“So, tell me more about your mom. What sort of lady was she?” Austin spoke quietly, and I could tell from the look on his face that he was unsure if I would be willing to answer his questions. “I mean, if you feel comfortable, of course.” There was a look of genuine concern on his face. “I know it must be hard to talk about your mom.”
“It’s not as hard as you would think.” I gave him a soft smile. “My mom was amazing. She really lived and enjoyed her life and I love talking about her. She actually was the one that got me into photography. She was a brilliant photographer. She would go all over the city and she’d take photographs of buildings, and everyone would wonder if she’d been to a foreign country because she knew how to capture light and small little details that everyone else missed.”
“Do you have any of her photographs?”
“I have some on my phone.”
“I’d love to see them.”
“Sure.”
“So what else was she into?”
“She liked to make handbags, really fashionable designs out of snakeskin and leathers and suede. She would go to antique markets and buy like the oddest items and she’d use pieces of them in her designs.”
“That sounds really cool.”
“Yeah, she was a true artist.” I thought about my mom and her skills and I tried to not let the sadness fill me. “And she was a really wonderful mom, you know?”
“I can tell by the way you talk about her that you loved her very much. And she wasn’t with your dad, right?”
“No.” My voice went slightly colder. “My dad was an asshole, a true narcissist. All he cared about was getting laid.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault. Unfortunately, I think there are a lot of men like that.”
“I’m not like that.”
“Well, I don’t know you well enough to know if you are or not.”
“True, you don’t. But I’m not like that and neither is Beau. Neither is Wyatt. None of the Hamilton men are like that. Our parents raised us with good values.”
“Well, it sounds like you’re all a catch, then. Perhaps.”
“We are,” he grinned. “The only thing is, do any of us want to get caught?”
“Sounds like you already know the answer to that one.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It just means that I don’t think you want to get married, do you?”
“Most probably not.” He shrugged. “I’d love to live in this log cabin with just me and my dog.”
“No woman?”
“I mean, I wouldn’t mind a woman visiting every now and again.”
“I’m sure you wouldn’t. It’s so beautiful here. So calm and peaceful.”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “You really feel like you’re one with nature when you’re here. I couldn’t imagine living in a big city.”
“Yeah, I guess it would be hard to leave this to go to a big city.”
“Do you miss New York?”
I thought about it. “Sometimes. It’s so vibrant, you know? The foods, the people, the music. Everything is this microcosm of beautiful diversity, and I just feel like I’m in a melting pot of the whole world.”
“I guess there’s not really much diversity here in Montana,” he replied. “But there’s some.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have guessed,” I laughed.
“Don’t let appearances deceive you, Lucy. Everything isn’t what you first think.”
“You should remember that as well,” I told him.
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean, you think I’m like some bimbo liar because when you met me in the bar, I was kind of out of it, but—”
“I never said that. I never said that I think you’re a bimbo liar.”
“You didn’t have to say it. I can tell.”
“That’s not what I first thought about you when I met you at the bar.”
“It’s not?”
“No, it’s not.”
“What did you think?”
“I thought to myself, who is this stunning blonde and what is she doing in this bar and why have I never met her before?”
“You did not think that.”
“Scout’s honor.” He held three fingers up. “I surely did.”
“That must’ve been before I started talking, then,” I laughed.
“Maybe.”
“So when I started talking, what did you think?”
“At first?” he paused. “I thought, is this one of my brothers’ secret girlfriends?”
“Do your brothers have a lot of secret girlfriends?”
“Well, I wouldn’t know because they would be a secret,” he laughed.
“Okay. But then when I said I was going to meet my in-laws and that I was engaged to be married, what did you think?”
“I thought that you might’ve been …” He scratched his neck.
“What? You can say.”
“I thought that perhaps you might’ve been with the developers.”
“With the developers. What?”
“I thought perhaps it was like some sort of con to get into the house.”
“Really?”
“I mean, I soon realized that it wasn’t.”
“Why did you think that?”
“Because you didn’t even know the address,” he laughed. “I don’t think an actress who was being paid by would have been in a bar asking for the address to get to the ranch.”
“So you just thought I was some random girl showing up at your house?”
“I knew there had to be a story behind it, and I was pretty sure it involved my mom because, well, my mom has been going on about us getting married for years. And she’s the sort of mom that likes to take action.”
“Your mom’s amazing, though.”
“Yeah, she is. I love her very much. But that doesn’t mean she’s not a little bit of a busybody.”
“But the best kind of busybody.”
“Yeah, she really is,” he admitted. “If I were to have kids, they’d be lucky to have a grandma like that.”
“Yeah,” I said wistfully. “I’d love my kids to have a grandma like that.”
“So are you planning on having kids with Beau, and does he know?” Austin said in a slightly changed tone.
“That’s not what I’m saying. I just …” I sighed. “You took that the wrong way. I didn’t mean that I’m going to have kids with Beau and that we’re going to get married. I was just saying that your mom is pretty awesome and that anyone would be lucky and happy to have her in their lives. Any kids would be blessed to have her as a grandma.”
“Okay. Okay. No need to get so defensive.”
“I’m not being defensive.”
“Let’s change the subject. Do you like to watch movies?”
“I love movies. What about you?”
“Yeah, I love them too. What are some of your favorites?”
“Well, I really like psychological thrillers. I loved The Usual Suspects, Seven, Shutter Island.”
“Oh my God. I love Shutter Island!” His voice was suddenly eager. “Like, was Leonardo DiCaprio out of his mind, or was he just really in tune and playing everyone?”
“I know!” I agreed. “I have no idea. I’ve watched that movie so many times and I still can’t tell.”
“Me either. It’s like with Inception,” he grinned, “when they’re spinning the little wheel at the end.”
“I know. That movie was a mindfuck.”
“Yeah, it was. Have you seen Gone Girl?”
“Yeah, that was really cool. I was surprised that Ben Affleck could do that role so well.”
“Me too.” He was silent for a moment. “I guess we enjoy the same sort of movies.”
“I guess we do.”
“What about music?” he asked me. “Who do you listen to?”
“This is going to sound really ironic and I swear I’m not lying, but I love country music.”
“You love country music, really?”
“I know. I mean, it’s not the only music that I like, but I really enjoy it. Like, I love Johnny Cash.”
“Yeah. Well, he’s a classic.”
“Yeah, he really is.”
“What’s your favorite Johnny Cash song?”
“Are you testing me?”
“I’m not testing you. Why would you think that?”
“Well, okay. I really like …” I paused, trying to think.
“Don’t say ‘Walk the Line,’” he said with a grin.
“What do you have against ‘Walk the Line’?”
“Because I’m going to think that you really don’t know Johnny Cash if you say ‘Walk the Line’ because everyone knows ‘Walk the Line.’”
“Well, I really love ‘Walk the Line,’ but no, it’s not my favorite.”
“So what’s your favorite?”
“I Got You Babe.”
“I Got You Babe?”
“I got you babe,” I started singing.
“Is that Johnny Cash?”
“Yeah, he sings it with his wife, June Carter Cash.”
“You know she was his second wife, right?”
“Yeah, I did. I watched the movie,” I laughed.
“Yeah, that was a good movie with Reese Witherspoon.”
“You know a lot about movies.”
“Why does that shock you?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t think that guys really watched that many movies. Well, movies like that, anyway.”
“What, you thought we just watched action movies like Fast and the Furious and Terminator?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “That’s what Mikey watched.”
“Oh, the infamous Mikey.”
“I wouldn’t say infamous,” I rolled my eyes.
“So how did you meet him?”
“At a bar.”
“At a bar, okay. And you guys dated for how long?”
“Not very long. Like a year.”
“Okay. And was it serious?”
“Not at all,” I shook my head. “Honestly, I think he stuck around for so long because he was trying to get me into bed.”
“Okay, then.”
“Yeah, guys love the chase. And when I wouldn’t sleep with him, I think that just made me even more attractive to him.”
“Why wouldn’t you sleep with him? Are you like a born-again Christian or something?”
“No, but I’m not going to sleep with someone unless I really feel like I have feelings for them and there is some sort of relationship.”
“Okay, I can respect that.”
“Well, thank you. I’m glad you can respect that, Austin.”
“Are you being sarcastic with me, Lucy?”
“Who me? Would I ever be sarcastic with you?”
“Okay, so you’re definitely being sarcastic with me.”
“I’m just saying that I don’t care if you respect it or not. It’s really not up to you.”
“Whoa. Hold up, girlfriend. I’m not saying anything about it. I was being sincere. I can respect that you have boundaries when it comes to sex. Some women do and some women don’t, and that’s their choice if they want to or not. I’m not judging you, and I’m not judging anyone else. Hey, I’m not this evil bastard that you think I am.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I’m just used to so many guys who want to express an opinion on women’s sexuality, but they don’t have any opinion on how many women men are sleeping around with. I hate the double standard.”
“I can understand that,” he nodded. “Guys can suck sometimes.”
I burst out laughing. “How are you so cool?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I’m just surprised at how open-minded you are for a man that’s grown up on a ranch with six brothers and no sisters.”
“My mom has been a pretty strong influence in our lives, and believe it or not, so is Sadie. She’s been like a little sister to all of us.”
“So … what’s up with Sadie and Wyatt?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, they’re best friends, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And they’ve never dated?”
“No, they haven’t.”
“Do you think they’re in love?”
“Well, we all love her.”
“I mean, do you think they’re in love love?”
“I don’t like to get involved in anyone else’s love life but my own.” He shook his head.
I grinned at his evasiveness. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t answer the question.”
“Okay. Well, what’s your question?”
“I was just curious if you thought they were like … soulmates or something.”
He laughed. “I don’t know that I believe in soulmates if I’m honest.”
“You don’t believe in soulmates?”
“Don’t tell me you do?”
“I kind of do.
“Do you believe that Beau is your soulmate?”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Anyway, stop asking me about Beau. I asked you a question about Sadie and Wyatt.”
“Okay. Do I think that they’re made for each other? Yes. Do I think that they are secretly in love? I don’t know.”
“You don’t know or you won’t say?”
He groaned. “Fine. I think that they should be together. But will they ever get together? Who knows. Wyatt’s stubborn and Sadie is clueless.”
“You don’t think either one of them knows?”
“I’m pretty sure neither one of them knows,” he chuckled. “Trust me.”
“Oh, that’s so sad. You guys don’t want to help him figure it out?”
He looked at me like I was crazy. “One thing you never do is interfere with someone else’s love life. It never goes well.”
“Okay. I will take your word for it.”
“Trust me. It never goes well.”
“Okay.”
“Hold on,” he said as his phone started ringing. “It’s my mom.”
“Okay.”
“Hey, Mom. What’s going on? I’m going to put you on speakerphone, okay?”
“Okay,” I heard Amelia’s voice as he put it on speakerphone.
“Lucy and I are just here at the cabin.”
“I was wondering where you were. You’ve been so long. You guys need to get back. Beau wants to take Lucy on a picnic for lunch.”
“Oh,” Austin’s lips thinned, and he looked over at me. I dropped my gaze, not knowing what to say.
“Yeah, so could you ride her down to the river? He wants to do a picnic by the river and then maybe they’ll go kayaking.”
“You want me to take Lucy down to the river so that she and Beau can have a picnic? Am I invited?”
“Austin, seriously?” Amelia laughed. “Of course you’re not invited. This is a romantic lunch between your brother and his possible bride.”
“Really, Mom? You don’t think you’ve meddled enough?”
“Austin, don’t use that tone with me.”
“Fine. I’ll ride her over now. Bye.” And he hung up. He looked at me and he said, “Looks like you’ve been summoned to the river for a picnic.”
“Wow. Okay. Sounds fun.”
“Really?” he raised an eyebrow.
“What? Why are you angry at me?”
“I’m not angry at you. This is just absolutely ridiculous. Come on, let’s go,” he said and marched past me out of the door. He jumped onto his horse and then looked back at me. “You think you can get up by herself or you’re going to need help?”
“Well, I can try,” I said uncertainly, not sure why his attitude had completely changed. We’d just been having a really fun, engaging, interesting conversation, and now he was acting like I was some sort of enemy.
“Fine, I’ll help.” He jumped back off of the horse and then came towards me. “Grab onto the horse and I’ll give you a boost up,” he said.
I grabbed the saddle, put one foot in the stirrup, then looked at him over my shoulder and our eyes met. There was an emotion in there that I didn’t recognize, an emotion that I thought was strange. I didn’t know what to say or what to do.
“Let’s go, Lucy. My brother is waiting on you.”
“I just don’t know what your problem is.”
“There’s no problem here, Lucy. I’m just not your Prince Charming. I’m not your knight in shining armor.”
“Okay, then.”
“But don’t worry, you’ve got Beau for that. I’m sure he’ll treat you like a princess. What with your picnic by the river. Maybe he’ll feed you strawberries and you can drink champagne together.”
“Maybe he will,” I said finally. “And maybe he’ll have chocolate and we’ll lick it off each other’s bodies.”
His eyes narrowed and for a moment I wondered if he was going to kiss me again. Then he grabbed me big the hips and pushed me up and suddenly I was on the horse.
“Giddy-up,” I said loudly and kicked Sally in the side. She seemed to know exactly what that meant because off she went running with me holding on for dear life.
* * *
“Well, bye, Austin,” Beau said sarcastically as his brother went galloping away from us. “Glad to see he’s back to his usual cheerful self.” He rolled his eyes at me. “Sorry I had to leave you with him earlier.”
“Oh no, it was fine. He showed me the log cabin and it was really beautiful.” I could feel my face flushing because vivid memories of my dirty thoughts when I’d seen the bed were flashing in my mind. I really didn’t want Beau to ask me too many questions about my time with his brother. “So, this is really beautiful.”
“Yeah.” He smiled at the view. “This here is the Bitterroot River. It runs all the way through the property.” Beau nodded towards the water. “We like to go kayaking here, and a little further down you can go whitewater rafting. We have some class 4 and 5 rapids, actually.”
“Oh, I don’t really know what that means,” I said apologetically.
“Oh, just that they’re really exciting. I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie.”
“Oh, yeah?” I said.
“Yeah. I love skydiving, hang gliding, roller coasters, that sort of thing.” He sounded really enthusiastic.
“Oh, wow.” My legs trembled at the thought of doing any of those activities. There is no way I would ever go skydiving.
“Maybe you and I, we can go bungee jumping sometime?” Beau suggested. “There’s this place—”
“Maybe,” I cut him off quickly. I really wanted to say Hell no! but I didn’t want him to think I wasn’t open to any of the activities that he enjoyed, even though I really wasn’t. “So, those mountains look amazing.”
“Yeah, those are the Montana Rockies. We’re actually quite close to Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. I’ll have to take you there sometime.”
“That would be really cool.” Just then, my stomach rumbled audibly. “Oh, I guess I’m hungrier than I thought.”
“Perfect!” He lifted up the little picnic basket. “I brought some sandwiches and some stuffed mushrooms.”
“Oh. Thanks,” I said feebly. Had he forgotten that I didn’t like mushrooms?
“Are you super hungry or do you want to swim first?” he asked.
“Oh, I don’t have a bathing suit with me.”
“Do you really need one?” He laughed and I couldn’t tell if he was flirting with me or not. I just stared at him, trying to figure out if he was trying to get me to go skinny dipping, and he seemed to realize that that was something that was not going to happen.
“So, Lucy, who’d you like for the playoffs this year?”
“Um, what?”
“You into baseball?” He cocked his head to the side and stared at me. “I was a pitcher in high school and college.”
“Oh, no. I don’t really know much about baseball. Sorry.”
“Oh, okay.” He handed me a sandwich and then bit into his own. “So did my mom show you my grandma’s ring yet?”
“Um, no.” I looked down at the sandwich, thankful that it was just plain ham, cheese, and lettuce. I didn’t really know what to respond to his question about his grandma’s ring. Why was he even asking me that?
“It goes to the first woman to marry into the Hamilton family,” he said as if he had read my mind.
“Oh, how nice.” Was this his way of flirting with me? Was this his way of saying that he wanted to marry me?
“So, Lucy, are you into ice hockey? Any kind of sports?”
“I’m not really. My friend, Olivia, is much more into sports than me.” I didn’t want to add that I was bored as hell whenever I had to watch or hear about sports. “Do you enjoy watching movies?” I asked hopefully.
“Not really.” He shook his head. “I’m all about being active and outdoors and working out and stuff.”
“Okay.” I took a bite into my sandwich and munched on it.
Beau was a handsome, friendly man, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that he wasn’t an ideal match for me. And I wasn’t sure what I should do with that information. I didn’t want to have to leave and go back to New York right away, but I didn’t think a marriage between Beau and me would ever work, no matter how much I loved his family.