Page 6 of The Price of a Promise

“′Sup, cowgirl?”I said into the phone, still looking at the ring.Cowgirlwas one of my preferred nicknames for her, born from a particularly sweet and sexy trip we’d taken to Kentucky last year.Sweet because she’d met Mama Deb and Papa Gary, and sexy because I’d fucked her senseless in the back acres of my parents’ farm under the light of a full moon.She’d been in awe of the sheer ruralness of my parent’s house—the wide swaths of hayfields, the rolling horse farms, the way tractors shared the roads with cars.I’d called her cowgirl once while she giggled her way through the chicken coop, and it stuck.

“Oh, that’s Cora,” Trace said in the same way he always did: a combination groan and announcement.

Cora laughed from the other side of the country.“Hey, babe.Is now a good time?”

“It is.But let me relocate.”I headed for my bedroom—I was the lucky one at the moment who didn’t have to share.“Fuck you guys,” I called over my shoulder before I kicked the door shut.“Now where were we?”

“I think you were about to tell me how much you missed me,” she purred into the phone.

I switched the phone to speaker and tossed it on my bed while I got to work selecting the perfect resting spot for the ring box.“It’s funny you mention that, because I was just realizing there are no words in the English language to come close to describing that.”

“Not one?”

“The ones that exist barely scratch the surface of how much I miss you,” I told her while I peered at the shelves of my bookcase.There was too much space there; she could spot it while lounging in my bed.No, this hiding place needed to be rock solid.Diamondsolid.

“So what are you going to do?Just accept the fate that the English language has handed you?”

I grinned so hard my cheeks hurt.“Babe, I love it when you talk like this.”

“Like what?”

“Like one of the judges onShark Tank.”

She burst into laughter, and the husky lilt caused both my heartandmy cock to swell.“We can thank my dad for that.”

I didn’t want to thank him for anything.A business mogul worthy of joining the cast ofShark Tank—that was one of the only good qualities I’d grant the man.

“For that, and for bringing you into the world.But that’s about it.”

Cora sighed heavily, though I couldn’t tell if it transmitted annoyance or agreement.Probably both.“Well, let’s not condemn him just yet.He is, after all, putting me on a flight to New York this weekend.”

A sputtering noise blocked my airways.My fingers reflexively gripped the ring box while a cough tore through me.“Excuse me?”

“Don’t choke and die before I can see you.”

“Don’t worry, babe.Even if I died, you know I’d haunt you until you came.”

That husky laughter thrilled through me again, prompting another grin I couldn’t have wiped from my face if I tried.

“God, I love you,” Cora said.

“I love you more.So what’s the special occasion?Somebody getting married?”I tapped the ring box against my forehead as my brain started sectioning off to conquer the new challenges in front of me.I thought I’d been working with months to plan the perfect proposal.Now she’d be in my arms in mere days, and I wasn’t prepared.

But I’d go through with it.So help me God, I was going to ask this woman to marry me when I saw her.

She laughed softly, but it sounded humorless.“Ah…no.Well, I’m sure my father would love if there was a wedding.But no.”

“What?”

She started to say something then stopped.

“Cora.”I stared at the far wall of the room, where my poster of Elon Musk kept an eternal watch over my belongings.“What does that mean?”

“It means nothing.”

“What does that fuckingmean.”I hated when she played coy like this.Her mouth was often faster than her brain, and I could read her like a book.So when she tried to sidestep a comment like that, I had to dig.

When a long sigh ripped out of her, I knew my shovel had struck gold.“He set up a meeting between me and the Rossbergs.”

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