Page 93 of The Guy Who Stole My Ranch

I gave her one last lingering kiss before I lifted my head to look into her eyes.

I found her grinning from ear to ear with a full-on blush all the way up her neck and into her dark hair. She pulled me down for one more, thorough, knee-melting kiss, before she released me.

Cold washed over me when she stepped away, and for a moment, I didn’t know what to do, but Brooke had me covered. She turned her back to me, pulled my hands into her hoodie pocket again, and leaned into me.

I felt her take one deep breath, then another, before she totally relaxed in my arms.

To be honest, I barely noticed the storm as it moved past the ranch. Instead, I kept my focus on Brooke. I inhaled her morning fresh scent as I kissed the top of her head. I reveled in the sensation of her curves up against my body. I once again pictured our life here together.

“What would it be like?” I muttered to myself.

If Brooke heard me, she gave no indication.

Things weren’t as simple as I was making them in my mind, but for now, for this moment, I decided to forget logic and let my feelings guide me.

Afterall, they’d gotten me this far.

***

“Brooke seems pretty chipper for someone who has a strained wrist and a bruised head,” Patrick said as we drove back to town. The fading scent of moisture hung in the air, and the clouds were thinning, making way for the last hour of sunlight before dark.

Once the storm had passed, Patrick had come to check on Brooke.

Which had been unfortunate, because I’d still been enjoying the thrill of our first, second, and fiftieth kiss.

It was probably good that he’d arrived when he did, because Brooke had been getting more and more pale, despite her insistence that she was fine. Patrick had been able to bully more pain killers into her and had sent her to bed with orders to set an alarm every few hours so she’d wake up and text him.

Then he’d told me that she needed rest and had herded me out the door.

Somehow Frank had been allowed to stay. Once again, I was jealous of my dog. Like the cows in the field, I’d wanted to stay where I shouldn’t be.

Patrick raised his eyebrows when I didn’t answer. “Everything okay?”

“She’s an extraordinary woman,” I said.

“Ah.”

With one word, I knew that Patrick knew that I had feelings for Brooke.

“I wondered why you looked so hurt when I dragged you out.”

I grunted but couldn’t disagree with the man.

“Does this change your plan about the ranch?” Patrick slowed in the wake of an older pickup truck.

“No.” I still wanted to buy the property. Whether Brooke would come with it, I didn’t know, and I wasn’t confident enough to ask her about it yet. But I would. Soon. The last thing I wanted to do would be to demean her by asking her to work for me, but there had to be some way to keep her and the ranch together. They were the two things I wanted most in the world.

That was a strange realization, that I’d rather stay here with her rather than go back to New York and live my old life. The thought of sitting in a merger meeting or being interviewed by a board of directors seemed repulsive. On the other hand, standing here felt like a dream come true.

Mydream come true.

With a woman I hoped to find true love with.

Could that be correct? I’d been acquainted with her for less than a year and had only really known her for a week. How, in such a short amount of time, could I think that I was the man for her? A week ago, I’d barely trusted myself to talk to a beautiful woman, and now I was fantasizing about porch swings, children, and sunsets with Brooke.

Victoria had warned me that it could happen fast. She and Logan had fallen for one another in less than two weeks. For him it was just a few days. I hadn’t thought that I would be susceptible to the same timetable. I was a man of logic and business, not love.

Until now.

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