Chapter 27 #2
She raised an eyebrow. “You want to build me an office?”
“Well, not just for you.” I grinned. “It’d be for both of us. You can have walls for your crime scene boards and fit in a proper desk. You’d have space to spread out and think.”
“Oh, Kayden, that would be perfect,” she said. “Can we also have a sofa?”
“What do you need a sofa for? We have our bed.”
“For when I’m working late, and you want to sit with me, but I’m not ready to stop for the night. A proper sofa, big enough for the two of us.”
“Fine. I’ll build an extension big enough for your sofa.”
She chewed on her bottom lip. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Of course, you know me. Mr. Truthful. I’ve been mapping it out in my head. We extend off the back of the loft, over the tack room. Add a set of stairs.”
“Stairs! Like real stairs? No more climbing up the ladder?”
I gasped in mock hurt. “What’s wrong with the ladder?”
“Not a damn thing, but stairs ... Wow, I’m impressed.”
“Now, you’re just teasing.”
“Am not.” She was looking at me like she didn’t quite believe me.
“I’ll make the bathroom bigger while we’re at it, build a proper one, not just a quick add-on. It’ll take a few months,” I said. “I’ll do most of the work myself, but Mitch and Xavier have said they’ll help.”
Her eyes filled, and she pressed her lips together.
“What?” I asked.
“I just ...” She chewed on her lip. “Nobody’s ever built me anything before.”
I cupped her cheek. “Babe. I’m going to spend the rest of my life building you things.”
She let out a wet laugh and leaned into my palm.
“Plus,” I said, “now that Comet is fully trained, she and Eclipse need their own paddocks closer to the barn. So, we’ll do that, too. We’ll sort the southern fencing out while we’re at it.”
She laughed. “From offices to fencing in one breath.”
“That’s how it works on a station.” I kissed her forehead. “You ready to head back?”
“Almost.” She turned back to Eclipse and gave her one last pat. “She just needs her grain.”
I watched my woman feed her horse on my family’s ranch and felt something settle inside me that I hadn’t even known was unsteady.
This was the life I was building. Right here. Eclipse munching grain. Sapphire planning the office I’d build her so she could track down the bastards in the world.
Bob was still out there somewhere. He probably would be for a while yet. Sapphire’s job was hunting people like him, and the work would take her years.
But it wouldn’t take her away from me.
That’s all that mattered.
When we walked back to the homestead, the sun had dropped low, and the sky was on fire. Pink and orange streaked across the entire western horizon, the kind of sunset that I’d only ever seen on Koolaroo.
“Do you want the sofa overlooking that view every day?” I asked.
“Absolutely. We can sip our drinks and end our days with magnificent sunsets.” Sapphire slipped her hand into mine.
“Done. I planned to have your office facing east,” I said. “You’ll watch the sun come up while I’m still snoring.”
She laughed. “You’ve really thought about this.”
“I’ve thought about everything, Fire.”
She stopped walking and turned to face me, looking at me like I was the only important thing in her world. “Everything?”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I never thought I’d say this about Koolaroo, but being here makes me happy. Very happy.”
She pressed her hand to my chest. “I love being here, too.”
“You know I only tell the truth, right? You need to know that it’s because you’re here, Fire. I’ve never been this happy in my life. You’ve filled a gap here that I didn’t know I had.”
“Oh, so I’m just a gap filler.” She rolled her eyes.
I huffed and cupped her cheek. My heart boomed in my chest. “Sapphire, I’m trying to say I love you.”
Her lips parted as she let out a tiny gasp. “So, say that then.”
I held her face in both my hands, looking into her stunning eyes. “Sapphire, you make me the happiest man in the world. I love you.”
Her eyes glistened with tears, and she reached up on her toes. “I love you, too, babe.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Should we kiss?”
She giggled. “Absolutely.”
I crushed her lips to mine and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her into me.
“Oy, come on, you two,” Cassidy yelled from the verandah.
We eased apart, smiling against our mouths.
“There’s a party going on in here, and we need you,” Cassidy yelled. “Xavier bought some of that fancy French Champagne. You gotta try it. It’s delish.”
“We’re coming!” I yelled. “Man, she’s impatient.” I reached for Sapphire’s hand.
“Just like you.”
“If I were impatient, I’d scoop you up and take you back to the loft to make love to you right now.”
Sapphire giggled. “Maybe we can sneak out after a few glasses of bubbles.”
“Yes. Good plan.”
We walked the rest of the way, hand in hand, up the verandah steps, through the door, into the dining room, and into the warmth and the noise and the Branson family.
Our home.