Page 71 of One Lucky Cowboy

When he pulled back, his eyes shifted between hers, searching for something. “But—” he hedged. This time, the word held a different meaning, sat heavier in her palm.

“But?”

“I don’t know how much more I can give you beyond kissing. My priority is Ren. Does it make me selfish that I want to still see you after he goes to bed, though? We have a week left, and I’d like to make the most of it.”

She shook her head. Hearing his innate love for the son he’d just met, the lengths he’d already gone to in order to care for him—all of it was city-girl catnip.

“It’s not selfish. I want the same.” She leaned into him, inhaled his aftershave, committed the scent to memory, and planted her lips on his. Maybe at one point, she’d have admitted she wanted more, but she’d take what he had to give. If anything, it was her that was selfish. “I’m leaving soon anyway.”

A shadow crossed his face but passed quickly. “Okay, then. Jill Henley, will you be my kissing friend?”

She laughed and nodded. “Any time, Jackson Marshall. Just maybe we could do some of our kissing inside, without the risk of truck-sized wildlife interrupting?”

He laughed loud, his joy ricocheting off the canyon walls and those of her heart. “Yeah. We can do that.”

She worried the corner of her lip between her teeth, growing serious. “But are you sure that’s what you want? You were adamant you can’t get distracted.”

He cupped her cheek and dipped his lips to hers, teasing them open with his tongue. She tasted the lemon tart from lunch on his lips and darned if it didn’t make her hungry again, though not for food this time.

He pulled back from the kiss but rested his forehead against hers. “Oh, I know it. And every cell of my brain is mentally beating me up right now, but I can’t seem to quit you, Jill Henley.”

Those words did her in. She wrapped her arms around Jax’s neck and kissed him the way she’d wanted to since the day they’d spent at the creek. Her mouth opened, an invitation to take as much as he wanted and he accepted, tangling his tongue with hers.

As he slid his arms around her waist and picked her up into his arms, an errant thought crossed her mind. Deer Creek must have magical waters flowing downstream, because every time she was near it, she ended up in Jax’s arms.

She didn’t mind one bit, not even when the nagging voice in her head warned her that for every season of abundance, drought was right around the corner.

*

Ren’s gaze scanned the whole of the property as he walked out of the house. He’d just met Jax’s whole family save Jill, who didn’t really count. She wasn’t really his family.

Not yet, Jax’s heart chimed in. He ignored the overzealous organ and sent up a prayer of thanks that the meeting had gone well. Everyone cried, his mom spoiled Ren by having his own room set up in her house in the short time Jax was gone, and Maggie had gushed about how she couldn’t wait for their little one to meet his cousin.

Bennett had filled Ren in on the Marshall legacy, until everyone laughed and told him that could wait. This was a time for celebration, not a history lesson.

It was amazing and damn near everything Jax had never known he’d always wanted. So why couldn’t he concentrate on that and not the package he’d just put in the back of his truck? His mom had gone wildly overboard with a new bed and dresser from Harvey’s and a gift card to fill the dresser with clothes Ren would need, but the simple, small box of magazines, some photos of the ranch and Deer Creek, and a book aptly titled Ranching for City Dummies made his chest ache.

According to his mom, Jill had dropped it off that morning while Jax and Ren ran errands. The stunning photos were hers, all from her trip there that month. If he’d only seen those photos earlier, seen what Deer Creek and the ranch meant to her.

“This is all yours?” Ren asked, drawing Jax out of his thoughts.

Ren’s eyes were coffee-mug wide as he gestured with his chin to the barn, which gave way to the south fields, then the creek, all wrapped up with the red canyon bow along the edge of the property.

Jax ruffled the kid’s hair, seeing the place through his eyes as well. It was impressive to a kid raised in a two-bedroom apartment in Austin. Hell, now that Jax thought about it, it was impressive, period. Bennett had done a kick-ass job building his empire. But Jax hadn’t ever appreciated it. To him, it’d been a ten-thousand-acre prison.

Now, though?

Well, darned if he wasn’t a little nostalgic to share a place that actually meant a heckuva lot to him with a person who meant more.

“We’ve got ten times this in the valley, actually, but it’s not quite mine. It’s the family’s property, all part of the company we run.”

“The Marshall Brothers—” Ren got stuck, his lips twisting with thought.

“Enterprises. Yeah. We’ll spend the month out here while we wait to figure something out with your grandfather, and then I’ll pass the torch to someone else while we head to Austin for your school year.”

“And I’ll get to help run it?” Ren asked.

That his son didn’t say have to and that his question came with genuine interest cracked Jax’s heart open for the millionth time since he’d met the boy.

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