Bonnie had a lot of time to think as she drove a tractor around the field that afternoon. Rusty was just over the barbed wire fence on the next twenty acres cutting hay, just like she was doing—like they’d both done the day before. The difference was that they weren’t fighting now, and every so often, they were even close enough to wave at each other.
In between those times, she replayed the morning over and over again in her mind. It was so surreal that she could almost believe it had never happened—that it was just a bad nightmare. Of all the crazy stunts Vivien had ever pulled, this one was the most insane. Bonnie slapped the steering wheel with both hands when she realized that her mother was the very reason Rusty might want to be with her?
“It better not be because you felt sorry for me. I don’t want your pity,” she muttered.
Her phone rang, and she picked it up from the passenger seat. When her mother’s name came up, she answered immediately. “Did you change your mind? Where are you? I’ll come get you.”
“Hell, no, I ain’t changed my mind,” Vivien said. “I’m on my way to California. I’m not about to change my mind. I’m stopped at a roadside rest outside of Clovis to catch a catnap in the bed of the truck. I brought along a sleeping bag, and I’m dog-tired. I’m calling to ask you one more time to come with me.”
“Answer is still no. I’m happy right here where I am, Mama, but I’ll drive to Clovis and get you if you’ll change your mind. You can work with us here on the place or get a job in Claude or somewhere close and just live here if you don’t want to do ranch work,” Bonnie told her.
“No, thanks. I washed my hands of that place when you was born,” Vivien said. “Rusty seems like a good guy, but Ezra trained him, so keep that in mind. Make him sign a prenup before you marry him so he don’t steal half the place from you. Even good men ain’t to be trusted. You be real careful. There ain’t no such thing as an honest man.”
Bonnie sucked in a long breath to say something else, but then she realized that her mother had hung up on her. She slapped the steering wheel again, stopped the engine, and got out of the tractor. Tears ran down her cheeks—Lord have mercy! She’d cried more in the past few days than she had in her whole life put together. She shook her fist at the sky. Just when she thought she had left the past behind her, its ugly old head had popped right up again, coming at her this time as doubts and fears. Cooper and Waylon were good, honest men for sure, and so was Rusty. Her mother was wrong—she just flat out had to be.
She caught a movement in her peripheral vision but didn’t realize it was Rusty until he and all three dogs surrounded her. He took her in his arms and eased the two of them down on the ground. “What’s the matter? Is it Shiloh or Abby Joy?”
“It’s Mama.” She sobbed into his chest.
“Is she hurt? Did she change her mind?” He rattled off questions too fast for her to comprehend, much less answer.
Even after meeting her and after knowing now exactly what kind of mother Bonnie had, he was still concerned for the woman. For some strange reason, that was the final little bit of what it took to convince Bonnie that she was right where she belonged and gave her the courage to admit her feelings.
“Mama is fine. She just wanted to give me one more chance to go with her.” Bonnie dried her eyes with the back of her hand.
Rusty laid his hands on her shoulders and looked deeply into her eyes. “Please don’t go.”
“I couldn’t if I wanted to, which I don’t,” she whispered without blinking. “It would be too painful to leave this ranch, my sisters, and most of all, you. I love you, Rusty,” she admitted. “It’s too soon to say it, but there it is. I figured it out a few days ago, and I’m tired of fighting the feeling. I don’t want to go another day, or even another hour, without saying the words. I think I fell in love with you right there on that first day, but …”
He put his fingers over her lips. “There are no buts in real love, only ands. I love you, Bonnie, and I don’t give a damn who your parents were. We don’t have to be the by-products of our parents, darlin’. I’m a foster child, and I don’t even remember my folks. We can build our own life right here in this place. We can take steps forward and never look over our shoulder at the past. And, honey, I believe I felt the same about you from the beginning, but I didn’t want you to think it was just to get this place.”
“Okay.” She managed a weak smile through the tears. “I love you, and I’m never letting my mother or anyone else make me doubt myself again.”
Rusty pulled her close to his chest. “What are we going to do about this?”
“Live together on this place for six months and figure it out a day at a time?” she suggested.
“That sounds good to me.” He tipped up her chin for a long kiss that left her breathless.
“Maybe you could even move your things back into the ranch house?” She might be moving too fast, but she didn’t want to waste time she could be spending with Rusty.
Vivien wedged her way between them and licked Bonnie’s hand. “Somehow I feel like this dog loves me more than my mother does. Do you realize you’re the first person who’s ever said those three words to me, Rusty?” Tears began to stream down her cheeks, again.
He brushed a sweet kiss across her forehead. “I believe you’re the first who ever said them to me, too. And, I promise to tell you every day that I love you. Now, tell me what caused these tears.” He pulled a red bandanna from his pocket and dried her cheeks.
“I’ve had to be tough my whole life, and I don’t like to cry because it’s a sign of weakness, but I’m so happy that I figured out where I belong. These are happy tears, Rusty.”
He tucked the bandanna back into his hip pocket and slipped an arm under her shoulders. “I’d never be so stupid as to think that you were weak.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I meant it when I said I love you, but”—she stopped and shook her head—“it goes deeper than that. I can’t explain it.”
“It’s more like a soul mate kind of thing then, right?” he asked.
“That’s right, and I like the feeling.” She finally smiled.
“So do I, darlin’.” He kissed her one more time.