Chapter 20 #2
“I left school. I finished my finals, took one of them early and headed home. I told you on text I was going to try to take the last one early and I might be here when you got here. Didn’t you get it?”
She shook her head, knowing that was another conversation they’d have to have.
“No wonder you didn’t answer. Anyway, I’m not going back to finish my degree. I don’t need it. Didn’t care if I got it or not. You know that.”
She nodded.
“I found what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life and I used my college fund that has been sitting and growing since we invested it instead of spending part of it for school, to buy it.” He lifted his hands up in a ‘Ta Dah’ moment. “I bought this place!”
Harper’s mouth fell open and her eyes widened in shock.
“I love you, Harper. I’ve always loved you.
And when I felt the pull of the mate bond between us, I knew that my fascination with you wasn’t just a fascination.
I’m yours. And the only thing I want in my life is to love you.
To make you happy. The only thing that you want is be with these horses, and live a life around them.
They make you happy, you make me happy. The Bigsbys were selling, so I bought it for us.
It’s ours, Harper. If you’ll have me, this place is our life now.
You’ll never have to leave it. You’ll never have to worry about it being taken away.
I’ve already started getting quotes for insurance coverages to get us ready to hire personnel to work with kids with special needs and equine therapy.
I’ve put ads in every place in every kind of media I can think of for professionals to help get the programs off the ground.
We’re going to board horses, offer horseback riding lessons, work with the special needs kids and adults, too.
We’re going to take care of the Bigsbys for the rest of their lives because they’re not leaving.
They’ll remain in their home for as long as they live.
We’ll pay them so much a month toward the purchase of this place, and when we finalized the paperwork this morning, Mr. Bigsby refused the lump sum payment I was transferring and insisted the place revert to us on signature of the contracts he’d already had Erica alter.
And we’re going to take care of them like family, because they are.
They’ve been like a family to you since you were a kid. ”
Harper who had begun quietly crying, tears tracking steadily down her face couldn’t stand patiently any longer. She took a step forward, then another before she launched herself at Clay.
Clay caught her and held her tight as she wrapped her legs around his tall body. “I love you, Harper.”
“I love you, too,” she sobbed into his neck. “That’s why I was so hurt when I thought you were with your girlfriend.”
“Never had a girlfriend. Always only wanted you.”
“I love you so much,” she sobbed against his neck.
Clay inhaled deeply and leaned his head against hers, closing his eyes. “So, I did good?” he asked quietly.
“So, good. So very good,” she said, crying happily, her face still pressed against him. “All I want is you, and all this.”
“We are all yours,” he said, squeezing her tightly against him.
“Wait,” she said, leaning back enough to see his face. “What if I hadn’t felt like I do and you’d spent all your money on this property?”
“Then we’d have owned it jointly, and I’d have let you run it and live here. You’re my mate whether you accept me or not. I want you happy even if it’s not me that makes you that way.”
“We’re already mated. I figured it out because of all the turmoil and confusion I was feeling being away from you.
It hurt, it actually hurt no matter how much I tried to ignore it.
The only thing that made sense is that even though we tried to avoid it, we finalized the mating.
I’m guessing when I scratched your arms? But you didn’t mark me.”
“Not obviously. But I did scrape my teeth across your nipples,” he said, his expression not the least bit apologetic. “I couldn’t stop myself, but you didn’t want to be marked.”
“So you knew we were mated.”
“I hoped. I wanted it to be enough to tie us together, but not to frighten you since you were so insistent that I not mark you.”
“I thought you had someone else you were interested in. You said you might have met someone that could be your mate but that you didn’t think she knew yet.
That was the only reason. I wanted you to be sure.
And then after we… you know, you were in such a hurry for us to get dressed and make sure no one knew. I thought you were ashamed.”
“Harper, I’ve always been sure. And I did try to hurry you to get your clothes back on — but not because I was ashamed.
I didn’t want anyone to see you like that but me.
And I didn’t want anyone to be able to say a word about it to you until I had the opportunity to convince you that I was the one you were looking for.
I thought you weren’t sure and that was the reason you didn’t want me to mark you.
The woman I mentioned that night at the pizza place that might be my mate but I didn’t think she knew it, was you. ”
She started crying again as she rushed to kiss him, pressing her lips to his, despite the tears steadily trailing down her face, and the smile that just couldn’t be suppressed.
Clay seized the opportunity to really kiss her — slowly, patiently, tasting and memorizing everything about his mate. Everything about the only female he’d ever truly seen. His Harper.
When the kiss finally ended, he continued holding her, not wanting to put her down.
She hugged him tightly again pressing her nose against the soft spot just beneath his ear where his scent was strongest and comforting to the Tiger in her that had suddenly sat up and was happily paying attention.
When they eventually broke the kiss, he smiled at her. “Are we okay? There has been so much misunderstanding, and even half-communications between us that we very nearly messed everything up.”
“Yes. We’re better than okay. And I’m sorry. I was so busy trying to figure out what you wanted and where you stood that I forgot that it was equally as important to just be honest with you about what I was feeling and wanted for us.”
“I did the same.”
Harper pressed her forehead against his, their eyes staring into each other’s souls as he stood there, holding his entire world in his arms.
“Never again. We’re always honest and we talk to each other. There’s nothing to be afraid of anymore. We have each other and no matter what comes our way, we’ll be okay because we do have something no one else has. You have me, and I have you.”
Harper grinned at him. “Yes! We do. And we’ll work hard and it might take a while, but no matter how long it takes or the struggles that go with it, we’ll make this place the best equine center in the state.”
“In all the states,” Clay said. “But I think you kind of have the wrong impression of how we’re going to build this place.”
“What do you mean?”
“Physically it will sometimes be a struggle — hard work — but financially, it won’t be a struggle at all. I didn’t spend all the money. We are by no means broke, in fact, we’re very comfortable. My father is very good at investments. I’m learning so I can add to it.”
She smiled through her tears. “No struggle years?” she asked.
“Not a one. I think we’ve been through our struggle years in the last few weeks. It’s enough to qualify for me.”
“Me, too! Oh, gosh, yeah, let’s call that our struggle weeks and never have to feel that again.”
“Done,” Clay said, kissing her cheek as he delighted at the happiness in her eyes.
“If everything is good in there, I’m thinking maybe you two might want to come on out here and see this,” Mr. Bigsby called out from just outside the stables.
“What’s he talking about?” Harper asked.
Clay smirked. “I don’t know. We’ll just have to see.” He put her down and took her by the hand, lifting it to his lips to kiss gently as he led her toward where Mr. Bigsby waited for them. “I hear a truck pulling up, do you?”
“Yes, now that I’m paying attention I do,” she said, still in a semi-daze as she walked along beside him, her mind whirling, happy to allow him to take the lead as her entire psyche took its time settling into its new normal.
The minute they stepped outside they saw a large dually truck, and the over-sized horse trailer it was hauling. A stranger was just getting out of the truck and Mr. Bigsby was greeting him. After they exchanged pleasantries, the stranger turned to Clay. “You Mr. Vega?”
“Yes, sir. That’s me,” Clay said, stepping forward to shake his hand. “This is my girl, Harper.”
The man smiled at her and gave her a little wink before he returned his focus to Clay.
“I got your package in the back. You ready to take delivery?”
“Absolutely,” Clay said.
Harper’s attention was pulled from the stranger to the front of the property where a vehicle was pulling in off the highway. She recognized her mother’s vehicle and smiled, knowing that Maia probably told her where to find her.
“My mom,” she said.
“She wants to know you’re okay.”
Harper nodded, feeling bad that she’d made her mother worry. She watched as her mother parked off the side of the driveway and got out, observing from a distance as she started toward all the activity.
Then another vehicle pulled in, its brakes squeaking a bit as it slowed to be able to make the turn.
Harper’s focus shifted from her mother to what was obviously her father’s truck.
“Why?” she whispered on a sigh, not realizing she’d said it out loud.
“It’s okay. He’s not going to ruin our day,” Clay said.
Harper looked up at him. “I hope you’re right.”
“I am. I promise.”
Harper considered giving him more information about why she was pretty sure things wouldn’t go so smoothly with her father, but then, instead of disagreeing, she simply smiled up at him and placed it all in his hands. “Okay.”
He smiled down at her, leaning over to kiss her lips in a quick peck.