Herd That (The Valentine Boys 1)

“I was going to ask my brothers if they minded if I used my mother’s ring… then I decided that I wanted something that wasn’t tainted with their memory. Luckily, I found this… and Desi helped me size it. So if it’s not the right size, you can call and blame her.”

I started to snicker.

The snicker died as I got a load of the ring.

“Holy shit, Ace,” I breathed. “That’s… that’s too much!”

He was already shaking his head.

“No, baby. It’s not enough,” he countered. “It’ll never be enough.”Chapter 23Kinda give a damn. Kinda want a taco.

-Codie to Ace

Codie

I was standing in front of the coffeepot in the middle of the Valentine kitchen, wondering if this was my life now.

Four nights ago, I’d accepted a proposal from Ace Valentine, the sexiest of all the Valentine brothers.

Today, I found myself waiting for my coffee to finish, and contemplating what I was going to make the Valentine men for breakfast.

Today was Friday, and the men had been up for hours.

I was alone in the large house, and wondering if I should just go ahead and make myself at home, or wait for someone to come back to give me permission.

Knowing what Ace would say, I finally unglued my feet from the floor and turned to the fridge, pulling out bacon and sausage.

My next order of business was the eggs, which I found in a couple dozen pink cartons at the corner of the kitchen, right on the edge of the counter that separated the kitchen from the informal dining area.

Once I had those where I wanted them, I went back to the coffeepot, pulled it out long enough to fill my cup, and then shoved it back under in hopes that I hadn’t just leaked half the pot into the drip tray underneath.

Once I had my cup fixed to perfection, I took a cautious sip and pulled down a frying pan that was hanging on the wall.

I grinned and hefted the weight, loving the way the old cast-iron skillet felt.

My mother had always cooked on one, but I hadn’t had one since I’d moved out of my parents’ house.

Well—at least not one that had been seasoned.

Touching the old iron with the tip of my index finger, I found it sufficiently slick, then placed it on the gas burner.

Once I had the skillet heating up, I went about getting breakfast fixed.

It was only after I had enough breakfast sandwiches made to feed an army that I placed them all into an empty cardboard box lined with paper towels and headed out back.

Ace had said that he was heading to the back section of fence that they hoped would one day border their new land—land that they hoped to purchase soon with the life insurance payout if the insurance company ever stopped dragging their heels.

Thinking that I’d do better on horseback, I walked cautiously to the barn and found Poppy, the horse from hell, was the only one there.

Grimacing, I saddled her up, poked her in the belly when she held her breath, and then grinned in satisfaction when I got the saddle sufficiently in place.

Once I had everything situated, I grabbed the box, said a silent prayer that the ol’ hag wouldn’t buck me off with all the breakfast I’d just spent an hour preparing and went in search of the men.

I found them about a ten-minute ride from the barn.

Ace and Banks had their shirts off as they pulled fence. Callum was working the tractor, drilling fence post holes with the auger, and Jensen and Darby were setting the new poles up while Colt poured concrete into the holes beside them.

That was when I saw the newcomer, Remy, about half an acre away, trying to talk on the phone. He had one finger in his ear as he spoke, and the other hand pressed to his ear with the phone in it.

Grinning as the tractor started up again, I turned back to find Darby’s eyes on me with a look of pleading filling his baby blues.

“Please, oh please, tell me you have some breakfast in that box and not a box of puppies,” Darby begged.

I looked at the box, then back up at him.

“Was the box of puppies an option, because I always wanted a dog. But my dad said that dogs would eat our chickens and that I couldn’t have one,” I teased.

Ace looked up at the sound of my voice, and his grin got huge.

I pulled the horse to a stop next to Ace’s truck, then bent over and handed the box of breakfast sandwiches to Banks, who held his hands up.

“Thank you,” I said as I started to dismount.

Before my feet could fully touch the ground, Ace’s sweaty body was there, pressing against my backside.

I grinned at him over my shoulder, then turned in his arms the moment my feet touched the ground, and pressed a kiss to his sweaty cheek.