arose every time Tanya was around her best friend wasn’t going away. Now she needed to figure out how to get Brady to see her as a viable option. If she managed that, it’d eliminate at least some of the risk so she could broach the subject of crossing lines. Although if she thought too much about confessing her feelings, she was seriously going to puke, so one step at a time.
The screen door to the main cabin where she and her parents lived screeched open, and Tanya slammed the book closed, jammed it into the envelope, and tucked it behind her back. If Mom so much as caught a glimpse, she’d do a praise-the-Lord dance before pointing out the dating tips she thought Tanya should pay extra attention to. Namely any that highlighted acting more like a lady.
“Mornin’,” Mom said, squinting against the early-morning rays as she held the steaming cup of coffee in her hands. “Did the Crawfords already check out?”
As if he assumed Mom meant the question for him, Winston let out a loud bleat. His buck teeth gave him a perpetual grin, and affection flooded Tanya as she petted his furry head. “They hit the road right as the sun was rising. They also left their regards and wanted me to tell you how much they enjoyed their stay.”
“Good, good.”
Winston twisted his head so Tanya could give the underside of his chin attention. Due to her rep as the bleeding heart of the county when it came to animals, she’d gotten a call saying the goat’s previous owners were going to put him down in favor of amputating his leg and ended up driving over an hour to rescue him. In spite of Tanya footing the hefty vet bill herself, Pops had been upset she hadn’t asked before bringing Winston to the dude ranch. Luckily, the goat was a hit with the guests, although Pops made her promise to rehome him once he was fully healed.
In her mind, “fully healed” meant until his leg grew back—so never. “Ready to go clean up a cabin? No eating the pillowcases this time, though. In fact, it’s probably for the best if you stay outside.”
“You let him inside the cabins?” Mom asked, exasperation lighting the green eyes Tanya had inherited from her.
Considering she did the majority of the cleaning, Tanya figured it wasn’t a big deal as long as the end result was the same. Good thing her parents hadn’t caught her sneaking Winston inside her bedroom when he’d first arrived, leaving her feeling like the rebellious teenager her parents had often accused her of being. “Er, I mean you have to stay outside like you always do.”
Tanya rubbed the goat’s fuzzy ear, her voice more on the cooing than reprimanding side. “Shame on you for even asking, Winston.”
Pops stepped out of the house, and Tanya crossed her fingers he hadn’t heard the conversation and that Mom wouldn’t go and enlighten him. Eventually, she and her parents would inevitably butt heads over Winston staying for good, but she’d point out how much she enjoyed having him tag along as she went about her chores and how good he was with the horses and guests, and fingers crossed, Pops would give in. “What’s everyone standin’ around for? We’re burning daylight.”
It was the mantra she’d awoken to at 7:00 a.m. countless times throughout the years. Dad was gruff, didn’t show any “mushy emotions,” and ran things the old-school way. The cowboy way, as he referred to it, and Tanya had been around cowboys enough to know it held true. Even Brady kept most things surface level. Frustration bubbled up, as it often did when Pops acted like she required micromanaging. No matter how hard she worked to prove she’d come a long way in her twenty-nine years, he’d always see her as the rash and slightly wild girl she’d been in high school.
When Mom had been justifiably worried Pops would work himself into an early grave, Tanya gave up the remainder of her hard-earned scholarship and returned home to help keep the dude ranch running. Sometimes she wondered what would’ve happened if she had stayed for the four years she’d planned on, but it didn’t much matter in the long run. Although a part of her still couldn’t stop searching for what she wanted to be when she grew up, Silver Springs offered the secure, logical path. Not only was it her home, but Brady was here.
Tingles coursed over her skin