Chapter Fourteen
Monday morning Cole stood at the rail watching Landon try to work the chestnut mare again. She was having none of it. She reared back, sweat gleaming on her coat, and put Landon on the sawdust floor with a thud that echoed through the barn.
The snow had stopped overnight and left everything clean and bright under a sharp winter sun.
He could see Mr. Barton out on his ancient blue tractor, working his way down the road clearing driveways the way he did every time it snowed, refusing payment the same way he always did, waving it off with a calloused hand and accepting nothing but a hot cup of black coffee. Cole had always liked that about him.
He leaned against the rail and let his mind go where it had been going all morning.
Aftyn. The way she’d looked last night when he dropped her off, her breath clouding in the cold air as she told him she’d go see Sam after the breakfast rush.
He’d almost asked her to call him after.
The words had made it as far as his throat before he let them go.
The hollow feeling in his chest had been there since yesterday and ranch work wasn’t touching it.
“Damn it,” he muttered.
“Something wrong?” Rio came up beside him, boots quiet on the scattered hay.
“No.”
“You going with that.”
Cole’s grip tightened on the rail. “What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to say you’re going to talk to her before she leaves.” Rio kept his voice easy. “Just ask her to stay.”
“We had an agreement.”
“Agreements change. You’re in love with her, Cole.”
He started to shake his head and then didn’t. His shoulders dropped. “Yeah. Doesn’t change anything.”
“It changes everything. You’d rather be miserable than swallow a little pride and have an honest conversation with her.”
Cole looked at him in the morning light, the exhaustion on his own face probably plain enough. “I’m too chickenshit.”
“Then man up and—” Rio stopped. His eyes went to the barn entrance where light was spilling in through the opening doors. “What the hell is she doing here?”
“Who?” Cole turned and felt his stomach drop. Callie was framed in the barn doorway, her perfume already reaching him across the space. “Son of a bitch.”
“Get rid of her,” Rio said. “Then go find Aftyn.”
Cole shot him a look and walked toward her, shoulders set, jaw tight. She stopped when she saw him coming and offered that smile he’d once found disarming. Right now, it landed differently.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice warm and practiced.
“What are you doing here, Callie?”
She lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug, her cashmere sweater catching the light. “I thought we could talk.”
“I’m working.”
“Later, then?”
“No.” He stopped a few feet from her and held her gaze. “I want you to get in your car and go. There’s nothing here for you anymore.”
“Cole—” She reached for him.
“No.” His voice came out hard and flat. “I don’t want you here, Callie.”
The crunch of tires on gravel made him look up.
His chest tightened when he saw Aftyn’s vehicle pull in.
She came through the barn doors a moment later in her jeans and blue sweater, her hair back, and stopped the instant she saw Callie standing there.
He watched her take it in, watched her chest rise with a slow breath, and then she kept walking. Chin up. Eyes steady.
She stopped a few feet away, her gaze moving to Callie with the calm assessment of someone who had already taken the measure of the situation.
Callie looked her over, taking in the jeans, the practical ponytail, the worn boots, and something shifted in her expression. “Do I know you?”
“I was at the diner the day you came in for Cole’s order.”
“Ah.” The single syllable carried more condescension than most people could pack into a sentence. “You’re one of the servers.”
“I am. And for what it’s worth, any server in that diner works harder in a morning than most people manage in a week.” Aftyn’s voice was level, but the color had risen in her cheeks.
Callie laughed, the kind of laugh designed to diminish. Aftyn’s jaw tightened and Cole saw the muscle jump beneath her skin.
“Aftyn.” Cole kept his voice quiet. “What are you doing here?”
“Yes,” Callie echoed, her tone a clean imitation of sweetness. “What are you doing here?”
“None of your business.” Each word clipped and clean.
Callie’s eyes moved between them, and something shifted in her expression as it landed. “I see. This is who you’re seeing?” She looked at Cole. “A waitress?”
“We’re rarely called that anymore,” Aftyn said, her hands going to her hips. “You’d think someone from New York would know that. But you’d rather look down at people who actually work for a living.”
“Do you know who you’re talking to? I’m a doctor.”
“And I’m a surgical nurse.” Aftyn’s voice didn’t waver. “Someone a doctor can’t function without.”
Callie blinked. “Then why are you working in a diner?”
“Still, none of your business.” Aftyn turned to Cole, her expression shifting, the heat going out of it. “Can we talk?”
“He’s busy talking to me,” Callie said.
Cole turned to her. His hand closed around her arm, not rough but not gentle either, and turned her to face him. The perfume that had once meant something to him just sat in the air between them now, familiar and completely without pull.
“I’ve already told you. There’s nothing to talk about and I want you off my property.” His voice was low and even. “Don’t come back.”
Callie folded her arms, her diamond bracelet catching the light. “You can’t even tell me why. Because you know you still love me.”
Cole drew a long breath and let it out slowly.
“I don’t love you.” He said it the same way he’d say anything that was simply true. “I love her.” He looked at Aftyn. “I’m in love with Aftyn. That’s why. Now get off my property before I call Sam.”
He was aware, distantly, that the ranch hands had gathered behind him in a loose semicircle, boots planted, weathered faces watching with undisguised interest.
“What?” Aftyn’s voice came out barely above a whisper, her fingers twisting the hem of her jacket.
Cole turned to her fully and let the rest of it go. “I love you. I didn’t know how to say it because I thought you wanted to go back to Colorado. But I don’t want you to leave. I want you to stay.” He paused. “Marry me.”
A tear slipped down her cheek and he held his breath. Then she smiled.
“I love you too. That’s why I came out here. I wanted to tell you I’m not leaving.” Her voice trembled but held. “I called the hospital this morning. I have an interview tomorrow.”
He pulled her in and kissed her, and when the men behind him erupted he laughed against her mouth. He looked up at Callie over Aftyn’s head, and whatever he felt in that moment had nothing to do with the past.
“Goodbye, Callie.”
She held his gaze for a few seconds, something moving across her face before she locked it down. Then she walked out. Her car roared to life and threw snow and gravel in all directions as she left, taking nothing with her but the fading smell of expensive perfume.
Cole swept Aftyn up and carried her across the yard toward the house, her weight easy against his chest.
“Taking the rest of the day,” he called back to the men without turning around. Their laughter followed him all the way to the porch.
He shouldered through the door, crossed the kitchen still warm with the smell of morning coffee, and set her on her feet.
His hand found the back of her neck and he kissed her slowly, the way he’d wanted to for longer than he’d let himself admit.
Her fingers slid into his hair, and she pulled his Stetson off and dropped it somewhere behind her.
He pushed her coat off her shoulders. She got his jacket.
The rest of the distance between them closed fast.
He carried her to the bedroom and laid her on the quilt and stood there a moment just looking at her.
“What?” she asked, propping herself up.
“I’m just glad you’re staying.” He sat on the edge of the bed, his hand resting on her knee. “I told myself it was no strings. I knew that was a lie about two weeks in.” He shook his head. “I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you. Not Callie, not anyone. I won’t again.”
She sat up and put her hand against his jaw, her thumb brushing the stubble there. “I feel the same way.” She smiled, soft and certain. “I have to thank that bull for chasing me, because I don’t know how else I’d have found you.”
Cole laughed quietly. “We would have found each other. I really believe that.”
****
Aftyn blinked against the blur of tears. This was the man she would love for the rest of her life. She knew it the way she knew her own heartbeat, without question and without reservation.
“I need you,” he said, his voice rough and low against her cheek.
“I need you too.” Her fingers curled into his shirt. “I’ve been miserable since yesterday just thinking about leaving. I don’t know what I would have done if you’d told me to go.”
His lips pressed to her forehead and stayed there. “You never have to worry about that.”
“Neither do you.” She leaned into him, breathing him in, that particular combination of pine and clean cotton that was entirely his. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He stood and undressed her slowly, boots first, then jeans, then her sweater, until she was in nothing but her blue lace bra and panties.
The way he looked at her made the air feel thin.
He sat on the edge of the bed, toed off his boots, and stripped off the rest. She watched him, her breath unsteady.
He ran his hands up her legs and her skin came alive under his touch.
He reached for his wallet, fingers not quite steady as he rolled on the condom, and she felt the ache in her deepen watching him.
He pulled her upright, unclasped her bra and tossed it aside, then pulled her panties down and looked at her like she was something he’d been waiting a long time for.
He crawled over her, settled between her thighs, and kissed her hard. She locked her legs around him and pulled him in and cried out at the force of it.
“Cole.” His name came out and broke against his ear. “Please.”
She felt him shudder against her.
He rolled onto his back without breaking their connection and she moved over him, riding him hard, his hands at her breasts, his mouth finding her nipple before traveling up her neck and taking her mouth with a hunger that matched her own.
She moved harder against him, chasing it, and when it hit her she threw her head back and cried out. Cole groaned against her neck and followed her, his hands gripping her tight, and they stayed like that until their breathing slowed.
He pulled her down onto the mattress and tucked her against his chest, her cheek warm under his chin. Afternoon light came soft through the curtains, laying gold across the pillows.
“I love you,” she murmured.
His hand moved through her hair. “I love you, baby.” He pressed his lips to her forehead, then paused. “I need a shower.”
She laughed. “Yes, you do.”
“Are you saying I stink?”
“You smell a little horsey.”
“I was in the barn all morning.” He grinned without any real shame about it. He sat up and reached for her hand. “Come on.”
“Give me a minute. I did most of the work.”
Cole laughed from deep in his chest. “And I appreciated every second of it. I’ll be in the bathroom.” He winked and disappeared through the doorway.
She lay still for a moment, then pushed herself up, opened the nightstand drawer, and tucked a condom into her palm. Just in case.
Hours later they were on the sofa, a movie going on the TV that neither of them was really watching. His fingers moved idly through her hair.
“Will you move in with me?”
She sat up. “You want me to move in?”
“I do. You’re going to marry me.”
Her eyebrow went up. “Are you asking me or telling me? Because I don’t recall an actual proposal.”
He shifted against the cushions. “I mentioned marriage.”
“You mentioned it. That’s not a proposal.”
He ran a hand through his hair and looked around the room like it might offer some help. “I don’t have a ring yet. I’ll do it properly when I do.”
“You’ll wait?”
“Sure.” He shrugged. “If I’m going to ask you properly I want a ring that’s yours alone.” He paused. “Which reminds me, I still have the one I bought for Callie—”
“Do not even think about it.”
Cole laughed. “I wouldn’t. I’ll take it back to the jeweler. I won’t get full value, but I just want it out of the house.”
“Good. I want it gone too.”
He scooped her onto his lap and kissed her, slow and unhurried, then pulled back and looked at her. “Do you want to come with me and choose your own, or do you want me to pick it out?”
“I want you to pick it out.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes. Please.”
“Alright. I’ll go tomorrow.” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “What time is your interview?”
“Eight. I told Connie this morning.” She smiled. “She was so happy I’m staying. She also told me you were in love with me. I didn’t quite believe her.”
“She’s a smart woman.” He squeezed her hand. “Let me know how it goes.”
“I will.” She kissed him once. “After the movie, can we go to the diner? I’m starving.”
“We worked up an appetite.”
“Stop.”
“Before and during the shower.”
“Cole.”
“I love making you blush.” He pulled her back against his side. “Okay. Movie, then dinner.”
She settled into him. “I need to call Aunt Ping too. I waited until I knew for certain you wanted me here.”
He pressed his lips to her temple. “I always will.”
They turned back to the movie, the room warm and quiet around them.
Aftyn thought about how it had all started.
Masher chasing her across that field. Her car breaking down on the side of the road.
It had felt like the worst day. She leaned into Cole’s side and smiled to herself.
Without all of it going wrong, none of this would have gone right.
Epilogue
Aftyn stood at the apartment window, cradling her coffee and looking out at the May sunshine spilling bright and clean over Clifton. She heard footsteps in the hall and turned to find her aunt.
“Oh, you look beautiful,” she said, and laughed when Ping rolled her eyes.
“I can’t tell you the last time I dressed up like this.” Ping smoothed the soft pink dress, its fitted bodice flowing to just below her knees, and looked down at her sensible matching shoes. No stilettos for Aunt Ping.
“I’m sure it’s been a while.”
“I’m so happy for you and Cole.” Ping looked up at her with the kind of smile that didn’t need any words behind it.
“I know you are.” Aftyn turned back to the window. “I got a beautiful day for it.”
“You really did. I’m glad you chose May over winter.”