Okay, maybe it wasn’t starting to get old. It had been a long time since it had started to get to me. I glanced over my shoulder as Shane joined me outside. A smile touched my lips as I grabbed his hand in mine.
“What do you have in mind?” he asked.
“Depends on what you want to do with me.” I grinned as I watched his eyes sparkle.
“How about a hike?”
“Sounds like it could be a lot of fun.”
I let him lead the way as we walked side by side, our hands together. He pulled me close to him and placed a kiss on my cheek. My heart skipped.
“Shane.” I didn’t know if I was ready to have this conversation or not, but I knew it was going to happen now. I started it, I’m not going to stop. “We need to talk about our relationship, or whatever the fuck you want to call it. I don’t care, really.”
He stopped in the middle of the path, jerking me to a halt along with him.
“What is it?”
“Well … I just mean …” This was a bad idea, I thought. It was too late. I needed to just get it out there. “I need to know what’s going on. Is this a relationship? Is it … I don’t know. Is it just fucking?”
He was the one who wanted to go on dates, right? Did that mean he wanted it to be a relationship? Did that mean he was looking for a partner, or was it just some tactic he used to get in my pants? I had no fucking clue. I need at least a clue.
“Do you want to just fuck?”
I stared at him. “That’s not the point! I was asking you what you wanted this to be.”
“Well, I think it’s only fair we both get a say,” he teased. Then, all hint of humor left. “I want a relationship, Gabby. I always intended on this being a relationship. Nothing less.”
My heart raced as he said the words. Was this for real? Did he actually mean it?
I forced myself to take a deep breath. He wouldn’t lie. I was sure he wasn’t the kind to lie. I pulled him close to me and wrapped my arms around his neck as I kissed him. My lips crashed against his, the kiss consuming us quickly.
His hands traced over the curves of my body, never staying one place too long. My teeth grazed his lower lip, and a soft groan passed through his mouth as his fingers pressed into my skin. Oh god.
I was having a hard time processing everything. My blood raced as he pulled away from me. We stared at each other. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I took a deep breath and tried again.
“I… I …” I tried, but I couldn’t string together a sentence. So I just gave up, and I didn’t say anything. I pulled him into my arms and kissed him again.
Four Months Later
I stepped out of the black BMW and looked around. It felt good to be home. I mean, really home. Not back where I grew up, but actually home. Where I lived now. With Shane. I couldn’t wait to get out of this dress.
“I don’t think it went too badly,” he said.
I nodded. He was right, it hadn’t gone very badly at all. Everyone had liked him except my uncle, but he didn’t like anyone to begin with. So I wasn’t too worried about him. Instead, I was focused on the fact that everyone else had loved Shane.
I grabbed my backpack from the back seat and followed Shane into the room we were sharing. We were looking for a place of our own, but at this point it was beginning to look like it was going to be easier to just build a place near the ranch than actually buy one.
I dropped the backpack on the floor and sighed. “I have to be honest, I didn’t think my grandmother was going to let you out of there.”
Shane laughed one of his loud laughs. “Oh, you don’t even know the half of it.”
I groaned trying not to think of all the horrid things my grandmother could have said to him. “I don’t even want to know.” I have to admit, I did kinda want to know. I knew whatever things she had said to him would horrify me, though.
I dropped down on the bed as Shane walked over to me. He sat down beside me and touched my hand. “They all seem nice. This was a big step for us.”
Now we both knew each other’s family, and that was a big deal to me. I hadn’t met anyone else’s family, but that wasn’t saying much. I hadn’t had many relationships that had gotten serious.
Shane’s hand moved somewhere else, higher up. My heart stuttered. We had been surrounded by my family for a week, and that meant we hadn’t had much time alone, or at least much naked time alone. His fingers tangled into my hair as he pulled me close, the kiss growing hungrier by the second.
Knock, knock.
My heart skipped a beat as he pulled away from me with a sigh. “I’d better get that.”
“You could just make them go away,” I whined.
He laughed. “No, they have keys and they might decide to try and get in on the action.”
“Ew!”
He said it loud enough so the others could hear because I heard three men and two girls laugh.
Shane reached the door and pulled it open. “Hey, guys.”
“We wanted to come get you before the action started,” Sarah said. She was the one I knew the best. “We’re going for a hike. It would be nice if you two could join us.”
“Sure, sounds good.”
I felt my heart drop. I hadn’t wanted him to say yes. I would have much rather he said no and we could spend the afternoon in bed. But I wasn’t going to be the type of girlfriend who made him change his mind after he already agreed to something.
I forced myself to get off the bed and walked over to the door, thankful my shoes were still on. If I’d taken them off, I might consider being that annoying girlfriend who ruins everything. I smirked at my own thought as my arm hooked around Shane’s.
“A hike sounds fun. Just let me change.” It wasn’t a lie. A hike and my friends did sound like fun, just not as much fun as it would be for me to stay in bed with Shane.
“Oh, but that dress is so cute.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t want it to get damaged or anything.” I turned toward the bedroom, but Shane grabbed my wrist.
“Just wear it. It’s cute, and I’ll buy you a new one if you wreck it.”
My brow furrowed. Shane wasn’t the type to encourage me to wear a dress he knew I was going to get dirty. But I was too tired to question it, so I just shrugged. “Okay, fine.” I guess … I mean, what was I going to do? Argue with him about it? No.
“Great!” Alex grinned.
As Shane and I stepped out of our room and joined the group, we headed for one of the hills. This one, if I knew the trails as well as I thought I did, led towards the fishing pond Sarah and Ken liked to use.
Shane pulled me close, his lips touching my cheek as his grin widened. I watched him carefully. What is going on with him? I wondered as we made our way along.
“So, how was the family?”
“It wasn’t bad,” Shane spoke before I could. I had to agree with him. “It took a little while for everyone to warm up to me, well, except her grandfather.”
I laughed loudly. My grandfather was just happy to have someone else around that he could talk to who hadn’t heard all of his stories.
“And Shane did such a good job pretending to be interested in everything everyone told him.” It was true, he had even almost convinced me. And I knew what he was like. I knew him better than most people did.
“Was I that bad? Did you really know I was lying about it?”
“I thought some of the times you were,” I admitted, pulling myself closer to him and placing a kiss on the top of his shoulder. He laughed as his arm wrapped around me and squeezed me gently.
“Do you think they realized?”
“Oh god, no,” I admitted. There is no way my family realized he was full of shit. Honestly, they were all probably just so happy I’d brought a guy home. “My grandma wouldn’t shut up about the fact that I’d brought someone home. She’s been waiting for this to happen since I was, like, fifteen years old.” I think my family would have been happy to have me bring any
one home to meet them.
We made our way through the wooded area. There wasn’t much of it at the ranch, but we were trying to change that. The additional rooms were now almost done and they were booking up faster than any of the guys had thought they would. Personally, I wasn’t surprised.
The wind whipped around me as we started to head down the hill. It’s funny, with my grandma in the city now, it really did feel totally different than being out here. I inhaled a deep breath of the fresh air.
Shane
This was it, and I couldn’t believe it was finally happening. I had thought about it the whole way home, and I decided the old lady was right, I needed to do this and now was the best time to do it. I had thought about it the night of, but being in front of her family … well, it just seemed wrong to do it like that.
So, now here I was.
I wonder if she’ll be upset I waited.
I pulled her close to me and looked her up and down. A soft smile touched my lips, but I wasn’t sure I was happy. I honestly didn’t know how to feel.
I caught Ken’s eye. He gave me a wide smile. “You okay?” he mouthed. I nodded, then risked a glance at Gabby to see if she had noticed the interaction. She hadn’t, thankfully.
“Do you plan on going to see the family again any time soon?” Alex asked.
“No,” we both said quickly. Gabby glanced at me and laughed. “Don’t get me wrong, I love my family, but they are a fucking pain in the ass.”
“They were nice,” I said. I bit my lip, thinking about it. They had all welcomed me and made me feel like I was at home. “None of them went out of their way to be mean to me or anything. And your family makes the best ribs I’ve had in a very long time.”
Gabby laughed. “It’s my family’s secret recipe.”
“Do I get to know the secret?”
“Well … only if you become family,” she said tentatively. There was something in her voice I couldn’t quite pinpoint. Maybe this is a bad idea.
I’d tried to hint at it a couple of times, but she wasn’t going to give anything away that told me where she stood. So right now, I was left with only one option. It will be fine. At the very least I would tell myself that. I would pretend things were going to be okay and I wasn’t worried shitless about what I was going to do.
I’ll have that family recipe soon, I thought with a wide grin. It wouldn’t be much, I mean really it was just a recipe. But it was the idea of it that mattered to me more than anything else.
“How was the ranch while I was gone?”
“It was fine. Nothing we couldn’t manage. Although, I think we saw some dog tracks near the house,” Ken said.
“Dog tracks?” That didn’t sound good.
“That’s what we’re hoping they were.”
“No shit.” I blew out a deep breath. If there were coyotes running around that would be bad for everyone. The horses included. I hope it’s just someone letting their dog wander off.
We made our way toward the river. Would they have everything set up? The water line came into sight and there was nothing there I’d mentioned.
My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach. What if they had failed me? I can’t be mad at them. I asked for so much in such a short amount of time.
Then I saw it. Two people stood by the waterfront.
“Oh, we have guests?” Gabby asked, glancing over toward Alex.
“I didn’t tell you.”
I couldn’t tell if he meant it to sound like a question or not, but to me it didn’t. Mostly because I was in the loop.
Gabby
I didn’t get it. There was something off about the way Alex spoke to me. And he wouldn’t make eye contact, either.
The couple turned to look at us, their cameras moving away from the water. “Hi!” a woman called. She stepped away from the man she was with and headed toward us.
“How are you doing?” Josh called to them.
“Not too bad. It’s gorgeous out here, don’t you think?” By now the man had joined the girl in heading toward us. They fell into stride with each other, and judging by how close they walked, they were together.
“It’s one of my favorite spots,” Shane said softly, and I wasn’t sure if it was for me to hear or for the rest of them to hear.
“I think it’s beautiful,” I said as he squeezed my hand gently. I caught his eye out of the corner of mine.
“I love you,” he mouthed.
My heart skipped and my breath caught in my chest. I smiled. “I love you, too,” I mouthed back. His smile widened and he pulled me close to him, a soft kiss touched my cheek. I don’t even think anyone noticed it. “I wish we could have stayed in the room,” I whispered, hoping the wind didn’t carry my voice.
“Later. I promise I will make you scream.”
His words left me breathless again, this time not for the same reason. I mentally shook myself. There were others around right now and I had to be good. I cleared my throat and forced myself to tune back into what was going on in the real world.
“We were just having a picnic, would you like to join us?”
“Would we be interrupting?”
“No, please! Join us, we’ve got lots of food.”
And they were right, everyone except Shane and I had a backpack. “I am a little hungry,” the woman said with a wide grin.
~~~~
We all unloaded and started unpacking. We decided to put the blankets by the water to sit down, and the fishing rods came out for those who fished. I’d rather hold a different rod, I thought, silently laughing at myself. I’d wait until Shane and I were alone to tell him that one. I was sure he would get a laugh out of it.
There was more than enough food. Honestly, there was so much of it I could hardly believe it. Popcorn, salads, all types of sandwiches and baked goods. There was everything you could ever want, and I was totally into it. Despite the fact I’d had so much to eat during the time we were with my family, I was always down for a good picnic with better friends.
The couple who joined us was named John and Karla. They both seemed really nice; as it turned out they were out here for work. They were photographers by trade, and they came out to get some pictures of the scenery. “And anything else we might find interesting along the way,” John said with a wide grin.
His eyes darted to me, and for a split second I didn’t know how to feel. Did I just imagine him checking me out? I didn’t dare ask about it, because maybe it had been all in my head. I mean, he wasn’t going to check me out while his girlfriend was sitting right there, right?
I cleared my head and stood, heading for the water. We had all long since taken our shoes off. As I padded over to where Ken and Sarah were fishing, they glanced at me.
“Look!” Ken pointed into the water. “Did you see that one? I think he headed over there.” He pulled his fishing rod out of the water and headed away from me. My brow furrowed. I tried not to take it personally as both of them walked away from me, but I still felt a little hurt. I’d come over to chat with them, and they just up and walked away.
“What’s up?”
I turned to see Shane coming toward me. He stopped a little way from me. His feet weren’t in the water.
“Nothing, just thinking. You?”
“I was thinking, too.” I watched as he looked away from me, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I was thinking about us, actually. And the time we spent with your family.”
Why did I have the feeling this was going somewhere? I didn’t say it though. I just sat there and waited.
I felt everyone’s eyes on me. My cheeks flushed. Say something! I thought. I wasn’t sure if I meant him or me, but all I knew was I hated standing here and feeling everyone staring. I just wanted to move on. But I couldn’t move and even though I tried to say something, I couldn’t. I didn’t even know what I wanted to say.
“I just mean … I really got to know them, and I got to know you, and I enjoyed that, but it got me thinking a lot and this �
�� our relationship … well …”
Shane
This wasn’t going how I wanted it to. My tongue was tied and I didn’t know what to say. I just kept rambling. I sucked in a deep breath and refocused.
“Look, Gabby … what I’m trying to say is that I love you. A lot.”
I bit my lip nervously as I stepped back with one foot. It had all happened when I sat down to talk with her grandmother. She had asked me if I was going to marry her Gabby, and I had said I wanted to. So she gave me the family ring right then and there.
In that family, you didn’t ask the father’s permission. You asked for the grandmother’s, and if she thought you were good enough, she would give you the ring that her great-great grandmother had been given.
Over the years it had changed hands a lot. And now it was Gabby’s turn. Maybe.
In one swift movement, I dropped to one knee and pulled the box out of my pocket.
Gabby
My entire chest tightened. I couldn’t breathe for a fraction of a second as I watched Shane get down on one knee. Holy shit. Holy shit.
What was I going to say?
We hadn’t talked about this at all. We hadn’t even started to talk about it. But I knew that little pink velvet box. It had been in my family for years. I couldn’t fucking believe it.
“Gabby, will you marry me?”
I stared down at Shane, still processing his question. Yes! I wanted to scream, but … should I really say yes to him? Maybe it wouldn’t be the best for us. We hardly knew each other after all. But … I loved him.
His eyes dropped.
Shit. No wonder he looked sad. I was leaving him waiting. I wanted to say yes.
I didn’t want to sit here and worry about our future. So don’t.
“Of course,” I whispered.
The second the words came out, it felt right. I knew I was happy I’d said them.
Shane grinned widely as he jumped to his feet and pulled me into his arms. Our lips crashed together. Our kiss was soft, and our eyes locked when he pulled away and opened the box.
The Billionaire's Fake Marriage: A Single Dad Next Door Romance Page 44
