Page 38 of Ash on the Range

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.