Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 26224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
“You’re really going to have dinner with my family?” I murmur. “You said you weren’t coming to my little birthday party.”
My reminder of his harsh words causes misery to blanket his features, that grin long gone. “Billie, I—”
“Mr. Morgan,” my father says, approaching with his hand out warily. He seems relieved when Knox shakes his hand. “My wife failed to inform me that she’d invited you to dinner.”
“I didn’t really think he’d come,” my mother squawks from the kitchen. “Honey, did you know Billie and Mr. Morgan run into one another out in the pasture, from time to time?”
My father issues me a double take. “Do they now?”
I shrug guiltily. “It’s just a friendly sort of thing.”
“Friendly,” my father repeats.
Knox’s face is impassive. At least, at first. “Actually, sir, I’ve gotten to know your extraordinary daughter quite well.” The resulting silence weighs heavy in the air. In my stomach, too. What is Knox doing? “She has told me a lot about your family and how important the ranch is to you. How important it is to her that it remain in your hands, for generations to come.” He slides an envelope out of his back pocket, handing it to my father, and all I can do is stare, my pulse tapping out a quick rhythm against my ear drums. “The land is yours now, free and clear.” Knox has to raise his voice to speak over my father’s stuttering. My mother’s weeping. “I’m only asking for one thing in return.”
“What is that?” my father asks, struggling to speak.
Knox looks at me, intention inscribed clearly on his face. “I want the opportunity to convince your daughter to be my wife. I want your permission to pursue her, if she’ll allow me the chance.”
My head rings like someone attached a gong to my brain and smacked it.
Is this real?
Did Knox just sign over the ranch to my parents?
He doesn’t even know if I’m pregnant yet.
Or…is he saying that it doesn’t matter? That he wants me no matter what?
To be his wife?
“I…” My father gapes down at the deed to our new land, then over at me. “Well, I suppose it’s up to Billie. I would never force her to—”
“He can try,” I whisper, feeling shaky. Elated. A little drunk. I can’t stop staring up at Knox, who appears to be holding his breath. Hanging on my every word. “Try being the operative word. I can’t promise I’ll ever say yes to being your wife.”
Brave words when my voice is trembling, right?
“All I’m asking for is a chance, Billie.” Knox says gruffly.
I can’t blink or the tears forming in my eyes are going to fall. I probably look crazy.
“Then, okay,” I whisper.
His chest hollows and fires back up. “Okay?”
I nod, a happy giggle sneaking out.
So badly do I want to be in his arms, I want to be kissed, but with a rapt audience surrounding us, all I can do is long. Are we really going to sit down and eat chicken noodle casserole after this whole dramatic presentation?
Turns out, no. We’re not.
“Your birthday present is outside,” says Knox.
Curious, I take a few steps and peek out the front door.
The gray mare I’ve been mooning over for a year is tethered in my front yard.
eleven
Knox
Holy shit.
This is what happiness feels like.
I haven’t allowed myself to truly experience it for most of my life. It’s a feeling too easily taken away. It’s fleeting. It’s an illusion.
That’s what I used to think.
But watching Billie’s face light up over the gray horse is simply worth dying over.
I’ve found someone worth dying over.
She’s real. She’s extraordinary. She’s a rescue ship on the horizon that I never expected to come for me. I’m resuscitated just by looking at her.
I will no longer protect myself from pain.
Guarding her from feeling pain is so much more important.
Not only that, but making her happy. There is no higher or more honorable purpose.
“You didn’t!” She’s running circles around the mare, pressing her tear-stained face into his flanks, touching the animal gingerly, as if it might disappear in a puff of smoke. “How…how did you know? How did you know I wanted her?”
“I overheard you speaking to your mother in the supermarket.”
She melts. “Oh my gosh, Knox. Oh my gosh! She’s the most beautiful horse in the world. You really…is she really, really mine?”
I can’t speak around the emotion in my throat, so I nod.
She sobs and dances, as if she’s on hot coals.
I already know I’m going to buy her ten more horses. Maybe thirty.
Lord, she’s almost too beautiful in the sunset, glowing and happy in her party dress. How did I make it three full days without hearing her voice? Absorbing her happy light into my skin? I’ve been living in pure agony since the second she walked out my door.
Never again. I will never, ever hurt her feelings again.