Page 92 of Opposites (Never) Attract
“Come on,” he encouraged me. “It will inspire you.”
“But the markets…” I said, although I knew that it was shutting down overnight in the Asian markets. The signals I was looking for to make the larger move, wouldn’t happen for hours, possibly days. I had programmed all the alerts onto my phone during breakfast with Tag. There was nothing really keeping me chained to the desk anymore.
“Will be waiting for you when we get back,” he assured me.
He seemed excited about me joining them, so I was on board. I ran upstairs and quickly changed back into the jeansand boots Harmony had leant me. I found a t-shirt in her drawer and pulled that on over my head, thinking maybe if I was going to be here a little longer, I needed to get my own clothes.
Ranch clothes.
By the time I got to the barn, Ethan already had Shirley saddled and waiting for me.
“Where’s Tag?” I asked, because I still didn’t know how to get on a horse without help.
“Already down at the south pasture helping Carter and Mac,” he said. “Here. I brought a step stool to help you mount.”
He put the stool to the side of Shirley, and while it took a few moments to get my bearings on which foot needed to get into the stirrup in order for my other leg to be free to swing over, I finally got it.
Settling into the big western-style saddle, I felt more comfortable than I had last time. Which probably had more to do with my faith in Shirley, than my riding skills. I followed Ethan out of the paddock and down over the paths that led to the different grazing pastures.
The sun was hot on my head and I wished for Tag’s baseball cap from last time.
If I was honest, I wished for Tag full stop.
We passed another cabin, this one significantly larger than Tag’s, but not as big as the Lodge. It wasn’t familiar to me, so it had to be built in the last fifteen years.
“Whose house is this?” I asked Ethan.
“Carter’s and the kids’. When Lilly first got pregnant, they knew they needed their own space.”
“I’ll bet Old Man McGraw wasn’t happy about that,” I said, then realized I was referring to Ethan’s father. Tomyfather as Old Man. It’s just, that’s who he was to us growingup. Some distant villain who ruled his ranch and this town like a royal fiefdom.
Except, my mother loved him.
“Dad never liked it when any of us left,” Ethan said. “Whether that was a mile away or a hundred miles away. He wanted all of us under his thumb.”
“He must have been pissed off at you by like a lot. You went all the way to Seattle.”
“It was as far as I could go at the time, without leaving the country.”
I shifted uncomfortably in the saddle, because the questions I had were ones I shouldn’t ask the man married to my sister.
“Go ahead,” Ethan said, smiling at me. “You can ask.”
“If this wasn’t what you wanted for your life, why are you staying in The Gulch now?”
He shrugged. “Love.”
I shook my head. “That’s not enough. All the love in the world can’t keep two people together if they want different things from life.”
“I’m here to tell you, that’s not true,” he said easily. “Let me be clear, I’m not sitting around pining for my old job back in Seattle. I left home and saw what the world had to offer me outside of this place. Then I came home and saw what the world had to offer me here. Here is better, and, yes, that’s because of Harmony.”
“Did you ever think of asking her to leave? Once you guys decided you weren’t fake married anymore?”
He shook his head. He wore a sweat-stained Stetson and hardly looked like a heart-surgeon. “She belongs here. I would never take her away. This is going to sound corny as hell, especially coming from me, but home is where theheart is. The rest of the stuff, it’s just that. Stuff. Easily sacrificed.”
“Like what, specifically?” I prompted. I needed things to be explained to me explicitly. Because, leaps of faith were not my thing.
I could think of any number of things I would need to give up in New York. My work. My identity. My gym. The best food in the world. The best shopping in the world. Walkable streets. Central Park.
