Page 15 of Stranded on the Prairie
She trails off once more. It surprises me a little, to hear how genuine she is in all of this, the pain impossible to ignore.
"You really feel that strongly about it?” I ask, as she follows me on to the trail. She nods.
"I know it sounds crazy," she sighs. "I get it. I should be looking to get back, but I can’t stop thinking that I’d be more useful here than I ever would be back home."
"What exactly would you need for this retreat?" I wonder aloud. "If you were to put something like that together, I mean."
"I guess...a building, somewhere people could come to relax," she remarks ponderously. "Somewhere that’s not used foranything else, but that would be hard to come across out here, what with the-"
"Not if I made it for you."
I don’t stop walking as I speak, but she does. I can tell she’s stunned, though she doesn’t say a word. By the time she rushes to catch up with me, she’s a little out of breath, and I’m not sure if it’s the exertion or the shock.
"What are you talking about?” she demands. "Making it for me?"
"What I said," I reply, stooping to check another trap, which this time yields a rabbit for my bag.
"You have the resources for that? The time?" she asks, as though she barely dares to hope that I am telling the truth.
"I stand to inherit my family’s estate," I point out to her. "I can use that any way I want. Make sure Cade and Lucy are taken care of, then it’s up to me what I do with it."
I meet her gaze once more. Her hands are twisted in front of her torso, her eyes wide, as though she barely dares to hope that I am telling her the truth.
Hell, I don’t even know if this is a good idea.
But there’s something about the hope in her voice that I want to bring to the surface. God knows I’ve lived long enough without hope as it is...
"And you’d use it for me?” she breathes, like if she speaks to loud, she might shatter this moment between us. I shrug.
"Don’t see what else I’m going to use it for," I reply. "I’ve got my cabin. Cade and Lucy’ll have the house. All that, it needs to go somewhere. Might as well go to you."
A small smile creeps up her face. Even though I am speaking like it’s not that important, I know the weight it holds to her. I can’t put it into words, but I want to help her, I want to show her that there’s a life here for her, iced tea or not, now or then, future or present or past all tangled up together.
"You’d really do that for me," she repeats, but this time, it’s not a question, more an act of conviction, like she’s trying to make herself believe it as much as me.
"I really would."
And, before I can say another word, she practically leaps on to me, throwing her arms around me and pulling me in close. I can’t help but smile when I feel her against me like that, her arms snaking around my neck like she never wants to let me go.
"Nobody’s ever even offered to do something like this for me before, Wyatt," she murmurs to me, as she drops a kiss on the side of my neck.
And it strikes me, all of a sudden, that I have never wanted to go to such lengths for anyone before, either.
All of the girls my parents had tried to set me up with, none of them made me feel the way she did, like they were worth the effort I want to put out for her. Not their fault – but not mine, either.
No, I’ve been waiting for someone to come along and make me feel as though the effort was worth it, even in the face of all that this cruel land could take from you with no warning.
I draw her in to another embrace, this time forgetting about the traps scattered around me, the work I still have to do. For the first time in a long time, all that I can think about is this moment.
Not what is to come, not what has passed, but what is here, now, with me, as she stands there in my arms. This woman I want to provide for, this woman who wants to provide for the people here, this woman who makes me feel things I swore I would never feel.
When I pull back, she drops a kiss on my cheek, a beaming smile threatening to split her face in two. But, before she can say another word, I speak first.
"Marry me, Riley."
"What?”
She stares at me, clearly no idea what to make of that statement. I press my forehead to hers once more, and breathe her in, making sure she has no choice but to understand exactly what I am saying to her.
