenty minutes to get there.

The breeze up in the hills played with her hair, and Dot adjusted her sunglasses on her nose. Shiloh Ridge Ranch was a gorgeous piece of property, with owners who knew how to take care of things. Every building was in good repair, and those that weren’t got fixed quickly. She passed several cowboys and a couple of cowgirls working with horses and cleaning out the stables. They all acknowledged her happily, and Dot did like the familial atmosphere up here.

“Dot,” someone called, and she turned toward the male voice. Cactus jogged toward her. “Can you come look at this with me?”

“I guess,” she said, wondering what in the world the veterinarian would need her to look at.

He grinned at her and gestured for her to follow him. She did, going past a couple of hen