Page 66 of Hunting Little Hope
At that point, I didn’t even know what we were eating. It might have been a very late lunch or a super early dinner, but I knew it was welcome. Because I washungry. Like a lion. Or a T-Rex. Or a Velociraptor. Whichever of those was the hungriest.
Again, I was pulled from my jumble of thoughts when Hope kicked my feet under the table. “Seriously, dude, where’s your head at?” she hissed at me, her eyes so big, and her face filled with... fear?
Oh boy, what had I missed?
A quick look around the room clued me in well enough. Two tall men were heading to our table. I hadn’t met this Troy character, or his friend Archie, but from the expressions on the two strangers’ faces, I could hazard a guess that these were them.
No wonder she was scared.
“I’m right here, pretty girl,” I whispered to her, reaching across the table to take her hand in mine. “I’m right here, and so are our Daddies. You’ve nothing to be scared of, promise.”
She bit her bottom lip and her cheeks turned that pretty pink I liked so much before she bobbed her head in a nod.
Her hand was ice cold in mine, but she returned the squeeze I gave her fingers before turning her attention back to the men heading our way.
By the time they reached our table, I’d scooted my chair closer to Hope, and both Daddy T and Lee were sitting up straighter. In fact, I think both of them were about to stand when Hope asked them to give her a few minutes.
She stood up, her free hand trembling as she straightened her skirt. “Hiya, Master Troy.” She nodded toward the one man, then the next. “Master Archie.”
The taller of the two opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, she held up her hand.
Our brave girl.
“Sorry, I know I’m being impossibly rude, but I need to say something before I lose my nerve, so if you’ll just gimme a minute?” she asked but didn’t give them a shot to respond before she carried on. “I know we discussed a lot of things on our date the other night, and we were open about me seeing other people. And then after that, I pretty much ghosted you. That was completely unforgivable of me, but I had a few things to sort through, and until I did, I couldn’t figure out how to talk to both of you and tell you what I wanted.”
She stopped then, and I couldn’t tell if it was because she’d run out of steam or had nothing else to say. Luckily, the first guy chose that moment to speak up.
“That’s okay, darling. From what I can see at this table, you seem to have found exactly what you needed. But both Archie and I didn’t want to step away and leave without at least telling you we enjoyed spending time with you, and we wish you the best.”
The shorter man—Archie—nodded beside him, his expression calm and thoughtful. “We meant what we said the other night,” he added. “You were honest with us aboutexploring your options here, and that’s exactly what this place is for.”
Hope blinked, clearly surprised by how gentle they were being about it. The tension in her shoulders eased just a little. “I did enjoy meeting you both,” she said quietly. “I just… things changed faster than I expected.”
Troy’s gaze flicked briefly to the rest of our table—first to Daddy Lee, then to Daddy T, and finally to me sitting there clutching Hope’s hand like it was the most important thing in the world.
“Well,” he said with the faintest hint of a smile, “Rawhide Ranch has been known to speed things along.”
That got a soft huff of laughter out of Daddy T, which made my heart slow down a little. Nobody was flipping tables or throwing punches. So far, so good. Archie stepped back half a pace and inclined his head politely. “It looks like you’ve found something that suits you.”
Hope glanced down at our joined hands before looking back at them. The pink in her cheeks deepened, but this time it looked more like shy happiness than fear. “I think I did,” she admitted.
Troy nodded once, satisfied. “Then we won’t keep you. We just didn’t want to leave things unfinished.” They both gave small nods toward the table before turning to walk away.
And just like that… it was over. No shouting or drama. Just two really cool guys wishing our Hope well and moving on with their day.
I let out a breath so loud it made Hope jump.
“Wow,” I muttered, leaning back in my chair. “That went way better than the disaster movie I’d been picturing in my head.”
Hope laughed, but she squeezed my hand tighter instead of letting go. “What do you mean, disaster movie? You said everything was going to be fine!”
I grinned at her. Unrepentant. “Of course, Isaidthat. That’s what awesome big brothers do.” I shrugged. “Well, that and kissing all the boo-boos better. Tell me, pretty girl, do you have any boo-boos you want me to kiss better?” I waggled my eyebrows at her suggestively and enjoyed the warm blush and snort of amusement from Hope.
Across the table, Daddy Lee reached out and covered our hands with his, while Daddy T watched us with a steady, reassuring look. “Well, now that that’s over with, I guess we can figure out where to go from here.”
On that scary—and super-duper big—thought, I decided that the best course of action was to knock over my juice cup and cause as much chaos as possible. We didn’tneedto figure out the next steps. Next steps were for... next days or something. Now all we needed to figure out was what to eat and which bed we’d be sleeping in tonight.
And how happy I would be for the rest of my life with my Hope and my two Daddies.
