CHAPTER 20 KAYLEE
He takes me through the six bedrooms—each with attached bathrooms—and the basement, which is finished and is an amazing party room complete with a dance floor and a bar along with all sorts of gaming systems, gaming chairs, and couches.
The house is built on a bit of a hill, so the basement actually opens up to the outside.
The family room is the next floor up, and a huge deck surrounds the entire first full level of the house with stairs to access the ground level.
A hot tub sits on one corner of the deck, and I plan on taking full advantage of that later.
He’s got an office, a film room, and a workout room with a sauna, and if he invited me to live here forever, I think I’d do it.
It’s private and tucked away from the hustle and bustle of life back in Vegas—it’s the exact escape we needed, and it’s not just that.
It’s the exact idyllic picture from my dreams…down to the shower with optional window coverings.
The dog? Check.
Horses and chickens? Check.
A huge plot of land with nothing around us for miles? Check.
Paths to run on at dawn and to hike during the day? Check.
Peace, quiet, privacy, open sky, and cool air? Check.
The ridiculously hot guy who wants to be my husband? Check.
It’s all here…almost.
It has everything except the one thing that always felt like the most important part of that vision.
Could I give up that part of the dream so I could have all the other parts?
I wish I could…but I just don’t know whether I can.
We end up in the garage, where Ben stores a variety of toys.
Up close I spot a UTV, which is a vehicle for multiple riders with four seats, along with two four wheelers.
On the wall hangs a variety of helmets, and I also spot Cornhole boards, a huge bin with all different sorts of athletic equipment and balls, and other outdoor yard games.
“Ever been on a UTV?” he asks. He checks a few gauges on the vehicles out there.
I nod. “My dad loved to take us to the sand dunes in Michigan. My brothers each had their own ATVs but because I was so much younger, my dad tended to drive my mom in the UTV and I’d sit on her lap.
Every once in a while, I got Luke to let me ride with him, but Jack was always too dangerous a driver for my mom to allow me to ride with him. ”
He laughs. “Sounds about right. We could take out the ATVs or Buddy can hitch a ride on Brewski and I can show you around.”
“Brewski?”
He shrugs. “My nickname for the Polaris UTV.”
I narrow my eyes. “Right. Well, since it’s a tour, let’s take the big one. But we’re racing in the ATVs at some point.”
“Obviously. And get ready to get your ass kicked.” He opens the door to the house and whistles, and Buddy scrambles into the garage a few beats later. Ben pats the backseat, and Buddy jumps in. He nods to the front seat for me, and then he gets in the driver’s seat.
“Helmet?” I ask.
“You don’t think I’m a safe driver?” he asks, and despite the question, he gets out and grabs us each a helmet.
“I trust you with my life, but accidents happen.”
“Yeah.” He hands one over. “Thanks for the reminder.”
“The entire Aces organization should probably be thanking me,” I say, snapping the strap of my helmet and adjusting the strap.
He chuckles as he snaps his helmet into place. “Probably for more than one reason.”
I laugh, and then he opens the garage and gets in to fire up Brewski the UTV. Ah! I guess it rhymes, kind of.
Buddy sits on the backseat, and Ben backs slowly out of the garage. He clicks a button to shut the garage door, and then he drives down the same road we took in last night when we arrived.
He turns off the main road onto a path, and we drive through the forest made up of Ponderosa pines. The path winds around, clearly cut through areas where trees didn’t need to be disturbed in order to create it.
It’s in the mid-seventies here, and I find myself a little chilly on this June morning. Back home it would already be in the nineties at this time of day, and I don’t miss the heat at all.
In fact, I’m sort of loving the feeling of being cold again.
I miss Michigan.
There’s a lot to love about Vegas, of course.
Having my family in close proximity for the first time in fifteen years is wonderful.
Getting to know my brothers better and finding best friends in their wives is something I dreamed of since I was a little girl.
And the fact that Ben is there is definitely a bonus.
But this place…the whole experience is absolutely breathtaking. This is what I want for my future.
I see a building in the distance, and as we get closer, I can tell it’s the barn.
Ben pulls up in front of it, and Buddy hops out like he’s been here before.
Ben unlocks a padlock then slides the barn doors open, and we walk into the stables.
A heated chicken coop is along one wall in the front, where a dozen or so chickens are happily sitting on their eggs.
We walk past the coop and toward a few stalls holding horses.
“This is Miller,” he says, patting the snout of one of the horses. He walks to the next stall. “This is Sammy, and that one over there is Ginny.”
“Wait a second,” I say as truth dawns on me. “You named all your animals after beer? Miller—well, that one’s obvious. Sammy for Samuel Adams, and Ginny for…Guinness?”
He laughs and takes a step toward me. “You know, I always said to myself that if a woman ever cracked the code on her own, she’d be worth hanging onto.”
I purse my lips as a thought occurs to me. “Buddy. His full name is Budweiser, isn’t it?” I gasp. “And Brewski! A nickname for beer!”
He shrugs with a cheeky grin. “Guilty as charged, and oh my God do I love you right now.” He sweeps me up into his arms, planting a kiss on my lips as he dips me down, and I giggle as I cling onto his shoulders.
Buddy runs up and down the aisle between the horse stalls like a maniac, taunting the horses who can’t get to him since they’re behind the wall of the stall.
He sets me down on my feet again and crosses the aisle to some stalls on the other side. “And over here we have Scout and Bella. These are the ones boarding here for the summer.”
We pet their muzzles before we turn back toward Miller, Sammy, and Ginny.
“So why do you own horses?” I finally ask.
He blows out a breath as he studies each horse.
“Lots of reasons. For one, riding can be a great cardiovascular workout. It works your core and it’s great for balance and coordination.
Combine that with the fresh air and the scenery around here, and riding can also be a relaxing, peaceful way to calm your mind and just slow down to enjoy nature. ”
He clears his throat as he glances at me before returning his gaze to Sammy.
He runs a hand along her muzzle. “When my parents got divorced, I started acting out a lot. They called it impulse control, and my mom insisted I talk to somebody after I was caught in a few different lies. It was easy at the time when I was split between parents, but the icing on the cake was when I told my science teacher to fuck off.”
He shrugs, but he doesn’t stop petting Sammy’s muzzle, and I don’t react. In fact, I don’t move at all. I’m afraid if I do, he’ll stop talking. It’s rare that he lets me in like this…but it seems to be more common here in Montana.
I like Montana.
“I didn’t see a therapist, but I talked to the school psychologist a few times, and she talked about horses a lot…
Equine-Assisted Therapy is what they call it.
I guess communicating with a nine-hundred-pound animal sort of teaches people to be aware of their own emotions.
My dad’s friend owned a horse, and the more I interacted with her, the more I was able to categorize my feelings as I learned how to react properly to different situations even though that horse wasn’t specifically trained for therapy.
It helped a lot, and as I got older, I realized the impact that animal had. ”
He leans forward and kisses Sammy’s muzzle.
“The horse that turned my life around was Sammy’s mom.
When I made enough money, I decided to buy a few of my own.
Sammy and Ginny are both trained, and a girl I went to high school with is a certified equine therapist now.
George brings Sammy and Ginny into town twice a week to work with troubled kids. ”
He glances over at me almost like he’s looking for my approval.
“Wow,” I breathe. “That’s an incredible story—and an incredible reason to have horses.”
He shrugs. “I like to give back to my community, you know?”
“Wait. You give back? As in…you don’t get paid for the use of your horses?”
He shakes his head. “I pay George to take them into town and I take care of the therapy costs for a few kids.”
Why does that make me want to tear off all his clothes and have a literal roll in the hay right now? Tears fill my eyes. “You’re a good man, Ben Olson.” The more pieces of himself he reveals to me, the fuller my heart becomes.
He shrugs good-naturedly. “Don’t let anyone else in on my secret.” He nods toward the horses. “We can ride later this week. George will be by in another couple hours to feed them, work them out, and take them into town. Want to go see the lake?”
I nod, and Buddy hops up to walk alongside us as we make our way down the aisle back toward Brewski. I stop by the chicken coop. “So I get the horses now…but why chickens?”
He laughs. “Have you ever had a fresh egg? They’re the best, and as a growing boy, I eat a fuck ton of eggs. But some of those bitches are mean.”
I giggle as I follow Ben out of the barn.
I watch him as he puts the padlock back onto the building and moves toward the UTV, and with every little move he makes down to scratching Buddy behind his ears after he leaps up into the vehicle’s backseat, I feel myself falling just a little harder for him.
It’s only going to make it that much harder when the inevitable end closes in on us.