Page 53 of One Wild Chance

I stare at his back, wondering if I heard him right. Jaxon wants to help?

“Are you serious?” I wait for him to say he was joking, or for him to give me the usual smirk that tells me he was just playing.

“Yeah,” he replies, lifting a shoulder.

“Oh.” I shift on my feet before leaving. “Thanks.”

I head outside and lean against the sun-warmed wood of the fence. I’ve felt the responsibility for the farm ever since Miriam passed. Worried that if I stopped holding it up, the whole thing would come crashing down. Knowing that Jaxon is now shouldering the load with me, I feel like I can breathe again for the first time in ages.

I’m in the wildflower field by mid-morning, trying to pull weeds and gather the last of the late-summer blooms before the storms move in. I saw Jaxon earlier over by the stallion barn, hauling hay bales alongside Colton, the two of them cracking up about something as I walked by. He didn’t see me watching, and his laugh wasn’t there to impress anyone. This was Jaxon just being himself. Not the same guy who arrived here with a chip on his shoulder and a ticket out of town.

He’s already committed to two years at Lucky Chance, but that’s nothing in the scheme of things. It’s basically a layover for the next thing, when I’m already building my life around him being here. I throw myself into weeding, a knot pulling behind my ribs. And I’m still at it two hours later, ripping out pigweed as I stew over a future I have no control over.

I’ve got my five acres, but the barn isn’t mine—it’s on Chance property. I’m basically risking everything on Jaxon’s word. If it ever comes down to it, I’m the one with nothing on paper, building my little kingdom on borrowed land.

But that’s not the only thing I’m scared of. It’s what happened to Mom when Dad walked out and never came back. I’m not doing that again with any man. I won’t wait years to find out if Jaxon Chance will stay or go.

I glance up at the sky and see the rain clouds rolling in fast as a few stray drops hit my cheeks. I cut a few zinnias as lightning cuts through the dark clouds. The drops of rain quickly turn into a downpour, soaking through my shirt in seconds.

Thunder crashes next, and my hand jerks against the shears, slicing my finger. I keep going, the blood dripping off my finger, but I can’t stop now. I’m so close to having a complete bouquet.

Headlights sweep over the garden, then a door slams. “Summer.” Jaxon’s voice cuts through the rain. “What are you doing out in this weather? You need to get inside.” He’s standing at the edge of the field, getting soaked as his truck idles behind him. “Ada Mae said you never came in for lunch.”

I tip my face toward the sky, letting the storm wash over me. “It’s just a little rain. And I think better in storms.”

“It’s not the rain I’m worried about.”

I cut more flowers as the wind picks up, slanting the rain sideways.

“You’re standing in an open field, Summer.”

“I’ve done it before,” I say, not bothering to move.

“Well, it’s not safe.”

Lightning splits the sky as thunder claps overhead, vibrating through my chest. That’s when I feel his arms come around my waist, lifting me off the ground, my world tilting as I’m thrown over his shoulder.

“Wait! I wasn’t done!” I yell.

“If you can’t listen, then you give me no choice.”

The rain is coming down in sheets as he strides back to the truck. The man is carrying me like a sack of potatoes.

“Put me down, Jaxon!” I yell.

“Nope.”

I flail against him, but it’s like kicking a stone wall. “I’m serious, if you don’t put me down right now⁠—”

“You’ll what? Get struck by lightning?” He laughs, his chest rumbling beneath me. “Can’t let that happen. You’re too important to me.”

He sets me down on the passenger seat of his truck, his eyes grazing over me with an intensity that steals my breath. Even a week ago, he might have said too important to the operation. Now, he said too important to me.

I think back to our conversation at the Blue Moon when he said he couldn’t do this without me. I felt the shift in that moment, how he looked at me with heat in his eyes, but I told myself it was about keeping Lucky Chance in the family, and that’s all it was. But now that he’s standing in front of me, rain-soaked and risking a lightning strike for me, I can’t believe it anymore.

I wipe the wet strands from my face. “Why’d you do that?”

His nostrils flare slightly. “Because you were about to get yourself killed.”