Page 63 of Boston (Coral Canyon: Cowboys #12)

CHAPTER

FORTY-TWO

B oston leaned into his fist as he bent over the dining room table in Cora’s cabin. She’d run next door a half-hour ago to take Kat something to eat, as Jeremy was handling the Tuesday night pool party.

He just needed to go over his presentation for the Ramsfire Ridge hike and eagle-watching adventure one—more—time.

“It has to be marked adult-only,” he muttered, pulling off the sticky note with that question on it. He wanted it to appeal to a large audience, but he couldn’t imagine trying to get children six miles up the mountain and then entertained and quiet near the protected habitat.

“And moderate to advanced.” He pulled that sticky note off too. He moved the couple of steps to Cora’s trashcan and got rid of them. “You have to list the elevation gain, and you have to say that it’s rocky terrain.”

There were no two ways about that.

Boston sighed and looked down at the pictures he’d taken the last time he and Cora had made the trip to the cabin. With the fall foliage, they’d look amazing on the website.

“You’re still looking at that?”

He glanced up as Cora stepped into her house and closed the door behind her. “I’m nervous, okay? Not all of us make presentations to their bosses on a daily basis.”

She grinned at him as she came closer. “I don’t do that either, I’ll have you know.”

He slipped his arm around her waist and drew her into his side as his gaze wandered back to the storyboard he’d prepared. “Yeah, because you are the boss.”

She reached out and flipped closed his file folder with his notes in it. “Come sit down.”

Boston didn’t want to go sit down, but he let her tug him away from the table and over to the couch. He sank onto the end of it, and she curled herself into his chest. “Tell me about your meeting with Cash.”

“It was lunch,” Boston said dryly.

“Okay, so tell me how lunch went. Did you narrow down the names for the ranch, or what?” She lifted her head and peered at him. “You’re so grumpy tonight.”

The last of Boston’s nerves left him, and he sagged against the back of her couch. “Sorry,” he said, leaning over to kiss her. “Really, I don’t mean to be.”

She kissed him back, and Boston sure liked the scent of her in his nose, and the subtle taste of chocolate on her lips. He pulled away and sank back again. “I think we might have it cleaned up by next summer,” he said. “Did you put a date on the calendar?”

“Why would I do that, cowboy?” She spoke with the arid tone of the desert now.

“For our wedding,” he said.

Cora held out her left hand and tilted it back and forth, forth and back. “Huh. Look at that. No ring.”

Boston smiled at her slender fingers, though he understood her meaning.

“No ring,” she said. “No date on the calendar.”

“I thought you said you guys fill up.”

“We do,” she said simply. “I expect Morgan will start to get a lot of calls in a month or two.”

Boston heard what she meant: Ask me soon, cowboy.

If the ring he’d ordered would ever get here, he would.

Maybe. He was still trying to work out the details of the proposal. She’d taken him to Little Brown Bear Stream right after they’d gotten back together, but they both still worked at the lodge, and he’d been so focused on getting this proposal ready for the October meeting.

Tomorrow’s meeting.

Perhaps once he’d pitched the idea to Cora, Kat, Jeremy, Ernie, and Mae, he could focus on something else. Right now, he lived, breathed, and dreamt about only the eagle adventure, which he still needed a proper name for….

Just like the ranch.

“Cash likes B&C Ranch, Rusk Ridge Ranch, Eagle’s Landing Ranch, and Cousins Creek Ranch.” Boston would honestly be fine with any of them. “Those are his top four.”

“What are your top four?” Cora asked.

“I don’t want to do anything with the eagles,” he said. “He only did that one for me, though he claims to really like it.”

“It has a nice ring.”

“He’s doing a cutting horse operation,” Boston said. “And I don’t know what we’ll do. Maybe just let horses graze, or plant alfalfa, or…whatever.”

“Honey, you don’t do whatever .” She studied him again, a hint of concern settling in the dark depths of her eyes.

He closed his. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like I’m worried about you?”

“Like I’m being difficult on purpose.”

“Maybe you are.”

“I think I like Cousins Creek the best,” he said. “The initials feel like a lot, and I don’t want eagles, and that leaves Cousins Creek and Rusk Ridge.” He opened his eyes, tilted his head, and thought for a moment. “I like that too. It’s a good nod to the mountains we climb.”

“ You climb,” she said as she settled back against his chest. “I just go so I don’t have to stay here by myself.”

He chuckled as he hugged her tightly with one arm, such fondness for her moving through him, filling him, and making him feel warm and comfortable. “I love you, Cora,” he murmured.

She bolted back upright, her eyes wide and searching once again. “You…what?”

He grinned at her, though a hint of surprise also moved through him that he’d finally felt the love enough to say it out loud.

“I love you.” He chuckled and gave her a gentle nudge.

“What? You thought I’d say it for the first time when I propose?

” He scoffed and shook his head. “We’ve talked about marriage.

I practically live here.” He sobered, though it took a moment to truly get his mouth to flatten out. “Aren’t you going to say it back?”

After all, she’d never told him she loved him either.

A hint of redness colored her cheek. “I—well—I—can’t say it now,” she said, burying her face in his chest. “I feel stupid.”

Boston laughed right out loud then. “Come on, Cora-Cat. We aren’t embarrassed around each other. We talk to each other. We say the hard stuff right out loud.”

Didn’t they?

Cora gripped his hand in hers for several long moments, and oh, what he’d do to get inside her head. He gave her the gift of silence, because sometimes a person needed it to organize their thoughts, and he’d learned that Cora was one of those people.

She tipped her head back, and Boston naturally moved his gaze to meet hers. Her eyelids fluttered closed, and Boston touched his lips to hers. Mm, yes, he loved her, even if he hadn’t been sure until the moment he’d said the words.

“Yes, I love you,” Cora murmured against his mouth, immediately kissing him again. Boston felt her emotion flowing out of her, as she lived life with such passion, never holding back, never sugar-coating anything.

He kissed her as long as she wanted, and then she leaned her forehead against his. “So you’ll say yes when I ask you to marry me?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Because you love me.”

“Yes, because I love you.”

“Mm.” Boston was no longer being grumpy. He simply liked—no, loved—being here with her, where he could simply be who he was, and she could be Cora, and they could say anything they wanted to each other.

He let those feelings of peace and love fill him, and then he said, “I love you too.”

“So…that’s the adventure,” he said, looking away from his storyboard, which he’d fully populated with the pictures of the cabin, the wildlife in the area, the bald eagle nest, the fire pit, the shed, and several pictures of the trail.

He’d included pictures of the meadow, where he’d stop groups of no more than six for lunch, and the crystalline blue lake from the overlook. He’d priced things out for a two-night trip and a three-night one, and he drew a deep breath as he faced everyone.

“Questions?”

Cora grinned at him with all she had, and she beamed around at her family members and Ernie. Kat finished writing something and then looked up. She wore a thick-rimmed pair of glasses today and her dark hair up in a ponytail. One of her twins slept in a car seat at her feet, and Mae held the other.

“I think it’s wonderful, Boston,” she said.

“You’d need smaller groups in the spring months,” Ernie said. “Right?”

“It’s two bedrooms,” Boston said. “Sleeps four in beds. If we got a better couch with a bed in it, we could make it six year-round.”

“And you?” Cora asked.

“Next time I go up,” Boston said. “I’m going to pack a cot. I can section off part of the living area if there are six people, so I have some privacy to sleep, and so do the people on the sofa bed.”

He looked around at them, his gaze lingering on Jeremy, who’d put together a lot of the outdoor programming here at the resort and lodge over the years. He glanced over to Ernie, and he caught him nodding a couple of times.

“I like it,” Ernie said. “It’s something completely different than anything else anyone is offering.”

Jeremy finally nodded too, a small smile creeping up the sides of his mouth. “It’s awesome, Boston.” He glanced down at the folder Boston had prepared. “I want to make one tiny change.”

“Okay.” Boston swallowed, determined to have an open mind. After all, he only had his brain, and he’d never put together something like this.

Jeremy made a check-mark on the folder and looked up, disappointment riding in his expression. “I’m not saying we can’t do it, but I don’t think you can label this as moderate.”

The air whooshed out of Boston’s lungs, but it was Cora who said, “I’ve done it, Jere. It’s definitely moderate.”

“That’s what I mean,” he said. “It needs to be advanced. I mean, we mark the Silver Lake Loop as moderate, and it has a third of the elevation gain and nothing like those rocks.” He pointed with his pen to the pictures Boston had pinned up.

“Again,” Cora said, her tone a touch cooler now. “I’ve done it, and I am not advanced.” She flicked a look to Boston, who waited another moment.

“I think if we label it advanced-only, no one will ever go on it.”

“Maybe,” Jeremy said. “But we don’t have very many advanced offerings, so maybe it would bring new clients to us.”

“Maybe,” Boston said.

“If Cora’s done it,” Ernie said. “I definitely think it can be labeled moderate. Especially just the day hike to Mountain Meadow and the Blue Lake Overlook.”

Jeremy nodded to that. “Yes, you’re right.” He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Maybe we can label Mountain Meadow as beginner to advanced, and the upper part of the hike to the cabin from the meadow as advanced. Show the pictures of the more rugged terrain…and let people decide for themselves.”

He looked around the table, but Boston didn’t like that idea either. “Labeling it advanced will make people think they can’t do it,” he said. “I think we should label the upper two-and-a-half miles as moderate or advanced, show the pictures, and let people decide for themselves.”

He didn’t dare look at Cora. “We can add a line to the site about calling us for more details if they have questions, and that if it’s booked, a member of our staff will be calling them to make sure they understand what they signed up for.”

Boston raised his eyebrows and looked around at everyone, though he knew he needed to win over Jeremy.

Finally, he said, “All right. I think that’s fair, and a good way to follow-up with them.”

Boston couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face. “Okay, then.”

Cora jumped to her feet, laughing and cheering at the same time. She danced toward him, and Boston finally let himself relax as she wrapped her arms around him and said, “You did it, cowboy. Great presentation.”

Boston swooped his arms around her too, and he didn’t care that her whole family watched. He leaned down and touched his lips to her neck for a brief moment and said, “Thanks, sweetheart.”

“I’ll start working with Jana on the website listing,” Ernie said. “Cora? You’ll work with Boston on the copy?”

“Yep.” She stepped away from him, her hand dropping to hold his.

“When are we offering it?” Ernie asked.

“Weather-permitting, April,” Boston said. “For sure by May.”

“April…and May….” He muttered the months as he wrote them down. “All right. This is ready to go.” He smiled at Boston. “Right, Cora? Anything else we need to do?”

“No, sir.” She moved back over to her seat and peered at the paper there. “We can let everyone else go and bring in Reese and Will. Jana’s out today.”

“Which is why I’m here,” Ernie said.

Cora gave him a smile as the rest of her family stood. Boston turned to the whiteboard and started to pull down his storyboard and pictures, the pricing and options he’d come up with. It took him longer to get his stuff together, so only he, Ernie, and Cora remained by the time he finished.

“Come find me for lunch,” he said to Cora, and she tipped her head back to receive his kiss.

“I will.” She smiled at him, and Boston made his escape just before Will and Reese entered the room.

Joy moved with him now, every step coated with it. He couldn’t wait to call his daddy and tell him how the presentation had gone. And with it done and approved, perhaps now he could focus on the next thing he wanted to do: ask Cora to be his wife.