Chapter 15
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
Cole Young paced the length of the dining room table, occasionally throwing a glance out the tall windows that lined the back of the house.
His father’s house.
“You’re crazy,” he muttered to himself, because he had nothing to offer Rachel Walker. The problem was, he’d gone and fallen in love with her, and the only reason they weren’t engaged yet was because his father had told him to give himself six months.
If, after that time, Cole still couldn’t see a future without Rachel in it, Daddy and Sunny would gladly help with whatever they needed to start their life together.
But Cole had no house for him and Rachel to live in. He’d never attended a single college class. He worked for her, for crying out loud.
“You’re up early,” Rosie said as she entered the kitchen.
Cole barely looked at her. “Yeah. Yep.”
Rosie stopped on her way to the fridge, where she’d pull out her lunch and an energy drink—the same thing she did every morning.
She packed her lunch at eight o’clock the night before, and she was in bed by nine.
She worked at a local boarding stable, and she had to be there by six-thirty in the morning.
Honestly, Cole admired his younger sister on many levels, only one of which was her dedication to routine. She knew what she wanted from her life, and it was horses, horses, and more horses.
Oh, and she wanted to be a champion barrel racer on one of those horses.
Cole had no doubt she’d achieve that, probably in the next couple of years. She had seven months of high school left, and she and Daddy had already started looking at facilities in Texas where she could train over the summer.
“What’s going on?” Suddenly Rosie stood in front of him, and Cole hadn’t even seen her move from the other side of the island. “Cole. You’re freaking me out.”
He blinked, not sure how much time had gone by or how many times she’d asked what was happening. He drew in a deep breath, his chest aching slightly, which told him he hadn’t been breathing properly.
“I’m going to ask Rachel to marry me,” he blurted out. His hands immediately moved to his hair, where he flattened them against his scalp and then pulled slightly. “And it’s pure madness.”
He turned away from his sister and paced to the end of the table before turning back to her. Now Rosie wore a wide smile, and while she’d been pretty skeptical of his whirlwind romance with Rachel, she’d come around pretty quickly.
Mostly because Rachel was kindness epitomized, and she could handle Rosie’s sassiness just fine.
After all, she had an older brother a lot like Rosie, and Rachel handled him, her other two brothers, and the whole rodeo animal training facility with skill and grace.
Rosie hadn’t even presented a challenge for her.
In fact, everyone who met Rachel loved her, Cole’s daddy and step-momma included.
“I’m going to be sick,” he said, and he pulled out a chair and sank into it.
Rosie sat beside him. “Stop it right now.”
He looked at her, feeling utterly pathetic. “I can’t do this. I’m not even twenty years old yet, and I have nothing to offer her.”
“That’s just garbage talk,” Rosie said firmly. She looked at him with blazing eyes. “You’re offering her you, and you’re awesome, Cole.”
“Where are we going to live?”
“In her house?” Rosie guessed. “I’ve been there, and I’m pretty sure your three pairs of jeans and seven shirts will fit.” She smiled at him, and Cole heard the teasing note in her tone.
“I feel stupid,” he whispered.
Rosie straightened, a hint of surprise marching across her face. “Why?”
“Cole’s up?”
Sunny came into the kitchen still wearing her pajamas. She paused and looked at Cole and Rosie too. “What’s going on? Are you sick?” She hurried toward him now, and actual tears pressed into his eyes.
“I’m fine,” he said, but his voice broke on the tail end of the last word.
“He’s going to ask Rachel to marry him,” Rosie said, and she’d never been great at keeping secrets.
Cole still threw her a withering look before focusing on his step-momma again. “We’ve been dating for six months, and I have the ring, and I’m dying a little more every day where she’s not wearing it.”
His step-momma looked like he’d hit her with that giant diamond ring, but Cole hadn’t even bought Rachel a diamond.
He’d gone with a much cheaper and just as sparkly moissanite.
He and Rachel had gone to Jackson Hole a couple of weekends ago—much to his father’s disappointment.
The trip had come with warning after warning, and in-person and text lectures.
But Cole’s mind and heart had been fully captivated by Rachel, and that wasn’t going to change.
“I’m in love with her.” And he sounded absolutely miserable about it.
“So ask her,” Rosie said, getting to her feet. “There’s no reason to torture yourself.” She knew about the six-month rule his parents had put on him, but she happened to agree with Cole that it was a stupid rule.
Cole had abided by it, because he loved and respected his parents, and he was living in their home.
Because he had nowhere else to go.
“We’re all up this early, and no one’s made coffee?” Cole’s father padded across the tile in the kitchen to the coffee pot. He picked it up and moved to the kitchen sink. “What’s going on this morning?”
Of course his eyes landed on Cole, and he seemed to have a spotlight shining on him all the time lately.
He didn’t see how he could get down on both knees and beg Rachel to be his wife if he couldn’t look his father in the eye and tell him the truth.
Cole wanted that relationship with his daddy, and he knew his father was only awake this early on a Tuesday morning because he’d be heading to his AA meeting soon.
The water reached the top of the pot and spilled over, and still Daddy stood there holding it under the stream. Cole inhaled again, stood, and squared his shoulders. “I’m in love with Rachel, Daddy, and I’m going to ask her to marry me tonight.”
His father blinked once, opened his mouth, then looked down at the coffee pot. He reached to turn off the water, then poured out the excess water and returned to the machine. “Is her family in town?”
“Her brothers are getting in this morning,” Cole said. “Her parents arrived last night, and they’ll be at the ranch through the New Year.” He’d come home after work yesterday to give Rachel a few hours of breathing room to receive her parents and spend some time with them.
Cole had met Wyatt and Marcy Walker previously, and they seemed to like him.
He liked them just fine, and they normally didn’t come to Wyoming in the winter.
Rachel and her brothers had often gone to the warmer climate of Texas, where her parents still spent most of their time, but as their rodeo animal training facility had grown, the less they’d been able to leave it.
“They invited me to dinner tonight, and Marcy is asking if y’all want to get together and do dinner.”
“Us?” Sunny asked.
“You and Daddy,” Cole said, his throat suddenly so dry. “Me and Rachel. Marcy and Wyatt.”
Daddy finally stopped measuring grounds into the filter, and he flipped on the coffee maker before facing Cole again. “That sounds fun.”
To him, maybe. To Cole, it sounded like an opportunity for his parents and Rachel’s parents to try to talk them out of getting married. His pulse quaked through his veins, and then Cole did the thing that always settled him: He thought of the gorgeous honey-haired woman he’d fallen for.
He reminded himself that he didn’t have to live with his parents. She didn’t have to live with hers. They could make their home together, and Cole would do anything to wake up next to Rachel, run Whispering Pines with her, and build his life around hers.
“They’ll be here for the next five weeks,” Cole said. “And I think you have Wyatt’s number.”
Daddy nodded, and he still hadn’t said anything about Cole’s idea of a proposal that evening.
“Well, I have to go to work,” Rosie said, and Daddy immediately spun to wrap her in a hug.
“Have a great day, bug.”
“’Bye, my Rosie-Roo.” Sunny hugged her too, and they all watched as Rosie pulled on her coat and exited the house into the garage. Then, Sunny’s and Daddy’s eyes came right back to Cole.
“I can’t be talked out of it,” Cole said, making his voice as strong as possible. “We’ve talked it through probably ten times, and I just want to take a step in that direction. This is it.”
“We’re not going to talk you out if it,” Sunny said. “Are we, Jem?”
He sighed and shook his head, sending a cartwheel of shock through Cole.
“You’re not?”
Daddy actually smiled as he came around the island and pulled out the chair Rosie had been sitting in. “No. Sit. Let’s talk.”
“Daddy,” Cole said, a sigh falling out of his mouth too. “I have to get to work too.”
“You’ve got time for this.”
Sunny arrived at the table too, and she placed a manila folder in front of Daddy before she took the seat at the head of the table, sandwiching Cole between them. His heartbeat bucked the way the horses did up at Whispering Pines, as they tried to get their riders off their backs.
Cole sometimes felt like one of those broncs, as his daddy had been riding him hard for a while now, pressing him to be careful, watch your thoughts, stay safe, don’t drive when you’re tired, get a job, what are you going to do with your life?
And so many more lectures, advice, and questions.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“This.” Daddy flipped open the folder. “Is our gift to you.” He slid it in front of Cole.
He looked at it, but the words blurred together and Cole didn’t have the brain cells to decipher anything right now.
“What is it?” he asked again. “Daddy, I’m going blind, I swear.
” He looked up at his father, who smiled down at him softly, though Cole stood as tall as him now, and when seated, they certainly sat shoulder-to-shoulder.
“Why are you so nervous?” his father asked.