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“Maybe more. But if you think that means I owe you in some way—”

“Jesus. You really don’t trust easily, do you?”

Jill opened her mouth to reply, then closed it. She shook her head.

“Well, all I’m saying is, I’m in.” His life flashed before his eyes for the second time in his life. Why was it, the second he put the wheels in motion to reclaim his life, something new and impossible to turn down—like helping his brother and his sick wife through a difficult pregnancy—came along and stole it from his grasp?

Would he ever get to make his life his own, or was it too late to even try?

Either way, he would give this a go. Who knew? Maybe it would work, and everyone would get what they wanted.

“You are?” The candlelight flickered as she clapped her hands, smiling wide enough he caught a small gap between her two front teeth. God, she was adorable when she was earnest.

He tipped back his wine, sad that it was empty. He had to hand it to Jill. She was taking this whole disaster in stride and on top of that, she seemed to have a plan in place, one that wasn’t all that different than his own. It couldn’t hurt to go along with it. Worst case scenario? He talked to Bennett at the end of the year and bailed anyway.

He’d done his time and sacrificed for his family. It didn’t have to be a lifelong gig. Did it?

“I am. And on that note, wine isn’t going to cut it anymore.”

He flagged the server and ordered double-barrel whiskeys for them both.

“Besides, you said you had some good news in there?” he asked.

She grinned from behind her wineglass. The candlelight sparkled off her eyes and glass, giving her an ethereal look. “That was it. We can make it work in our favor, so we get what we want well before the baby comes. Wish I had more, but this blindsided me, too. If you think for one second I’m thrilled to be living on a ranch for the next month—”

“No. We established how you feel about that earlier.”

She laughed and damn if it didn’t look good on her. “The sooner we fix this, the sooner you can leave, and I can get back to thousand-count sheets and shoe stores that sell more than boots.”

“Why didn’t you say anything when you first mentioned ranches earlier tonight?”

“I was still trying to process my life changing in a way I’m not excited about and gauging how you’ll fit into that puzzle.”

“Got it. And? What’d you come up with?”

“You’re my last resort. Bleak, huh?”

He laughed then, good and long. Her hand hadn’t left his thigh but that and the whiskey set down in front of Jax were small consolations.

“Alright, Henley. Bottoms up. I’m hoping whatever hairbrained scheme you’ve got cooking finds me—”

“Us,” she interjected.

“Finds us a way out of this.” He lifted his glass and downed the entire contents in one gulp. “’Cause if not, I—”

“We,” she amended.

He laughed even though this was hardly funny. He just tied himself to a woman who drove him at best to distraction, at work to madness and her career hung in the balance as much as his freedom did.

“Fine. If we don’t get this right, we can kiss our dream jobs goodbye.”

They clinked glasses.

“To our future,” she said.

“May we have one,” he added, then let the whiskey warm the part of his heart that worried this was never gonna work.

Chapter Three