Chapter 23 #3
“Oh,” is all she says. I can practically feel how uncomfortable she is through the phone.
“I’ll be back first thing, I promise. How’s Cole doing?”
“River’s… that’s…” she struggles to make the connection.
“Alaska’s parents. You met her at the tavern.”
“The attractive vet. Yes, I remember.” I chuckle at the jealous tone in her voice. “And she’s there?”
“In her own room, yes.”
“So, I’m stuck in this big house… all alone, while you’re sleeping under the same roof as a girl you once kissed? And not just any girl, but someone smart and gorgeous. Someone who probably doesn’t ugly cry on bathroom floors.”
Her jealousy, as misplaced as it is, makes me smile. “She’s just a girl I kissed a year ago, Sadie. She doesn’t measure up in comparison to you.” Not in the slightest.
She snorts, disbelieving. “Sure.”
“I’m spellbound by you, Tequila.”
More so than I realized until I sat in that freezing truck, stuck on the side of the road, wanting to get back to her. Needing to get back to her.
“However, you’re the one surrounded by nearly thirty cowboys, so I should be the one who’s jealous here,” I tease, hoping to make her laugh.
“Yeah, that’s true,” she murmurs, but I can feel the fear in her voice, the insecurity that I struggle with myself.
“Hey, you have nothing to worry about. I’m yours.” And I feel like I have been since the day she moved in next door.
She sucks in a breath.
I’d bet she was smiling right now, and damn, I wish I could see it. “I might miss you, Cowboy.”
“I definitely miss you.”
She’s quiet for a moment, but then she starts filling me in about how it went with Cole at the hospital. The doctors kept him overnight, just to be safe, but he should be released in the morning.
“Thank you for going with him,” I say.
“Of course. Annie was a bit too shaken up to drive, and I needed a chance to redeem myself,” she teases. “I don’t want them to get the wrong ideas about me. They keep showing me kindness, and I keep running away.”
Except the first thing Cole said when Sadie stormed out after tea was, “What did you do this time?”
It’s laughable now, because it’s true. I did mess up. I didn’t trust her when I should’ve. A failure on my part I’ll never make again. “My family likes you a lot more than you know,” I admit.
“I like them too.” She pauses. “Also, I brought a few more things from my cabin. Did you know that I play the guitar?”
“I didn’t,” I smile.
“Averie taught me. I’m not very good, but I can play a couple of songs. I also brought my entire stock of marshmallows, but I don’t think it’ll last me the night.”
I laugh. “So, you play the guitar, and you’re addicted to marshmallows?”
She hums into the phone, quiet for so long that I feel like something’s wrong.
“I’m going to be back in the morning, Sadie,” I remind her. “Even if I have to catch a ride on the damn snowplow.”
She laughs, and I know I’ve said the right thing.
After we say goodnight, finishing up our conversation, I lie awake gazing at the ceiling for hours.
Emotions flood through my veins, like a dam that’s finally been ripped open.
Remembering the day we first met, our first dance, the day she earned her nickname, our first date followed by our first kiss.
The way she feels in my arms… like I was made to hold her.
All of the little moments that led to this inescapable feeling in my heart.
I fell for her slowly, and then all at once. As terrified as I am, I’m falling for her harder than I ever could’ve imagined.
The next morning, I arrive bright and early, following behind the B-double trucks. Call me paranoid, but I’m making damn sure my cattle are being driven back to where they belong. This whole fiasco has lasted long enough, and I was ready for an easy day on the ranch with my girl.
A thought that would’ve frightened me a week ago, but now it only gives me confidence.
When we pull up, there are seven ranchers unloading cattle, rounding them up into nearby pens with horses and cattle dogs. Smiling and nodding to me as we drive in, happy to have our herd back.
The B-double trucks take up most of the space around the main barn, so Alaska parks behind them, letting me out of her pickup truck. “Thanks for the ride,” I say as my feet hit the gravel.
“Anytime,” she smiles before taking off.
The sound of Sadie’s voice humming through the air snaps my attention. Yelling and cursing at the drivers for taking cattle that, quote, “Do not belong to them.” Being that wild and outspoken woman I know her to be.
The one I adore.
I’m laughing under my breath as I approach her, warm with emotion at how much she cares about this place. At how quickly she is to join in with the others and make threats for the sake of Lone Pine. For the safety of our cattle.
Her words, not mine.
Blake, Ryker, and Wes stand solemnly behind her, loving this moment too, but definitely not as much as me. Maybe I’m not ready to take on this ranch, but with her beside me, maybe I could be the man Cole needs me to be.
Maybe this place could be home.
Our home.