Chapter Twenty-One
Tyler
“Thanks for helping me with this, Marcus,” I said as we went over the paperwork for the Sullivan ranch. “I know you’re busy and I’ll be out of your hair soon, hopefully.”
“No problem, Tyler. You know, I do think you should call Kelsi and try and talk to her before you just show up in that meeting, though. It’s going to be one huge shock when she learns that you are the one who purchased the land and has been financing her rebuild of the ranch.”
“I’m not telling her because I don’t want her to think I bought the ranch purely to win her back, because I didn’t. My intention is to finish the remodel and then turn things over to her. It will be hers no matter what happens between us.”
“Tyler, she might be upset,” Marcus said with a stern face. “Women don’t like to have huge pranks like this pulled on them.”
I couldn’t help but smile at how much Kelsi actually loved pranking people. My hope was that she would see this whole thing as a fun secret and not a hurtful one. She liked the restaurant date, maybe not right at first, but after we got to know each other better, she thought it was a very funny idea. But I knew it was a possibility Kelsi wouldn’t like this plan; that was why I wanted to meet her at the bank.
Whether she liked what I had done or not, I was prepared to sign the ranch over to her and walk out of her life forever, if that was what she wanted. Of course, I hoped that by professing my love for her she would be excited about that opportunity instead of angry, but I didn’t know women as well as I thought I did sometimes.
“Just think about how amazing this will be if it works out. I’ll move back there and we can run the ranch together. We can build it into a huge industry and hire locals, which would build the economy. I’d have the woman I loved and the relaxing life I’ve wanted for the last few months.”
“I do have to admit, you’ve been pretty crabby since returning to work.” Marcus laughed. “Everyone has noticed it.”
“They have not,” I argued.
“You told everyone they couldn’t take the Fourth of July off.” He laughed.
“That’s only because I had no idea what month it was. Of course, they can take the holiday off.”
“You’ve been more than a little distracted.”
“I can’t stop thinking and making plans. Then when I do, I imagine everything going wrong and I cancel all the plans I’ve made.”
“Tyler, this is a big deal. You are basically going to surprise her with a proposal to live together and run a business together. And you haven’t talked to her in six months. You should be nervous.”
“I’m not actually proposing, though,” I said with a grin. “I thought that might be a little too much to spring on her all at once.”
“Yeah, you think?” Marcus rolled his eyes. “Not everyone is an all or nothing personality type. I know it’s worked for you in business, but Kelsi might need to take it a little slow. Be prepared to meet her halfway. Think about where that might be for you and don’t take it personally if she’s not over the moon excited when she sees you at first.”
“I’ve got this Marcus, geez. You’d think I’d never made a business decision in my life by the way you are talking.”
“Tyler, this is a hard decision, and it’s different than business. You’ve got to be ready to go with your heart and to listen to hers.”
I understood what Marcus was trying to say. It was a hard decision, and that was why I had done everything over the past six months. I’d assigned Marcus to take over Market Mayhem International, and I was officially stepping back from the day-to-day operations. I’d formed a new firm for investing and started with the Sullivan ranch, but I had some other purchases also. This was my new life, a dream of a life, and it only worked with Kelsi in it. If she said no to me, everything I’d worked so hard for was going to go down the drain.
For my plan to work, I was still assuming that Kelsi had feelings for me and was going to want to be part of this with me. Nothing was going to work if she had moved on from those feelings. I’d just give her the ranch and have to move on without a plan at all.
The day of my trip, it was overcast in Birmingham, and that contributed to my mood feeling down as well. My confidence was fading the closer I got to the surprise meeting. One minute, I was positive that Kelsi was going to be excited and jump into my arms and kiss me, but then the next moment, I pictured her slapping me and running out of the room. Both options seemed like possibilities as my plane landed at the small airstrip in Rainbow, Texas.
Fittingly, there was a rainbow across the sky as the rain had just stopped when we landed. The sun was out and it quickly warmed up as Maryanne met me at the airport. She looked good. Happy, healthy, and doing well since I’d left.
“Today’s the big day, stud,” she said as she hugged me.
“Yep, you should stay in town; I might need a shoulder to cry on later,” I joked.
“I’ll be around. Just call if you need anything.”
Maryanne and I had been getting along much better since our father’s death. Something had changed between us, and we both seemed to appreciate the relationship we had much more than we had before.
“I’m nervous,” I admitted as she drove me to the bank.
“You should be,” Maryanne teased. “If you weren’t nervous, I’d think there weren’t real emotions at stake.”
“Yeah, it’s good to be nervous. It means I’ve got some skin in the game,” I said as I repeated something one of my mentors had said about business.
“Exactly. All you can do is give it your best. Things will work out, or they won’t. But I know you’ll be all right no matter what. Good luck,” Maryanne said as she dropped me off. “Do you want me to wait for you?”
“Nope, I’m sure I can get a ride, even if things blow up and turn out horribly.”
“Smile: girls like it when you smile,” Maryanne said as she pulled away.
I stood in front of the glass door to the building for a few moments as I took in a few deep breaths and tried to calm my nerves. I wasn’t used to being nervous before a business meeting. I wasn’t comfortable with being nervous at all. But Kelsi was worth it; this was all worth it.
Since returning home to Alabama, all I thought about was getting back to Kelsi and Rainbow, Texas. I hadn’t gone about it in the most conventional of ways, but then again, I wasn’t the most conventional of men. But being home again felt right to me. It was the only decision I’d made in recent years that truly felt like a perfect decision.
I opened the glass doors and stepped into the bank, and I was immediately met by Kirsten, the branch manager. She had been very helpful in arranging the purchase of the property and in keeping my secret over the last few months. I was beyond grateful for everything she had done.
“She’s in there and has no idea what’s going on. The realtor is also in there and our regional manager. I’ve printed up the paperwork for both the options you mentioned, but I’ve only brought the first option into the meeting.”
“Okay,” I said nervously.
“I don’t know Kelsi well, Mr. Pace, but I do know she is an honest woman and she won’t bullshit you. No matter what happens, I suspect you’ll have your answer within the first moments of seeing her.”
“Yes…wait, what do you mean?”
“I mean, we better get started so you can breathe again.” She laughed as we walked down the hall.
Kirsten opened the door to the meeting room, and I saw Kelsi’s red hair. She had her back to me and didn’t turn around. I walked with Kirsten around the table and sat down across from Kelsi. The room felt dizzy as I tried to pull in a breath while I watched her and waited for her reaction.
Kelsi’s eyes slowly lifted from the table and looked at me and then around at the faces of the people in the room. Everyone there knew I was the one who purchased the ranch, except Kelsi, so it was no surprise to them that I was there. She didn’t say anything. I couldn’t read her face at all. She was just staring at me with a blank expression, and I felt like I was going to pass out.
“Hi,” she said as a smile spread across her face, and I took in a huge breath of relief.
“Hi,” I responded.
“I have no idea what’s going on,” she said softly and looked at me and then to Kirsten and the realtor.
“I think it would be best if we let Mr. Pace tell you why he’s here,” Kirsten said.
“Okay, Mr. Pace,” Kelsi said with trepidation. “Tell me why you’re here.”
“I bought the ranch,” I blurted out without remembering how I had planned to say anything. “I’m the owner. It was me. I hope you’re not mad. I didn’t buy it to win you back, but I do want to win you back. Okay, this isn’t what I wanted to say…” I trailed off as I reached into my jacket to find my notes.
Kelsi didn’t run out of the room screaming, and she hadn’t tried to slap me yet; those both seemed like very good signs to me. But I still didn’t have that warm and fuzzy feeling like she had the same feelings for me as I had for her.
“Continue,” she said with a small grin.
“I, um…I love you,” I said as I threw the paper away. “I knew it the second I went back home and you weren’t with me. I knew it the second you got mad at me and all I wanted to do was make you feel better. I want to marry you…wow, I didn’t think I was going to say that, okay…” I trailed off again as I tried to think of what I was going to say. “It’s true, though. I do want to marry you. But I want a lot of things, and I’m not sure any of it will work out. Most of all, I wanted you to have this ranch and even if you want nothing to do with me, I want to give it to you. That’s why we are here. I am signing the ranch over to you with everything you need to run it.”
Kelsi was quiet. She looked from me to the other people in the room as if she had something to say, but then said nothing. I couldn’t take it any longer. I had to know what she was thinking.
“Do you have questions? Is this making sense? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have surprised you like this,” I said as I sat back down. I looked over at Kirsten and shrugged my shoulders in defeat.
“You waited six months!” Kelsi said as she jumped up and banged her hands on the table. “Six months and now you tell me all this. I can’t believe this,” she said as she pushed her chair out of the way and made her way toward me.
I really wasn’t sure if she was going to slap me or not, but I was prepared. I held onto my chair and stood up to face whatever it was she wanted to do to me.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I stood there.
“For six months you lied to me,” she said stern-faced as she stood there looking up at me.
“Yes.”
“For six months you let me build the ranch of my dreams, and you weren’t here to see the joy on my face.”
“Yes,” I said as I started to smile. Things didn’t seem to be going as poorly as I thought they were going.
“Don’t smile at me; I’m angry,” she said sternly.
“I’m sorry, but you’re so sexy when you’re angry.”
“I’m not sexy. This is serious, Tyler. You could have just told me, and we could have done this all together.”
“I beg to differ: you really are sexy when you’re angry,” I teased.
“So, you’re moving back here?”
“If you’ll have me,” I said as I moved closer to her.
“You knew about this the whole time?” Kelsi said as she turned her attention toward Kirsten. “You knew it was him and you didn’t tell me?”
“I couldn’t; it’s very secret bank manager code of ethics,” she said.
Kelsi put her hands up to her head and paced back and forth for a minute as everything sunk in. It was a lot to take in all at once, but as she turned to face me, I saw it in her eyes. I saw the glow of admiration as she rushed toward me and flung her arms around me.
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Yes, come home.”
The relief that rushed through me was nearly orgasmic as we kissed. Her embrace was what I had dreamed of, her love what I had hoped I would get at the end of all the trickery surrounding the ranch.
“Can you two sign these?” Kirsten said as the real estate agent slid the papers over to us. “This includes the Sullivan property, Pace, Anderson, and Decker farms.”
“What?” Kelsi said.
“I think if we are going to build an empire, we are going to need all the land we can buy. If it’s all right with you, I am including the other land in our new ranch deal and we are going to be co-owners of it all.”
“You don’t have to put my name on it, I’m not an owner. I didn’t put any money into this.”
“Kelsi, this is ours. You are just as important to this deal as me. You are the one who has the vision. It’s you who made me realize this was what I wanted, too. We are doing this together.”
She hesitated for a moment as she looked at the papers and then back toward me. She wasn’t the type of girl who liked things given to her. But she was going to have to get used to that if she was with me because I planned on giving her the world.
“I can’t believe this,” Kelsi whispered as she signed the papers.
“It’s a lot of property,” the realtor added.
“No, this,” Kelsi said as she pulled me toward her. “You, I can’t believe you are here. I’ve dreamed about this since we were kids. You were always part of the dream.”
“I was?”
“Yes, but if I told you that, I thought it wouldn’t come true.”
“It’s coming true, Kelsi. All of it. You and I are going to live happily ever after.”
With one swift motion, I dipped her back and kissed my dream girl. Kelsi was mine, and I was hers. It may have taken us fifteen years to figure it all out, but it was officially the start of something beautiful.