Wanted | Niam AU

Chapter 38: Liam

Christ almighty. Driving for three hours and listening to Louis go on and on was enough to drive me fucking nuts! He got a call from Jason and of course he took it. The minute he said Jason's name, Greg put on his headphones and didn't take them off for another hour. Stupid ass was just going to give up on the guy he wanted.

I looked back at Niall one time and the smile on his face looking out the window told me all I needed to know. He already loved being away from the city. Would he love the ranch as much as I did? Could he see himself living there? Being a rancher's husband? Fuck I sure as shit hoped so.

I turned down the county road that led to the ranch and my palms started to sweat and my heart rate kicked up. What the fuck? I was never nervous coming to the ranch. Maybe it was having Niall meet Gramps and Grams that was getting me all fucked up.

I looked back at Niall and he looked like he was about to come out of his seat. Greg took his headphones off and turned around to face Niall.

"You excited, Ni? This is your first time out to the country and to a working cattle ranch!"

I'm not sure what type of sound Niall just made, but he was smiling from ear to ear.

"Holy shit, I'm so excited I'm shaking!"

"Jesus Niall, it's just a bunch of cows for Pete's sake. I'm more concerned with the fact that I've not had a cell signal for the last forty-five minutes!" Louis said as he moved his cell phone all over the back of Liam's truck looking for a signal.

Greg let out a laugh. "Yep, you take the boy out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the boy. You won't die if you can't talk to your boyfriend for a few days, squirt."

"Fuck off, dickwad."

"Can you two please just knock it off for at least two days? I really want to enjoy this time we all have together before Liam and Greg have to report back to football practice, okay? Will the two of you attempt to get along for me?"

Greg just turned around and didn't say a word; Louis told Niall of course they would behave. Right. I didn't believe that load of shit any more than Niall probably did.

We pulled up to the gate. It was a large black iron gate and above it read:

Payne Cattle Co

I heard Niall let out a gasp as I punched in the gate code and we made our way down the long country road that led to my dream. The driveway went on a good three miles before we got to the ranch house. One more turn and that big white house would be in front of us.

Fuck I loved that house. The house had four bedrooms with Gramps' and Grams' bedroom downstairs, and the other three bedrooms all upstairs. Both the first and second stories of the house had wraparound porches all the way around the house. Each room had access to the porch, and on cool nights Grams would open all the windows and doors to cool the house off.

The porch swing facing out toward the west was my favorite part of the house. I remember all the nights I sat on that swing with Gramps while he told me what it took to be a cattle rancher. I smiled at the memory. I turned to look back at Niall. He was staring at me with a goofy little smile. My heart started to beat faster as I gave him a wink. I was fucking nervous as hell.

There it was: the ranch house. And there was Gramps and Grams standing out front waiting for us. I thought I heard Niall tell Louis he was nervous about meeting my grandparents. We pulled up and I threw the truck into park as I jumped out and made a beeline straight to Grams. She was holding a bouquet of daisies in her hand. I reached down and gently lifted her up and gave her a small hug as I kissed her on the cheek.