Page 84 of On the Wild Side

“Please do.”

“I’d like to build a house out here for us. The cabin iswaytoo small for a family. I want to build any house that you want and bring you and Daisy out here with me. I know that’s selfish as fuck, but I can’t help it. This is my home, butyou’rewhere my heart lives, so I’ll go where you go. You want to live in Bolivia? We’ll live in Bolivia.”

“I’m partial to Montana,” she murmurs, the panic finally gone from her eyes.

“Well, good, because I am, too. Specifically,thispiece of it. All the siblings are entitled to acreage out here. Rem has the majority because he technically owns and runs the ranch. Chase claimed his land by the lake, and Ryan already has his own ranch, although if he ever wanted it, he could claim property out here, too.

“I don’t know where Millie might want to be. And before you, I never really thought that hard about it, but I have beenconsidering it over the past few days, and I am fond of this piece of land right here. Of course, if you’d like to be on the lake, closer to Chase and Summer, or anywhere else, really, we can do that.”

She clears her throat and walks away from me, her back to me as she stares out at the ranch and to the mountains beyond, and I’m sure that I just fucked everything up.

It’s too soon.

It’s too much.

She turns to me with tears in her eyes, and I want nothing more than to pull her to me and take it all back.

“Brady Wild, are you telling me that you want tobuild a houseout here, on this beautiful ranch that has seeped into my bones and embedded itself onto my soul, for me and Daisy?”

“Well, yeah. I am. I mean, if you want the ring and the fancy proposal and all the rest, you’ll get that. I promise, you’ll get it. I’m planning every minute of my life around you, around what you want and need and how I can make sure you have it. But this is something that I can start right away, even while I’m traveling.”

She’s swiping at tears, and it just about brings me to my knees.

“Ah, baby, don’t cry.”

“I should tell you that it’s too much and that I can’t accept it.” She turns to look at the view again and shakes her head. “But I can’t because I want this, with you, more than anything.”

The relief is swift, and it propels me to her, and I wrap my arms around her from behind.

“Thank God. I was convinced that I was screwing everything up.” I kiss her hair, breathing her in. “It’ll mean a lot of driving for you to and from work.”

“I don’t care.” She sniffs and turns to me, reaching up to cup my cheek. “My townhouse was perfect for Daisy and me. It’swhat I needed for us when we moved here, but it’s okay that it’s time for us to move on. It’ll be someone else’s safe place to land.”

“We’ll still be there until the house is finished, probably for about a year or so.”

“I can be patient.” She boosts up onto her toes and kisses me softly. “But I have to change one of my answers from earlier.”

I lift an eyebrow. “Which one?”

“With a view like this, we need two stories. I want the main bedroom on the second floor, with huge windows so I can look at that view every single morning as the sun comes up.”

“You can have whatever you want, baby.” I kiss her back, relieved that I didn’t ruin the best thing that’s ever happened to me. “We’ll get started right away.”

“Wait.” Her face falls. “We’re going to need a mortgage, and I don’t know if my credit?—”

“We don’t need a mortgage,” I reply with a smile. “You reallydon’tpay attention to the rodeo stuff, do you?”

“Uh, no. I’m sorry, I don’t.”

“Trust me. No mortgage needed.”

“Oh, I can’t ask you to just pay for everyth?—”

I cut her off with my mouth and pick her up, sit on the log, and settle her in my lap. Finally, I pull back and smile at her.

“I’ve got this, Abs. Trust me, okay?”

She sighs and leans into me, turning her head so she can stare at her new view.

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