Page 21 of Love You Already

Rose's laughter reaches new heights as I growl at the phone. “Are you flirting with my wife, Todd? Bad move, man.”

“Me? No, Lachlan. I'm on my best behavior. Just offering my services. I've got a meeting to get to. Text me if you come to some kind of agreement. And Rose, I'll give you my number too. You can call later. It's 5 - 5 - 5 —”

I hang up the phone before he can continue. Rose drops her head to my chest as she fights to gain control. When she finally does, her eyes are watery and her smile wide.

“Todd seems like fun,” she teases.

I groan as I wipe away her tears. Even though I saw her laughing, the little droplets gut me. I don't want her crying ever. Not even for happy reasons.

“He's going to be down a client if he doesn't watch out. Flirting with my wife.” I scoff. “That's a man with a death wish.”

Her eyes sparkle as her smile grows. “Is that so? You're really good at pretending to be protective.”

Pretending.

Oh no. Absolutely not. She can't possibly think that.

“Ace, I'm not pretending about this. It's wild, and it's fast, but it makes sense to me. I know you need me now to get these people off your back, and I'm more than happy to help. After that, we'll go with whatever you want. I just need to make sure you know I'm serious about this. About us. I'd stay married to you till the end of my days no problem. It's not pretending. And I’ll fucking fire Todd if he keeps flirting with you.”

I watch as her breathing picks up with each word I speak. She's near panting when I finish.

“You can't say things like that, Lachlan. We barely know each other. We got married on accidentand now you're offering to be my fake boyfriend because the busybodies of this town can't accept that I don't want or need a man to complete me.”

Ouch. The words shouldn't hurt, yet they do. I want Rose to want me. I want her to want this, to want us. Right now, this is all one sided. And despite coming here to talk to her about the steps needed to make us both single again, I can honestly say that's not what I want anymore.

I want her. I want to wake up holding her close as she slowly comes to. I want her to think of me first and to call me for any and everything she needs. I want her best and worst days. I want her I love yous.I want her focus and attention. I want it all.

“You're steering this ship, Ace. Tell me what you do and don't want. We'll make it happen.”

She takes a deep breath, then blows it out slowly. “Ok. Yeah, ok. We can do this. I can do this.”

“Good. That's good. What do you need me to do next? I'm not sure how a fake boyfriend should act yet. We'll need to iron out those details. I'm sure you need to get back to work first though.”

“True. Mel would never admit she needs help, and poor Bridgett barely knows how to pour her own drink. She'd be lost behind the bar. Let's plan for you to come over tomorrow morning to talk it over. You're also going to need to meet my family. We can do it over breakfast since we're not family dinner people.”

“Makes sense if you're putting in a ton of hours here. I can't imagine balancing it all,” I admit.

She snorts like she's amused. “You, the big, busy hockey player man can't imagine running a bar. You literally skate around on tiny blades for hours in front of thousands for a living. The workouts, meetings, and press stuff must be intense.”

I nod as I run my hands over her jaw, tracing the softness I'd missed so much. She has no idea the hold she has on me. No clue that I'm only a few more moments away from falling for her.

* * *

Last night, I left Rose to work in peace as I went back home to fight the dust dragons hiding under white sheets. It took an hour of moving through the space and a good bit of vacuuming to get things in order. Once it was done, I passed out. The mix of confusion, fear, and excitement from the day wrung me out.

Now it's morning, and I'm looking at the text from Rose with her address in it. She sent it sometime after I passed out, and since I'm not sure if she's quite awake yet, I plug in the information into my phone to see how early I need to leave.

Rose

Be there by nine or miss out.

The map shows it's only about fifteen minutes from where I'm staying. It looks like it's way down some single lane highway and now I’m curious what this ranch will look like.

I keep busy for the early part of the morning as I wait for it to be time to go. At eight thirty, I load up in my G-Wagon and take off towards Rose and her family. I make myself drive the speed limit, so I don't have to add getting a ticket to my messed-up situation.

Though messed up isn't really the right term. I would more say the way I've lucked out. Finding Rose again is kismet... serendipity... all that shit they claim in the movies to be the thing that brings couples together. The fate aspect of life that we use to give credit when things go right.

Fifteen minutes go by in a flash, and I'm pulling up to my destination sooner than I'd like. The wooden sign with Wright Way Ranch welcomes me with an ominous energy. I don't know if her family is going to welcome me and accept that this was an accident or if they'll lose their shit about it.

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