{Chapter 8}

Aubrey smiled as Wade stopped in front of the open gate of the MC Ranch. Bold blue outbuildings sat around a bigger house-looking structure with a big white barn out to the West farther away. A big arcing sign hung overhead with the words “McBride-Curtis Ranch” plastered on it. A few horses roamed nearby, and one big brown horse stood in the center of the corral off to the right of the barn where a man was standing in the stirrup, leaning on the saddle as if her were prepared to be there all day. It was peculiar to Aubrey.

“Welcome home” Wade smiled to her and Jay.

“We’re gonna live here?” Jay asked as he looked up at the sign overhead.

“We sure are” Wade said.

Aubrey smiled at him, feeling her eyes shining. She loved the feel of the ranch deep in the heart of Texas.

“Wade Dylan! You lazy polecat! Where’ve you been?” A lady called from the doorway of a bigger outbuilding that had a big, man-size smudge in the paint on the side.

“That’s my boss” Wade shielded his eyes from the sun and looked at the woman, clad in men’s jeans and a faded chambray shirt.

A woman.

“Y-Your boss is a woman?” Aubrey asked.

“Uh… yeah” Wade rubbed the back of his neck. “She can flat lay a man out though if she wants to.”

Aubrey shrugged. It was obvious there was nothing going on between the two of them.
“The man doing strange things to that horse over there is her husband, Erik. Their little girl is around here somewhere” Wade pushed his horse forward and they rode up to his boss.

“What took you so long?” his boss asked.

“You didn’t get my telegram?” Wade asked, dismounting.

“No.”

Wade rolled his eyes. “That Judd. He’ll never get things right.”

The woman looked up at Aubrey. She had a long, black braid that slung over her shoulder and big brown eyes. A spray of freckled ran over the bridge of her tan nose and gave her a girlish quality. She was rustically beautiful in Aubrey’s eyes.

“Who’s this?” the woman asked.

Wade looked up at her and smiled. “This is my wife and that’s Jay.”

The woman looked at him in utter shock.

“Aubrey, Jay, this is Toni McBride” Wade moved to help Jay off the horse and the Aubrey.

He lifted her down as if she weighed no less than a feather.

“W-Wife? Is this your kid, too?” Toni motioned to Jay.

“No, I found him all alone in Desperado” Wade said.

“You’ve got some explainin’ to do, hombre,” Toni said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I will later. Right now I’m taking care of these horses” Wade took the reins of both his horses and nodded for Aubrey and Jay to follow. “Wanna meet the rest of the clan?”

Wade walked over to where Erik was applying pressure to the saddle of a fidgeting gelding.

“Nice to know you’re alive,” Erik said, leaning on the saddle and propping himself up by his elbows. The poor man looked bored to death.

“I know it. Erik, I’d like you to meet Aubrey” Wade motioned to his wife with the reins of his horses in his hands.

“Hi” Erik drawled out, nodding.

Aubrey nodded and smiled at him.

“And Jay over there” Wade saw where Jay was leaning against the corral fence, watching the horse.

“Curious little fella, ain’t he?” Erik smiled.

Wade nodded. “I’m gonna go take care of these horses. Stay out of trouble, Jay.”

Jay nodded and continued watching the horse.

Wade walked to the barn and began unsaddling the horses, completely forgetting about Aubrey.

“Wade?” her voice came from the barn door.

“Back here” Wade called from where he was.

She came back to where he was, carrying her suitcase.

“I would have got that for you, Miss Aubrey,” Wade said, motioning to the suitcase.

“No, that’s okay. Can you call me Aubrey? We are married now, you know” Aubrey smiled at him.

Wade flashed a smile back. “Very well.”

“I came to ask where I was staying at” Aubrey announced.

“S-Staying?” Wade hadn’t even thought of that.

“You mean… there’s not room for me?” Aubrey asked carefully.

Wade heart twisted at her expression. He didn’t want her to feel like a burden at all.

“That’s not what I meant. You can probably stay with Katie,” Wade offered.

“Are you sure? I mean, we’re a married couple and will be forevermore. Do you really want us to live apart for the rest of our lives? I realize that you have your rights…”

“No. No, just stop right there. I have no rights at all” Wade thought a moment, ignoring the crimson blush on Aubrey’s cheeks, poor thing. “I’ll see if we can stay at the line shack in the east pasture.”

“Don’t you use it?” Aubrey asked.

“Sometimes, but not often. I can build something of a barn up there when I get the chance. I’m sure Boss Lady’ll let me take a few hours off for a week or so to do that” Wade started stripping leather off Abe after putting Snowflake in a spare stall.

“You shouldn’t have to go through so much work for me” Aubrey huffed. “This is all my fault. I could have changed Daddy’s mind, I’m sure of it.”

Wade stopped with the saddle half-raised in his arms before he carried it to the tack room. “What did you just say?”

**********

“I said that I know…”

“I don’t want you to ever blame yourself for what’s happened, Aubrey. Understood?” Wade’s intense eyes nearly scared every evil thought out of her.

She was really beginning not to like those eyes.

Aubrey nodded.

“Because neither of us is to blame. I…I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you blamed yourself for this” Wade took the saddle to the tack room.

Aubrey stared at his back as he left, not believing the words he said.

“If you want to, you can go up to the kitchen and ask Toni for something to drink. Katie should be fixing dinner soon,” Wade hollered from where he was.

“Thank you” was all that was Aubrey could croak out.

“I’d imagine you’d want a bath after yesterday and then that dusty ride today. Katie can help you with that. Just help yourself to whatever you want” Wade came from the tack room and took the bridle off his horse.

“Thank you” Aubrey repeated.

Wade looked over the back of his horse at her. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. Just tired” she forced a smile.

Wade smiled at her, flashing those lovely dimples.

Lord, he never deserved to be saddled with me.

The whole outfit of the MC Ranch was sitting at the table in the building that served as a kitchen and eating area. Wade told about his visit to Lovelace and how they had been trapped in the storm.

“How terrifying” A blonde-haired, pale blue-eyed woman covered her heart with her hand.

Aubrey smiled at Wade. “The poor man was stuck with my chattering the entire time we were down there, bless him.”

Wade chuckled and went on with his story, not at all exaggerated yet the way he told it made it more entertaining than it had been to live though it.

“So you two had to get married?” the blonde woman asked.

This must be Katie.

Aubrey felt her heart sink. What if Katie and Wade really were in love?

“Well, her father was sort of… persuading” Wade said.

“Aw, I was hoping you had fallen in love and…”

“Now, don’t go all matchmaker on us, Katie” Wade smiled.

Katie huffed.

Aubrey was confused. Katie wasn’t acting hostile at all. Maybe they weren’t a couple before Wade left.

“Tell us about yourself, Miss Aubrey” one of the cowboys, Gringo was his name, asked.

“Whoa, Gringo. We don’t ask about a person’s past around here unless they offer to” Toni corrected him, drinking her coffee.

“It’s quite alright” Aubrey smiled. “There’s nothing to me, really. The only thing I can really do is run a mercantile. I’ve lived in Tennessee my whole life so you can imagine how new Texas is to me.”

“Is that anything like Georgia?” Toni asked, her eyes wide.

“I don’t know. I guess it is. The states are close to each other,” Aubrey answered.

“Erik’s from Georgia” Toni shoved a finger toward her husband at the other end of the table, who was playing with a little girl in his lap.

“Ah, so he’s your husband?” Aubrey smiled. She should have known by the fact that Toni’s daughter had reddish-brown hair that matched Erik’s.

Toni smiled, something that looked nice but out of place on her face.

“Aubrey wants to learn ranch chores, so I was wondering if you’d teach her, Boss,” Wade said.

“Me?” An older man toward the other end of the table asked.

“No, the other boss” Wade motioned to Toni.

Aubrey looked at him, confused.

“Oh, here at this ranch we have two bosses. They hardly ever agree on anything, so that makes our job hard. Do what one says, the other’ll fire you. So, we just let them duke it out and do what the winner says” Wade smiled.

“They fight?” Aubrey looked back and forth between Toni and the man.

“Na, they just battle it with words. Toni usually wins” Wade winked at Toni and took a sip of coffee. “That’s why Erik married her, so she could fight his battles for him.”

Erik shot wade a glare then chuckled along with the rest of them.

Dedicated to @prairiegirl90 for her lovely, constructive comments:) Thank you so much!!

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