or with his experience. They both carefully omitted some of the rather colorful names Colt and I had called Rubin or some of the more incendiary things Rubin said, opting instead to gloss over them as “arguing.” When the story wrapped up, the whole room was laughing and joking. Mostly at my expense.
“You know, cattle are dangerous animals,” Boone said, grinning. “Maybe you ought to have a handler out there with you on the drives.”
“Har har,” I said.
I was struck by how well Jane seemed to slide right into the family, joining in on telling stories and even poking fun at me a little. It took the entire breakfast, but I realized I couldn’t not broach the subject of her staying. I knew it might not go over well with her. It was asking her to make a major shift in her life for someone she met only a week ago, but I couldn’t just let her go back to LA without trying. When breakfast ended and everyone began filtering out to do their daily work or off to their own places, I pulled her around a corner where we could be alone for a moment.
“Hey,” I said. “I wanted to talk to you about an idea I had.”
“What is it?” Jane asked.
“I was just thinking, a week on the ranch isn’t quite long enough to tell if it’s something you really like, you know? It’s just not enough time.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” she said and a big smile stretched across both our faces.
“Really?” I asked. She nodded excitedly.
“It’s just that with winter right around the corner, and all the gearing up we have to do for it, it’s a really hard time of year here, and we are always shorthanded,” I said. “Maybe, if you wanted to, you could hang around for a bit.”
“And you don’t think the brothers would mind?” she asked.
“After that?” I said, gesturing to the part of the house where the dining room was. “No, I think they would be more upset with me if I let you go back to LA.” Her cheeks blushed again. “What’s more, I would be upset if I let you go back to LA.”
“Do you mean that?” she asked, tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes.
“I do,” I said. “I would like you to stay, with me, here, at the ranch. You can leave whenever you want, but I would just like to have you stay with me for as long as you’d like to stay.”
“I’d love to,” she said and fell into my arms. I pressed my lips to hers and we shared a passionate kiss, hidden away from the other brothers and the rest of the world in our little corner of the Montgomery ranch house. And now I planned on having a lot more hidden-away kisses with Jane Beauchamp as long as she wanted to stay—maybe, if I was lucky, even ringing in my first really good new year.
Chapter 38
Jane
I was actually going to do this. It wasn’t just an idea that came up in the warm glow of being in Sawyer’s arms totally satisfied and deliriously happy. It wasn’t just something we talked about in that way that people do when they want something to happen in the moment but know it never actually will.
It was real. My family was going to be getting on a plane later that day to head back to California, and I wouldn’t be with them. I was staying here in Montana to be with Sawyer. I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving with the others and he didn’t want me to leave either, so it was settled. Now I was on my way to say goodbye to my family.
I knew the chances of getting them back to the ranch even just to say goodbye before they headed to the airport were slim to none. But that was okay. Sawyer and I were going into town to meet up with them at the hotel before they left. I didn’t have much of an opportunity to see the town when we were there before going to the ranch, so this was a chance for me to get another look.
Maybe I would change my opinion about it, too.
When we got to the hotel, my family was already waiting outside. Cecilia was back in her normal clothes and appeared to be wearing all the makeup she wasn’t able to wear during the week-long experience. I wondered to myself