The Delivery of Decor (Shiloh Ridge Ranch in Three Rivers #7) - Liz Isaacson Page 0,84

dog. “Up and in.” That was the phrase she used to get George into a vehicle, and he jumped up into the dump truck. She closed the passenger door and turned back to Ward. “I guess this is the end of our little staycation together.”

He smiled at her and opened his arms. Dot stepped straight into them, inhaling the strong, clean, crisp pine scent of his skin.

“I can’t wait to use my own shower,” she said. “Wear my own clothes.”

“I bet,” he said, holding her tight.

Dot already missed him, but she didn’t know how to say so. She did want to go home. She’d been here since Christmas Eve, and tomorrow was New Year’s Eve. She and Ward hadn’t talked about what would happen now. He hadn’t asked her on another date. He hadn’t even said he’d call her later.

“Your crew needs you too,” he said.

“Yeah.” She sighed as she stepped out of his embrace. “I’m headed home to shower, change, and eat, and then I have to get straight over to From the Ground Up. Apparently, we’ve rescheduled a ton of deliveries because Brutus has been calling in sick.” She put a smile on her face, because she didn’t want to act like a needy female in front of Ward Glover.

“You better go then,” he said, reaching for her again. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?” He slid one arm around her as she agreed, and she tipped up to kiss him goodbye.

He kissed her, and Dot felt something different in the stroke of his mouth against hers. She wasn’t sure what it was, because she’d kissed Ward a lot in the past several days. This felt more…intense, in a way Dot wasn’t sure she’d ever felt from a man before, and all she could do was hold on and enjoy the ride.

He finally broke the kiss, his breathing coming quickly. He said nothing, and Dot almost wanted him to say he’d miss her. Or he wished she didn’t have to go.

She missed him already, and she wished she didn’t have to go. In the truck, George barked, and that got Dot to move. “I’ll call you tonight,” she said.

“Okay.”

Dot walked around the front of the truck and got behind the wheel. Brutus started right up, his engine loud and filled with grumbles in the beginning. The main road off the ranch wasn’t fixed yet, and Dot continued in the direction she was facing and went around the corner before she relaxed.

Ward certainly couldn’t see her anymore, and she wasn’t sure how she was feeling. She’d never felt like this before, and she frowned at herself.

Her truck was quite a bit bigger than the regular pick-ups that had been using the makeshift road in the yard of the Ranch House, but she fit just fine. Brutus stumbled over the spot where the yard met the road, but she evened him out easily once they were on the real dirt lane.

“Almost there,” she told the truck and George. And herself. Back around the bend, and then another straightaway that usually led to the road that went up to the ranch and down the highway.

They’d gotten a row of rocks lined up along both sides of the road where the landslide had washed it out, and Bear had started a parking lot in anticipation of needing to use an ATV to get off the ranch to a regular vehicle. But when he’d seen the progress, and that full-sized vehicles could make it down past the Ranch House and then this road, they’d abandoned the idea of a lot.

To be safe, the Glovers had left two pickup trucks in the partial lot anyway, and Dot glanced at them as she made the left-hand turn and headed down the lane to the highway. A sigh of relief filled her lungs, and the drive to her house seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

She fed George real dog food and got him fresh water. She checked her blood sugar, and it was starting to fall. She put a pot of coffee on for herself and she put a toaster waffle in to warm and crisp. She could have the carbs with her sugar where it was, and she even put butter on it and dipped it into some sugar-free syrup.

Once she’d eaten and made sure George was happy, she stepped out of the clothes she’d been wearing for so long, immediately wanting to burn them. Instead, she put them straight into the