“Sure,” she said. “You’re a good-looking guy, Spence. And you work hard, and you’re smart. Why wouldn’t someone want to go out with you?” Just because they all worked crazy hours at the ranch didn’t mean he couldn’t sneak away and go to dinner with someone. It was hard to meet people on the ranch, Emma could acknowledge that. It was also why this job and life appealed to her so much. She rarely interacted with people she didn’t already know, and in a lot of ways, that provided an extra layer of protection from her past that she really craved.
“You didn’t want to,” he mumbled, and Emma’s heartbeat skipped over itself.
“That’s because of me, not you,” she said as casually as she could, focusing back on the group where Ted stood. Really, she just focused on Ted. If he asked her to dinner…Emma almost spontaneously combusted just thinking about it.
Of course, she wouldn’t go. She’d say no, just like she had to Spencer. They hadn’t met, and Emma didn’t date. The end.
She told herself that for the rest of the party, never more relieved than when the cowboys started heading out the door to get their evening chores done.
“I’ll show you your room,” Nate said, heading for the exit with Ted in tow. Emma stayed in the kitchen, because she mostly manned the kitchen too, and she’d start cleaning up before she wandered back into the office to finish…whatever she needed to do that day.
She didn’t know, because her mind blanked as Ted looked her way and their eyes met. He reached up with his left hand and touched the brim of that sexy cowboy hat, clearly saying good-bye to her without having to use his voice.
Emma froze to the spot and watched him go, his gait easy and casual. Nothing inside Emma felt easy and casual as her whole body throbbed with her pulse now.
“Okay,” Ginger said, appearing in front of her. “I’m headed out too. Thanks for putting all of this together for Ted.” She hugged Emma, and Emma wished she could relax into the embrace. Ginger had always made her feel so safe and so loved, and it was literally because of the auburn-haired beauty that Emma had survived after she’d had Missy.
“All right,” Emma said. “I know Bill kept good records in the stables for you.”
“Yeah.” Ginger stepped back and sighed. “I always feel behind.”
“You were gone for the weekend,” Emma said. “You’re allowed to leave the ranch sometimes.” She picked up the lid to a container of ranch dip—store bought—and clicked it into place. “Did you and Nate and Connor have a good visit with his family?”
“Yeah,” Ginger said slowly. “It was good. I think his family was surprised he’d gotten engaged so quickly.”
“We were all a little surprised by that,” Emma said, glancing at Ginger. “And I was because of you, Ginger.”
“I know.” Ginger looked toward the back door, where the cowboys had gone. “I do love him, though.”
“Mm.” Emma turned to put the cold items in the refrigerator. “What are you going to do? Build another house here? Get a place in town?” She lived in this house with Ginger right now, as did Jess, and three other women—Hannah, Michelle, and Jill. Sometimes, one of Ginger’s sisters needed a place to stay too, and she’d come to the West Wing.
“I haven’t decided,” she said. “I think build another house here. We have plenty of land, and then we can basically call this the administration building and bunks.” She looked at Emma. “Has a nice ring to it, right?”
“Nice,” Emma agreed with a smile.
“I could move the cowboys out into the cabins on the ranch,” she said. “And we’ve got those two in the corner as well.”
“But then where would we put the guests?” Emma asked.
Ginger frowned. “We could build more cabins.”
“Are your parents still considering living in one of those cabins in the corner of the yard?” Emma managed a lot for Ginger, and she didn’t mind reminded her of the things her boss and best friend didn’t keep in her head.
“Yeah,” Ginger said. “I need to talk to them about that. Those cabins haven’t been lived in for a while.” She looked at Emma with hope in her eyes. “Maybe with some creative shuffling, Nate and I could live in the Annex.”
“Another possibility,” Emma said. “You’d have to talk to Hannah about the accounting if you’re going to build or take away revenue from the guest cabins.” Hannah worked on the ranch about seventy-five percent of the time. Other than that, she did the bookkeeping and taxes for the ranch. She oversaw the global money management, while Emma did more of the day-to-day expenses and payroll.
“It would be like five or six more buildings if we built.” Ginger shook her head. “I don’t want that many new buildings. We still want people to come here for a true wildlife experience.” She smiled at Emma and shrugged. “I need to think more about this, but I’ve got to run. See you later.”
“Yeah, bye.” Emma kept cleaning up after Ginger left, her mind moving at ten times the speed of her hands. Hope Eternal Ranch was fifteen hundred acres of wetlands, meadows, natural lakes, trees that grew along the riverbanks, and brush land. People came here for hunting, fishing, bird-watching, to gather and buy honey, to see the butterflies as they migrated south, and so much more.
They made their living on tourists—and the horseback riding lessons they did. So many horseback riding lessons, and Emma suddenly remembered what she needed to get done that day.
Invoices for the almost two hundred horseback riding accounts the ranch had.
A sigh pulled through her body, and she really just wanted to wander down the dirt lane behind the house until she came to the border of the ranch, where the Mission River flowed.
“Later,” she muttered to herself as she put the last of the chocolate cake under foil and moved toward the office. As
