Page 64 of Boston (Coral Canyon: Cowboys #12)

Cora practically vibrated with excitement in the driver’s seat. She’d brought Boston to Little Brown Bear Stream before, but on one of the social media pages, she’d seen that there was a brown bear in the area only ten minutes ago.

“What if we see it?” she asked. “This is so exciting.”

Boston chuckled and shook his head. “Cora, we see wildlife every single day.”

“I know,” she said. “But not bears.”

“There’s been bear sightings at Silver Sage,” he said. “You guys have a whole logbook for it.”

“This is different.” She looked over to him, almost begging him to understand. “And besides, this is Ruby’s inaugural drive to Little Brown Bear Stream, and it would be awesome if we actually saw a little brown bear.”

Boston twisted toward her from the passenger seat, and Cora didn’t mind the dry look on his face. “Ruby?”

“I’m going to name my car Ruby,” she said. “I’ve had her for five months, and besides, it fits, because she’s red.”

“Right.” Boston reached over and took her hand. “And you love sparkly things, and I seem to remember that you have a pair of ruby red boots.”

Cora giggled because everything he’d said was true. Her footwear had definitely gotten more practical in the months she’d been home, but she didn’t mind so much. She still got to wear her sandals and bling when Boston took her out to dinner.

They’d made a personal goal to leave Silver Sage at least once a week and go somewhere else to eat, though the resort had restaurants on-site. Boston still lived on-campus as well, as did she, of course. She needed and looked forward to the time away.

He and Cash had bought the ranch together, and Boston would eventually be moving into the blue two-story farmhouse, but they both wanted to clean the property and get it repaired before either of them moved onto it.

Since they both had somewhere to live, the ranch clean-up didn’t carry as much urgency as it might have otherwise.

Boston went over there a few times a week and met uncles and cousins, and they filled a dumpster.

They’d emptied both houses so far, and now that winter was coming to Coral Canyon, they’d turn their attention inward to the homes.

Boston wanted to gut his and make sure everything was structurally sound and that nothing hid inside the walls—like lead or mold.

Then he’d rebuild, repaint, put down new flooring, and basically have a brand new house.

They could do that in the winter, and then once the earth thawed again, Boston wanted to turn his attention to roads. Once the house was redone, and he could get on and off the property without causing more damage to the road or his truck, he’d move into the house.

And then , Cora thought. You’ll be there with him too .

The property only sat twenty minutes from Silver Sage, but it felt like a buffer that Cora really needed.

She tended to work too much, she knew, and if she had to arrive at work and leave every day like most normal people, she felt she’d be able to control her schedule better.

She and Boston would be able to have a home life in addition to their work environment.

“Well, I like Ruby,” Boston said, and Cora grinned over to him again.

She pulled into the parking lot at Little Brown Bear Stream only a few minutes later and got out.

She wore leggings and a sweatshirt with a sturdy pair of sneakers, but Boston just wore short sleeves and jeans.

They’d taken a few steps down the path when he said, “You know what? I changed my mind. I want to get my jacket.”

She unlocked the car as he jogged back to it, and then he opened the front passenger door.

He rummaged around there for a moment, and then ducked to the back seat, where he emerged with his jacket.

He tucked his arms into it as he came back to her, and then took her hand and they continued their walk down to the stream.

Ruby was the only car in the parking lot, which didn’t surprise Cora. November had dawned a few days ago, and Boston had taken her to a spooky Halloween walk at Bryce and Kassie’s ranch, where at least half his family members had asked him when he was going to propose to Cora.

She snuck a glance at him, because she wanted to know the answer to that too.

As the roaring water got louder, Cora’s step slowed. Boston kept pace with her, and he edged over toward the trees on the right side. Cora moved with him because the post had said that the bear was up near the falls, and that would be to their left.

Now that Cora stood out in the open air with nothing between her and a potential bear, seeing it didn’t seem so exciting.

“I don’t know,” she said, and then after two more steps, the river opened up in front of them.

There was no bear, only water.

Relief and disappointment cut through her at the same time, and she realized that she’d boxed tension up in her shoulders. She relaxed those and blew out her breath.

“We still need to be careful, sweetheart,” Boston said. “Because there was a bear in this area only twenty minutes ago.”

“Yeah,” she said. “True.”

He led her away from the falls only a few feet and sat down on a fallen log. “No reason to go too far,” he said. “Hopefully, he ambled off across the river and is somewhere else.”

Cora crowded in close to him and held his hand in hers, and then covered their hands with her other one.

They’d left work early, but the sun set far earlier than it had in the summer, and they probably only had twenty minutes before dusk would start to settle.

Darkness came quick after that, and Cora shivered in her sweatshirt.

She loved this place, and she loved the man at her side, and she turned toward him just as he cleared his throat.

Then, right before her eyes, he slid from the log to both knees.

The gravel had to be cutting into his kneecaps, but Cora’s eyes widened as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a snowy, white jewelry box.

She pulled in a breath.

“Cora,” he said, oh-so-serious—the way he usually was when he wanted to say something important. “I love you.” He smiled at her. “I love how you name your car and get excited about shoes. I love how loyal you are to your family and how you act like you like mine.”

“I do like yours,” she whispered.

He nodded. “I love how you champion me, and motivate me to be a better man, and expect me to be the best version of myself. I promise I will work as hard as I have to in order be the man that you deserve.”

He looked at the box and then cracked open the lid and turned it toward her.

Cora’s gaze dropped to the gems there, and both hands came up to cover her mouth. “Oh, Boston.”

He’d bought her a diamond ring—a large round-cut-gem right in the center of a silver band. A second band accompanied it, and it had tiny colored gems: red, blue, pink, yellow, and green.

“This ring has extra bling,” he said. “Because you bring extra bling into my life, and you love all things blingy.”

She smiled at his made-up word.

“I got to pick the gems around the top.” He glanced at her and cleared his throat.

“I chose red for obvious reasons, and the blue for the sky here in Wyoming. The green is for the sage at Silver Sage, and the yellow is actually meant to represent Yellowstone and the Tetons, but I thought it could also be for Goldie, who spooked and introduced us that first time.”

Tears filled Cora’s eyes.

“The pink just makes me think of sparkly, beautiful things,” he said.

“Like you are.” He lifted the ring a little bit, and Cora moved her eyes back to his.

“You don’t get the colored ones until we get married, but I want you to have any date you want next summer.

So I’m asking you to wear this ring, promise to be my wife, and pick a date and put it on the Silver Sage calendar. ”

His eyebrows went up. “Will you?”

Cora started to nod. “Yes,” she said, and her neck felt like rubber as she nodded and nodded and nodded. “Yes, of course, yes!”

Boston took the ring out and slid it on her finger.

Cora admired it for one moment, but the real prize wasn’t the ring, but the man who had given it to her.

He rose to his feet, and Cora did too. Boston took her in his arms, where she’d always felt safe and cherished, and leaned down and kissed her.

She’d experienced some really amazing times with this man and some really wonderful kisses, but nothing compared to kissing the man she loved, whom she’d just promised to marry.

A whiff of wind kicked up and Boston pulled back. “We should get back to the car,” he whispered. “It’s going to be dark soon.”

“Yeah,” Cora said, but she didn’t want to leave the safety of his arms, with the rushing of the stream beside them.

In the next moment, a noise unlike Cora had ever heard before filled the air. It wasn’t loud or overwhelming, and the half growl, half roar simply sounded like someone making an announcement, like, I’m here, and I wanted you to know it .

Not someone.

A…bear?

Boston pulled in a breath, and then pulled Cora to his side and behind him. “Holy horses, there’s a bear right there.”

Cora peered over his shoulder, and sure enough, a brown bear had waded into the river from the other side.

“We should go,” Boston said. His hand in hers felt like a grip, and he eased them around the corner and back down the path, never taking his eyes off the bear. He walked backward very slowly, and Cora did the same thing, watching as the bear turned upstream and started to lumber that way.

“I don’t think he’s interested in us,” Cora said.

“No, but.” Boston kept taking measured steps backward until he put a good, healthy distance between them and the river. Then he turned and picked up the pace. “Let’s go.”

They both ran the last several yards to the car, which Cora clicked open and started at the same time. Her heart positively pounded, and the moment Boston had closed his door, she locked the car.

As the adrenaline started to wane, she looked over to him. “Maybe I should name the car Ruby Red Bear.”

Boston grinned and leaned toward her, reaching to cup her face in his hand. “You can call it whatever you want, sweetheart.”

“It’s just you gave me a ring with rubies.”

“Just a single ruby,” he said.

“And there was a bear to witness the proposal.”

The corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled at her. “You can name your car whatever you want. I’ve told you that a thousand times.”

She nodded. “I’ll think about it some more.”

“What date are you going to put on the calendar?” he asked.

“Hmm, I don’t know,” Cora said, though she’d looked at the calendar in June a million times. “I’m thinking a Saturday in June.”

“Hmm.” Boston touched his lips to hers, and Cora could sit in her ruby red car and kiss him for a great, long while.

“Should I look at the calendar?” She pulled away slightly.

“Yes.” He moved his mouth to her cheek and then her ear and then down her neck, making her shiver as she lifted her phone and tapped to get to the Silver Sage calendar.

She looked at this thing a hundred times a day sometimes, and she swiped quickly to June, shivering as Boston’s breath trailed over her collarbone.

Since she’d returned to the lodge on June seventh, a Saturday, and that was the day that he had rescued her from Goldie, she could admit she’d kept her eye on that first weekend in June.

“We could do the sixth,” she said. “That would be the same weekend that we met, right?”

He raised his head and met her eyes. “I’ll do whatever you want, Cora-Cat. I’m yours.”

She grinned and put her phone down. “Let’s do June sixth, then,” she said, and then she kissed him again.

“I love you, baby,” he said. “But can we go back? I don’t want that bear to sneak up on us.”

Cora whipped her attention out the windshield, realizing that dusk had come and darkness was almost here. “Yes,” she said. “Let’s go back.”

She settled into her seat and buckled her seatbelt, then Boston took her hand again. She made a U-turn in the parking lot at Little Brown Bear Stream and got on the road that would take them back to Silver Sage.

“Are you happy?” Boston asked.

While Cora had had to think about that question in the past, tonight, she didn’t. “Yes,” she said. “I’m really happy.” She looked at the diamond glinting in the lights from the dashboard. “I love this ring, and I love you. So yeah.” She grinned over to him. “I’m really, really happy.”

“I’m glad,” Boston said, smiling back at her. “And I love you too.”

Read on for a sneak peek at CASH , the next book in the Young Brothers series. There is going to be SOMETHING going on with him in that house he’s babysitting….