Chapter Sixteen

Eric patted down the old horse that was enjoying the shade of his brand new barn. He was going to miss the smell of the hay and the way the horse chuffed at the morning air. He was going to miss the sun biting through the fog in the morning and falling into bed an exhausted heap every night.

But he wasn’t going to miss any of that as much as he missed Lexi.

So the arrangements had been made. He had a new foreman coming next week. He had even more crew coming after that. He’d made sure they’d be comfortable in the guest rooms located in the old farmhouse. There was nothing left to do now but put his heart on the line and see if Lexi wanted the same thing he did.

To be together regardless of how difficult maintaining two homes, two careers, two dreams, in two different states might be.

Eric let out a long slow breath and led the horse to her water. When he heard a car pulling up on his gravel, he figured it was probably Jake ready to give him a kick in the ass again.

Eric patted the old horse on the side then stretched his arms above his head. He was just straightening his ball cap and heading back to his house to meet up with Jake when…

He stopped in his tracks when he saw who was leaning against a cherry red rental car, arms crossed over her chest and one ankle crossed over the other.

Eric took a moment to look at her. The woman who wasn’t overly feminine but still more beautiful than any other woman in the word. He adored her lean muscles. Her wild hair. Her tough little face.

“That scowl a permanent fixture on your face?” he called over to her. “Or do you reserve it just for me?”

Lexi turned to him, and he immediately saw the nerves dancing in her eyes. They were easy to spot given his own nerves needed a dancing partner.

“You really did it, Eric.” As she straightened, she raised her arms and made an all-encompassing gesture. “And you did it in record time. Have you even slept?”

He was close now, maybe only five feet between them. He felt the pull of her, but couldn’t get enough of a read to know how much closer she wanted him. “Not lately.”

She bit her lip. “Me either.”

“Are you just passing through?” he asked and could have kicked himself for the awkward, stilted way the question had come out.

“I’m not sure,” she answered, a very serious expression on her face. “I guess that depends how this visit goes.”

His heart knocked on his ribs like it was asking to please come out and play.

“You came to see me.”

“I sure did. To ask you a question.”

“And what question is that?”

“Why you hired my Daddy to take care of this ranch for half the year.”

“Um, well…” Eric scraped a hand over his stubble, eyeing her carefully, like she was a filly who might kick him at any moment. “It appears your father played my cards for me,” he grumbled.

Her lips tipped into a small smile. “He wouldn’t take a job like that without making sure I was okay with it. So he came to L.A. Spent a few days with me. Spilled your secret.”

Eric pictured the slow-talking cowboy he’d spoken with on the phone. Then he tried to picture him in Echo Park. He couldn’t help but smile. “How’d he like it?”

She shrugged. “He thought it was interesting. Said he liked Montana better.”

“Hmmm. I can’t say I disagree with him since you’re currently in Montana, standing right in front of me.”

Lexi stared at him. Then, quick as a cat, she snaked a hand around his belt buckle, and pulled him close until his body pressed hers against the car. The move soothed him and kicked his heart into overdrive. She wanted him closer. But that had never been their problem. Still, he couldn’t resist touching her so he slid one hand around the back of her neck, and caressed her bottom lip with the other.

“You want to know why I hired your dad? Because I finally decided to get out of my own way.”

“Meaning?”

He took a deep breath and looked around them. At what he’d built. “I thought that in a perfect world, I’d be here 365 days a year. But then I met you. And that’s not your perfect world. So mine had to change.”

“You want to split your time between here and L.A.” She whispered the words tentatively, like she might break in two the second they left her mouth.

“I don’t know how realistic splitting my time down the middle is, not at first. But I want to spend a lot of time in L.A.” He traced his thumb over her bottom lip. “A lot.”

“But you hate Los Angeles.” She was still whispering. And her eyes were filling with tears. He almost would have preferred her yelling. He’d never seen this lost little side of her before.

He chose his words carefully. “I don’t hate L.A. any more than you hate Montana. It’s just I wanted Montana to be home so badly, and I thought that meant completely putting aside my life in L.A. I told myself I had to give up my past in order to truly commit to my future. But with you by my side… At the gala... When you met Brianne and Gabe... I never felt like a jilted man with too much money and no purpose returning to the place he’d wanted to leave behind. Instead, I was simply home. Because you’re my home, Lexi. Not Montana. Not California. Not any state or city or building. You.”

Lexi’s eyes searched his. Hope and understanding swirled inside her. “So you’re really sure? You won’t mind regularly visiting me in L.A.?”

He took a deep breath. “No. I want to live part-time with you in L.A. And trust your dad to run the ranch whenever I’m not here.”

Lexi slammed her eyes shut and dropped her forehead to his chest. He couldn’t help but hold his breath.

“I’m working on another screenplay, you know.” Her voice was muffled against his chest. “Which I guess makes me a screenwriter. I’m in school for it right now. But we get a summer vacation. And a Christmas break. And a spring break.”

Eric felt a hand squeeze over his heart. “Any chance you might want to spend those in Montana?”

Lexi stared at him. Then she shrugged. “No might about it. Because you’re my home, too, Eric.”

Completely losing his cool at this point, unable to continue this calm charade they had going on, Eric slapped his hands together over his head with a tremendous clap and let out a victory roar. Right before he picked her up and pressed her against the car. Lexi laughed and tilted her head to one side, inviting him to kiss his way up her neck.

They clung to one another, each of them holding their personal successes like burning torches inside them. They’d taken those first steps. They’d started accomplishing what they’d set out to do and suddenly their path toward one another wasn’t quite so murky. They believed in their own ability to shape their lives. And just like that, their lives had room for one another.

They were holding one another so tight they barely had the room to break apart and kiss. Suddenly, Lexi stiffened in his arms, scrambled her way down and started sprinting toward the paddock. “Oh my god!”

She screamed. She jumped up and down. And then she turned and ran back to him. “Eric. You asshole! You absolutely perfect, sweet, considerate asshole.”

He laughed as she launched herself right back into his arms.

“You bought back my horse.” As she looked back at the paddock, at the horse sniffing at the ground and sauntering through, there were tears in her eyes. “You bought Maple back for me.”

“It took some sleuthing, tracking her down, but she was the first horse on my ranch.”

Lexi took his mouth in a kiss so soft, so sweet, it was a balm, erasing the pain they’d caused one another over the last month.

She tore her lips away from his and pressed her forehead against his so she stared straight into his eyes.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” she asked, almost threateningly.

“What’s that?”

“You don’t have a choice anymore. You’re going to have to marry me.”

Words completely escaped him as his mouth opened and closed like a goldfish.

Lexi threw her head back and laughed, her long, coltish legs wrapped firmly around his waist. “In can be in ten years, I don’t care. But you bought my horse back for me. So now we’re engaged. The end.”

“Damn straight we’re engaged. And it’s not the end. It’s only the beginning.”

He dropped his girl to her feet and kissed the ever-loving breath out of her. Took her hand as they walked together toward the paddock. Toward Maple. His land rolled out all around them and somewhere, hundreds of miles away, a city buzzed like a beehive, waiting for them to return.

And even though they’d just decided to live in two places, as messy a plan as it was, for the first time in either of their lives, their hearts were no longer split in two.