Page 70 of Taming the Wild Cowboy

“And you in mine?” she asked.

“Only if you’re on board.”

“I am.” The words came out before she even thought of saying them.

He studied her face for a moment, then said, “I honestly don’t know what my future looks like, Mac. I have obligations.”

“Me, too, but I can probably get a job. Elsewhere.” She wouldn’t be working in the equine world, but Missoula was big, and she could find something to help her get by while she waited for Trev to fulfill his obligations. She felt the muscles of his chest tense as her meaning hit him.

“You’ll come with me?” The words came out warily, as if Trev was afraid of overstepping. He had reason, considering her skittish past, but Mac wasn’t going to let the past hold her back now that she’d found what she wanted. She trailed her fingers down his hard abdomen.

“It’d give me the chance to see you in your geek wear. Khakis and the button-down. You did promise me.”

She gave a surprised oof as he rolled her onto her back, weighing her down in the most delicious way. “Better yet,” he said, his lips close to hers, “you can see me peel out of my geek wear. In many senses of the word.”

“I look forward to that.”

Instead of kissing her as she expected, his expression grew serious. “It won’t be forever, Mac. I know now that I’ve gotta come home. Do what I want to do, instead of what I thought I was supposed to.”

“Think I can leave my horses here?”

“Oh, I believe Wade will be in favor of that.”

Mac nodded. “He’s mentioned keeping the horses a few times when we talked about my job prospects. Something about a theory that needs proving.”

“Son of a—” Trev’s forehead dropped to her shoulder. He let out a breath before raising his head again. “He’s serious. And so am I. I love you, Mac. We’re going to stumble through this together. Make it work.”

She ran her hands over the hard muscles of his back and shifted beneath him, feeling his body respond to her movements. A slow smile came to her face just before he kissed her. She pushed her hands into his thick hair when his lips left hers.

“I agree, Mr. Matthews. We are totally going to make this work.”

“Any more words?” he asked, leaving her no doubt as to his intentions.

She shook her head. “Nope. Words are done. Now I’m looking for actions.”

Epilogue

“Once I sell the Willow Creek Ranch, it won’t matter,” Jordan said. “Nobody will have to sleep in the barn.”

They weren’t at the sleep-in-the-barn point yet, but the ranch was getting crowded. Hayes had returned home and reclaimed the foreman’s house while he waited for his fiancé Bailey to wrap up her temporary job in Havre. Dylan, Trev’s roping partner, needed a place to land for a spell, and Jordan was taking a hiatus to get his head together before starting his consulting business. They were okay for now, but once Trev returned for good, which he was working on, it was going to be elbow to elbow for a while. Not that Wade minded.

“You’re sure about this buyer?” Hayes asked Jordan.

“I don’t think that the broker would be pushing this hard if he wasn’t certain he wanted the place.”

“If the sale doesn’t go through—”

“Don’t jinx me,” Jordan warned.

All Jordan wanted was to get out from under the property he’d inherited so that he could buy the parcel that Jim Reed was about to put up for sale and cut all ties to his biological father. The Reed property adjoined the Tree Fork and would give Jordan the perfect homebase for his consulting business while keeping him at hand to tend to ranching matters when necessary. Wade wasn’t unhappy with the fact that it would also give the Tree Fork another one hundred acres of grazing.

Maclyn put a hand on Trev’s shoulder, and he covered it with his own. It was time to head back to Missoula for another exciting week of khakis and button-downs. The saving grace was that his time there was officially short, and Mac had made a contact that led to her getting hired for the summer with a ranch twenty miles from the Tree Fork. Indications were that the summer job could lead to a full-time position in the fall when the current wrangler retired. It was, in essence, a trial and a training period. She would live with Trev at the Tree Fork and drive the twenty miles to her new job, which led to the current housing conundrum.

“We can work this out,” Hayes said over the noise of the television, which had just ratcheted up another notch. Wade had wisely retreated to his recliner while his boys figured out living arrangements but apparently couldn’t hear over the din in the kitchen. Not that he could ever hear the television unless it was blasting sound.

“We have faith in you,” Trev said, pushing his chair back. “We also have to get going.” They braved the living room to say goodbye to Wade, then left Hayes and Jordan plotting ranch sales and future living arrangements at the kitchen table. Once they were outside in the crisp night air, Trev put an arm around Mac’s shoulders, and she leaned into him.

“Wade is loving this,” she said.