Page 80 of His Eighth Ride

“I just want you, me, and the stars tonight,” she murmured. She kissed him again, keeping it slow and easy and short. “I’ll go get something, and we can eat in your backyard.”

His eyes met hers, and Opal wasn’t sure what she saw in the blazing depths of them. Something intense and strong. Something meaningful. “Tag,” she whispered. “Allison had her baby, and I’ll probably go to North Carolina for a few weeks.”

“Okay,” he whispered back, drawing her closer.

She laid her cheek against his chest. “I miss you already.”

“That’s because you like me so much,” he said.

Opal smiled right there in the shade of the barn, her eyes closed, and the scent of Tag all around her. “I think you’ll miss me too.”

“Mm, I can admit to that, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I’ll miss you,” he said. “Because I like you so much, Opal-honey.”

She smiled at the pet name. “When do you know if your like is starting to turn into love?”

“I think about the time you realize you can’t live without someone or something,” he said. “Like potatoes. Can’t live without them, so I love ‘em.”

Opal burst out laughing, and with Tag’s voice joining hers, they made a great harmony and melody. She hung onto his shoulders and looked at him. “I think I’m getting close with you, cowboy.”

That intensity came roaring back into his expression, and Opal realized what it was now: love, desire, hope.

“Can’t live without me, huh?”

“Maybe,” she said coyly. She pushed him back a step. “Now, go finish your chores so we can have a date tonight at a decent hour.”

“You’re the one who started kissing me,” he said. “For the record.”

“I got it on the official record,” she said, and he chuckled as he walked away, toward the back corner of the barn and around it, where the walking circles for equines were.

Opal sighed into the golden evening, as this was her perfect hour. She loved everything about a Colorado springtime in the evening, when the sun was still up and casting it’s treasure over the mountains.

Her phone chimed, and she checked it. Allison had said, My mom will be here until May 5. You’re welcome any time after that.

Great, Opal said. I’ll be there on the sixth.

And now she had to go get dinner and book a flight, so she didn’t linger next to the chicken coop any longer. After all, she had a magical star-watching date to get set up with a man she might-possibly almost already be in love with.

twenty-five

Tag showered, shaved, and dressed while thinking about Opal and what she’d said. When do you know if your like is starting to turn into love?

He’d made a joke about it, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He’d grown very fond of Opal. Did that mean he loved her?

He’d started envisioning a future with her, that was for certain. The building of her house frustrated him as much as it excited her. She’d been working on her foundation more and more too, and he knew she’d had a call with her daddy this evening to go over numbers. Numbers for what, he didn’t know.

Tag was just a simple cowboy, after all. He knew how to make sure he had enough money in his bank account for what he had to pay for, and that was about it.

When Opal still hadn’t arrived with dinner, he went into the spare bedroom to make sure it was ready for the twins. They’d be here in a couple-three weeks, and they were staying with him. He’d cleared it with Gerty and Steele to have the whole weekend off, and the last person he needed to prep for Flint and Sawyer’s arrival was Opal.

He needed to talk to her about a lot of things, actually. He’d still never had that “serious conversation,” and not because she hadn’t asked. But because he hadn’t been able to find the words yet.

He’d been hoping and praying and working to get himself to a place where he felt like he stood on even ground with Opal, and he figured if he could get that done, he wouldn’t need to bring anything up with her. “What’s she gonna do about it anyway?” he muttered to himself.

She couldn’t change who she was, or how much money her family had. He didn’t even want her to. No, what he wanted to change was himself.

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