Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
“Does she work for the ranch or does she have another job?”
“She does all the bookkeeping for the ranch. That’s something I plan on doing once I get out of school. She’s been showing me the ropes the last few summers when I’m home.”
“You don’t like doing the manual labor stuff?”
“I love doing it, but running the ranch isn’t my dream, as I mentioned.”
“What about your three brothers?”
Ladd sighed. “David plans on staying and working the ranch alongside my father. Mike and Jason, I’m not sure. They’re still in high school. Jason’s a senior this year and has big dreams of playing football in college. Mike is a mini version of my dad, so I’d honestly be surprised if he went to college. My parents will want him to, but I could see him preferring to dive into working alongside Dad.”
I wrapped my arms around my body and stared out the glass windows of the sunroom at the view in front of me. Snow-covered pastures seemed to go on forever with the mountains in the distance. It was so beautiful it looked fake.
“Did you need to unpack anything in your room?” Ladd asked.
“I do have a couple of dresses I brought for the Christmas Eve church service, and Christmas Day. I should unpack those.”
He took my hand in his and led us back upstairs.
“Do I get to see your bedroom?” I asked, bumping my shoulder into his.
Laughing, he said, “You’re just a couple doors down from me, but this is my room.”
He stopped outside a bedroom door, then opened it. I walked in and smiled. “Why am I not surprised it’s neat, clean, and organized?”
Ladd leaned against the doorframe as I walked around his room.
“You don’t have anything up on your walls.”
“Like what?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, a poster of Duran Duran or something.”
He laughed. “Duran Duran? That’s who you think I should have on my walls?”
I chuckled. “It was the first band I thought of.”
“You couldn’t have said Boston or Foreigner.”
Lifting my hands, I rolled my eyes. “My mistake.”
I sat down on his bed and ran my hand over the Christmas quilt. “Did your mother make this?”
“My grandmother. She made one for all of us when we were younger. Mom puts them on our beds on December first every year.”
Sighing, I looked at him. I wanted to share a bit more about my past and my parents, but how much? With a soft smile, I said, “You’re so lucky you grew up in a normal house with loving parents. My mother and father were always so worried about what other people thought, that our house always looked like it was a show home. Nothing could ever be out of place or heads would roll. I wasn’t even allowed to have friends over to play.”
He frowned. “Did you go to their houses to play?”
I shrugged. “Sometimes. But they had to be approved by my father.”
“The kids?” he asked in a surprised voice.
Shaking my head, I replied, “No, the parents.” I stood. “Enough of my depressing life. I should go unpack before those dresses wrinkle any more.”
Ladd pushed off the doorframe and walked over to me. He cupped my face in his hands and leaned down to brush a soft kiss over my lips. He drew back and rested his forehead against mine.
“I love you, Viv. With my entire heart and soul. You know that, right?”
My hands lifted to his arms, and I squeezed them. “I know, and I love you, too, Ladd. So very much.”
He reached for my hand, and we made our way out of his room and down the hall to the guest bedroom. When he opened the door, I drew in a sharp breath.
The first thing I saw was the large picture window with a view of the mountains in the distance.
“Oh wow!” I said, walking straight to the window. “Look at that view.”
“This part of the house faces east, so if you feel like waking up early, you can get an amazing view of the sunrise. Mom took the previous windows out and had this bigger window put in just because of the view.”
“That was smart of her.”
Turning, I took in the room itself. “Your mother sure knows how to make a guest feel like they’re at a five-star hotel. Ladd, this room is amazing!”
Against the opposite wall from the window was a queen-size bed with a beautiful antique four-poster frame and a canopy. The fabric on the canopy was a pale blue and yellow that draped down each poster. It was fringed with beautiful silver beading.
“That bed is…I don’t even have words for it.”
“The bed came from Scotland. My great-grandmother, Sarah, was from Scotland, and her family brought it over with them when they came to America. She lived in Boston before marrying my great-grandfather, and they moved to Colorado to establish the cattle ranch. The fabric isn’t original, but Mom found a piece of it up in the attic, along with the bed, and had it reproduced.”