Page 148 of Burned & Bound

“I know,” he replied.

“I have a routine I stick to, and my medication helps make everything easier to manage. I can handle touch more than I could but not always,” I continued, trying to rush through everything before I lost my nerve to tell him. “Some days are good and some days aren’t. They’re not bad like they were before because I know how to take care of myself, but it’s never going away.”

“You know that don’t bother me, right?” he asked.

“My doctor and my therapist are here,” I said instead. “My AA group is here and the clinic is here if I need them. And I love… I love being with you, Jackson, but I can’t go back to Double Arrow. I can’t go back to all those memories. I can’t go back to a town where everyone fucking knew what Harrison was doing and didn’t do a damn thing about it. I don’t want to drown again. I don’t… I don’t want to leave here. I found a nice big plot of land that I put a bid in for. I should hear back in the next few days. I’m going to build a house and fence it all for the horses. And I just… I can’t go back to Double Arrow with you.”

I shut up because the expression on his face was unreadable.It fucking killed me.What the hell was he thinking? His jaw ticked as he nodded slowly and picked up his cane. Without a word, he got up and started toward the bedroom.

“What’re you doing?” I called after him, my heart pounding faster.Fuck. I’d screwed this up.

“Going to email Colter Lexington and find out if the offer to buy my ranch is still on the table,” he called over his shoulder.

He was… what?

“What?” I turned fast in my chair as he stopped in the doorway.

“I told you once, West, and I’ll tell you again,” he began, “you’re my priority.”

“I know but—”

“And if that means selling my family ranch to be with you, then I’m selling my goddamn ranch,” Jackson continued.He what?

“You can’t do that,” I told him stupidly. He couldn’t give it all up for me, especially not after all the work he’d put into rebuilding it over the last year.

“I aim to do just that,” he replied. “But we’ll have to figure out space for the horses.”

“Yeah.”

“And Daisy and Ferdinand.”

“Obviously.”

“And probably a few of Daisy’s friends so she don’t get lonely.”

“So, we’ll just move the ranch,” I said. My chest tightened as my eyes burned.This man.The simplicity in which he treated the situation wasmore than I could’ve expected—more than I truly deserved. “Are you sure you want this, Jackson? I wouldn’t be mad if you didn’t.”

“I told you that if you’d asked me years ago to leave with you, I would’ve,” he replied seriously. “You mean more to me than that ranch ever will, West. Always have, always will.”

EPILOGUE PART 01

jackson

five years later

Ididn’t have analarm clock. I didn’t fucking need one. Instead, I had a needy as fuck bull who liked to push open the sink windows and bellow until I showed up to feed him.

“You’re a pain in my goddamn ass, you know that?” I grumped as I limped my way into the kitchen. When West built our house, he kept everything low enough to the ground to make it easy to access for me. There were no stairs or ramps anywhere. But then, this fucker decided that instead of putting a glass window over our sink, he put in a few half-sized barn doors. They opened inward and allowed the cows to pay us a visit whenever they wanted. At first, it was fun, but then Ferdinand figured out how to open them and demand lettuce whenever the fuck he wanted.

The bull bellowed and stuck out his tongue, trying to reach the fresh bowl of lettuce leaves on the counter. I braced against the sink and ran a hand over his snout.

“You’re lucky you’re fucking cute,” I said and handed him the biggest leaf I could find. I smiled while he munched on it. “Sleep well last night, buddy?”

He made a sound, and I continued to feed him. Only when he was completely satisfied—including a vigorous round of pets—did the bull leave my kitchen. I made my way through the house toward the back door, grabbing my cane before joining him outside. Most days, I could wander around without my cane, but I didn’t dare go outside without it. Not with the way our animals trampled around the yard. While we had a stable and a sectioned-off pasture, most of our animals had free range of our entire property. We had our horses and cows but over the years we’d added chickens and goats along with another collie to keep Tess company.

Colter had leapt at the chance to buy Double Arrow from me. He gave me the time I needed to shut down but also gave us the time we needed for West to build a house in Washington. The transition meant more months apart, but instead of letters to get us through, we traded phone calls and video chats. I still hated the distance, but I knew the end result would be worth it.

My mom had strong feelings about me selling Double Arrow and not in the way I’d expected. There was a pride in her that I couldn’t describe, and she was more than thrilled for me to start this next chapter of life with West. Unfortunately, that goddamn conversation was done over burnt bacon and scrambled eggs with ketchup. She also used that as a chance to tell me that she and Mickey were getting married. I still had mixed feelings about their whole thing, but she was happy, which was all that mattered.

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