Doug finally gave in. Partly because he knew Lucy wouldn’t be up for more than a casual amble and partly because he wanted every single minute with Chelsea that he could get. He’d held her throughout the night, marveling at the rightness of it.
It had been like that when he’d arrived at the ranch fresh out of the service. After three full tours, most of them spent on ships in the Persian Gulf, he’d been sick to his heart of the unending heat, the limitless steel, and the noise—for a Navy ship was never silent. He’d been on the ranch for three years now and could still feel the Persian dust in his pores. But the ranch had fit him since the first moment he’d stepped on the soil.
He’d ridden plenty as a kid at his parents’ place in Wyoming. When he didn’t re-up, SEAL Commander Luke Altman h
