Page 26 of Buck This (Battle of the Bulls #6)

This was Torrey’s routine now—at seven o’clock sharp, and she would go outside of her little apartment complex, hang out with the feral cats while they ate the food she’d brought them, and wait on a video call from Buck.

He was busy with training, but every day at the same time, they got to talk for a little while.

It had become her favorite part of her day.

God, she missed him.

A little tuxedo kitty she’d named GW as a tribute to Gary Wade came up and let her pet him for the seventh time ever, and whooo, her heart. She couldn’t wait to tell Buck about it.

That was if he didn’t already have a trillion girlfriends. The attention he had gotten for the last month since he’d gone number one bucking bull shifter in the world was insane and overwhelming.

They were best as friends. They lived far apart, and he traveled, and…yeah. They were good as friends.

She sighed and rested her cheek on her forearms. She really missed him.

“You look like you’re about to cry there, City Slicker,” a familiar voice rumbled.

The cats were startled and scattered, and Torrey jerked her attention up to find Buck standing there, holding a heavy-looking duffel bag.

“Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed, standing clumsily. Torrey bolted for him and flung herself into his arms, reveling in the deep chuckle that vibrated through his chest.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

Buck This released her and told her, “I’m following through on my end of the bargain.”

“What bargain?”

He dropped the duffle bag and unzipped it to expose huge bundles of cash.

Torrey blinked slowly. “You’re giving this to me?”

“Half a million dollars. Half of the purse. It’s yours.”

Her mouth fell open. “No. No, I can’t take that.”

“It was the deal.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t do any of that for the money. I only joked about that. Zip that back up.”

“Why?”

“Because people are going to think we are drug dealers or something,” she said, frantically zipping it and looking around the apartment complex.

He laughed. “Okay, okay. I’ll help you take it to your apartment. You can shove it in your closet and never think about it again if you want.”

“No, I’m really not taking it,” she whisper-screamed. “You are the one who bucked the event. You are the number one bucking bull shifter in the world. You earned that money! I was just there to cheer you on.”

He nodded and then began to walk away. “Okay. I’ll call you soon, City Slicker.”

“Wait! Where are you going! Can you stay for dinner?” she rushed out and started to jog toward him before she remembered the half a million freaking dollars on the ground. She circled back and grabbed it, hauled it up to her hip and grumbled at the weight, then staggered toward him.

“I’ve got to get back to work,” he called.

“No, please don’t go! I have a story. Story time. Do you want to meet my cats? One of them will possibly let you pet it! Wait! Buck!”

He had made it to his truck and opened up the passenger’s side door.

“Don’t go yet!”

He turned around and she stopped in her tracks. He held a bouquet of tulips—her favorite. She’d told him they were her favorite flowers on one of their phone calls last week.

“W-what are these for?”

“For you. And by the way you’re the first woman I’ve ever bought flowers for. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had to ask three people for help. I don’t even know what a tulip is. Well…now I do.”

She hefted the bag to him and dropped it at his feet, then took the flowers from him, and smelled them. “You…you like me?”

He chuckled and said, “I just needed you to figure out if you were there for the money or not before I asked my next question.”

“Ask me,” she blurted out. “I don’t care about the money, take it back, it’s not mine. What question?”

“First off you are keeping the money, I have the other half a million dollars, I’m really doing okay. Second…” He looked around and rubbed his short beard with his hand. “Do you want to go on a drive with me?”

“You’re…” Torrey looked around the complex, still in disbelief that he was actually here. “Where did you come from. I thought you were on the road.”

“I just said I was working. I’ve been around here.”

“You’ve been around Billings?”

He nodded. “What do you say? Do you want to go on a drive with me? I want to show you something.”

“Okay,” she said softly. “I’ll take a drive with you.”

She climbed inside the cab of his truck, and he tossed the duffle bag into the back seat.

The drive was pretty. He took them right out of town and onto the back roads, and he held her hand the whole time. Twice, he kissed her knuckles, and she didn’t know why, but it made her want to cry. Not with sadness, but with joy.

“I missed you,” she said honestly.

His smile was so handsome in that sunset lighting that filtered through his truck window.

He turned off on a dirt road and took a winding road up a hill, through lush green pines, and he didn’t come to a stop until he reached a clearing with a gravel driveway to park his truck.

There was a small house with wood siding that had seen better days and needed some work.

Beside it was an old greenhouse, with a few of the windows busted out, but stacked in front were new window panels still in protective wrapping.

There was a huge deck on the front of the house, and that was the part she couldn’t take her eyes off of.

Quickdraw was there with Annabelle. And Raven and Dead of Winter, and Tuff Enough and Luna, First Time Train Wreck and his mate, Amber, Two Shots Down and his mate, Cheyenne. They seemed to be waiting for them.

“What’s…” Torrey frowned. “What’s going on?”

“This is what I’ve been working on. They’re here for the housewarming party.”

“Housewarming party,” she repeated softly as hope bloomed in her chest.

He pointed to the greenhouse. “I figured we could keep your feral cats in there until they see this place as home, and then we can let them out to run this place. They can be barn kitties. I got some litter pans and something called cat towers, but I don’t know what kind of food or toys to get them yet.

I’ve never had a cat. You can teach me.”

“You want…” She blinked back tears. “You want to bring my cats here?”

“Well, eventually, when you decide to move in.”

She looked at this place with brand new eyes. “You bought this place? Near me?”

“Yep. It’s a fixer upper, but it’s on sixty acres, and it’s damn-near paid off.”

“You spent your money on this place,” she whispered reverently. It was covered with beautiful pine trees and had a hammock in the middle of the yard, and a firepit to sit at.

“Do you like it?” he asked, and there was such hope in his tone.

“I love it.”

“Want to see the rest?” he asked.

She nodded, trying so hard to keep her deep emotions in check so she wouldn’t fall to pieces and ruin the moment. “I have to tell you something.”

“Uh oh,” he murmured.

“I love you, Buck This Storme.”

A slow, handsome smile stretched his face. “Are you sure?”

“I was sure since the first day I knew you.”

“What was the moment?”

“That I realized you are important?”

“Yeah.”

She inhaled deeply. “When you asked me to stay. You came back to the box after your buck, and you had almost gotten into that fight outside, and you were frustrated with me, but you took the time and you came into the box and you made it right, and you asked me to stay. And also you shotgunned a beer, and that was really hot.”

He belted out a laugh.

“Did you have a moment?” she asked.

“You mean besides when you told me you were a crazy cat lady and crochet queen?”

She giggled. “I’m being serious!”

The chuckle died in his throat, and he nodded.

“I do remember the moment I fell. When I saw you at the merchandise table, wearing those shorts, and that shirt with my logo on it, and you were smiling so big, and you looked so pretty, I wanted you. I remember I had to sign some stuff, and I admitted it was a lot on me, and you just…made it easier. That’s what you do for me, Torrey.

You make things easier. You make me feel steady.

The chaos fades away if I just focus on making sure you’re good at events.

I want you at all of them. Not because I need you there to keep me from going crazy on people anymore, but because I just want to see you up in the stands.

I like seeing you right after. I know I’m good if you’re around, and I think that’s how this is supposed to go. ”

She couldn’t keep the smile from her lips if she tried. Her stomach was filled with butterflies right now. “You like me?” she whispered softly.

“It’s more than that, Torrey.”

“You love me?”

He nodded. “Do you remember that first time we made a wish at that fountain?”

She nodded.

“Do you want to know what I wished for?”

“Yes,” she said softly.

“I wished I could keep you for more than those two days. You can have all the time you want. We can date like a normal couple during my off-season, but you should know I’m going to invite you to every event I buck at this next season, and I’m going to hope you say yes.

The second I think you’re ready, I’m going to ask you to move in.

I’m going to want to take you away from your normal life during bucking season and put you in that little RV when we’re traveling, and I’m going to ask you to be my team.

And I’m going to take care of you. That’s my intention, Torrey Chambers. I want to be it for you.”

She looked around at the fixer-upper property, and at the rest of his team, sitting in rocking chairs and on the porch railing, waiting on them.

This life sounded perfect to her.

The off seasons, the bucking seasons, the traveling, the figuring out life together. She wanted all of it. With him.

“I’m in,” she said softly.

“Yeah?”

“I’m all in.”

She’d never seen a more handsome smile on any man’s face.

He leaned over and kissed her, then rested his forehead against hers.

Whatever happened with the next bucking season, or the next, or the next…they were in it together. He would never be alone again. She would make sure of it.

Was this the life she would’ve ever imagined for herself? Hell no.

Was it better?

Yep.

She kissed him again, and said, “I need the grand tour.”

“Let me get your door,” he rumbled, and she waited while he jogged around the truck, then helped her out of his truck.

She didn’t remember a single time in her entire life she had been happier than in this moment, her hand in his as Buck led her up to their friends, their team, on a front porch they would spend countless hours talking about life together in the old rocking chairs.

With six to eight feral cats scampering around, and a home full of happiness.

Buck This had told her what his brother had said the night he went number one bull shifter in the world. He’d said this was just the beginning, and Torrey knew it to be true.

They really were just getting started.