“I want to finish school here,” I said. “I want Lucas in this town. I want a job where I don’t feel like I’m just surviving.”
“And me?” he asked.
“And you.” Nothing worked without him at the center of it.
He let out a long exhale. “You don’t get me halfway.”
“Good, because I don’t want halfway.” I pressed into him and he wrapped his arms around me.
“I don’t do temporary, sweetness, and I don’t do almost. If you stay, you stay for real.”
I lifted my chin. “Good.”
His mouth curved slowly, not quite a smile, but something warmer. Something that looked like relief. “You’re not scared?”
“I am,” I admitted. “But I’m more scared of walking away from this and spending the rest of my life wondering what could have been.”
His arms tightened around me. “That’s the bravest thing you’ve said yet.”
We stood there for a while, the porch boards warm under our bare feet, the ranch settling into the deep quiet of night. Somewhere in the distance, a horse snorted, and a barn door creaked in the breeze.
Caleb rested his chin against my hair. “I never planned on staying with Lone Star forever.”
I tipped my head back to look at him. “You didn’t?”
“No. It was always a means to an end. A way to build something. To learn. To earn enough to come home the right way.”
My pulse kicked up. “Home for you is Broken Bend.”
“Always has been.” His thumb brushed slow circles against my hip. “I grew up on Mama Mae’s land. Learned how to ride before I could drive. Learned how to work before I learned how to fight. I left because I had to prove something to myself. That I could build my own name. That I wasn’t just one of her boys.”
“You did,” I said, my voice soft.
“Yeah. I did.” His gaze held mine. “But I always knew I’d come back. I just didn’t know what I’d be coming back for.”
The words wrapped around me, warm and steady.
“I want my own spread,” he continued. “Cattle. Horses. A place that runs honest and clean. Something I can hand down someday.”
He was talking about the future… real and solid and rooted.
“And now?” I asked.
“And now I know exactly who I’m building it for.”
My chest tightened while I waited to hear him say it out loud.
“You and Lucas. I want a house that stays full. A table that never feels empty. A life that doesn’t run from danger but doesn’t chase it either.”
I swallowed hard. “That sounds like a dream.”
He shook his head. “It’s more than a dream, it’s my plan.”
“So,” I said. “Cowboy with a ranch and a plan. What happens next?”
He smiled. “Next, I start building the life I always wanted, and I do it with you.”
I nodded. “I’d like that.”
