37
T hunder rumbles. A dark cloud covering sweeps over the mountains. Ruby sits at the patio table on the small balcony off the bedroom. She’s wrapped in a sheet, her legs drawn up into her body, cheeks flushed, her dazzling blue eyes on me as I stride her way.
Hours ago, she was leaving.
Now, her I love you has decimated me. I’m a wreck of a man, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“There are storms coming,” she murmurs, her gaze on my bare chest.
“Every summer,” I say. “They blow in off the mountains and last until the end of August.”
Dropping the bottle of whiskey on the table, I glance over my shoulder at the rumpled sheets in the bed. The smell of sex lingers in the air. I drop a kiss to the top of Ruby’s messy head of hair and she smiles so bright my chest locks up.
Everything that matters is here in front of me. My sunflower girl, my saving grace, the sun in my sky when for so long all I could see were clouds.
But first I have to give her my story. I owe her that. Especially if she’s staying.
I pull out a chair and sit across from her. “I want to tell you about Maggie.”
She flinches. “You don’t have to.”
“Let me do this, Ruby,” I say gruffly.
With a nod, she sits up straight. “Okay, Cowboy.” Then she reaches over the table and touches my arm. Just like that, I’m calm. It’s Ruby’s magic. Her love brings on something so serene I can’t describe it. All my doubts, all my nerves, swept away in a rush of love.
“We were childhood best friends. She was my high school sweetheart. I proposed when we graduated.” I smear a hand down my face.
It feels wrong to give the Cliffs Notes version of what Maggie and I were, but as I look at Ruby, I want it out so I can move on.
Dwelling in the past is not an option anymore.
“It was the last competition of the season. She was a barrel racer.” I blow out a slow breath, memories burning. “I was there when it happened. Her horse got spooked in the alley and fell on top of her. She was killed in front of my eyes.”
Ruby gasps, a hand lifting to her mouth.
“That’s why you looked like that.” Her blue eyes glisten with unshed tears. “Why you didn’t want me to ride. When I got too close to that horse. You yelled. You looked sad.”
I should have known I couldn’t hide everything from Ruby. My girl is smart.
She listens as I tell her how my life exploded with Maggie’s death and how I didn’t know how to get it back. How I ended up at Runaway Ranch and how my brothers followed me.
“That’s the long story.” I reach over and take her hand, lacing my fingers through hers. “Short story is—I came to find you.”
Ruby’s silent for a long minute. “I’m so sorry, Charlie.” She gives me a sad little smile. “To lose someone you love ...it would be awful.”
She stares at the horizon, then she sighs. “I found her photo.” Guilt stains her voice as her pained gaze sweeps to mine. “She was beautiful.”
I curse, hating that I left her alone to think God knows what. “I should have told you.”
“No. That’s your business.” She casts her eyes down. “We all have secrets.”
I can’t hold it in anymore.
No more distance.
I stand and trade seats with her, pulling Ruby into my lap. I secure her in my arms and tuck her head against my shoulder. I’m still not over her almost getting away.
“You can talk about her, Charlie,” she says, smiling up at me. “You don’t have to hide her away. You don’t have to run anymore.”
Her hand is on my heart and my heart is in my throat.
This. This is why I love her.
I realize that, all these years later, I’m still punishing myself, still paying penance for Maggie’s death. For dragging my brothers out here.
It feels good, feels right, to share this with someone.
I’m a lifetime away from the man I was at the start of the summer. Taking Ruby up that mountain, growling at her, having no idea how much she’d change my heart.
How much she’d bring me back to life.
“Thank you,” she whispers. “For telling me.”
There’s one more thing we need to get straight.
I rotate a fraction to look down at her. “You’re running too,” I tell her.
Sitting up, Ruby pulls her slender shoulders back. Her chin trembles, and fear settles in her eyes, rendering me breathless. “I am.”
Her flinch sets my soul on fire. My hands fist. But I force myself to focus on Ruby. She’s what’s important.
After a long silence, she speaks. “You’re right. I ran away.” Her voice breaks, breaks me. She looks toward the balcony as if she’s searching for the answer in the sky. “I—Charlie, I—I’m—”
I silence her confession with a kiss.
Fuck playing this game. The deal we made doesn’t matter. I won’t push Ruby into her truth. Whatever she has to tell me, it won’t make me love her any less.
“When you’re ready.” My hand lifts to cup her cheek. My heart hammers in bone-deep fear. In rage. “Just tell me one thing.”
“What?” she whispers, blinking back tears.
“Is it a man?” I brace myself for it, thinking of Emmy Lou, of places to hide the body, of a feral protection I’ll never get over, not as long as she’s on my ranch, in my arms. “Ruby, if someone hurt you—”
“No,” she says breathlessly. Tears stream down her face as she shakes her head. “It’s not a man, Charlie.”
I growl my relief and hold her to my chest. “Tell me soon, Sunflower.”
Nodding, she relaxes against me. “I will.”
So much more to say. To plan. But all that can wait. This can’t.
I kiss her.
My mouth devours her tongue, her puffy pink lips. Her body arches toward me, twisting in my arms, as she straddles me. Using her hips as handles, I yank her closer. Her heart beats against my chest—my soul—so fast I ache.
She moans into my mouth, her hands combing through my hair.
“Charlie,” she says, her eyes glazed with desire. “I love you.”
“Baby, I love you.” I skim her cheek with my finger. I have to say it again to make it true. “And you’re stayin’.”
I have had everything I have ever wanted in my life, but nothing, fucking nothing, compares to having Ruby.
“I’m staying.” She giggles, her eyes shiny with tears. Then, her light dims. “But ...are you sure you want this? Whatever it is. Whatever we are.”
I give her a stern look. “There’s no messing with my mind, Ruby. I fell a good long way for you, darlin’, and I’m not walking away now. Especially not from what’s between us.”
I swear to Christ her smile’s powered by the sun.
“And what’s that?” she asks, placing her small hand over my heart.
“All of me, all of you,” I tell her. “Forever.”