Second Chance at Sunflower Ranch (The Ryan Family #1) by Carolyn Brown

“Ever wonder what your mama thought when you wouldn’t name the father?” Pearl asked.

“She was upset for a while, but she told me it was my decision, and she would support me in whatever I wanted to do,” Addy answered.

Jesse poked his head out the kitchen door. “Want to go for a ride?”

“Sure.” Addy stood up. “Did you ask Mia?”

“Yep, but she’s gone to see Justine. This time I think she really is going there rather than to the drugstore, thank goodness,” Jesse said.

“Not ready to be a grandpa at thirty-nine?” Sonny teased.

“Nope, and certainly not when it would upset her to have to raise Ricky’s child,” Jesse answered. “Y’all want anything from over at Bonham?”

“I’ve got an invitation to a baby shower at the church tomorrow evening. Y’all could go into Walmart and find me a few things to give the new mother. She’s having a girl. I’ve got a fancy gift bag and tissue paper so don’t buy those,” Pearl said.

“Sure thing.” Addy nodded as she made her way into the house. “Just let me get my purse and I’ll be ready.”

“I’ll be waiting in the hallway,” Jesse told her.

Addy took time to brush her hair and apply fresh lipstick, then picked up her purse. Jesse was sitting in one of the ladder-back chairs in the foyer when she arrived and he immediately stood up, settled his cowboy hat on his head, and took her hand in his.

“When I was in tough situations, I used to imagine your smile, and it got me through those hard times,” he said. “I’m a fool for not getting in touch with you, Addy.”

“If you’re a fool, I’m one, too.” Addy’s nerve endings were fairly well humming at nothing more than his touch. She wanted to drag him off to a secluded wooded area and have wild, passionate sex with him in the front seat of his truck. Why, oh why, had she gotten so tied up in life that she hadn’t stopped to consider what was really important to her?

“Thank God, we’ve been given a second chance,” he said.

The noise of him opening the truck door for her brought her back to reality with a jerk. “Sorry, what did you say? I was thinking of something else.”

“Was I involved in that?” he asked and helped her into the passenger seat.

“Yep, you were,” she said.

He leaned into the truck and gave her a sweet kiss on the lips. The tingle that traveled through her sent her right back to visualizing how great it would be to satisfy the ache being near him created in her body. He grinned as he closed the door, and then he stopped to scratch Tex’s ears on the way around the vehicle before sliding behind the wheel.

“And?” he asked as he started the engine.

“I want more than friendship,” she said bluntly.

“So do I.” He turned the truck around and started down the lane. “But it seems to get in the way, doesn’t it?”

“Why do we have to have one or the other? Is it possible to have both?” she whispered. “Pearl and Sonny seem to have found a way to make it work all these years.”

“Maybe we’re the kind of people who need both. I need a friend to talk to when I’ve got decisions to make, and I need someone to look forward to sleeping with at night and waking up to in the morning. I think we can have both, Addy,” he answered.

“So tonight are we friends or more?” she asked.

“Both for as long as it takes us to get to Bonham,” he said. “Has Mia talked to you about the phone call I got today?”

“Yes, but…” Addy started.

“No buts,” he said quickly. “What was your first reaction?”

She turned away from him and stared out the side window. “I wanted to run away to the panhandle again. If that’s what you really want, I can’t stand in your way—that’s friendship. But the other part of me wanted to cry, because I don’t want you to leave again—that’s the relationship we’re starting to build.”

He pulled over to the side of the road and parked. Then he reached across the console and cupped Addy’s chin in his hand. “Look at me, Addy,” he said as he gently turned her head around so they could stare into each other’s eyes. “What do you see?”

“I hope I see happiness,” she said.

“Exactly, and like I told Mia, I’m not taking the job in Miami. I would love to have a reunion with my teammates sometime in the future. We were closer than brothers, but I have no desire to work with them again. I’m happy right here, running the ranch and building on what we have. Mia said something about us being a family no matter what happens between me and you. I want that, Addy, but I want a relationship, too.”

Addy took his hand in hers, kissed the palm, and put it back on the steering wheel. “Then we’ll have to work things out and see if we can figure out a way to have both. Are you sure you’re all right with the fact I can’t have more children?”

“Dad and Mama couldn’t have children either, and yet they’ve got three sons.” He wiggled his eyebrows and went back to driving.

“I never thought of that.” She wasn’t sure how she felt about fostering children or about adopting.

“But all of that is another conversation for later. I should get used to one daughter first,” Jesse said as he snagged a parking spot close to the Walmart entry door. “Right now, we need to go buy a baby gift, and then stop by the snow cone stand, pull over at the old barn where we went to party as kids, and eat it slowly.”