scattered about. Tables with long white table cloths held silver place settings and crystal champagne glasses.
He drew his love to the middle seat and then took the chair at his side.
Once seated, Macy turned to him, opened his mouth, but then paused.
“What?” He lifted one slim hand to press a kiss to Macy’s knuckles.
“After this?” Macy squinted. “We need some damned alone time to go on another date.”
The whirlwind of getting their wedding planned and moving into his house in Denver, plus buying a house in Crumpet, had kept them extremely busy over the past few months. Not to mention, they both worked full time. It was no wonder that they hadn’t had the chance to finish their date.
“Deal.” He gave his best one worded answer.
Macy’s tinkling laughter was all the response he needed and everything his heart desired.
THE END
SNEAK PEAK OF CUTTING IT CLOSE
Maddox
If Maddox Stone could have walked away and given it all up in that very moment, he would have. But that wasn’t a luxury he could afford.
He drew a deep breath and let it out hard before he spoke between his teeth.
“I don’t give a damn why you did it, you should have asked me first.” He scowled at his business partner.
Bull Seeger frowned back. “I own half this ranch!”
He gave the man a narrowed look. “This ranch wouldn’t even be solvent if it weren’t for my grandfather.”
“Well, thanks for that.” Bull’s face filled with hurt.
Not wanting to be pulled into Bull’s manipulation, he steeled himself against the hurt in the old man’s eyes. If he didn’t get a handle on Bull’s erratic spending, the guy was going to be out of a home.
“The truth hurts.”
“You know what, Maddox? You can go to hell,” Bull said and stomped slowly into the living room. The cane held tightly by a gnarled hand thumped on the floor.
With an overly long sigh, he stalked after the cranky old coot. “Look. I really don’t have time to be running back here every time Triton calls me because you have some half-cocked scheme up your sleeve.”
Bull lowered slowly to the sofa. “Yes. You’re very busy.” The man turned his face away and stared out the wide window that graced one half of the room.
“I am very busy!” He clenched his teeth. “I can’t get back here more than once a year, you know that. I’ll stay until I have this mess sorted out and then I’m gone.”
“Don’t put yourself out,” Bull muttered. “I can handle it.”
“Yeah, I see the way you handled it. We’ll be lucky if we pull out of this one.” He threw up his hands.
Bull flinched but didn’t say another word.
The one thing Maddox had done through the years was support this place. Yet, every time he turned around, he got a call about money problems. Frankly, he was sick of it. With the next few days free, he could look into the problem, but he didn’t always have free time. He was a very busy man. More so than Bull realized.
Striding into the kitchen, his spurs rang on the hardwood floor as he strode past the kitchen table to the back door.
“Jim,” he snapped at the ranch foreman just lifting a forkful of eggs to his mouth. Jim Lancaster had been the Triple R foreman since before his grandfather bought into the ranch. Jim shoved back his chair, the half-eaten food pushed aside.
“Yes sir?”
“I’m headed to the east barn,” he growled on his way out the back door.
The man gulped, grabbed the toast from his plate, his coat from the hook near the door, and followed after him.
Stalking to the main horse barn, he looked over the state of the ranch. As things went, it wasn’t in too bad of shape physically. The landscape around the main house looked good and the structure of the buildings looked sound. The livestock were healthy.
What wasn’t good was the financial aspects of running the place. Every time he turned around, he was having to sink his hard earned money into the place.
“You know…” Jim said, running after him. The older man huffed and puffed a bit when he caught up. “Bull is getting on in years.”
He ignored Jim and yanked open the east barn door and stepped inside.
“He didn’t mean no harm.”
“You’d do well to spend more time doing your job than defending Bull’s actions,” he clipped out.
Jim twisted his cap and nodded before turning away.
He closed his eyes, spun around, and stalked down the long length to the end