Page 128 of Boston
He paused while he coughed, as he’d caught a little something. “Would it help you feel better if I have Uncle Gabe put that in the contract? That I get my twenty acres for thecutting horses, and you can do whatever you want with the rest? That I have no say over the other land or your house?”
“Of course not,” Boston said. “That’s not fair. Twenty acres out of seventy-seven and you’re paying seventy percent?” He shook his head. “No, it’s not fair.”
“I’ll do whatever you want,” Cash said, his voice mild and barely coming across the line. “I think this would be awesome for both of us. You’re still close to Silver Sage. I get to start working with horses, and I don’t have to go back on the rodeo circuit. We’re close to each other, and we’ve always gotten along real well, haven’t we?”
“Yes,” Boston said. “I’m sorry, Cash. I didn’t mean to imply that we hadn’t.”
“Ain’t no thing,” Cash said easily. “I don’t know what you want, Boston. Maybe this isn’t it, but I don’t think you want to leave Coral Canyon or live in a studio apartment for the rest of your life. And no matter what happens to each of us, we can get married and have families here.”
“Yeah,” Boston said, because the picture that Cash had been painting for the past month was glorious and beautiful, and Boston wanted it. The problem was he wanted itwith Cora, and he wasn’t sure that she would leave Silver Sage. She had a house there, free and clear, no commute. Why would she ever want to leave that to come live with him on a hoarder’s property that needed to be gutted, roads leveled, and a metric ton of stuff to “deal with”?
Boston already felt like he didn’t have anything to offer her, and if he bought this place with Cash, it felt like committing her to a prison. Boston wasn’t even sure why he was considering Cora. They’d broken up three weeks ago, and he’d only seen her around Silver Sage a couple of times.
“Here’s what I think,” Cash said, and Boston realized he’d been quiet for too long. “You’re going to go up to the eaglehabitat today, and I’m going to say yes to this offer. When you get back on Saturday, if you don’t want it, it’s okay. I’ll buy it and it’ll be mine, one hundred percent.”
Boston thought of Bryce and the way he said “one hundred percent” for everything, and it made him smile.
“But if you get back on Saturday and this still feels like the right thing for you, then I’d love to have you with me.”
“All right,” Boston said.
“You know what this means, right?” Cash asked.
“I’ve been praying about it,” Boston said defensively.
“I don’t mean that.” He chuckled. “It means you’re going to have to talk to Cora.”
“Why would I have to do that?”
“Because whether you’ll admit it or not,” Cash said, some of that bossy, broody rodeo star coming out in his tone. “You’re hesitating on this because you think if you get back together with Cora, the two of you will live at Silver Sage.”
Boston couldn’t argue. And when Cash said, “Tell me I’m wrong,” Boston couldn’t do that either.
“All right,” Cash said. “I gotta get back to bed, and I know I’ve delayed you on your start time, which you hate. So I’m going to go. You’ve got a lot to do in the next few days, and I think I will too.”
“How are you going to sign papers without me?” Boston said.
“I’ll just tell him you’re up in the mountains, and if we have to amend things later, then we will.” He made it sound so easy and like anyone would just bend to his will, which in many instances, they did. Not only that, but Cash had a lot of money, and money could get people to do things that they normally wouldn’t do.
“All right,” he said. “I wish you were coming with me.”
“Me too,” Cash said. “I’ll get up there one day.”
“Yeah.” Boston ended the call and looked at his phone as it darkened.
Cash had decided last night, after he’d been fighting a cough for a couple of days, that he wouldn’t be able to go on the hike with Boston. Not only that, all this stuff with the house and property kept happening, and Cash didn’t think it was smart for them both to be gone and unreachable.
Boston sighed and finished putting together his things. Then, he put everything on his back and left his apartment.
The hike through the wilderness cleansed his soul and gave him time to think about what he really wanted. He’d started to paint his own picture of the future, and every time Cora entered it, he would erase it and start over.
No matter what, she always came back into the picture, and Boston had just accepted it. Now he didn’t know what it would take, or who would make the first move, or when they might be able to try again, but he knew all of it would happen.
He lost cell service, ate his lunch overlooking the crystal blue lake, and kept going. He did want his own place, and he wanted Cora. Could he have both?
He wasn’t sure, and by the time he reached the cabin just outside the eagle sanctuary, he’d missed a couple of calls from his daddy.
Using his portable charger, Boston plugged in his phone and unpacked everything before moving back over to it. He wasn’t sure how his father always seemed to know when Boston needed to be confronted about something, but he did. And today, Boston wasn’t going to shy away from that conversation.
