I looked down at my right ring finger.
The ring.
Our emblem, designed by Wendy.
She’d never told us its significance, and I never pressed her. Now? I hesitated to ask.
I had a love-hate relationship with the ring. It represented a time in my life where I was young and had all the possibilities in the world. It also represented people who’d changed, who were still changing, and not for the better.
I wiped my mind of the memories. Once I did what I had to do, this weekend was about new beginnings, not old high school memories and regrets. I’d brought Daphne on a whim, but I was determined to make this a nice weekend for her. This would be the first of many times she’d come to my ranch, I hoped.
Yes, the first of many.
And if I was successful this weekend, she and I would never have to worry about Wendy Madigan again.
“Wake up, baby.” I nudged Daphne softly. “We’re here.”
“Mmm.” She opened her eyes. “What time is it?”
“A little after two. We made good time. Come on. Let’s get inside so you can get some sleep.”
“Yeah, sure. Okay.” Daphne sat up and opened the car door on her side.
I got out as well and grabbed both our bags from the back. “Come on.”
I unlocked the front door, and we walked in quietly. “Shh,” I said to Ebony, giving her a pet.
“She’s beautiful,” Daphne whispered.
“Yeah, she’s a sweetheart. Brandy’s around here somewhere. Probably in bed with my dad. They sleep with him when I’m not home.”
Daphne knelt down and let Ebony pepper her face with licks and kisses. “I love her. I totally love her.”
“She’ll lick you forever if you let her.”
“I’m okay with that, I think.”
I laughed softly. “I’m going to let her outside for a few minutes. Then I’ll show you where you’ll be staying.”
She stood, letting go of Ebony and nodding. After the dog was safely outside, I grabbed our bags and led Daphne down the hallway to the guest room farthest away from my parents’ master suite.
“This place is huge,” she whispered. “I feel like I’m in a hotel.”
I opened the door and flipped on the light. “Here you go.”
Her eyes were still wide as she gaped around the room. She walked forward and opened the door to the walk-in closet, which was empty. “This closet is seriously as big as my dorm room. I’m not even kidding.”
“I know. I lived in the same dorm when I was a freshman. It took some getting used to after having all the room I could ask for out here on the western slope.”
“Where’s your room?” she asked.
“Right next to this one,” I said.
“And the bathroom?”
I nodded toward the second door in the room. “Right there.”
She walked toward it and opened it. “My own bathroom?”
I nodded. “All our bedrooms have their own bathrooms.”
She shook her head. “You actually live like this? I know the Steel ranch is successful, but just how successful are you, Brad?”
“I’m not overly successful at all. My father and mother are. But I’m their only kid, so I guess it’ll be mine someday.” I breathed in. “I love this place. It’s in my blood. I know it like I know the back of my hand.”
“You want to run the ranch someday?”
“I do. I really do. My dad isn’t in the best of health, but it will still be a while before I take over.”
“Kind of morbid, isn’t it?” she said. “You love your parents, but you want the ranch to be yours.”
Not as morbid as she might think. My father was a Grade A asshole whose arteries were hardening and lungs were failing because he’d smoked his whole life. My mother deserved better. He was a hell of a rancher, though. He’d taken this place from his father’s dream to a multimillion-dollar operation. We’d recently passed into eight figures because of his shrewd investments. I planned to take it into the billions. Our cattle and our fruit were the best on the slope, our vineyards were starting to produce, and Dad was looking at hiring a winemaker.
I’d spent the last three years studying the business of agriculture, and I was going to take this place into the twenty-first century.
With Daphne at my side.
What?
Had I just thought that?
The words had fallen into my head as if they’d always been there and always would.
I still hardly knew this woman, but she was the one who’d used the word destiny.
Damn.
Daphne would be at my side as I ran this place.
I knew it as if it had been foretold by Nostradamus himself.
I kissed her forehead and then her lips. “Get some sleep. We rise early around here.”
“What time?”
“Five, usually.”
“In three hours?”
I laughed. “You don’t have to get up that early. Sleep as late as you want to. But since I’m home, I’ll be helping my dad.”