Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 88262 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88262 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
As I walked back inside alone, her words hung in the air.
Whoever ends up with you.
For so long, I didn’t think anyone would “end up with” me.
I thought I’d be a lone figure, forever.
Then I’d met Lily, who seemed too good to be true, and ended up being too good to be true, once the cracks started to show.
And then there was Max.
It made no sense that the first person who ever felt right for me was so different from me. Young, sweet, Southern, and loyal.
And yet as I looked at him, sleeping peacefully on the bed in his barn, I knew that he was the most important person I’d met.
Sometimes, the best things in life were the simplest ones.
Straight whiskey.
Riding a horse in the breeze.
Or meeting the love of your life at a time when you never should have, in a place you never thought you’d end up.
I was flying in the face of everything I’d ever known and prided myself on, just by being here. The Lyons family dynasty that I always wanted to leave my mark on, no matter how much my family tried to push me out. The Montana land that I thought would be the place I lived and died. All of my future plans, evaporating into the atmosphere.
Because here is where I felt like I was at home.
For the first time in my entire life.
All roses have thorns, but with Max? I couldn’t fuckin’ find one.
I’d fallen in. And for once, I didn’t mind losing even a little bit of control.
Chapter 23
Max
“Itold my father to do it,” Draven said as I padded into the kitchen, pouring the fresh brewed coffee over ice and watching the cubes crack and sink down under the liquid.
I glanced over at Draven. “You spoke with your father?”
He was lying down on his side on my couch, his wounded side facing upward.
He looked cool, calm, and casual, in a way I’d never quite seen on him before.
“I spoke with him,” he said. “For the first time in quite a while.”
“And you told him…”
“I told him to take every instance of my fuckin’ name out of the Lyons Agriculture company.”
I furrowed my brow. “You’re kidding me, right?”
I had just slept like the dead for at least nine or ten hours straight, and woken up to see Draven happy as a clam in the morning light. Was he playing a prank on me?
“Not kidding. Told him all I want is the value of my plot of land, and to have my horses carefully transported down here to my land. I will be taken out of anything having to do with the company, though.”
“That can’t be how it works,” I said. “You can’t just decide to leave, when you’re written into all the documentation.”
“It’s certainly how it works,” he told me. “And yes, there will be a legal process and lots to sign, but it will happen.”
“I thought… I thought you wanted it. I thought you’d never back down. Never let your father win, or your former friend drive you out of your home state.”
“I thought all of that too, until I almost fucking bled out and died, and I realized that there are some things in life that just aren’t worth fighting for. And then there are a whole fuckin’ lot more important things than my stubborn, hateful, rage-filled pride.”
“But it was your dream,” I said.
“And you are one of the things that is a lot more important.”
I shook my head. “No. You’re going to regret this. You’re going to resent me for giving up on what you wanted so badly—”
Draven just laughed softly. “I’m never going to regret a goddamn thing. I regret not pulling out sooner.”
“But the Lyons Agriculture name could have boosted a horse rescue center. If that’s really what you want, you should use it. Leverage it into getting more funding for your sanctuary.”
“No,” he said. “I am going to do it on my own. I’m still going to have more than enough money from the sale of my estate. Money most people could never dream of. I can have the best animal sanctuary in Tennessee within two years, Max. Trying to stay with the Lyons company… it would just be greed, and pride, and so many other fucking things that I am tired of prioritizing.”
I sat down on the edge of the couch, being careful not to get close to the spot on his body that was in pain.
“But where are you going to live?” I asked softly. “Your whole life was on that estate.”
“I’m going to live right here in Bestens,” he answered. “My whole life isn’t back in Montana anymore. I know you’re still mad I scooped up Old Man Marsden’s property, but I hate to break it to you, Baby Blue, that land is mine now.”