Lost and Lassoed (Rebel Blue Ranch, #3)

by Lyla Sage

It was a beautiful thing to watch your best friend be loved in the way you know she deserves.

“You are many things, August Ryder, and some of those things aren’t great, I’ll be honest,” I said. “But a bad father isn’t one of them.”

I wondered whether I could taste the sun on her skin. Jesus, Gus. Do you think you’re a poet? Check yourself.

When I curled into his side, I felt his lips in my hair. “You can cry, Teddy,” he said. And so I cried. And cried. And August Ryder held me the whole time.

I don’t know how or when it happened, but Teddy Andersen made me want something for myself: her. I wanted her. And it terrified me.

“I want you,” I said. “I want you so badly all the time.” I slid off the counter. “I think about you at night, when I slip my hand between my thighs. I think of your hands and your fingers and your tongue.”

“It’s okay to love her, Gus. It’s okay to want her. It’s okay to want. You have so much love to give, Gus. I see it in the way that you love our daughter and in the way you care for your family—me included—and I just want you to have someone who can love you back the same way.”

“Luke is my fiancé, my partner, my everything. But you’re my soulmate, Teddy Andersen, and I’m the luckiest girl in the world because of it.”

“I want to be with you. I want us to be together. This summer was incredible. I loved every second of it, but I don’t want it to be over. I want it to be our beginning. “I don’t have much to offer,” he went on softly. “Just a quiet life with a grumpy man from a small town, but I can promise to love you every day.” “You love me?” I said. Don’t cry, Teddy. “I do,” he said. “And I want to show you how much I love you every single day. I want to do everything with you. I want you to be part of my daughter’s life. I want you at every soccer game, barrel race, and art show. I want you there when she sneaks into my bed in the mornings”—he kissed one of my cheeks then. “I want to marry you. I want to have babies with you—little copper-headed demons running around wreaking havoc”—a kiss on the other cheek. “I want to sit on this porch with you thirty years from now and look up at the sky and wonder what I did to deserve a life this good. “Wanting used to scare me so much, because I didn’t think I had the space to want anything more than what I’ve got. But wanting a future with you is the easiest thing in the world. And I want it all, with you.”