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“Welcome back.” Bradley smiled when he rounded the corner.

“I should say the same to you. Heard you’ve been back a couple of weeks.” The rehab center had given daily updates on his progress and when he'd completed the program. “How do you feel?”

“Good,” he said with a smile. “Great even. I know it's a long road, but to be this clearheaded is fucking fantastic.”

“Has your father tried to come by?”

Bradley shifted on his feet. “No. We don't know where he is. No one’s seen him since the day I dropped him at the motel. Can't say I'm sad about it.”

In full understanding, I gave a quick nod. “Where's your sister?” Why beat around the bush; not like I was there to see him.

His smile widened. “In the barn taking inventory of the supplies. She's come alive since you hired her as the full-time vet for the ranch. Thanks for everything you did, man. Really, thank you.”

I nodded and turned for the door.

The familiar scent of hay and manure filled my nose the moment I stepped into the barn. A few horses watched as I stalked toward the supply room in search of the woman I couldn't get off my mind.

The past four months had been torture. Access to email was slim where we were, and even then Ryder wasn't the best at communicating what was going on. All she said in the last email was I needed to get my ass back to Texas as soon as possible.

So here I was.

I wasn’t stateside for more than a few hours when I requested emergency leave. That was three hours ago, which meant I had twenty-one hours to figure out what was going on here and get my ass back to Kentucky.

Beks’s voice filtered through the otherwise quiet barn. “What are you doing in here? You should be on this other shelf with your friends. See, all the antibiotics go there, and you go here with your vitamin friends.”

A shoulder on the doorframe, I watched her work as she talked to herself. A soothing sense of relief calmed my ticking temper at the mere sight of her. Damn, I missed her. For the first time in months, I could breathe.

“I didn't know vitamins had friends,” I said.

Her hands stilled midair. Achingly slow, she turned to lock those bright honey brown eyes with mine.

“You're here,” she breathed. Wide-eyed, she held the clipboard tight to her chest and smiled.

The distance between us felt like a canyon. “Is that a good thing?”

The clipboard clattered to the ground, her boot heels pounding against the stained concrete floors as she ran full speed and leaped into my outstretched arms.

“It's a great thing. I missed you.”

Capturing her lips with mine, I sighed at the intense connection between us. Damn, I missed this.

“I missed you too, baby,” I said against her lips. “I'm leaving the army.”

The words shocked her, and me. It wasn't until right then that I knew for sure this place was my home. She was my home. Yes, I loved my job, but Beks was my anchor, my life. This was where I belonged.

“What?” Beks pulled back to lay her head against the wall, eyes searching mine. “Why would you do that? You love it.”

“I love you more,” I whispered. “These past few months have killed me. Every day apart from you, a piece of the man I want to be, the man I am when I'm around you, went dormant. You make me whole in ways I can't describe.”

The course pads of my thumbs brushed away her silent tears.

“I love you, Rebeka Harding, and I want to spend the rest of my life loving you. I want to build a family and give our children what we never had. You and me, together, happy, and hopelessly devoted to each other.”

“Is that a proposal?” She sniffed with a trembling smile.

“I don't have a ring.” Dammit, I should've thought of that on the way here, but I was too damn excited to see her. A ring was the last thing on my mind.

“Sir Fancy Pants, I don't need a ring. All I need is you.” Her heart hammered from her chest to mine. A broad smile crept up her cheeks, creasing the edges of her almond-shaped eyes.