Page 97 of Wylder Ranch
Her hand finds my face, and her eyes soften. “Yes, really.”
“And what about the ranch?”
“Alex, I don’t need one hundred million dollars.” She rolls her eyes and bursts out laughing. “I mean, Idon’t. . . what would I even do with that much money?”
The first person I’ve ever met who’d turn down onehundred million dollars.Man, do I love this woman.
“Invest it. I can show you.”
“One hundred million, though. What about fifty?”
“You’re aterriblebusinesswoman.” I shake my head, but I’m smiling. Scooching into her, I tuck her knees between mine, looping us together. “You don’t have to decide now, but I want you to know it’s an option for you. And I also want to reassure you that in no universe do I not see us together. That can be in Aspen or anywhere you want.”
“Okay.” She tilts her chin up, angling for a kiss, and I’m only too happy to oblige. “I’ll think about it.”
My hands inch under her tee, skate over her smooth belly up to where I can feel her heart beat under my palm. “That’s all I ask.”
CHAPTER 23
Haven
Something’s off.
I can’t put my finger on what, but it’ssomething. Even without opening my eyes, IknowAlex isn’t next to me.
Flailing around for the bedside light, I knock the manila envelope to the floor in the process. It’s been there since Alex gave it to me. I haven’t opened it again, and we haven’t talked about it. He said I didn’t have to make any immediate decisions, and he’s stayed true to his word.
Nonetheless, that envelope’s been mocking me for the better part of a week, yet now’s not the time to address it. It can stay where it is.
The clock says 5:55 a.m.—too early for any of us to be up. Now that the mornings are darker, we’ve been sleeping past seven some days, even Everly, who’s also missing from her crib.
My first reaction is panic. Since she was sick, it’s like I’m waiting for it to happen again. But the rational part of my brain tells me that Alex would have woken me if that had been the case. She appeared perfectly normal when I did her midnight feed.
Flinging back the covers, I notice a tiny crack of light through the gap where the bedroom door is open. It’s coming from one of the plug-in glow worms Alex bought for the nursery, and I creep in to find him on the couchwith Everly sleeping on his chest.
After I gave birth and saw Everly for the first time, I didn’t think it was possible to love anything so quickly or so much, but every time I see them together, I’m overwhelmed all over again. They’re two halves making up my whole heart.
As quietly as I can, I take the blanket from the rocking chair and pull it over them, but when I turn to leave, Alex’s fingers curl around my wrist.
“Don’t go.”
Something about his tone stops me in my tracks, and it’s then that I notice his damp eyelashes and wet cheeks.
“Alex?”
He says nothing but opens his arm for me to slip in next to him, which is exactly what I do. We lie there, nestled together, and I listen to the sound of his snuffled breathing while I wait for him to speak. It’s only when I feel the wet of his tears hit my brow that I prop myself with my elbow to find them pouring down his cheeks.
The pain across his face is so acute, it hurts.
“Alex?”
“My father would have loved you, you know.” His voice rasps, thick with emotion. “He would have loved how obsessed you are with Christmas. You’d have compared favorite tree ornaments, he’d have made you rate all the Christmas songs from one to twenty-five, and he’d have quizzed you on the movies.” His breath judders, and he takes a big sniff.
There’s a box of tissues across the room, but I don’t want to move. I don’t want to leave him crying like this, even for a second, so I use the edge of the blanket to dry his face instead.
“I’m sorry I never got to meet him.”
It’s the same thing anyone would say to me when they’d come to the ranch and hear all about my parents.
