Page 15 of Mistletoe Cowboy
He exhales a shaky laugh. “How?”
“So hard. So built. So Marine.”
He chuckles, chest rumbling beneath my touch. “What did you expect?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, voice barely above a whisper. “No matter what I told myself, I still saw you as that eighteen-year-old boy…”
His eyes are dark and searching. “I know. When I showed back up, saw you on the swing, you were sixteen all over again—the girl I left behind.”
“Without one letter. One call. One text.” Bitterness and longing coil around my throat. “Didn’t even come to the funeral.”
“Dad made me promise I’d leave you be.” His jaw tightens. “Only way I could keep that was by staying away …forever. Only one who could bring me back isyou.”
“So, if I’d reached out myself, called or texted about Dad’s funeral?”
“I’d’ve been there,” he says, raw-voiced.
My forehead knits, unable to grasp what he’s saying. He received a formal invitation like everyone else. His absence stung. But I can tell by the lines of pain in his face, not nearly as much as my impersonal silence.
He adds, “I gave my word. To Ralph. To Walter. An impossible ask. Eight years of pain.”
“But why?” My voice breaks on the word.
He cups my cheek, thumb warm against my skin. “Because you deserve better than me, Sage. Always have.”
“No.” I breathe, shaking my head.
“Yes,” he insists softly. “The orphaned son of a ranch hand and the daughter of the biggest rancher in Alpha Ridge Creek? Never made sense. Me being your adopted brother just added insult to injury. Made me look like the asshole spitting in my benefactor’s face.”
“Not orphan,” I whisper, eyes stinging. “Not adopted son. Savior of this ranch.” I swallow hard. “If it can even be saved.”
He brushes my hair back, eyes fierce and tender all at once. “Dunno for sure, Sassy. But I’ll promise you this. If you won’t give up, I won’t either.”
My lips tremble. “We’ve never been the problem, though, have we?” I study his face, the small furrow between his brows, the wound neatly mended on his temple. “Maybe you and me,this,became the scapegoat. Easier to blame us than face how Walter was really tearing the family apart.”
He looks down, jaw flexing. “Never thought of it that way,” he murmurs. “Maybe it was easier than dealing with true heartbreak. At least from Dad’s point of view.”
The ache in his voice slices right through me. I reach for his hand, thread my fingers through his. “You would make Dad proud,” I whisper. “You always did.”
He laughs softly, the sound half-choked, half-warm. “Not at this exact moment, no. But I can promise him one thing—you’ll be safe, happy, cared for always.”
Tears burn behind my eyes. “That’s what he would want.”
“It is.” His lips brush mine, gentle at first, then more certain. “Enough about family. Enough about guilt.” His hand slides around my waist, voice dropping low. “What I want is right here in my arms.”
I snuggle into him, melting all over again. Outside, the storm continues its slow fade, leaving only the steady rhythm of his heartbeat against mine.
Chapter
Six
SILAS
The storm’s gone, but the silence it leaves behind feels almost holy.
Snowmelt drips from the eaves, steady as a heartbeat. Pale light seeps through the frost on the window, painting the cabin in silver and gold. For the first time in years, I wake warm. Not because of a fire. Because of her.
Sage sleeps curled against my side, one hand splayed over my chest like she’s keeping me here, making sure I don’t vanish when the world comes calling again. Her hair’s a tangle of gold against my arm, her breath soft and even.
