Page 425 of On A Manhunt: Complete Series

LUKE

“It’s all planned out,” Momma said, coming out the back door with a huge serving bowl. She set it on the center of the table. Potato salad. My fucking favorite.

Aspen followed behind with a platter of steaming corn on the cob.

The kids were screaming and shouting, playing under the sprinkler and using the Slip and Slide. We’d been here two days and Sierra was having a ball. My nieces and nephews had quickly pulled her into their brood.

We’d driven to Peckers Cutoff the day after my parents returned. Aspen had been able to delay our trip to Spain by a week so we could come here first.

Yeah, our trip to Spain. As if I’d miss out on watching her practice and perform with her old ballet company. Sierra was coming with us. I couldn’t wait.

I was at the picnic table with Pops, and my brother and sisters plus their spouses. The sun was setting. The scent of barbecue and summer grass filled the air.

I loved it here. This was home. But as Aspen set the platter down and smiled, I knew she was my home.

“What’s planned out?” I asked.

“You’ll go next week to Spain and we’ll catch up to make the performance,” Momma told me as she settled onto the picnic bench across from me.

I flicked my gaze to Aspen, who picked up her glass of iced tea and took a sip. She didn’t seem bothered that my mother was doing some master planning.

“I thought that was the plan,” I said.

Momma nodded. “Yes, but Sierra is going to stay here with us. We’ll bring her to Spain with us.”

My eyes widened and I looked again at Aspen. “You’re okay with this?”

She looked to where the kids were playing. “She wants to stay. She asked… begged even, so I couldn’t tell her no because I selfishly want her with me at all times.”

I knew that feeling. I selfishly wanted Aspen all to myself.

“She’ll be fine,” my sister, Audrey offered. “She’s already planned a sleepover with the girls. They’re planning on sleeping on the trampoline in the back yard.”

That did sound like something Sierra would love to do.

Momma gave me a look. I realized she was offering me this time. A week with only Aspen. In Spain. No kids. No parents. Just us. And her practicing the hell out of her ballet.

Sounded fucking perfect.

“Now we just need to get you a job, son,” Pops said.

“You could be a hair model,” Matt, my brother, piped in as he stood to reach and grab a corn.

“You’re just jealous,” I tossed out.

“Damned straight,” he added with a grin. He had a receding hairline and kept his hair shorn close to the scalp. “But my face is so handsome it makes up for my going bald.”

“That’s right, baby,” Nicky, his wife, said, patting him on the shoulder and then leaning over to kiss his cheek.

“Actually,” I began. I looked to Aspen again. I couldn’t stop. She was mine. She was here in Nebraska with me. With my family. She was one of us now, blending in just as well as Sierra. “I was offered a job.”

Her eyes widened. “You were?”

Maybe I should’ve told her this first before announcing it to everyone, but I got the call while Aspen and Sierra were in the barn with Pops and the horses.

I nodded.

Everyone stopped eating and stared.

“Well?” Audrey asked.

“Another movie deal?” Matt asked.

I shook my head. “TV.”

“You’ll stay as Shep Barnes?” Aspen asked.

That meant I would need to be in LA for filming and that lasted most of the year.

“No. I have to finish out my contract, but that’s only for a few more episodes. Then they’ll kill me off.”

Natalie, my other sister, gasped. “No! Shep Barnes can’t die!”

I shrugged. “I haven’t seen the script yet. Maybe I’ll get married to that candy striper who I was stuck in the elevator with for two days and we’ll drive off into the sunset.”

“Then what are you doing? A new show? Does that mean you have to stay in LA?” Momma asked. I knew she wanted to know, but was asking so Aspen didn’t have to.

“No. It’s being filmed in Hunter Valley.”

Everyone was silent for a moment, then everyone piped up at once.

I stood, went around the table to Aspen.

Squatted beside her. She turned a little to face me.

I could see she was nervous. Worried. People left her.

That was what she was used to, but no longer.

I’d prove to her that I was going to stick. Starting now.

“Georgia called me.” Aspen’s eyes widened. “She’s the PR woman in Hunter Valley,” I added for my siblings who hadn’t met her. “The producers of Cowboy Goes a Courtin’ want me to be the new show host.”

“What?” Aspen said on an exhale.

I nodded. “Jax Johnson is going to start some new game show and they want me to take his place.”

“In Hunter Valley?” she asked.

“I guess between my little stunt and the fact that it really was filmed in cowboy country went over with the audience. They’re going to film the rest of the season there. With me.”

“My brother, the game show host!” Audrey shouted into the air. “That’ll go over well at your high school reunion.”

I rolled my eyes. I didn’t give a shit about that. Only what Aspen thought. “You okay with being with a game show host?”

She took my hands. “Don’t you want to be in a movie? A game show host can’t be all that—”

“It’s exactly what I want.”

“A game show host?” she repeated.

“No. Being near you. I’ll have Sam work on other roles for me, but I’ll pick and choose what works for us. I want to be with you, tiger. We’ll figure it out from there.”

Tears filled her eyes.

“Shit, don’t cry.”

She shook her head. “I’m not sad. I’m… happy.”

I grinned. Sighed. “Good. Fuck, that’s good.”

“The ballerina and the game show host. That should be a romance book,” Natalie tossed out.

“My friend Lindy writes romance. I’ll pitch the idea to her,” Aspen said.

“As long as it’s a happily ever after,” I added, then leaned close to kiss her. Remind her that she was mine.