Page 66 of Take Me Please, Cowboy
“Lots of tourists and lots of money,” he agreed.
“I just think we don’t have to decide what we want or need in five years.We just need to figure out what we need now.And what I need now is more time with you.Or full-time with you.You’re what I want, Rye, and the rest… it can wait.”
“But you don’t love Eureka, and my family home wasn’t comfortable for you.”
“I shouldn’t say I dislike Eureka.The truth is, I don’t know Eureka.It might really grow on me.I might realize that it’s the perfect place for me.And if you were there, I would be happy there.”
“And my family home?”
“It was a hard day to visit, Rye.The curtains were drawn.It was dark.Your dad wasn’t in the best mood.It was a little claustrophobic.But, you don’t live in the house, you have your place—”
“I can’t put you in the trailer.”
“We can spruce it up.Get some new furniture, hang some paintings on the wall.”She gave him a sly smile.“It would mean moving some of your ribbons and awards, but if you don’t mind me beautifying, it could be really cute.”
“Now you’re overreaching.That trailer will never be cute.”
She shrugged.“I follow Tiny Houses on Instagram.I have some ideas, and I bet Josie does, too.”
He stopped walking and faced her.“You don’t have to make all the sacrifices, Ansley.”
“I’m not making all of the sacrifices.I’m saying… let’s try to figure this out together.”She clasped her hands, her expression hopeful.“You know, we could be a proper team.I could be a good team member, too.Maybe I can’t ride in rodeo events, but I can compromise, and I don’t know why we couldn’t find a happy medium because, Rye, I love you.It was love at first sight and I know it seems fast, but I don’t want anyone but you.”
He said nothing and her insides flip-flopped, somersaulting with hope and fear, love and anxiety and she needed him to saysomething.“Rye?Did you hear anything that I just said?”
“Every word,” he said, pulling her into a dark doorway and pressing her against the brick wall.“But right now, I don’t want to talk.I just want to kiss you.”
His head dropped and his mouth covered hers, and the kiss was absolutely consuming.It was impossible to know how long the kiss lasted.All she knew was that she’d turned boneless, and she was melting into him.Thank goodness he was holding her up because her legs were useless at the moment.
*
Rye kissed hisbeautiful Ansley until he was done for.He kissed her until the fight was gone, and there was no resisting her, and no resisting his heart.He loved her completely.He’d loved her from the moment he laid eyes on her, and he was one who didn’t believe love could happen like that.He didn’t believe that love could sweep one completely off one’s feet.He’d never believed that love could change one from the inside out, but he’d been changed—transformed by her love and light, her warmth and bright, fierce, inspiring spirit.
It was as if God knew he needed someone exactly like Ansley, someone with backbone, someone with passion, someone just as deeply loyal, and foolishly stubborn, as he was.There was even a good chance that she was more stubborn, but then, she might need to be, considering how hardheaded he was.
At last, when Rye lifted his head, he clasped Ansley’s lovely face in the palm of his hand.“You won,” he said, smiling faintly.“You’ve won my heart, you’ve proved me wrong, you are everything I ever wanted and didn’t dare to dream I’d ever have.”
“I didn’t win,” she said huskily, leaning into him.“I just found you, and I wasn’t going to let go.You are the one for me.I knew it immediately, felt it all the way through me.Having grown up in a family of strong men, I needed a strong man, a man with integrity, a man willing to put his family first, a man who’d always do the right thing.Rye Calhoun, you always do the right thing, even if it’s not the right thing for you.You do it for others.You do it because you put those you love first.I love that about you, but you have to be a little bit selfish.You have to protect your dreams.They matter just as much as everyone else.”
“I always believed I’d have my chance.I believed one day it would be my turn.And now it is.”
“Now it is,” she agreed, kissing him on the mouth and then smiling mischievously into his eyes.“I adore you, you know.I’d do anything for you.And I mean that.I think I’d be happy in Eureka.I think I’d be happy—”
“No.No not this again, Ansley.”
She reached up, placed a finger against his lips.“Hear me out.It doesn’t have to be forever.It could be for three years, five years, just keep your mind open and solutions will come.We’ll figure this out together.”
“What about your uncle?”
“My mom is lining up a full-time caregiver who will be live-in.There’s also a possibility one of my brothers might be heading to Montana and decide what to do with the ranch, so he’d be on the property, too.”
“You’ve just made friends in Marietta.You’ve been happy there.”
“I have,” she agreed, lightly tracing his cheekbone and then down along his jaw, “but I can be happy here, too.I’ll just need some time to adjust, and Josie is still living at home until January, and she’ll be a big help.I’ve never had a sister—”
Rye stopped her flow of words with another fierce, hungry kiss.He loved this mad, beautiful woman, and she was saying all the right things but in his heart he knew it wouldn’t be an easy move, or a painless adjustment.
He lifted his head to look into her intensely blue eyes.“I do want to marry you.We just have to figure out the logistics.”
