The Leaving
SEVEN YEARS EARLIER…
How was she supposed to leave Ben in an hour?
Hannah looked around her wreck of a room.
The clothes she’d rejected lay in messy piles on the floor, her bed looked like it’d been attacked by a grizzly from her sleepless night, and her pink suitcase was exploding with all the stuff she’d crammed into it.
Basically, her childhood bedroom was in shambles.
Like her life.
She grabbed her new passport and stuck it in her bag so she wouldn’t forget it. She’d been so excited to leave, but now…
This trip to Scotland was supposed to be the beginning of their life together. They were going to be living together for the first time, for Pete’s sake. Now there was only sadness, dread, and disappointment.
Ben had said he was going. He’d been as excited for this chance of a lifetime as she was, but he’d suddenly pulled a one-eighty and told her he couldn’t go with her. Too many responsibilities at the ranch. Blah, blah, blah.
Sure, he was all man, the rough and tough kind who loved his family and the land, a man who sat for hours alone with his thoughts in the saddle tending cattle and horses unless he was with her.
For all of those reasons, she loved him and more, except now she didn’t know where they stood.
She bit her lip, thinking about their last fight.
Why was he so stubborn? She knew he loved the ranch, but they’d only be gone a year.
Receiving the coveted Culpepper Scholarship to train with the renowned herbalist Duncan Murdock, with room and board included, was a dream come true.
Going to Scotland was the right choice for her—certainly better than going to med school like her dad wanted. Ben knew that.
But no…
He had to turn mule stubborn. Even when his twin brother said he’d step up and take over his duties at the ranch. God, even Mr. McAllister supported Ben taking the year off.
Hadn’t they always talked about seeing the world together? For as long as she could remember, they’d lie under Big Red’s staggered branches and plan out the future—their future.
It wasn’t like they wouldn’t come back—we’re not moving to Scotland permanently.
She turned to look out the window. She was going to miss their quiet rides and more spirited horse races through the breathtaking meadows and verdant valleys between Sanctuary Springs’ jagged mountain peaks.
How many times had they held hands and talked amid the slash of pine trees and rough-hewn rocks as the sun journeyed across the land like the hands on a watch face?
Every day—except for when they’d been at college.
Even then, they’d found forest-rich trails to wander around together when they’d meet halfway—when she could find time away from her pre-med University of Utah studies and his own ag business and ag science work at Montana State.
Going to Scotland together was supposed to mark the start of their next chapter as a family. She fought angry tears. Now it wasn’t going to happen.
Picking up their photo album, she ran her hand over the well-loved edges.
Every photo of her and Ben was in this album, since the first time they’d been captured holding hands at four years old, him tugging her along as he’d tried to climb the foot of Wild Mountain to find her the wildflowers she’d always loved.
Should she try to stuff it in her carry-on? Or did she leave it behind?
Could she leave Ben behind? She’d loved him forever.
Like she had her sister. Except death had stolen Sarah away when Hannah was twelve, leaving a gaping hole inside her, one only Ben had helped her fill.
They’d never been this far apart on anything.
The clip-clop of horse hooves reached her as she was pushing the last of her boxes into her closet to store. Ben. Oh, thank God. Had he changed his mind? Please let that be it.
She ran to the mirror hanging above her dresser.
Checking her face, she winced at how pale she looked.
Her auburn hair was a tangled mess from tossing and turning last night, and her green eyes were red-rimmed from crying.
He’d seen every side of her and loved her, but still, she wanted to look pretty.
Finger-combing her curls behind her ears quickly, she pinched her cheeks and mashed her lips together.
As she peered closer to her reflection, she caught sight of the photo of her and Ben taken at last year’s McAllister Cherry Festival currently tucked in the oval edges of the frame.
Their arms were around each other, giant grins on their faces.
The wind had blown her pink cowboy hat off like usual, but Ben’s black Stetson had stayed on like always. Cowboy magic, he liked to joke.
Something thudded against her window. She saw the lasso's rope first, then caught a flash of something white, and then a rainbow, only to realize the sparkle came from a ring.
She pressed her hands to her cheeks and padded a few steps closer.
An engagement ring sparkled in the soft morning light.
Oh my God!
Tears burned her already tired, stinging eyes. Ben would think of such a proposal, lassoing her window and putting an engagement ring on the rope. Some people would think this gesture meant Ben had bent, but she knew him.
Was he seriously doubling down on trying to make her stay by asking her to marry him?
The tiny pieces of her heart broke again.
She wrapped her arms around herself. They’d talked about getting married since they’d known what it meant. They’d waited to finish college, largely due to her father’s concerns about her finishing her pre-med degree, one she wasn’t continuing to pursue.
A sob caught in her throat.
She dashed at her eyes. No! She was not going to start crying again. In fact, he’d be lucky if she didn’t lift her window and throw her cowboy boot at him. Stupid, stupid man. All she’d asked for was a year. One measly year. In Edinburgh, Scotland. What idiot turned that chance down?
Ben McAllister, that’s who.
“Hannah Montgomery!” he bellowed. “You open that window.”
“Oh, I’ll open it all right.” Hannah grabbed her white cowboy boot from the floor and headed to the window. But her words caught in her throat as she spied her ring up close before looking down…
Ben looked as handsome as ever with his tousled black hair, strong brow, and square jaw, sitting atop her horse, the one she’d told him to take care of while she was gone.
The one he’d given her for her birthday because he’d said Flame reminded him of her in heart and spirit.
The posey of pretty shooting stars, with their dark pink color and swept-back petals resembling a fireworks display, looked downright dainty in his large, calloused hands.
He was freshly shaved and wearing his version of Sunday best: gray slacks, a button-down white shirt, and a suit jacket.
No tie. He didn’t wear one. Not even for their prom.
His black Stetson rested on his saddle horn while his best cowboy boots were in the stirrups.
The whole outfit was beyond impractical if he’d ridden Flame from his family’s ranch well out of town.
Their eyes met. The set of his hard jaw said it all.
He’s here to say his piece.
Swallowing thickly, she carefully lifted the window and reached out to unhook the rope.
God, how many times had he wrapped a little present to the middle of a rope and lassoed it to the nail her dad had hung ages ago for holiday lights?
The first time had been when they were thirteen.
He’d asked her to the spring dance, and after saying yes, she’d floated on a cloud for days.
Now she wondered how she’d get through the day without seeing his handsome face, stroking his thick, dark hair, and laughing into his light gray eyes, the color of the stones lining her favorite brook on Wild Mountain.
“Well, go on and take your ring,” he called out gruffly, shifting in the saddle enough to make the leather creak. “I know it’s not fancy or traditional, but I thought you’d like it better.”
She untied the rawhide holding the ring to the rope and bit her lip when she saw the design. “You got me stars.” Even she could hear the awe in her voice.
He cleared his throat, lifting a shoulder. “We’ve always said our love was written in the stars. So I gave you our stars, because they always made you smile. And I do so love your smile. Hannah, there isn’t a single thing I don’t love about you, and you damn well know it. Marry me. Say yes.”
She wanted to clutch the ring to her breaking heart. She wanted to hurl it back at him for being such an idiot, trying to force her this way. “You know I can’t, since saying yes would mean I’m staying.”
“Me asking is my best offer.” His determined voice was the kind that called across a valley. “We’ve talked about getting married since I carved our names into Big Red, and we agreed to marry after graduating from college—”
“But that was before—”
“Don’t I know it. Please say you’ll be mine forever like you’ve always been and stay.”
She leaned out the window and glared at him. “Ben McAllister, I swear you don’t know me at all sometimes. I am not agreeing to marry you like this.”
“Are you going to make me beg?” he blasted back, setting the flowers on top of his Stetson. “Don’t go, dammit. Please, Hannah. You belong here.”
The slamming of a window made Flame jerk her head up. Ben tightened his grip on the reins as Flame spooked. Hannah glanced over to the house beside her parents’. She caught Jolene shooing her three boys away from the window where they were watching in their pajamas.
“See!” He thrust a finger in their direction. “I know Jolene is all about you being an independent woman and going off to Scotland for your career, but those boys need you. You’ve been babysitting them since they were babies—”