Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
LOLA
“Hey, Hunter?” I call out as I place my toothbrush next to his on the bathroom shelf.
There’s something about that, the two brushes side by side, mine and his, touching at the handles. It feels more intimate than anything we did in that bathtub last night.
“Yeah, baby?”
His voice is so close it makes me jump. I spin around and find him leaning against the doorframe, watching me with that quiet intensity that makes me squirm.
“How far from this house is Violet’s?” I ask.
He smiles. “Not far. Probably walk it in five minutes.”
I lean back against the basin. “How big exactly is this ranch?”
“Hundred and fifty.”
My mouth drops open. “One hundred and fifty acres?”
He shakes his head. “Nah. One hundred and fifty thousand acres.”
“Holy shit, Hunter.”
That’s like double the size of Manhattan.
He chuckles. “Yeah.”
“How the hell do you look after all that land? How do you have time to even stand here?”
He takes a step forward, filling the doorframe the way he fills every room.
“The day-to-day work is all done by people who work for me. Colten is their boss. I own the ranch. I’m here to make sure it survives every day.
Everything goes through me, but I trust them all to do their jobs.
Just as they trust me to keep them alive.
We’ve got cattle, horses. An animal sanctuary. We love animals like our humans here.”
I let that settle over me. This really is its own empire. The land, the people, the livestock. And this man, standing barefoot in a bathroom doorway, talking about it like it’s as natural as breathing, he’s the king of it all. And I’m not sure how I even ended up here beside him.
Why the hell would his ex have walked away from this? From him and Wyatt? I can’t understand it. What am I missing?
“Do you think you could show me?” I ask. “All of it?”
He laughs. “Yeah, if that’s what you want. Might take a while to get round it all.” He tilts his head. “Can you ride?”
I bite back a smile. The only thing I can ride confidently is him. I can feel the blush crawling up my neck before the thought even finishes forming.
“A horse, city girl.” His voice drops low. “I know you can ride me. Very fuckin’ well.”
My face is on fire. “No,” I say quietly. “Not many horses in New York to ride.”
He rubs his hand over his stubble and closes the distance between us. His hands land on my hips—gently, so gently, careful of the bruise that’s still blooming purple beneath my clothes.
“Wanna learn?” he rasps.
“What if I fall off?”
I’m scrambling for reasons not to look completely out of my depth. Because what if the woman Hunter really wants knows about this life? One that loves this lifestyle? Knows the difference between breeds of horses and can rope a calf without breaking a sweat?
I’m not even sure I could shovel shit properly. What if I turn out to be nothing but an embarrassment to a cowboy?
“You think I’d put you on a horse that’ll do that to you?” He ducks his head until his eyes are level with mine. “These horses, they’re my babies. I broke them in myself. I care for them. If you put your trust in that horse, they won’t let you down.” He pauses. “Same as I won’t.”
I blow out a breath and slide my hands up his chest. Feeling the steady drum of his heart beneath my palm.
“I’m not asking you to be the next wrangler at Sterling Ranch, Lola. I’m asking you to be mine. To just be here with me.”
I look up at him through my lashes. “I don’t know what a wrangler is,” I admit.
He laughs. A proper belly laugh that shakes through his chest and into my hands. He rests his forehead against mine, still grinning. “You’re the breath of fresh air I needed, baby.”
“What makes you think I can’t be a wrangler?”
He cups my cheek. Looks at me like he’s seeing past every wall I’ve ever built. “You can be anything you wanna be here, firefly. But how about we teach you to ride a horse first before you make your next career move?”
I nod, a menacing grin spreading across my face. “Okay, cowboy.”
He presses a kiss to my lips. The kind that makes my toes curl against the bathroom tile.
“And you need a couple more days for that hip to heal,” he adds.
“You got it, boss,” I say with a giggle.
He growls. Actually growls.
“You can call me sir, cowboy, Hunter, boyfriend.” His thumb traces my bottom lip. “Fuck, you can even call me husband. But I ain’t your boss, Lola. You are in control of your life and how you live it. I’m just here for the ride, however you’ll have me.”
My brain short-circuits.
Husband?
All I can do is blink at him with my mouth wide open like a fish someone’s just pulled out of water.
“Hunter,” I whimper.
He tilts his head. “That’s my least favorite of the options.”
“You hardly know me. Not really. You can’t go saying things like that without really thinking it through. Marriage is a big thing.”
He nods. His hand moves along my jaw. I’ve never thought much about marriage in the past; I’ve never had a guy make me even start putting together a moodboard of ideas.
But, I guess, it’s always been a little fantasy in the back of my head, waiting for that moment I might randomly run into the one guy that makes my heart jump. And that is Hunter.
“It is, yeah. Your past? The little things about you I don’t know? I’ll learn them. I’ll study them.” His eyes hold mine. “But I fell for you for who you are. How I feel when I’m with you. That ain’t something you learn. It’s just something you know. Like soulmates.”
My heart forgets how to work for a second.
“I’m your soulmate?”
“I’d bet my whole ranch on the fact you are.”
A hundred and fifty thousand acres. His home. His legacy. His family’s name carved into the land for generations. And he’d wager all of it on a girl from New York who can’t even ride a horse.
“And what about you?” I ask, my fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt. “Is there a lot to learn about you, cowboy?”
“There is.” Something flickers behind his eyes. A shadow that passes too quickly to catch. “Nothing changes who I am. What I stand for. And how I feel about you. Just remember that.”
His fingers rest around my neck. Not pressing hard, just there. A weight I’m learning to crave.
And then his phone rings, and the moment shatters like glass. He pulls it out of his pocket and curses under his breath. “I gotta take this, baby,” he sighs, and then he kisses me so hard I forget my own name.
He strides into the bedroom, and I watch him from the bathroom doorway. He stands at the window, silhouetted against the morning light, his whole body shifting from the man who was just talking about soulmates to something a lot meaner.
And yet, he’s still not hiding it from me.
“Yes,” he answers.
Whoever is on the other end isn’t delivering good news. I can tell by the way Hunter tips his head back, jaw locked, the tendons in his neck pulling tight. “You know where to take them. I’ll be there shortly,” he barks.
The call ends. He stares at the phone for a beat. Then he turns to face me, and just like that, the composure is back. “I’ve got to deal with some work shit. Want me to drop you off at Violet’s on the way?”
“Uh. Yeah. Sure.” Wait. No. That isn’t what I want. Violet is busy with Luke right now, settling into the guest house. I need to speak to her alone, without him hovering. I need to tell her everything.
She warned me to stay away from Hunter, so I know she’s going to have thoughts on this whole situation.
But I want her on my side. I want her at Sterling Ranch with me, because even though I’m here with Hunter—and I’m pretty damn sure I’m falling hard and fast for him—I came to New Falls with Violet. She is a priority, too.
That conversation can wait until later. When it’s just us. “Actually, Hunter?” I catch his arm as he passes. “I’d like Wyatt to introduce me to Gary first.”
The shift on his face is instant. A smile spreads across his face that starts in his eyes. “He’ll love that, baby.” He presses one more kiss to my forehead, grabs his hat off the nightstand, and heads for the door.
I stand in the bathroom of this enormous ranch house, my toothbrush next to his, with his taste still on my lips and the word husband ringing in my ears.
There’s a lot I don’t know about Hunter Sterling, but there’s a lot he doesn’t know about me, either.
And one of these days, we’re both going to have to stop hiding.