Chapter Seven
CAMILLE
I can’t get enough of the fresh air and sunshine. Even though it’s cold and the wind is cutting through my jacket and sweater, there’s something so raw and beautiful about being out in the open like this.
Scratchy shrubs and patches of grass extend in all directions, buildings and cars small in the distance. There’re no overly manicured lawns or paved driveways. Just life existing the way it should.
I can see why Bronco loves it. It’s so far removed from the mansion and country clubs I’m used to; I may never want to leave.
“Hand me those pliers?” Bronco points to the tool he needs. He isn’t exasperated at all that I don’t know one from the next.
I hand it to him, marveling a little. It feels like all I’ve done since I met him. He’s confident, decisive, and doesn’t think twice about using his hands.
We’re out at the western edge of his property where the fence and camera went down. Bronco was concerned about my safety but didn’t want to leave me behind to make the repairs. So I asked if I could keep him company.
The smile he gave me warmed me all the way to my toes.
I dressed as fast as I could, slipped the locket on, and grabbed my boots.
He loaded up the tools and drove us across almost forty acres of beautiful land.
I keep expecting him to scoff or be annoyed with me when I ask questions or linger a little too long looking at the landscape. He hasn’t. Not once. Neither Aiden nor my father have that kind of patience. Especially with me.
Bronco tugs at the wire holding the camera in place against the tree trunk. He nods, tucks the pliers in his back pocket, and puts his hands on his hips, studying the fence. The black cowboy hat shields his eyes from the winter sun, and I can’t look away.
There’s a teasing glint in his eyes when he asks, “Got any tips for resetting a fence post?”
“My tutors never covered that.”
“Pity. Could have been a whole new career for you.”
“Only if you were the teacher.” My cheeks heat the second the words are out. I shouldn’t compliment a man I’m not engaged to, but being this close to Bronco, with his broad shoulders, kind eyes, and steady presence... I can’t help myself.
His gaze skates over me and his eyes heat. “Yeah? Because of my charming personality?”
My lips twitch, a smile trying to break free. It’s only the strain of not knowing where Aiden is right now, and what he and my father have planned that holds it back. Although I’ve never been one for the kind of carefree life other people seem to have.
Structure. Discipline. Impeccable manners. The three pillars of good behavior according to my mother. And the only acceptable traits a daughter of good breeding should have in order to do her duty for the family.
I wonder what sort of discipline and manners my mother would have insisted on if she’d been kidnapped by her fiancé. She probably would have dragged him down the aisle first.
“Tutors, huh? You didn’t attend a regular school?” Bronco cuts the wires off the toppled fence post, binds them and tosses them in the back of the utility vehicle we came in.
“My parents preferred something more... curated for my sister and me.” Something more attuned to how they believed young women should be raised. The same way my mother was in a traditional finishing school.
“You mentioned your sister before. Is she older or younger?” He pulls an oddly shaped tool with two handles out of the back and uses it to dig a new hole.
“Older by five years. She’s already married, so she knows...” I cross my arms over my waist, suddenly aware of how small I must sound. “She was going to try to find a way to help me get away from Aiden.”
He scowls at the hole. “You mean she didn’t choose her husband either.”
“No.”
“Jesus Christ. Some family.” He mutters something I don’t quite catch, then attacks the hole like it’s insulted him “And I thought my brothers were pains in the asses.”
“How many brothers do you have?”
He slows and his gaze goes distant. “Two, though I almost lost one when we were kids. I’m the oldest. Ford is three years younger, and Dallas is five.”
I can’t imagine life without my sister. “What happened when you were kids?” I shouldn’t pry. It’s uncouth. But I find myself edging closer as he talks, eager for every word.
Bronco looks at me then, and the pain in his eyes is unmistakable.
“Dallas decided to go ice skating at the pond when he was eleven. I was sixteen and in charge of him. He refused to listen when I said the pond was beginning to thaw.” He stabs at the ground again, removing a large chunk of earth.
“I was part way back to the house to tell our parents when I heard the crack. He fell in.” Another chunk of earth falls away.
“I’ve never run so fast. When I pulled him out, his lips were blue, but he smiled at me like I was his hero. ”
I move closer. Close enough to touch. I forget, for a second, to keep my face composed. I want to reach for his hand, but I don’t know if I should.
“Things weren’t the same for any of us after that. Ford stuck closer to home. Dallas changed. Became withdrawn.”
“What about you?” I ask.
“I joined the Army when I graduated and became a Green Beret.”
“You became a hero.”
“Yeah. I used to think so.” He turns, finally facing me. “Now I just protect beautiful women from psycho fiancés.”
He says it like it’s nothing. As if it’s just another category he files people under before deciding how to keep them alive.
But the way he looked at me when he said it, almost tender, makes me feel seen in a way I never have before.
“You’re still a protector,” I reply, because I don’t have words for the feelings in my heart right now.
He nods. “On my terms.” Then, “People live longer that way.”
He was in the military. He probably saw many people die. This feels like more.
Before I can ask, his phone rings.
Bronco pulls his phone from his pocket, strips off one glove, and answers with, “Gray. You have news.”
I lean closer, trying to hear both sides, but Mr. Calhoun’s words are too low to make out.
Bronco settles his other hand on my hip like a lifeline.
“They both did? Damn.”
He pauses to listen, then snarls, “I don’t care what agreement she signed. She doesn’t want to marry the guy.”
“No, I’m not...” He sucks in a harsh breath. “Dammit Gray, no one is going to force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. We need more information.”
He listens, jaw working like he’s holding something back.
“Buy us what time you can. I have contacts that might be able to help.”
His eyes slide closed. When they open, they rest on me. “I know. But if there is anything in writing, they can find it.”
After another beat, he hangs up.
“That didn’t sound good.” Terrible actually. My heart is beating harder, and my hands feel clammy.
“Your father and Frost contacted their lawyers. Lone Star has been advised to return you immediately or face legal action.”
A jolt of panic shoots through me. “No.”
Bronco pulls me against his chest and wraps his arms around me, letting me lean on him. “I made you a promise, princess. You’re staying with me.”
I cling to him. The only person steady in the storm of my life.
“They say you signed a marriage contract.”
“I had to. It... it was expected. That was before I really got to know Aiden.”
“Do you remember what it said?”
“No. I didn’t get to read it.” Not that it mattered. Even if I’d asked to review it, my father would have frowned and refused.
“Of course. Because anyone who treats their daughter like an ornamental plant doesn’t expect them to have any interest in their future.”
I bite the inside of my cheek at his assessment. “Seen and not heard.”
He drops a kiss on the top of my head, so light I barely feel it, and squeezes my hip. “We’ll find a way out for you.” Then he steps back to take up the tools. “Tell me more about Frost, while I finish this. How did you and your father meet him?”
I tell him about Aiden coming to one of my father’s holiday parties.
Likely as a guest of someone else. Also, his offer to help with the technological security for the family businesses, which led to further invites to social gatherings.
He sort of wormed his way into our lives and became an advisor to my father over the last few years.
I don’t know much more other than after I turned twenty, he was suddenly everywhere I went. He was charming and polite. Reserved, like he was waiting for something. I didn’t know my father considered him a suitor for me until five months ago.
When my sister, Elizabeth, turned twenty-one, my father arranged her marriage to one of his business partners. She tried to make a happy marriage, but with each passing year, she grows deeply unhappy. The only joy in her life is her daughter Sophie, my niece.
It’s the kind of marriage I expected to have with Aiden. But the more time I spent with him, the more he unsettled me. Even his hand on mine made my skin crawl.
Bronco scowls the more I talk but lets me get it all out. He sets the new post, then strings the new wire as we talk, working with swift, sure movements, like he’s done this dozens of times.
He answers my question with a smirk. “I grew up on a farm in Montana, princess. I fixed so many fences I used to dream about it when I was in the Army.”
“I’ve seen pictures of Montana. It looks pretty. Did you like growing up there?” I would love to see it. It has the same kind of open skies as here. I bet that’s why he bought this land. It reminded him of home.
“I did. It was a good place to raise three boys.” He tests the new wire, seeming satisfied. “Maybe I’ll take you there one day.”
The hope that maybe I could live a life where that would happen warms me from my head to my toes. I’ve had more choices in the last day with Bronco than I’ve ever had. That kind of freedom is heady.
I don’t think I can go back to the life I had before.
Bronco begins loading the tools into the utility vehicle when his phone rings again. He glances at the screen and exhales. “It’s my brother.”
He swipes and tosses the phone onto the tailgate. “Ford.”
A man’s voice fills the open space between us. “Hey, bro. Do you have Dallas’s number or address?”
Bronco drops more tools in the back. “Probably his phone number. Why?”
“I need to send him an invitation. Ember and I are getting married, and I need my brothers standing up with me.”
Bronco pauses, holding a shovel over the bed. He slowly lowers it. “Congrats man. You deserve happiness. I’ll reach out and have him call you.”
His brother sighs. “You always were closer to him than I was.”
“Only as close as he lets me. You know that.”
“Yeah. Maybe that will change one day.” There’s a wistfulness to his voice that I heard when Bronco talked about Dallas.
He means a lot to these two.
“Thanks. And thanks for coming up for Christmas with mom and dad. Ember loved them.”
Bronco snorts. “Well, they won’t forget meeting her.”
Ford groans. “Never bring that up again.”
“Okay, but mom already said she will never cook on that kitchen counter again.”
“It’s not like we...”
He trails off when Bronco laughs.
“Screw you, bro,” Ford says with a wealth of warmth in his voice. “Just remember this when you have your own woman.”
Bronco’s eyes meet mine. “I will.”
“Later,” Ford says.
Bronco disconnects the call and finishes loading the tools.
I help where I can, watching as he works. Several times, he stares out over the landscape, deep in thought.
I touch his arm. “Are you okay?”
He rubs the back of his neck. “He’s happy, you know? He met Ember just prior to Christmas. I didn’t think it was possible, but he found the kind of love my parents have.” He shuts the bed of the vehicle and opens my door. “Since then, I’ve been thinking about what I want from my own life.”
“What do you want, Bronco King?”
He looks wrecked when he says, “I want what they have. A forever love. Family. Maybe kids.”
“In Montana?”
He scans my face, then lifts his hand and slowly brushes the back of his fingers over my cheek. “The place doesn’t matter, princess. Only the woman.”
Tingles race through my body, aware of his touch, and the warmth of his body so close to mine.
If I could, I would choose that too.
Here.
With him.