Wanted (55 page)

Gunner was yawning like crazy. I knew he was tired. Emma said h
e and Jefferson both got up at four
am
to work on the fence.

“Gunner
bab
e
, why don’t you go to bed you’
re exhausted.” I said as I lo
ok
ed up
into those beautiful blue eyes.

“Will you come with me?”

“
Ahh
no…..”

“Can I come lay down wi
th you then?” Gunner whispered.

“NO!”

Then I noticed Jefferson stand up and shake Garrett’s hand. He leaned down and kissed Emma goodnight and gave A
ri a head nod with a faint good
night. He walked up to me and kissed me good night has
he slapped Gunner on the back.

Then it was like dominos. They all started dropping. Garrett and Emma excused themselves and said they were retiring to their room. Drake said he was going to kick his son Dewey’s ass…Gunner must have told him about this afternoon down by the river. Ari headed up right after
Dewey left and
all that was left was Gunner and me. I could see he was fighting to stay awake just to be
with me. I started to fake yawn and said I was really tired. That was all it to
o
k
. Gunner jumped up, turned everything off down stairs and we walked up the stair
s
hand in hand.

In my mind I imagined we were married and there was a little girl with curly hair running up the steps in front of us with Gunner promising to read her a bed time story.
The thought made me smile and I
glanced over at Gunner. He lo
ok
ed so tired.

What would life be like for him if he worked here full time? Would he always be so tired? God he even lo
ok
ed handsome when he was dead tired. Oh how I loved him.

Gunner walked me to the bedroom door and leaned down to kiss me. He deepened the kiss and it nearly to
ok the breath from my lungs. He
pulled away and pushed a piece of
hair behind my ear
.

“Ellie…….” That was all he said to me but it meant so much more. I could feel it in my heart. I smiled at him and I instantly got lost in his eyes. It was like he was trying to memorize ev
ery bit of me to take with him.

He leaned down and gave me a kiss that he pulled away from too damn quick. He
turned and headed to his room.

I opened t
he door and stepped inside and
as I closed it I leaned back against the door. My heart was beating so fast I could hear it in my ears
…….This man has bewitched me…….I
will forev
er be his…..God I hope he doesn’t
get tired of me or fall for someone else. I w
ould be devastated.  This felt too
perfect,
to
o right….I was just waiting for the floor to fall out from underneath me. It was bound to
happen…I just wish I knew when.

You will never be wanted by anyone……

CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

J
eff……

Fuck! I could not sleep at all. All I could think about was Ari…..Ari in her bikini…Ari out of her bikini……Ari riding on that damn horse and racing with me….Ari smiling as she was just letting go while riding. It was clear to me she loved being on a horse and she was a damn good rider. We argued most of the damn day and I blamed myself for that. I just couldn’t help it. She was so fucking cute when she was mad. Even though we fought most of the day….the normal conversation we had while we sat along the river letting our horses cool do
wn was probably the best damn twenty
minutes of my life. We didn’t fight, didn’t call each other names…we just talked. She told m
e she wanted to live in the country,
on
a
place not as big as the ranch but with plenty of land for horses.
My heart soared. I planned on buying the property that backed up the Mathews ranch. It wasn’t anything like this ranch, only 250 acres but I had been talking to Garrett tonight and the family that owned the small ranch
was
desperate to sell it. I guess their grandparents owned it and they just wanted it gone so they could keep up their city lives in Austin. There was a small ranch style home on the property, two wells and three tanks. Pe
rfect for horses and a few cattle
and Garrett already said I could let my cattle grace on the Mathews ranch
as well as the horses
. It was
a dream come
true. I hadn’t eve
n told Gunner about it yet.

On the trip back from the stables I decided I was going to talk to Ari. I needed to see if we could make a go at being
something more than friends
. Especially now that I knew she wanted the same life I did.
I planned on talking to her after dinner. I was going to just tell her how I felt and pray she felt the same way. I dared to let myself get excited.

That was until I saw her bouncing downstairs right before dinner with Ellie and get so excited when a text message from the cheating bastard Jason came through.
Her excitement sent a clear signal. She obviously loved him. Fucking prick didn’t deserve Ari….she was way too good for him and he would end up cheating on her just like
he did with all the other ones.

I tried to clear my thoughts so I could get to sleep.
After tossing and turning damn n
ear all night the clock read 4:30am when my eyes finally closed.

The next morning I w
ok
e up to find Garrett and Ari sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee. Where the hell was everyone else?

“Where is everyone?” I asked as I poured a cup of co
ffee and sat down at the table.

“Emma ran into town to attend a church meeting, Gunner mentioned something about giving Ellie another first and they to
ok
off for town. Gramps here…he was just bitching to me about a fence that needs repairing.”

I had to let out a chuckle at Ari’s reference to Gunners grandfather as Gramps…..on
ly Gunner ever called him that.

“What fence needs
fix
in
’ Garrett
? I can head out and fix it for you.” I said as Ar
i quickly shot her head up and looked at me
.

“Well it’s on the north side of the ranch…butts up against the property
you’
re interested in buying.” Garrett said with a wicked smile on his face.

FUCK ME
….Ari sat up straighter and gave
me a lo
ok
of pure shock.

“WHAT? You’re buying property out here? Since when did you decide this? Does Ellie know? What about Gunner does he know? What in the world are you going to do out here? I can’t believe you didn’t tell us….”

“For Christ sakes Ari please shut the fuck up!” I said as I sho
ok
my head. Goddamn it
that girl could just rattle on.

Ari shot me a dirty lo
ok
and I could tell she
wanted to say something back to me but didn’t because G
arrett was sitting right there.

“Anyway, back to the fence….I can take the truck and head on over there right now.” I said as I saw Ari still staring at me. I’m sure she had a million questions she wanted to ask me. Thank the fuck I was leaving to mend a fence.

“Oh Jeff that would be great since Gunner to
ok
off with Ellie and Drake and the boys ran into town to get feed and run some errands. I don’t want you going alone though….Ari you go with him. It will do you good to get some fresh air.”

Ari and I both lo
ok
ed at Garrett and sp
ok
e at the same time.

“WHAT?!”

“No really Garrett I’
m perfectly fine heading out there on my own, there is no need for her to come.”

Ari nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah I mean I was just planning on sitting in the porch swing and read
ing
so…”

“Well then that’
s perfect. Take your bo
o
k
and read while Jeff fixes the fence. I have a strict rule…no one out in the pastures
by themselves.”

“Oh well um….” Ari said as she shrugged her shoulders and lo
ok
ed at me.

Fucking great…just what I needed. I was going to have to listen her go on and on for at least an hour while I fixed the fenc
e.

“I want y
ou to take the jeep though; I’
ll go and get it ready while you go change into some working clothes.” If I didn’t know any better I would have sworn he just gave me a wicked grin and then winked at me. What the hell?

I stood up to go change. I lo
ok
ed at what Ari was wearing…..short shorts, a
tee shirt and some flip flops.

“Maybe you should at least put on some sneakers Ari.”

She just lo
ok
ed at me
,
nodded and went up stairs.

Five
minutes later I walked out to the jeep that Garrett had already pulled up to the house and had running. That was strang
e. I heard the front door screen
shut and I turned to see Ari walk out in the same clothes but she changed into a pair of black cowboy boots.

Holy fuck….
I’
d never in my life s
een anything so fucking sexy tha
n this girl in a pair of shorts and cowboy boots. I had to take a few steps to ease my growing erection that was pressing into my fucking zipper.

She walked down towards the jeep and smiled at me as she hopped into the passenger seat. Fuck she even had on a cow
boy hat….how the hell did I not see the hat. I let my eyes roam
down her legs and then back
up again. God how I wanted this girl so fucking
badly
but I needed to get a grip. She has a boyfriend…
..she was not meant to be mine.

Garrett gave me a slap on the back and a wink. “I put plenty of water in there for y’all and even a few snacks…..just in case!” Then he laughed as he walked back towards the house. He waved and shouted back to us.

“Y’all have FUN!”

I got in the jeep and lo
ok
ed at Ari who just shrugged her shoulders and put her ear plugs to her iPod in. Yep…this was going to be fun.

I spent the next hour mending a fence that I swear lo
ok
ed like it had been cut in four
different places on purpose. Nah….who the fuck would cut the fence on purpose. I was just about finished when I lo
oked up at Ari
sitting in the jeep kicked back and reading her bo
ok
. Fuck she lo
ok
ed hot as hell with those legs propped up. They lo
ok
ed so smooth. I bet they were smooth. Just like her back was so smooth. I was able to get a feel of it when I was desperately trying to get her bikini top back on before fucking Dewey saw her. I wiped the sweat off my face with
my
t-
shirt and
started to gather up the tools.

Fuck with it only be
ing nine
in the morning
it sure as shit was hot out. I brought the tools back over and put them in the back of the jeep. I let the pliers fall hard against the metal floor and Ari jumped out of her seat. She ripped her head phones off and gave me a go to hell lo
ok
.

“FUCKER!
You scared the shit out of me!”

“Sorry….”

I grabbed
a
water
from the cooler and to
ok
a long drink. I couldn’t help but notice her watching me drink it. I wiped the sweat one more time off my
face before I got in the jeep.

“Finally, it to
ok
you fucking long enough to fix a damn fenc
e that should have been fixed thirty
minutes ago.”

“Well if you thought you could have fixed it sooner why the fuck didn’t you bring you sweet ass over and help me?”

“
Pesh
….yeah right.
I kind of enjoyed the show.” She said with a wink.

I turned the key over in the ignition and nothing happened. I let it off and tried it again.
Nothing…..Strange….I turned it over again
….Nothing…..I did this four
more times and
now Ari was sitti
ng up lo
ok
ing at the ignition, w
illing it to start.