Page 133 of Tempting Promises
I roll my eyes and then pull him toward the house.
When we get inside, I pour myself a cup, trying to recreate that perfect cup I made for him, and then sit at the table next to him.
“All right, what’s your less terrifying idea?”
“You sublet the pasture to me.”
“What?” I ask, confused how that would work.
“I’m planning to increase my cattle, which I’ve already done a little.”
“You have?” I ask. It’s been a few days and half of the time he’s been here fixing things. “What have you increased?”
He shrugs, ignoring the question, and then gets to his feet, moving around the kitchen. “I figured with the need for more land and the ability to work the fields into a better rotation, you could just let me pay you for use of certain parts of the fields. That way, I don’t have to buy the land, and you don’t lose any. You’ll have a steady influx of cash, which should help you get back on your feet.”
I’m stunned. Which isn’t something I usually feel because I always have a comeback at the ready. But there’s nothing in my brain at the moment. “You . . .” I shake my head, hoping for the answer to come out. “But...you just . . .”
“Am brilliant, I know. Also, I have a big dick, a fabulous ass, and some people have been known to comment on my shining personality.”
“Sure to all that, but, Rowan, that’s...crazy! You have no assurances that I still won’t sell the farm at some point or lose it, even with this influx of cash.”
He lifts one shoulder. “If you lose it all, we get married and buy it back.”
I nearly choke. “I’m sorry,what?” Now I’m out of the chair and feeling like I shouldn’t have gotten up because surely the world is tilting.
“I’m hoping it never happens, the loss of the farm part, I mean.”
I blink several times. “Okay, but you want to get married?”
“I’m not ruling it out.”
Ruling it out? What the actual hell is going on? Rowan Whitlock, the man who hasn’t ever dated a woman, went from being the asshole next door who I wanted to beat with his own arms, to my boyfriend, and now he’s talking about marriage? I can’t.
“We’ll get back to that in a minute. I’m going to need rulesabout this leasing of the land.” I focus on that because at least my brain can think rationally about it.
“Like what?”
“Things to protect us both. A contract that spells it out and makes sense.”
Rowan leans against the counter, arms crossed. “I’m listening.”
“Right. So, for your protection, we need to make sure that if anything happens, you don’t get screwed here.”
“I’m actually hoping to get screwed.”
I ignore that. “As I was saying, what if in the contract it gives you first right of refusal?”
Rowan nods his head first. “That’s fair.”
“We have clear terms and rotations in it.”
“Fine.”
Okay, this is going way too easy. “Last one is that if you don’t buy the land, then when I sell the house, you get part of the profits to compensate for the loss of the field.”
He pushes off the counter. “No.”
“No?”
