Chapter 18
Blair
“Hey there, sleepyhead,” I say as Sutton opens his eyes and stares up at me from the grass.
“Definitely dreamin’,” he mumbles, wincing as he lifts his good hand to rub his undoubtedly sore shoulder. “Oww. He got me good.”
“Yeah. Grumps sure left his mark on you,” I say, my brows drawn tight as I palpate around the bruise blooming already. “Can you move it?”
He nods, rolling his shoulder against the ground. “Yeah.” He shakes his head then his much clearer gaze meets mine again. “It’s OK, gorgeous. Even that jackass can’t keep me down. He’ll have to try harder than that next time.” His lips quirk up on the side and I can’t resist smiling back at him.
I quirk a brow. “How about he doesn’t try at all?
“Sorry to interrupt you bein’ checked over by your pretty doc, son. If you’re good, there’s some people here who I think would like to get on with this shindig,” Sutton’s father muses from where he’s standing behind me.
Sutton turns from me to his dad, a slow-growing smile appearing. “I quite like this pretty doctor, Cap.”
His father’s lips twitch. “I can see that.”
Sutton sighs dramatically. “But I guess the show must go on.”
I move out of the way to let Case and Cap pull him to his feet.
“Glad to see you’re OK, brother,” Case says, nodding at Sutton’s hand. “Mind if I take those rings from you? We kind of need them to seal the deal.”
“Oh yeah. Guess they’re yours,” Sutt replies.
Case cups his shoulder–thankfully, his good one. “Thanks for savin’ the day.”
A smirk curves his lips. “What are twins for?”
“Takin’ a hoof for him, apparently,” Cap jokes. “OK, boys. How ‘bout we get this weddin’ done and dusted before Iz and Birdie change their minds about joinin’ the family.” HIs eyes drift to me. “Or this one gets second thoughts and thinks to run.”
Sutton looks me dead in the eye, the calm in his gaze leaving me with no doubt that he’s as steady as a rock and just as resolute in his determination that I’m his soulmate. Thump. Thump. Thump.
The funny thing is, I’m not that far off from thinking the same way. My chest seized and I stopped breathing all together when I watched Grumps trample him. That didn’t change until he held his arm up like a superhero with the reclaimed rings in his hand.
He reaches down and laces his fingers with mine, giving them the softest, gentlest squeeze that makes me lock my knees to stay standing.
The jolt from my hand to my chest, to… other parts of my body forces a silent gasp out of me.
Suddenly I have visions of him whisking me away and… Yeah, not the time or the place Blair…
He must feel it too because the heat in his gaze turns up ten-fold. “Save me a dance, gorgeous,” he says before he reluctantly lets me go and returns to the platform where the two amused couples are waiting.
“Right. Now, without any further objections from donkeys or humans, how ‘bout we get these lovely people hitched,” Peter calls out and once the cheers have died down, that’s exactly what he sets out to do.
Sutton is still giving me space and as much as I appreciate the sentiment, I can physically feel the distance between us.
I don’t like it. It has me feeling all squirrely and unsettled.
I can’t sit still. I swear my body temperature is fluctuating between hot flushes and cold chills that make my hair stand on end.
All I can think about is that all of the Coopers on the ranch right now believe they were brought together with their significant others by the mountain spirit.
Everywhere I look, everyone that I see, is absolutely infatuated with their partners.
And when I look at Sutton smiling as he talks with his parents and brothers, I feel the same way.
I’ve claimed a hay bale at the far edge of the newly formed clearing that has been transformed into a dancefloor, clinging to my wine glass as I try to process all of the overwhelming thoughts and feelings filling my head.
“Hey,” I hear from beside me. “I’m guessing you’re Blair?”
I look up and stare at the same face on the back of the books I now can’t stop reading. “You’re Aster.” I’d known she was here, but I never thought she’d want to talk to me.
A wry smile appears. “In the flesh. I take it you finally got around to reading the book Isla gave you?” she says as she takes a seat next to me. Alex and Cate are going to flip when I tell them.
“How do you…?” I shake my head. “Of course you know.” She winks at me. “But yeah, I did. Kind of wish I’d known the significance of her giving it to me at the time.”
Aster laughs. “Where’s the fun in that? The journey of the Call isn’t meant to be straightforward, and that includes finding out what it’s all about.
Besides, imagine if someone had told you the day you arrived that you were Sutton’s soulmate?
Can you honestly say you would’ve stayed?
” I’m already shaking my head before she’s finished speaking, making her snort. “Yeah, my point exactly.”
“It’s been pretty hard to wrap my head around,” I confess. “I knew there was something different–intense–about what Sutton and I share. I never thought I would be something like this.”
She cocks her head and arches a brow. “And yet you’re still here…”
“Yeah,” I reply. “Because I know Sutton and I were meant to reconnect.”
“You’re right, you were. What’s left to decide is whether you can put your belief in fate and that you’re right where you belong.” I turn to look at her and find her eyes fixed on where her husband Gray is dancing up a storm with Isla’s mom, Jessica.
My eyes move to where Sutton is slowly swaying side to side with his mom, Mary-Lou. The two of them are laughing at Cap who has Isla on one arm and Birdie on the other, the three of them trying to do the Can-can and failing to get their legs to lift in sync.
“How did you react when Gray told you?” I ask.
“He didn’t have to. I was already too far gone to question anything other than I loved him and he loved me back.” She clicks her tongue before she chuckles. “I did ask him if he was sure about it though, because he hadn’t even lived through a period with me at that stage.”
“Nooo,” I say, snort-laughing. “What was his answer to that?”
She drops her voice to a low rumbly tone just like her husband. “There are a lot of things we’ll learn about each other but that's the beauty of forever, we’ve got time.”
“OK, that’s pretty smooth. Are you sure he hadn’t read your books before then?”
“That’s the thing, Blair, I hadn’t written any romances before Gray. That was all him.”
I bug out at her. “That’s… surreal.”
“My life has been nothing but that since I decided to book a trip to the middle of nowhere to find my passion for writing again.” I stare at her as her words sink in. But somehow, Aster seems to already know what I’m thinking. “Kind of crazy how similar our stories are, right?”
Then it hits me with a gasp. “You’re a Seer, aren’t you? You don’t just write about them, you are one.”
She bounces a shoulder, but the knowing tip of her lips gives me her answer. “They do say to write about what you know…”
Suddenly my mind is racing with all of the questions I could ask her.
Just as I open my mouth to say something, I clamp it shut again when it hits me that I don’t need to hear anything Aster could tell me.
It won’t change my mind or what I know in my soul.
All of the decisions were made the moment I laid eyes on Sutton.
Aster watches me closely. “Judging by the look on your face, I’m guessing you don’t need my advice anymore. If this keeps up, I’m going to be a Seer without a job,” she jokes.
I shake my head. “It’s not that. Maybe just you being here has made me see what’s been staring me in the face all along.”
“Mind me asking what that might be?”
“Actually, I do have one question,” I say, one untied string still floating in my mind.
“OK. Hit me with your best shot and I’ll try to answer if I can.”
“Do you know Starchild?” I ask. It’s the one part of this whole thing I can’t wrap my head around. It’s not like Star reached out to me. I literally put ‘online tarot reading’ into a search engine and her name popped up.
Aster’s eyes light up and crinkle at the sides. “I do. Now you have to ask the next obvious question, Blair.”
I take a deep breath. “How did she know what to say to make me come here?”
“That’s something you’d need to ask her and I’m sure Sutton can organize to take you to meet her if that’s something you’d like to do."
“She lives here too?” I gasp, my heart jumping up into my throat. How is this even possible?
“Oh no. Star lives in Spring Haven with her husband, Landry, and the rest of the Bull Mountain Ranch.” Why does that name sound so familiar? “You could also ask Wyatt about it considering she’s part of his family.”
My mind jumps to that day Wyatt said his dad married a sassy woman and his family had “a lot of happily ever afters.”
“You’re telling me that me finding Star was meant to happen?”
“I can’t say either way. Just know that the spirit loves to get a bit creative when it comes to calling soulmates to the mountain. With you, it could just be a happy coincidence that you were looking for guidance–”
“I was having a bestie wine night and they dared me to get a reading,” I tell her.
“Now I find out that the mountain spirit made that happen.” My voice goes a little high-pitched at the end because seriously…
I believe it but it’s also very far-fetched.
I couldn’t just tell anyone and expect them not to look at me funny.
Aster purses her lips and looks ready to burst out laughing. “Believe me, you’re never going to regret loving him and letting him love you back. It’ll be the most exhilarating and fulfilling ride you’ve ever been on, and not once will you ever stop and consider life without him.”
“Talking from experience?”
“Oh yeah.” She nods to the glass in my hand then holds hers up as if wanting to have a toast. “To matchmaking mountain spirits and the handsome mountain men they bring into our lives,” she says, touching her wine to mine.
“I heard the words handsome mountain men. Should I be worried?” Sutton asks, coming up to stand in front of me.
I take a healthy gulp from my glass while Aster stands and smiles between us. “You two have some talking to do. It was nice to meet you, Blair,” she says before turning to Sutton. “And good to see you again. Love looks good on you, Sutt.”
He steps in and kisses her cheek before whispering something for her ears only, then she’s gone and it’s just the two of us.
“Hey,” he says, looking down at me with soft albeit cautious eyes and a smile that warms me on sight alone.
“I’ve been waitin’ for you, gorgeous.”
Right then it hits me. I’d been waiting my whole life for him too.