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Eight Months Later
I stepped out onto the back porch and shaded my eyes. As I gazed off into the distance, I saw a figure coming in from the direction of the abandoned barn at the corner of my grandparents’ property. I smiled softly as I watched the figure grow bigger, moving toward the house. I watched an energetic dog circle around the man’s ankles, barking with his tongue hanging out. The man adjusted his cowboy hat before he stopped, and when he saw me, he quickened his pace.
I smiled as Ray jogged up to me, with his boots and his worn jeans and his flannel shirt reeking of the barn.
“Good afternoon, handsome. To what do I owe this—?”
He pushed his hat off to the side and wrapped me up in his free arm. I felt his pulsing muscles ripple against my back as he brought me in for a kiss. I smiled against his lips, kissing him repeatedly as his strength held me to him.
The farm life really suited his chiseled form.
Chance barked around our feet as he scooped me into his embrace. His hat fell off and he picked me up, holding me close to him. The spring wind of Montana kicked up, blowing in the first smells of the blossoms finally blooming off in the distance.
Ray cupped my cheek after he settled me down onto my feet.
“The barn all set?” I asked.
He nodded. “The sound system is ready to go. All you have to do is finish tying the bows on the wooden chair backs.”
“Thank you so much for all your help with this. Really.”
“You know damn good and well it isn’t an issue,” he said, grinning.
He slid his hand within mine and opened up the front door. Then, I ushered him into the kitchen where I’d been arranging things for the caterer. She was going to be arriving soon with her team, and I wanted them to get started as soon as possible. So far, things were on track for tonight’s event. And the entire town was supposed to be showing up throughout the night.
After we’d arrived back in Big Timber, it had taken Ray a while to ease into the culture. But once he got past the little quirks—like the fact that there was no twenty-four-seven food delivery—he fit in well. Not that I ever doubted that. But I think he even surprised himself with how well he adjusted. Things settled down so quickly for us, and we got into such a comfortable routine that my creative juices started coming back full force.
“You know, other people like me might enjoy this kind of simple life, too. I mean, at least for a little while.”
I closed my eyes and recalled the night he spoke those words. We were rocking on the back porch of my grandparents’ house, trying to figure out what to do. We were four weeks into trying to find a place to live in the area, and that one statement sparked the idea for our joint event planning company.
Using Ray and James’s connections, he ended up building a client base of rich New Yorkers who were always hungry for the next “it” destination. And with my ability to sell someone’s pencil back to them, I was able to convince the New York high society that Big Timber was it.
That the soft, slow pace of real country life was the next “happenin’” thing.
Which tumbled into organizing lavish weddings on my grandparents’ property.
“Sure you don’t need anything else from me?” Ray asked.
He kissed my neck and pulled me from my trance.
“I’m sure. I think everything is set up for the caterer. I’m going to go tie those bows, and then everything will be set up,” I said.
“Want me to come with you?” he asked.
I turned around and lifted onto my toes, kissing him one last time.
“No. I’ll be fine. Chance’ll run after me, like he always does. So, you go get a shower,” I said, grinning.
“Oh, Petal. I’m hurt. Are you saying I stink?”
I laughed before I kissed him one last time, then swatted at his butt to get him upstairs.
I thought it would have been weird, hearing someone else other than my grandparents call me “petal.” But it slipped from his lips one day, and I liked the way it sounded. And as I watched him bound up the steps of my grandparents’ home, I thought back to those beginning weeks.
Those Hell on Earth weeks.
Getting our new business off the ground had been tough. Once Ray’s parents finally figured out where we were, they contacted him via one of their lawyers and informed us that they were suing him for breach of contract. Suing. Their own son. For a contract. It shocked me to my core, but it ached my soul when I saw how not shocked Ray had been. He ended up striking a deal with his parents that essentially rid him of all his financial assets, under the assumption that he stepped down as CEO of RoseGold, Inc.
He didn’t even hesitate to hand everything over to them.
In his eyes, he considered it the last nail in the coffin of their interactions. And since the day he signed over forty-something million dollars’ worth of stuff and accounts, he hadn’t spoken with them at all. Drew and Ione, however, had already been out to visit. In fact, it was their investment into our new company that enabled us to get it off the ground the way we were able to. The only thing they asked for in return was a free place to stay whenever they came down to visit.
It was the easiest thing Ray or I had ever negotiated in our lives.
“Chance, come on,” I groaned.
He kept nudging at me, wanting me to play with him as I finished the last of the bows on the backs of the chairs.
“I’ve only got four more. If you can wait a second, we’ll play. Okay?” I asked.
“Sounds like someone’s giving you trouble,” Ray said coyly.
“You’re always giving me trouble.”
“Boy, we’re really at it with the jokes today,” he said, chuckling.
He came up behind me and slinked his arms around my waist. He nuzzled his nose against my neck as I tied off yet another bow. He nuzzled deeper and kissed my shoulder, doing everything he could to distract me as I kept moving from chair to chair.
“Ray, come on. Let me just—”
Just after I finished the last bow, he spun me around in his arms. He crashed his lips against mine, slipping his tongue through my lips. The world paused. It always did when he kissed me like that. I ran my fingers through his freshly washed hair, feeling how much he had let it grow out.
Longer hair really suited him.
“The caterers will—mm—be here—mm—”
He kept kissing me, cutting off my statement.
“We should make out until the caterer gets here,” Ray said, grinning.
I laughed, throwing my head back and breathing in the scent of the barn. But my laughter was cut off when his lips fell to my throat as he kissed me, nibbled me, sending shock waves of fire through my veins.
He was too tempting to resist.
The sounds of our kisses bounced off the corners of the barn. Our teeth clattered together as Chance barked off in the distance. He spun me around, deepening our kiss as my head fell off to the side.
I pulled away from him, breathless, as he settled me back down onto my feet.
I smiled up at Ray, gazing into his sparkling eyes. And when his smile answered mine, I felt my heart skip a beat. Everything was perfect. There was no way it could get any better than this. Founding our own thriving event planning business. Pulling in a sizeable income. Two months away from having the down payment necessary to purchase the two-hundred-acre farm across the road from my grandparents’ place. It was a dream come true.
At least, for me it was.
“Are you happy here?” I asked.
Ray’s eyes danced between mine before they sparked with delight.
“I didn’t know I could be so happy,” he said.
“And you’re sure?”
He chuckled. “More than ever. I’ve got a family that cares about me, even if that doesn’t include my parents. I’ve got a life in a beautiful place alongside the woman I love. I’m about to purchase my very first farm and plant roots in a place I could see myself raising children. With you, if that’s something you want,” he said.
“Oh, I’d love to have kids with you someday,” I breathed.
“Good. Because I’ve got something to ask you, then.”
Without warning, he dropped down to one knee. I watched him fiddle around in his pocket as a gasp fell from my lips. My hands flew to my mouth as he pulled out a smooth white box, and then he cracked it open and revealed the most beautiful ring I’d ever seen.
“Ray,” I whispered.
“I want my forever family, Petal. I want to live across the street from your loving grandparents, and I want to fly mine in every month so we can all get together and eat those Sunday dinners you love so much. I want to make children with you. As many as you’ll let us have. I want to raise a family with you and make James the best, craziest uncle around,” he said.
I giggled as a smile crossed my face.
“I want you, Violet. Forever. And if you’ll have me, I’ll make sure you never doubt the life you’ve fought for. The life you’ve chosen,” he said.
“I never could, Ray. I never could,” I said softly.
“Violet Freesia, will you marry me?”
My hand trembled as he plucked the ring out of the box. The beautiful diamond looked like it was inlaid into a floral design all of its own. The rose-gold band twinkled in the sunlight that streamed in through the slats in the rafters, warming us and cheering us on. He slid it against my finger as tears dripped down my face. And when my eyes met his, I nodded.
“Oh, yes, Raymond. I’d love nothing more.”
He picked me up and swung me around as laughter fell from my lips.
“I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” I whispered.
“Trust me, I know how you feel,” he said coyly.
He settled me back down onto my feet and took my into his arms.
“I love you, Violet.”
“I love you, too, Raymond.”
As Irving looked on from the hayloft, I pressed my lips against Ray’s. The arrival of the caterer was no longer a concern. The look for the party was no longer important. The only thing that mattered was here. Now. With that ring against my finger as I kissed the lips of the man I was meant to spend my life with.
That was the only thing that mattered.
And it was the only thing that would.
THE END
