Hailey felt her mouth curving in amusement. “Is that anything like asking me to come and see your etchings?” she asked.
Confused, Dillon looked at her blankly. “What?”
She laughed at his bewildered expression and shook her head. Definitely from two different worlds, she thought.
“Never mind,” Hailey said, waving away her question. “I didn’t realize you bought a ranch.”
“Well, technically, I didn’t. Not exactly.” He searched for the right words. “When we first came out to Rambling Rose to check things out, Callum felt we’d feel as if we all had more at stake and in common with the township if we actually lived here, so we bought The Fame and Fortune Ranch. Jointly,” he added. “It belongs to all of us. Callum, Steven, me and Stephanie,” Dillon explained when she didn’t say anything.
“How do you not get in each other’s way living in the same house like that?”
He began to laugh, then realized she might be thinking that he was laughing at her and quickly explained, “I think once you see the place, you won’t think that.”
“Big?” Hailey asked, assuming that it probably had to be, given that it belonged to the Fortunes.
He was honest with her. “It would have to be downsized for that description to fit.” And then he stopped abruptly. “I’m sorry, did that sound like I was bragging?” He didn’t want her thinking that he was one of those wealthy men who enjoyed rubbing other people’s noses in his wealth.
Hailey laughed again. She couldn’t help thinking the man was adorable.
“If anyone else had said that, maybe,” she told him honestly. “But coming from you, no. You were just stating a fact for my benefit.” Taking a breath, she looked up at him, all sorts of warm feelings rushing through her. “And to answer your initial question, yes, I’d loved to come and see your ranch.” She thought about all the work they had done since they had arrived in Rambling Rose. “Did you and your brothers build the ranch, as well?”
“Actually, we didn’t,” Dillon answered seriously, “although it is brand new. The original owner built it for himself and his fiancée.”
“But?” Hailey prodded, then explained, “I sense there’s a but coming.”
“Very intuitive of you,” Dillon commented. “They broke up before they ever had a chance to move in together. According to Callum, who handled the transaction, the guy was anxious to get rid of the place and move on, so for the mansion that it is, the cost was relatively inexpensive.”
“Mansion?” Hailey repeated, allowing the full import of the word to sink in. If Dillon referred to it as a mansion, the place had to be absolutely huge.
Dillon nodded, wondering if he’d said the wrong thing again.
“That’s the best way to describe it,” he confessed. “There’s enough space in the place for each of us to have the privacy we want and not wind up stumbling across the other three if we don’t want to.” He smiled as he envisioned the ranch. “Not to mention that there are also two guesthouses on the property. And, while the place isn’t a working ranch, at least not at the present time, there is a stable on the premises.”
“And horses?” she asked, allowing a touch of eagerness to seep through.
He looked down at her, amused. “What’s a stable without horses?”
“Empty,” Hailey answered automatically.
“Well, rest assured, our stable isn’t empty,” he told her. “So, now that I’ve given you a quick history, are you still interested in coming out and seeing it?” he asked, wanting to make sure that he wasn’t reading what he wanted to hear into her answer.
“Well, that depends,” Hailey told him, doing her best to maintain a straight face.
What sort of a condition could she be putting on this? he wondered. “On what?”
“On whether or not we go horseback riding,” she answered simply.
Hailey didn’t add that this would flesh out the fantasy she had when she’d first laid her eyes on him and couldn’t help thinking of him as the embodiment of a magnificent cowboy.
“Would you like to? Go horseback riding, I mean. Next Saturday,” he added. He had planned to build his way up to that slowly once he got her out to the ranch, but since she had brought up the subject now, he figured he’d ask.
“Absolutely,” she told him. There was no mistaking her enthusiasm.
“Then it’s a date,” Dillon told her happily. Eager now, he began making plans in his head. “How early can I come by to pick you up?”
“How early did you have in mind?” she asked. Then, in case he was going to temper his answer because he felt she was the type who liked to sleep in whenever the opportunity arose, Hailey told Dillon, “I’m an early riser.”
He broached the hour slowly, not wanting to scare her away. “Is eight too early?”
“Only if I were a slug—and I’m not,” she added quickly in case he wasn’t certain.
“All right, you pick the time,” he told her. He decided it was safer if she got to pick.
“I can be ready by six,” she told him, then added, “Earlier if you need me to be.”
“No, six is plenty early enough.” He rolled the time over in his head. “Tell you what, make it six-thirty in case the horses want to sleep in.”
He did have a sense of humor, she thought, relieved as she grinned at him.
“Six-thirty it is,” she told Dillon. She decided she needed to wrap this up just in case he wanted to be on his way. “I had a great time tonight,” she added.
Dillon smiled at her. “No, you didn’t,” he said knowingly. “I should have asked you what sort of restaurant you wanted to go to. I guess it never crossed my mind you might be a vegetarian.”
Because he apologized, she felt her heart
