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)
I bit down on my lower lip. “You feel like getting wild with me, cowboy?”
He slid his hand around my neck and drew me to his mouth and whispered, “Wilde is our last name.”
Vivianne
Christmas Eve, Seventeen Years Later
Nat King Cole played in the background as Emeline, my youngest daughter, who had turned ten a few months back, played Santa this year. She handed out everyone’s gifts with a bright smile on her face.
I sat back and watched as each sibling thanked her. Her dark brown hair, which she got from her father, was cut in a short bob, and those brilliant blue eyes sparkled with delight as she moved from sibling to sibling. She may not look like me, but she was still my mini-me. Obsessed with horses, a heart for philanthropy, and her dream was to become a teacher, just like her mother.
Once all the gifts were passed out, we drew names to determine who would open their gifts first. Caden won the draw. He was our oldest and, like his sister, the spitting image of his father. Dark brown hair and eyes the color of the sky. They were darker than Ladd’s eyes and so stunningly beautiful, I had to sometimes remind myself they weren’t contacts.
Caden opened his first gift, the one from Emeline. It was a new pair of working gloves. He stood and walked over to her, kissing her on the cheek. That was my Caden. He loved big, with his whole heart, and wore his emotions on his sleeve. He’d been dating the same girl, Rachel, since they were freshmen. He’d worked all summer doing extra chores so he could buy her a necklace she said she wanted. If they stayed together, Rachel would be one very pampered young lady.
Then you had the second youngest, Gatlin. Oh, how he reminded me of his uncle David. He lived for the ranch, and from the time he could read, he’d devoured anything to do with cattle, ranching, and how to be a cowboy. He was my wild Wilde child, who got that from his father. He was the first of my kids to break a bone while trying to rappel out of their tree house. My little adventurer, always up for anything fun and exciting. He also had a white cowboy hat that matched his father’s favorite.
My gaze moved to my second oldest, Ensley. When she was six years old, she snuck out of her bed, turned off the house alarm, and made her way to the barn so she could sleep with her favorite horse, Cupcake, because she’d heard wolves howling in the distance. Never mind the horse was tucked away in her stall, safe and sound.
I nearly had a heart attack when I couldn’t find her. It was Caden who’d found her, warning her that if she didn’t get back to bed, she’d never be allowed to see the horses again. They somehow managed to sneak back into the house while Ladd and I were frantically searching, then tried to convince me she’d been there the entire time.
It wasn’t until Ladd had found her pillow and blanket in Cupcake’s stall that we discovered where she’d been. She and Caden were thick as thieves, even back then, and there was no way he’d have ratted out his little sister. They’d do anything to protect one another—and apparently, that included lying to Ladd and me.
I grinned as I watched Ensley sit on her new saddle, pretending she was about to rope a calf. Her motto was, if a boy can do it, she could do it five times better. And most of the time, she was right.
Once everyone’s presents had been opened, it was time to watch a movie. Each year, the kids got to pick which movie we’d watch on Christmas Eve. Tomorrow, we’d make our way to Gus and Nellie’s from our house on the other side of the ranch. We’d lived in the hunter’s cabin for three years after we got married, until we realized we were quickly outgrowing the little place. We tore the cabin down and repurposed almost all of it for the house we built on that same spot.
I loved our two-story house. It had five bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms. It was a ranch-style home, and we opted not to go with a wraparound porch, and instead chose a large back deck that offered a view of the southern mountain range, which overlooked the BLM land in the distance that had once belonged to the ranch.
The main barn was now located on our side of the ranch, and was where they handled everything for the cattle operation. The original cattle barn was torn down years ago. The horse barn was still near the main ranch house, and had been expanded over the years. There was now an outdoor arena adjacent to the indoor one, where we still held the annual Wilde Christmas Morning.