I Heart Geeks (31 page)

The next week flew by in a flurry of activity. On Tuesday, Luke had surprised me with dinner and a movie in the next town over. I couldn’t remember the last movie I’d seen in an actual theater. He seemed back to his normal self, so I chalked Monday’s conversation up to just being tired.

Wednesday, we put the finishing touches on the business plan, and Thursday, I met with the loan officer in Austin. Luke had made a watertight business plan and the loan officer said they’d call after going over it again.

When I wasn’t at work or with Luke I was out in the corral with the new horse, brushing her, walking her, and giving her treats. I couldn’t believe it was Friday already and Riley would be arriving shortly.

“Ainsley!” Gram yelled up the stairs, “You’ve got a visitor!” I squealed as I practically tumbled down the stairs.

“Riley!” I exclaimed, rushing headlong into the kitchen. “Oh my God, I’ve missed you!”

“Ains!” Riley said happily, pulling me into an enormous hug. “You look amazing!”

“Thanks, you look like you just stepped off a runway,” I replied, looking at her new designer clothes.

People assume that as twins you have to look alike, or at least similar, that wasn’t the case with Luke and Riley. Whereas Luke had a tall, muscular build, Riley was slim and more average in height. She didn’t have an ounce of fat on her, but she was definitely not athletic. Riley also took after their dad more too, with gray eyes and a darker blonde hair that was just a shade short of brown. As long as I’d known her, Riley had always had long hair. Unlike my own hair though, hers was perfectly straight and silky.

“Thanks,” she said, laughing. “I had to update my look when I hit the East Coast.”

“I’m really glad you’re home,” I said truthfully. I hadn’t realized just how much I missed her until she was standing right in front of me.

“It’s good to
be
home,” she replied. “My mom made it a point to inform me that I will have to share you with my brother.” She folded her arms and cocked up an eyebrow. “Care to explain, Ains?”

I laughed, cheeks flushing. “We’re just friends. He’s been helping me work out an idea I had.” I shrugged. “We just have fun together. He’s actually pretty amazing, Ri.”

“Just friends, huh? First Luke started in on me about not monopolizing you, now my mom is joining in as well.” she said, seeing right through me.

“I don’t want to ruin our friendship by falling in love with him,” I said, grateful Gram had made herself scarce so Riley and I could talk. I sank into a chair at the table, suddenly unable to stand anymore. Riley came over and sat down beside me.

“Ains, honestly, you were half there in high school, girl,” she said honestly. “But you wouldn’t ruin anything by having feelings for him now, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

I bit my lip. “But your mom said he wanted to hang out with us in school and you always chased him off,” I said. “Why didn’t you want him to hang out with us?”

Riley shrugged and picked at the checkered table cloth. “Honestly, I guess I was afraid that he’d steal you from me,” she admitted. “As stupid as it sounds, you were the first real friend I’d had in a long time. Luke has always been the popular one because he’s so damn likeable!”

“It doesn’t sound stupid, Riley. But you wouldn’t have lost me. You were the first and only friend I had here. Besides, I would have been too shy around Luke back then. He would have lost interest soon enough when he realized I wasn’t even capable of coherent speech around him.”

We shared a laugh and Riley shoved me playfully. “Yes you were shy, but you warmed up to me quickly and we had some awesome times!”

“You weren’t over six feet tall with killer blue eyes and a smile that could melt an iceberg either.” I laughed. “I went all deer in headlights if he even looked at me.”

“Ok, I’ll give you that,” she relented. “So I assume, due to all the time you’ve spent together now, you’re cured of the shyness?”

“For the most part,” I replied. “If I let myself think too much when around him I get a little tongue tied, but it’s getting better.”

“I’m glad.” Riley reached over and squeezed my hand reassuringly. Then she sat up straight and put on her business face. “So I talked to my dad some when I got home. I know Luke wants to get rid of some cattle to make room and free up time to breed horses, but I don’t know if my dad will cave though. He’s not making it easy.” Her steel gray eyes looked troubled. “Luke is really stressed out too.”

“Do you think he would consider just setting up operations elsewhere?”

“I don’t know. He feels obligated to stick it out because the ranch has been in the family forever.” She stood up then and started pacing the kitchen. I wasn’t surprised by the sudden movement from Riley. She often jumped up to pace when she was thinking something through. “My dad took it over after my grandpa died. He’d been estranged from the family, so it made taking over more meaningful for him. Luke doesn’t want to let our dad down. Besides that, where would he set up?” she asked.

I looked down at my hands sheepishly. “Well actually, I made a last minute change to my business plan without telling Luke,” I admitted. “I pitched the idea to the bank that it’d be a two-fold business. Luke would breed horses and I would run the therapeutic training portion. The idea is I’d eventually train some of the horses Luke breeds, to supplement the rescue horses I find. This way I know we have enough good quality horses at any given time to meet client needs,” I explained, then rushed to add, “Don’t say anything to him though, in case the bank says no.”

Riley’s eyes widened and she dropped back into a chair across from me. “Ainsley, that is a
kickass
idea!” she said excitedly. “Not giving him the chance to say no was genius! He’d want to ensure your plan succeeded before even thinking of his own.”

“You don’t think he’ll get mad?” I asked, suddenly riddled with doubts. “I talked it over with my dad and grandpa and they were on board. I guess Luke had talked to them some about his plan at some point. They weren’t even surprised when I asked for more space, or to use some of the vacant land to build an extra stable and a small onsite clinic.”

“It will work out perfectly, Ains. Just wait and see what the bank says and we’ll go from there.” She grabbed her purse off the table and stood up. “But now, I have to head home to help my mom cook. She let me loose long enough to come see you.”

“Ok, I’ll be over to help out tomorrow,” I replied. I walked her to the porch and we hugged again before she hopped in her car.

After Riley left, I walked to the stables to check on Frigga. I was going to stick with the
Harry Potter
theme for my rescue horses, but decided on a whim to follow Luke’s
Thor
theme instead. Frigga was coming along great. In just a few days she’d put on some weight and wasn’t as skittish around me. She still didn’t trust men, though, which was pretty normal for her situation.

As I walked back into the house, my phone rang. My heart stopped at the number on the call screen. The bank in Austin was calling me back.

“Hello?” I answered, trying to keep my voice steady.

“Ms. Connors, this is Mr. Stevenson from the Western National Bank. We met yesterday to discuss your plan for a business?” Mr. Stevenson paused briefly before continuing on. “I’ve gone over the plan with another loan officer and the bank manager, and we’d like to have both you and Mr. Morgan come in next week for further discussion. We really like what we’ve read and are impressed with the detailed plan you laid out, we just need a little more information.”

“Thank you, sir,” I gasped, suddenly remembering to breathe. “When next week did you want to meet?”

“Any day that works for you,” he replied. “I understand you’ll need to confer with Mr. Morgan to make arrangements, so you can give us a call at your earliest convenience.”

“Thank you so much Mr. Stevenson. I’ll speak with Luke immediately and call you back,” I gushed, my heart beating its way out of my chest with excitement.

I sat on the couch, stunned for a moment, before jumping up and running to find Gram. After running all over the house, I finally found her as I burst out the back door and onto the edge of her garden.

“Gram!” I shouted. “They called!”

“Well, what’d they say girl?” she asked, getting up from where she was pulling weeds. She walked over to the edge of the garden and stood in front of me, using her dirt covered gloves to block the sun shining down in her face.

“He said they liked the plan and wanted to discuss it more closely with Luke and me next week.” I all but yelled, unable to contain myself.

She gasped, then grabbed me into a tight hug. “So, when are you planning on telling Luke?” she asked as she pulled back to look at me. I saw pride shining in her eyes, which caused a surge of emotions to course through me.

“Tell me what?” Luke asked, coming around the house to where we were standing. He was wearing his signature fitted jeans paired with a Longhorns t-shirt, and must have just showered before coming over because his hair was still damp. The mental image that brought up, paired with being beyond freaked out about telling him about the bank and the changes I made to business plan, was enough to make me pass out from sensory overload. By some miracle though, I managed to stay upright and not lose consciousness.

“I’ll go put these in the house and bring you two some lemonade,” Gram said tactfully, shaking out her gloves. Dirt rained down around our feet. “Why don’t you two sit on the porch in the shade,” she suggested.

Luke and I obediently walked around to the porch and sat down on the swing. I kept my gaze focused out over the ranch, trying to look everywhere but at Luke. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say to him. I was given a momentary reprieve when Gram brought out two glasses of lemonade, then headed back inside.

“So, what are you supposed to be telling me?” Luke asked, looking at me with a mix of curiosity and concern.

“I presented the business plan to a bank in Austin yesterday,” I started, trying and failing to keep the shakiness out of my voice.

“Have they called you back?” he asked.

“Yes. They want to meet with us next week to discuss the plan in more detail, but the banker said it looked good.”

“Us?” he asked, now with confusion written all over his face. “Why us? It’s your business, Ains.”

“That’s what I needed to tell you,” I said, taking a deep breath. It was now or never. “I made a last minute change to the plan, Luke.”

“Ok, what change did you make?” he asked slowly.

I turned away, but I could still feel his gaze burning into the side of my face.

“I added a plan for a horse breeding facility at the training center. I used the same wording you had in my proposal but tweaked it to fit your side of the business.” I paused, waiting for him to say something. After a moment I blurted out, “You’ve worked so hard to help me make my dream a reality; I wanted to do all I could to help you too.”

“Seriously, Ains?” he asked, turning his whole body towards me. “You risked getting the loan on your business by adding a second facet to the plan? Most banks don’t even look at a starter business that looks to take on more than they can handle.” I couldn’t tell by his voice if he was upset or just shocked. My heart beat wildly, afraid I’d just completely blown everything between us.

“Well, I didn’t actually know that last piece of information, so I didn’t knowingly risk anything,” I justified. “I just knew how much you wanted to breed horses and how happy it would make you.” I knotted my fingers together in my lap and whispered, “I want you to be happy.”

Luke let out a deep breath. “Ainsley, you’re incredible. I don’t even have words that come close to expressing that right now.”

I risked a peek at his face from under my lashes. “So you’re not mad at me?” I asked, biting my lower lip, afraid to breathe.

“Hell no, sweetheart!” he exclaimed, pulling me over to him and wrapping his arms around me. “I’m grateful, humbled, amazed, but never mad.” His hand squeezed my shoulder reassuringly. “But Ains, my dad isn’t going to give me the space I need at the ranch, or agree to downsize. I wouldn’t know where to start finding the time or place to get this off the ground.”

I bit back a grin and pulled back to give him the rest of the news. “My dad and grandpa gave me the okay to use the vacant land closer by the creek to give the horses room to run. I’m already going to use some of the outbuildings, and they gave permission to build a bigger stable and indoor arena for training,” I explained. “As for the time, I have no idea how you’ll do both, or if you even can. That’s something you have to work out.”

He sat looking at me, and for a quick second his eyes took on a watery sheen before he could blink it away. He pulled me to him and tipped my chin up so he was looking directly in my eyes. He leaned down further until I could feel his soft breath on my face. Electricity shot through me as Luke closed the last bit of space between us. If I thought I’d been on overload before, I was in meltdown mode now. His lips were soft but sure on mine. I gasped at the feeling and he took the opportunity to deepen the kiss. His tongue tentatively met mine and I could taste the sweetness from the lemonade. Much too soon for my liking, he pulled back slightly and placed another soft kiss on my lips before he leaned back.

“How soon do you need to call them back?” he asked, his voice husky. The kiss had the same effect on him as it did on me.

“I said I’d call back as soon as possible,” I answered, almost daring to hope this was happening.

“Okay, it’s three o’clock now. Can you give me an hour to go talk it over with my parents?” he asked, grasping my hands in his large, calloused ones.

“Of course, Luke,” I said, elated he was considering letting me help him. “Don’t feel pressured either. I’ll understand either way.”

Luke drove up again about an hour later as I was helping Gram prep for dinner. I wiped my hands off on the kitchen towel and went to meet him at the door. As he walked up the porch, I couldn’t tell if he was bringing good news or bad news.

“Hey, you want to go for a ride quick?” he asked through the screen door.