“YES! It was amazing. The whole night has been amazing.” I said with a little bit too much enthusiasm.

Jefferson just looked at me and then over at Gunner and raised his eyebrow. “Just how amaaaazing was it?”

I slapped him on the arm. “Jefferson Johnson! It was nothing like that and stop thinking that way! Gunner is too much of a gentleman to do anything like that!”

Gunner let out a laugh. “Jesus dude….give me a little bit more credit than that.”

Jefferson looked over at Ari sleeping on the chair. “Has she been there the whole time? Her neck is going to kill her in the morning and then I’m going to have to listen to her bitch about all day.”

“I was just going to wake her up but sometimes she is hard to wake up when she is in a deep sleep.”

We tried for ten minutes to wake her up. Finally Jefferson got tired of it.

“Fuck this; I’ll just carry her up to your room.” Jefferson bent down and scooped up Ari like she weighed nothing.

“Her bed is the one closet to the door.” I said as he walked by and headed up the stairs with Gunner and me following behind.

Once we got in our bedroom I pulled the covers back as Jefferson started to lay Ari down. She opened her eyes and looked at him and smiled. He instantly stopped moving and just looked at her. Ari mumbled something about this being the best f**king dream ever and Jefferson smiled back at her and set her on the bed. Then he leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. Ari put her hand up to her cheek and smiled.

Then she let out a snore……I had to giggle.

“Figures” Jefferson said as he shook his head and turned to walk out.

“Night Ells….” Jefferson said as he leaned down to give me a kiss.

“Night Jefferson and sleep good.”

Gunner took me in his arms and gave me a wonderful goodnight kiss. So wonderful I didn’t want it to end. He pulled away and smiled at me.

“Think about me tonight okay?” I said as I gave him another quick kiss.

“Always!”

He turned and walked out the door shutting it behind him. I walked over to my bed and just fell back on it. I started to jump around like a school girl who just got her first kiss. Holy hells bells this has been the most wonderful day of my life!

I sat up quickly to look at Ari. I had to tell her or I was going to burst! Just then I heard her snore. Pesh, there would be no way of me waking her up. I would have to just wait until tomorrow morning.

I tip toed into the bathroom, changed and brushed my teeth. As soon as I laid down on the pillow I drifted off into a dream.

Me….Gunner…..and an open field filled with people looking at us………I never wanted to wake up.

CHAPTER FORTY TWO

Gunner…….

“Alright Gunner what the f**k happened between you and my sister last night a**hole? You have not stopped smiling all goddamn morning and my mind is going f**king crazy here!”

Jeff said as were mending the fence in the east pasture.

I stood up and took my cowboy hat off and wiped the sweat off my face with my shirt. I smiled over at Jeff and I thought for sure he was about to walk up and punch the shit out of me.

“Dude, nothing happened like what you’re thinking happened. I already told you I respect your sister and your friendship more than that.”

“Well then shit Gunner, something must have happened because you are f**king walking around on cloud nine.”

“I told Ellie last night that I loved her and she told me she loved me. We talked about where we saw our futures, she asked me if I was going to go play pro and I told her no. My dream was to be here and she pretty much told me she loved the ranch as much as I did.”

Jeff ran his hands through his hair and looked at me. The smile that came across his face was all I needed to see. We walked up to each other and he grabbed my hand and smacked it and then shook it.

“Holy f**king shit…..Gunner Mathews is in love and it is with my baby sister. I never thought I would see the goddamn day! That’s great Gunner….that’s f**king great dude. I know you make my sister happy. I have not seen her this happy in…..well fuck….I’ve never seen her this happy!”

I started to laugh as I slapped him on the back. “Well the feeling is mutual. She makes me happy Jeff and I can’t stand to be away from her for a second. I just want to make her happy for the rest of her life.”

“That’s good to hear. Really good to hear ‘cause if you ever hurt her Gunner, I’ll f**king kill you and not think twice about it.”

I stopped taking a drink of my water and looked at Jeff. He went back to fixing the fence like he didn’t even just threaten me with my life.

“Well I don’t ever intend on hurting her but that is good to know dude…..”

Jeff and I spent most of the morning fixing the back east pasture fence. Drake said they lost a few cattle last week so hopefully this will put a stop to that. I f**king loved it out here. Working with my hands in the Texas summer heat, shit there wasn’t anything else like it.

“FUCK! I’m ready to cool off. How hot do you think it is today?” Jeff said as he pulled his shirt off and wiped his face off with it.

“Fuck if I know…..Gramps said yesterday it got up to 101 but it sure as shit is different when you are sitting in a barn drinking f**king cold beer!”

Just then we heard Highway to Hell blaring from up the gravel road.

“That has to be Dewey. F**ker always did like AC/DC.” Jeff said as he grabbed his shirt and put it back on. “Why the f**k he is going to river with us anyway? Did you see the way he was looking Ari up and down that a**hole.”

I had to laugh at Jeff. He won’t admit his feelings for Ari but he didn’t want anyone else to notice her either…..it was all to f**ked up for me to try and understand.

Dewey pulled up next to Gramps truck and parked. He jumped out and made his way over to us.

“What is up dudes? You heading down to the river, It’s almost one and Ari said that is what time they were meeting you.”

Holy f**k this bastard had already been drinking. That was not cool, not at all. I wonder if this is a normal thing for him.

“When did you talk to Ari Dew?” Jeff asked as he loaded the tools up in the truck.

“Oh I stopped by earlier this morning. Ari and Ellie were in the garden with Mrs. Mathews. Goddamn that Ellie has a nice f**king ass.”

I’m not even sure why I did it but I reached for Dewey and slammed him against the truck.

“Don’t you EVER f**king say something like that again about her or even f**king look wrong at her Dewey or I swear to you I will beat the shit out of you!”

Jeff came running over and tried to pull me off Dewey as Dewey threw his hands in the air.

“Dude! Holy shit I’m sorry I didn’t think you were that serious about her…..”

“Listen to me Dew; I’m going to marry that girl someday so you better keep your f**king distance from her you got me?” I said I as I gave him a good push and walked to the driver’s side of the truck.

“Dewey we will see you down at the river in a little bit…why don’t you let Gunner cool off a bit before you come down there okay?

“Um yeah sure….see you in a bit.”

Jeff loaded the last of the tools and jumped in the truck. “Jesus Gunner, I think you scared the shit out of Dewey.” Jeff said with a laugh.

“Would you have let him talk about Ellie that way?”

“Fuck no…I was about to kick the living shit out of him but you beat me to him!”

“Let’s just get to the river first before he shows up.” I said as I put the truck in drive and took off. The thought of Dewey seeing Ellie in a bikini made me sick to my stomach. Goddamn f**ker….

Well pulled up and saw Ellie and Ari sitting on the tail gate of my truck and I had to smile. Just the thought of her driving around on the ranch in my truck brought a smile to my face. I looked over at Jeff who had a shit eating grin on his face. What was he up to?

“Do I even want to know what you’re planning?”

“No. I don’t think you do!” Jeff said as he gave me a wink and jumped out of the truck. The girls jumped down from the truck and they were both dressed in short ass jean shorts and tank tops. I could see the white strap of Ellie’s bikini top and just the thought of her taking off that tank top had my damn dick jumping. Ellie came running over and jumped in my arms as I spun her around.

“Good morning Drew!” She said in my ear. “Oh my god I missed you this morning!”

The heat on my neck from her breath was about to drive me insane. Why is it that everything this girl does it drives me crazy!

“Good morning Ellie. I missed you too sweetheart, more than you know. Did you sleep okay last night?” I asked as I put her down and pushed a piece of hair behind her ear.

“I did. I had a dream and I remember waking up so happy but I cannot for the life of me remember what the dream was about. It kind of pisses me off really.”

I threw my head back and laughed at her. Damn she was so f**king cute! I swung down and picked her up while she let out a small scream and carried her back over to the truck. Jeff was already arguing with Ari. Jesus Christ those two……

“I seriously doubt I was calling out your name in my sleep you dickwad! You only wish I was!”

“Tell her Ells, tell her how when I carried her up to bed she was saying how wonderful and strong and handsome I was.”

“Um, that’s not really how I remember it Jefferson.” Ellie said with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Yeah you wish pretty boy! You could only dream of me wanting you.”

“Whatever you say squirt….you couldn’t handle a man like me anyway.” Jeff said as he lifted his t-shirt up over his head. We had already changed into swim trunks before we pulled up.

Ari stood there and just stared at Jeff and he looked at her and laughed.

“See what I mean honey…you can’t even think when you see my body!” Jeff threw his head back and laughed his ass off. Ari shrugged her shoulders and walked to the edge of the water. She dipped her toe in and then started to take her jean shorts off. Jeff instantly stopped laughing. She didn’t just slip them down…she made a goddamn show out of it. Cue the f**king strip tease music.

She tossed her shorts to the side and just stood there with her hands on her hips. I felt like I should be a better friend and go and pick Jeff’s jaw off the ground but, he did bring it on himself.

I turned to look at Ellie who had a smile on her face, clearly amused by the whole scene that was taking place.

“How as your morning with Grams?”

“Oh my gosh! She is something else Gunner! She knows everything there is to know about gardens, and cooking and horses and cows and what to do if you get bit by a snake or you roll around in poison ivy. She is amazing! I love her to pieces.”

I smiled down at Ellie. I needed to bring her out here more often so that Grams can teach her everything she knows. I think they would both like that. Grams often mentioned how she wished she would have been able to teach her daughters in laws more things about being a house wife. I looked out at the river and was dying to get into it.