Free From Ashes by Molly McAdams

wander onto the property that shouldn’t be there. But here, they’re just to protect us if someone breaks in.” He chuckled and rubbed my arm. “Why are you shaking?”
    “I rank guns right up there with spiders.”
    Gage laughed louder. “Well, I’ll help you with the guns. But I can’t help you with your fear of the last one, except to come runnin’ when you scream because there’s a spider on the wall.” He raised an eyebrow at me.
    “That evil bastard jumped at me!”
    “Cass, it was microscopic.”
    “Doesn’t matter. They’re nasty and have too many legs.”
    “Perfect . . . guns don’t have legs.”
    “It’s not like that automatically drops the scary factor and makes them okay all of a sudden! God, I can’t believe you have them in your room.” I whispered the last part to myself.
    “You’ve been there for over three months now, and you had no idea. It’ll be fine.”
    “But now I know they’re there,” I reasoned. “Way different.”
    “I promise they won’t hurt you.”
    “Can we talk about something else? I’m still freaking out and they’re not even near us.”
    He stiffened.
    “Gage?”
    “So how’s work going?”
    “Gage!”
    Tilting my head back so he could look in my eyes, he spoke softly and watched closely for my reaction. “My shotgun is in the backseat.”
    My breath caught. How many times had I been in his truck, and I’d never noticed this? “Nope.” I shook my head and forced myself to relax into him. “No, I’m pretty sure that’s incorrect. There isn’t a shotgun in your truck.”
    He laughed. “Yes, ma’am. Whatever you say.”
    “So work is going great.”
    He laughed even louder. “I’m glad. Though now we have so much coffee in the apartment, I don’t think we’ll ever go through it all.”
    “Probably not. I’ll send some with you to the ranch.”
    “They’d like that.” He was quiet for a moment. “They’d like you too. I hope you come with me sometime.”
    “I will,” I promised.
    We slid down so we were now lying in the truck, looking up at the stars. He kept an arm around me, and I stayed curled into his side, my head resting on his shoulder. Our morning hugs were the most we ever touched now, so I closed my eyes and enjoyed every bit of this, knowing it wouldn’t last forever. I listened to his heartbeat, breathed in his clean, masculine scent, and memorized the way my body felt pressed up against his. His heartbeat picked up when I lightly ran my fingers across his chest and I smiled to myself.
    His chest rumbled as he said, “What do you want to do for the rest of your life, Cassidy?”
    Stay here with you. “What do you mean?”
    “Well, I know you don’t want to go to school. Just wondered what you wanted to do. If you had a certain career in mind.” Gage’s deep voice got even huskier as he continued. “If you actually wanted to do something with your photography, or get married and have kids, if there’s somewhere you want to move to . . .” He trailed off.
    No kids. I refuse to have children. “I don’t really know. I’ve never thought about it.”
    “Seriously? You’ve never thought about your future and where you’d like to be? What you’d like to be?”
    “Not once.” The most I’d ever thought about the future was in terms of weeks.
    “I thought girls start planning their weddings when they’re little, and have crazy dreams like being an actress or a singer.”
    I shrugged. When I was little, I wanted to grow up to be a princess. But my dad treated me like one, so I’d already thought I was one. The day he died, all dreams of the future stopped, and I hadn’t had one since. “What about you?”
    “I want to finish college and move back to the ranch so I can take over it for my dad. Other than a family, that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
    “That sounds perfect for you.” I was already jealous of his future wife.
    “You’ve really never thought about it? Never aspired to be a doctor, or