Live for Me (Hallow Ranch)

Epilogue

Abbie

Three Days Later.

“Are we going to talk about it?” I asked softly from my spot on the couch, staring at Beau’s bare back.

He was looking at his portrait.

After I’d passed out, according to Mags, Ricky was trying to light it on fire.

Mags took his shot before Ricky could light the match.

The last few days had been an exhausting whirlwind of events.

Beau still wanted to kill Chase, but I forbade it.

After the horrible truth about Ricky Johnson came to light, airing on the evening news, everything Chase did made sense. Even though things went to complete shit, I couldn’t blame the man—not like Beau and the rest of the cowboys were anyway. Ricky Johnson and his team had been laundering money from the state for the last four years, and he had been under investigation since last year, which explained Chase’s reluctance to send him out here for the grizzly in the first place.

There had been no shift in power.

Johnson was being watched, and Chase didn’t want Hallow Ranch getting sucked into the fray.

Chase, like me, had been protecting Hallow Ranch all along.

The story about Johnson stalking me also made the headlines, and everyone assumed that this was a result of self-defense. No one but us knew the truth.

Even though I didn’t see it, I’d heard every gunshot.

His team had been declared missing, and the last call made to Johnson conveyed they were taking the grizzly to the national park where they would release it.

It was a good cover, one that would blow over.

Their ashes, alongside Johnson’s, had been spread on the mountain.

Harmony and Mason left for Texas this morning.

After the way things went down, Harmony needed to step away, which was completely understandable. According to Lance and Lawson, Valerie hasn’t left the main house in days. Ricky pointed a gun in her face when he’d grabbed me out of the booth and threatened to kill NJ and Caleb if she tried to follow us. After everything Val had been through, I could understand why she was spending all her time with her babies.

As for me, I was waiting on my blood test results from Red Snake.

We still didn’t know what Ricky drugged me with, and Ash was worried it might be a drug called Nightwalker. Even though I felt totally fine, just a little sore from being thrown around, Beau was waiting on me hand and foot. In the morning, he would wake me up with his tongue on my clit, eating me until I was spent and breathless. After he was done, he’d carry me to the shower, wash and dry me, dress me, and then carry me downstairs.

He was watching me like a hawk and had yet to say anything about the portrait.

“Talk about what, baby?” he asked, turning to face me, folding his arms over his sculpted golden chest.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, twisting my hands together in my lap. “I don’t know. The painting. Our future. Something.”

He stared at me for some time before he spoke. “The painting makes me feel things, Abbie. Things I regret.”

I didn’t even try to hide my flinch, my nerves eating at me now. “What are you talking about?”

“Three years ago, Mags found me in the middle of the field where I’d proposed to you with a loaded pistol and an empty bottle of Jack,” he explained, his voice gentle.

My heart jumped into my throat. “Beau, I don’t want—”

“It would’ve been for nothing, you know,” he whispered.

Slowly, I rose to my feet, shoving my blanket aside. I said nothing as I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my lips to his. He let me kiss him softly for a few moments, letting me savor him before his hands on my waist gently eased me back, setting his forehead against mine.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m sorry you were in that much pain.”

“What have I told you about apologizing, dammit?” he bit out, shaking his head.

“For the last six years, I’ve had nothing to live for,” I whispered, tears stinging my eyes now.

He jerked his head back, his brows coming together. “What? What do you mean you had nothing to live for?”

“My career was a success, yes, but I came home to an empty house. Whenever I would paint, I would only think of you, how I hurt you, how I destroyed us. I knew I would never move on with someone else. There was no sense in trying, because you were— are —the only man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. It was work, home, paint, sleep. Painting was the only thing that made me feel human. Then, you showed up on my doorstep in the rain, and…” I trailed off, unable to find the words.

“What are you trying to say, Abbie?”

I chewed on my lip, looking at our feet for a second. When I lifted my head back up, the answer was clear. “All I want, is to live for you, Beau.”

He stared at me, frozen.

“And I want you to live for me,” I rasped, tears falling down my cheeks now. “I never want us to be in pain like that again. I know we have so much to work out, but I don’t want to go back to a life that doesn’t have you in it.”

My chin was in his grasp then, his eyes scanning mine. “Are you saying you want be here at Hallow Ranch with—”

“—yes.”

His lips were against mine then, kissing me slowly, like we had all the time in the world.

We did.

We absolutely did.

That was the thing about happy endings, they were only new beginnings. We had the rest of our lives to figure out all the rest.

As long as we were together, everything would fall into place.

“If you live for me, Wildflower, I’ll live for you,” he said against my lips.

I smiled, holding onto him tighter. “Deal.”

The End.