Page 25 of Second Chance Spring in Paradise

“You’re going to be awfully warm once we get in the truck.” He grabs my bag and slings the giant flowered purse I carried on the plane over his shoulder.

“But I won’t be cold on the way there.” I wrap my gloved hand around his and immediately question my decision to glove up. There are too many layers between my skin and his. No piece of clothing can warm me the way Rowdy does.

We talk the entire drive. About what I’m writing. About the horses he’s training to be pickup horses. About his family.

Just as we crest the hill to dip into Paradise Valley, Rowdy pulls off the highway and parks the truck. Smuk Lake fills the horizon below us, grey-blue in color now that it’s winter, surrounded by hills covered in white. The view is stunning enough to take my breath away. I think I can get used to the weather, but I hope I never get used to this view. I want it to make me gasp every time I see it.

“What are we doing?” I ask Rowdy, who reaches behind me to get a heavy coat from the back seat.

“Did you pack your swimsuit like I told you?” There’s a twinkle in his eye, and as I look around where he’s parked, I realize where we are.

“Are we going to the spring?” I hadn’t recognized the spot because of all the snow, but why else would I need a swimsuit?

He answers with a nod and a smile, then unfolds a cover across the windshield. “I’ll wait outside while you get changed. No one should be able to see you with the cover on.”

Once Rowdy shuts the door behind him, I shimmy out of my clothes and slip on my bikini, which I could have worn under my clothes if he’d given me some warning. But I’m a California girl, which means I’ve mastered the art of the beachside wardrobe change. It’s putting all the other layers back on that’s the annoying part with this change. I can’t exactly walk to the spring in my bikini the way I can from the beach to the ocean.

And the irony that Rowdy’s already seen me in less than a bikini at this spring isn’t lost on me.

With all my clothes back on, I open the door and slide out of the truck. Rowdy turns around when he hears me. His face breaks into a smile that sends gentle waves of excitement to lap at my toes and tug the ground from under me.

I let the force of his smile draw me closer. When I’m within arms-length, I grab his black Stetson and put it on my head.

“Hey now.” He pulls me close like he’s going to take the hat back. Instead, he wraps me in his arms and a kiss. “I missed you,” he sighs as he pulls away.

“I missed you, too.” I rub the stubble on his cheeks with my gloved hands. “I like this. I think you should grow a big, bushy beard. That’s a cowboy thing, isn’t it?”

He cocks his head to the side. “You may be thinking lumberjacks.”

“Hmm. Maybe.” I raise my eyes, imagining Rowdy in a red flannel shirt holding an axe. I like it. I like it a lot. “Have you thought about that as a second career?”

He loosens his hold on me and laughs. “Have you got some lumberjack fantasies I don’t know about?”

I slide my hands around his neck. “My only fantasies are of you, Rowdy Lovett.”

“Good to know.”

“You’re just not a cowboy inallof them.”

He drops his head and laughs again. “I don’t even know what to say to that. It’s a good thing I love you or I might be offended you want me to be something besides a cowboy.”

I let my arms fall from his neck. “What did you say?”

Rowdy’s head bolts up. His eyes are wide with something that’s a cross between surprise and worry. “I … uh…”

“You love me?” I know he does, but he’s never said the words to me before.

His gaze drops to the ground then darts back up. He bobs his head with the tiniest of nods while his lip tugs into a smile.

“Like, really love me?” My breath staggers with the wordlove.“Because you kind of buried the lead in all that talk about being a cowboy.” If I don’t laugh, I’ll cry.

Rowdy doesn’t laugh. His face is serious, and he shifts side to side, but when he looks at me, his eyes are soft and warm.

Without warning, he drops to his knee. The snow is deep enough to cover his kneeling leg and reach past the calf of his other leg. All I can think as he digs through his coat pocket for something is that his pants are going to be wet. My brain can’t comprehend anything else, no matter what this moment may look like. If it turns out to be something besides what I really want it to be, my heart will break.

Even when Rowdy pulls out a ring-sized box, I don’t allow myself to hope. “If there’s something bigger thanreallyloving you, Tessa, that’s how I feel about you. I don’t know what the word is, but love isn’t big enough.”

He opens the box to reveal a thin gold wedding band with a single, emerald-cut diamond. It’s simple and beautiful. Perfect for the kind of life Rowdy and I have been building together.

---