Page 23 of Ash on the Range (Red Hart Ranch #6)

WILL

I didn’t get another chance to stay on a bull at Red Hart but there were plenty of chances to ride again with the next rodeo circuit coming up.

Before I did any of that, first I had to keep a promise to a pretty girl I'd fallen in love with beneath a mountain that watched us all, even if that wasn’t where we’d be staying.

“I’m gonna take you home," I told Cassie one day well after the first snows of winter set in coating Red Hart in the same blanket of white I’d seen it in that first Christmas when I fell in love with that piece of land.

It reverberated with something deep within me that this was also where I’d fallen in love with the girl of my dreams. And now, I had something else on my mind too.

“I know it’s real late in the season for you to head back, but I figured they might take you with your good grades and all. ”

I wrapped my arms around her, nuzzling her neck as she sipped tea on the veranda, watching the early season snowflakes fall.

Cassie reached out to catch a tiny flake on her fingertip.

Its perfectly formed shape was unique, just like her.

I savored the moment we stole alone, memorizing the shape of her pressed to me.

Everyone else was either inside the big house, or out working.

It was cold but not too cold, not yet, though I figured it was about to be.

“You’re breaking up with me on a cross state road trip?”

I sensed her smile to soften her words as I studied her fingertip, the snowflake I swore she caught a moment before already gone.

“Melted already?’ I asked with sympathy. “I promise there will be plenty more soon." I’m not breaking up with you.

“Only if we stay.” Are you making me leave?

“Only if we stay.” I’ll never force you to do anything, beautiful girl.

“You can’t hide here forever.”

But I want to, just to stay with you.

“Maybe one day we could find somewhere to call home. Like this.”

“Says the boy who doesn’t know how to put roots down."

Ouch. That one almost stung. “You’re in a mood. What’s going on?” I asked her gently, stroking my fingers along her jaw as I tipped her head back and stole her ability to talk as I kissed her gently.

A soft, breathy sigh left her lips as she stared up at me. “I don't know what I was saying.”

I laughed, deep and low, my mouth an inch from hers.

“I want to take you across the state to college, and come pick you up in semester break to join the rodeo crew or come here between times. Until I'm done. Then maybe we can find somewhere together. It’ll never be fancy,” I stared at her, willing her to understand what I couldn’t say.

“I’ll never have a big salary. Your parents will be disappointed. ”

She stared right back at me hard. “That’s always bugged me, you know.

That I care what they think. That it’s about them.

Not me. What if, for the first time, I just went to college, did what I wanted, and graduated?

No more pressure from anyone. And what if I fell in love with a cowboy of my choosing. What about that, Will Kirk?”

She sauntered around me in a circle, placing her tea on the veranda railing.

“I’d say do what it is you want to do,” I said carefully. Just please let that be with me.

I held my breath as she completed her circuit. "If you want to stay with me?” She licked her lips. “I kept wondering when you’d dump me at college and leave and…never come back.”

I gathered her into my arms. “I never agreed to that, Cassie. That was never a part of the deal,” I warned her. “You’re stuck with me for a whole lot longer than a few fast weeks during the off season. Okay?”

“Okay,” she whispered, leaning into me.

I caught her hand and held it into the snowfall, letting her catch as many snowflakes as she wanted and showed her how to save a few in her chilled tea mug once it emptied out.

My girl. The perfect girl.

She was still finding her feet, and I didn't have a place to call home. A few people let us stay around though and until we figured ourselves out, maybe that would be enough.

Or maybe being together was plenty.

Right now, we had the rodeo crew who looked after us, and Red Hart sure as hell wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.

I grinned and lowered my mouth to hers as the snowflakes melted in her tea cup.

Yep, I had a plan. Several, actually, of what I wanted to do with this girl. And we had a whole state of travel to test it all out.

As long as she wanted to stay with a rodeo rider who didn’t know how to keep his feet out of the dust while he found place of his own.