Chapter 46
Beck
He wasn’t going to make it.
Beck looked at the clock on the dashboard of his truck and accelerated as fast as he dared, especially since he was pulling
a trailer full of valuable timber.
His eyes felt gritty and sore with every mile. He had been driving since the early hours of the morning after Ali had texted
him the night before to ask if he’d had a chance to say goodbye to June yet.
That was the first he knew she was leaving. Well, he had known she was leaving eventually. He just hadn’t known until late
the night before that she was leaving today. This morning.
He should have left as soon as Ali had texted him, but he hadn’t slept much the previous two nights and didn’t trust himself
hauling a heavy trailer on winding mountain roads unless he caught at least a few hours of sleep.
He had managed one, somehow, before he had packed his bags and taken off.
Unfortunately, road construction had hung him up near Lander so here he was, cutting it far closer than he liked.
Ali said she was picking June up at the cabin at 8:00 a.m. since the Move Inc jet was supposed to touch down at 8:30. It was
now 7:30 and he had fifteen miles to go to reach the ranch.
He didn’t have to say goodbye in person. There was no good reason he needed to rush back to Bridger Peak. He could have texted
her or even called her.
If he wanted to talk to her in person, he could always fly to Seattle.
Somehow, it had seemed vitally important that he talk to her face-to-face.
The few days they had spent apart had only solidified how important she had become to him. He couldn’t let her go without
trying one more time to convince her to give them a chance.
He drove straight to the cabin as soon as he reached The Painted Sky. Fortunately, he didn’t see any sign of Ali when he pulled
up in front.
As soon as he stopped, Hank whined from the back seat and Beck let him out. The dog relieved himself in the grass in record
time then raced up the steps to bark outside the door.
Only seconds later, June opened the door, shock on her features as she stared at first Hank and then Beck.
“Oh. You’re here. Ali told me you were out of town and wouldn’t be home until tonight.”
“We decided to make an early start. I understand you’re heading out today for Seattle.”
She continued petting his dog. “Yes. The plane will be touching down at the airport soon.”
Don’t go.
The words hovered on his tongue, but now that he was here, he didn’t know how to say them.
“I’m glad Hank had the chance to say goodbye to you.”
“I’ll miss him.”
She scratched his dog behind the ears and Hank lolled out his tongue, tail wagging wildly.
She would miss his dog. Not him.
“I think he’s going to be heartbroken when you leave.”
She met his gaze and he wanted to tell her his dog wasn’t the only one.
“If I hadn’t left Montana in the early hours of the morning, neither of us would have had the chance to say goodbye.”
Her hands stilled on his dog’s fur. “We said everything we needed to say the other night, didn’t we? We both know this is
for the best. It would never work between us.”
“Why not? You didn’t really give me a clear answer before. I have feelings for you. Believe me, nobody is more shocked about that than I am. After Soledad, I was sure I was done with letting anyone else in. Then you showed up and changed everything.”
“Please, Beck. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
He was angry, suddenly. “Why does it have to be hard? Can you honestly tell me you feel nothing for me?”
She swallowed, her eyes suddenly distressed. He felt like the world’s biggest ass to push her on this, with everything else
she had been through.
“No. I can’t tell you that,” she said, her voice so low he could barely hear her. “But what does it matter how I feel? We
both know this can’t work between us.”
“Why not?”
“We live different lives a thousand miles away from each other.”
“So what? Long-distance relationships aren’t as tough as they used to be. We can have long video calls into the night and
text a thousand times a day. You can come to Wyoming whenever you can break free. I have a flexible schedule and can make
frequent trips to Seattle. Or hell, if things progress that far, I could always find a new workshop in the Seattle area. The
Pacific Northwest has some amazing timber.”
“Distance is not the only reason this can’t work. You know it’s not.”
She pressed her lips together and for the first time, he noticed they were trembling.
“Why?”
She pressed a hand hard over her heart, her features suddenly as angry as his. “Because of this. Because I have a tiny device
keeping me alive. At any second, I could go into cardiac arrest and have to be shocked back to life.”
“So what?”
“You don’t want to have to deal with that uncertainty.”
“I’m a grown man, June. I’m really good at making my own decisions about what I do or do not want to deal with.”
Her lips pressed together again and this time they weren’t trembling. Her expression was resolute.
“And I’m a grown woman who has made the decision for myself that I don’t want a relationship with you. Is that clear enough?”
He was so damn tired. He wanted to fight for her, but he couldn’t seem to find any of the right words. They were all slippery
as trout in the morning sun.
How could he argue with her, anyway? She had obviously thought this through and had made up her mind.
The hell of it was he loved her more than ever in that moment.
“Yes. Crystal clear,” he said gruffly, feeling as if he had almost held something rare and precious in his hands yet had somehow
watched it slip through his fingers.
She had feelings for him. He knew she did. He could see it in her eyes. But she wouldn’t even give them a chance.
“There’s Ali,” she said, shading her eyes with her hand to look down the driveway.
Emotions roiling, he watched the big black ranch SUV pull up. When Ali hopped out of the driver’s side, she looked pleased
to see him.
“I didn’t think you were coming home until this evening.”
He should have waited and avoided this whole messy, painful scene.
When he didn’t answer, she looked between the two of them.
“I’m interrupting something. Want me to come back?”
Please , he started to say, but June spoke first before he could get the word out.
“No. I’m ready to go.”
She disappeared back into the cabin and shortly emerged with the two suitcases she had when he picked her up at the airport
that first day.
He took them from her—what the hell else could he do?—and loaded them into the back of the SUV.
“Goodbye, Beck,” she said after he closed the door. “Thanks again for your kindness.”
She actually had the gall then to hold out her hand as if he would shake it.
Screw that.
He grabbed her and kissed her hard, with all the emotion raging through his heart.
After a long, breathless moment, she pushed him away.
“I’m ready,” she said to Ali and rushed to climb into the passenger seat, closing the door tightly behind her.
Beck ran a hand through his hair. “Well. That went well.”
“I’m sorry,” Ali said. “I wish I could talk some sense into her and persuade her to stay and work things out.”
He mustered a half smile. “Not your fault. Thanks for letting me know she was leaving this morning.”
He gave her a brief hug, held the driver’s-side door open for her and then he and Hank stood in the driveway watching as they
drove away.