Rules about Lily by Angelina Fayrene Page A

working hard the Mcguire ranch for as long as I can remember. I’m ready to settle down and have some children. I want a large family to fill up this huge house. I’m ready to know that there’s more than this to life.” He sounded like he had actually given this a great deal of thought. Lily knew she would regret saying this but she plunged on.
    “You know I’m there for you Jared. I always have been no matter how harebrained your schemes were or how much trouble you always got me into or how many nights we’ve spent in lock-up with old Sheriff Barnes or…”
    “Ok ok, I get it, but don’t blame all that on me, at least half of that belongs to you, because you my love, are a magnet for mishaps.” He let go of her elbow to drape his forearms over her shoulders. “So now that we decided we’re going to do it, what happens now?” he stared at her with a hopeful look. The man was outrageous.
    “Why are you looking at me like tha t. I don’t know what comes next, it’s not like I do this kind of thing everyday. We will have to get together to go over those annoying details, like what kind of woman you’re looking for, how soon you want this to happen, what kind of therapist you want to see.”
    “Haha, very cute smartass.” He tugged gently at the braid behind her head and chuckled.
    “Ok, give me a couple of days to think about it and I’ll get back to you with a game plan. I know insanity is instant with you but it will take a couple of days for me to get infected. Now, I’m going home and I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.  Do not call me tonight unless you want to feed me. You make most people tired, me, you make hungry.” She pushed up to her toes to reach up within his loose embrace and kissed him on the cheek and waited until he returned the kiss to her forehead before letting her go, it was an everyday ritual.
    “Bye Jared”
    “Bye Lily and Lily?”
    “Yes Jared?”
    “Thank you”
    “Don’t thank me yet Jared, we’ll probably try to kill each other before this thing is over.”
    Lily made her way to her house and settled in to spend a quiet night; she had gotten home and was both physically and mentally exhausted. Jared had a way of doing that to a person. She thought about all the years they had spent together and the trouble they often got themselves into. She wouldn’t change that for anything, she’d trailed after him since she was five and he was a bossy older ten-year-old. Some things hadn’t changed, she was still with him and he was still the bossiest man she knew especially where she was concerned.
      Lily didn’t know how “The Plan” as she called it, would change her life, only that drastic changes were in the works for both of them. She knew this day would eventually come, but still felt blindsided by his request. She had a degree in business administration and although she was only twenty-seven, she had years of experience. She started working part-time for Jared while she was in school and then moved into full-time status upon graduation. Jared was a hard taskmaster but he paid well and the benefits were outstanding. She did everything from attending corporate meetings to bailing him out of the local lock-up. She cooked him food, sat with him when he was sick and held him throughout the night when his father died. 
    If another woman was there to do those things for him, what would she be left to do? Jared’s pace had always been so demanding that she hadn’t really dated and had no social life to fall back on. Strange that she never noticed the lack of companionship until now.  She had also spent a part of the night coming up with ideas to put “The Plan” into action and also started looking for a place to live. She lived in a small house on the ranch, a pretty pale yellow with white trim and a front yard full of flowers that was far enough away from the main house. It afforded her some privacy but it was still part of the property that belonged to