"Come on," he says, sitting up and pulling me with him. "We should head back before Mae sends a search party."
We pack up the blanket and basket, our movements slow and easy, and I try to memorize this. The view. The way the light falls through the trees. The way his hand feels in mine.
The way it feels to be happy.
That night, I'm alone in my room at Mae's, staring at my phone.
Email notification from Lauren. Subject:Final Decision - Need Confirmation by Wednesday
Wednesday.
Six days from now.
The day after Fall Classic.
I open it.
Hazel,
I need your final answer by end of business Wednesday. If you're staying in Montana, I need to know so I can move forward with other candidates for your position. If you're coming back, I need a return date.
This is the last extension. I need to hear from you.
- Lauren
I set the phone down and stare at the ceiling.
Everything is working. The ranch. The colt. The boarders. Eli.
Everything is finally, impossibly working.
And in six days, I have to choose.
Stay here and build something real. Or go back to the life I spent five years creating.
I don't know how to choose between two futures when both feel like losing something I can't afford to lose.
The worst part is, I still haven't told Eli. Haven't told Mae. Haven't told anyone that this choice is even in front of me.
Because saying it out loud makes it real.
And I'm not ready for it to be real yet.
Chapter thirty-one
Eli
Four days since our picnic.
Four days since I took her out to the ridge and let myself believe this could last. Since then, it's been more of the same—waking up with her tangled in sheets that have smelled like her for weeks now. Driving to the ranch together in the pre-dawn dark, her hand on my thigh, coffee in the cupholder, comfortable silence that doesn't need filling.
It's become routine. Expected.
She hasn't gone back to Mae's since the night we started this. Keeps a toothbrush in my bathroom now. Leaves hair ties on my nightstand. Her boots by the door next to mine.
I should probably feel like it's moving too fast.
I don't.
