He didn’t look up until something cold touched his check. A dewy brown longneck already opened. He took it and sent her a smile. “Do you really want a hotel?” he asked.
“I just didn’t want to get in the way of such a personal time for you.”
He nodded. “I don’t know that I would’ve got through it without you there, though.”
“Really?”
She sounded skeptical, but her back was to him as she walked to the other rocking chair, twisting off her bottle cap on the way.
“You couldn’t tell by how tight I’ve been holding onto you?” he asked.
She smiled, then took a big pull from her bottle.
“I’m glad you stayed, though,” he said. “I wanted…to ask you something.”
“Ask away.” She took another drink.
She was nervous, he thought, and trying to cover it. “Well, before, you said you’d realized something when I was shot. Butyou never said what. Or maybe you did, but I didn’t hear it, being unconscious and all.”
Nodding slowly, she took a long, thoughtful sip of beer. “What I realized was that I might notwantto be ready for a relationship, but I am anyway. Like it or not.”
And he said, “Same.”
“Oh, I see how this is going down. I have to say all the hard stuff and you get to just say same?”
“Ditto?” he asked.
Then he got up, set his beer on the railing, and moved to the front of her chair. “I’m not ready for a relationship with anyone else but you,” he said, threading his fingers through hers, both hands, and pulling her to her feet. “Butwithyou,” he went on, “I’m not ready for anything but. I want you in my life.”
“I want that, too,” she whispered.
And he went on, because he was worried. “And I think I want that life to be here, where my family is,” he said.
She smiled, lowering her head. “I didn’t want to be presumptuous, but when I spoke to Mom, I mentioned that…if things worked out for us, I might end up living in West Texas. That’s why she’sreallydriving down here after her cruise, to check things out. And she’s gonnaloveyour family.”
“Everybody loves my family, apparently.”
She took a deep breath. “Drew asked if I’d be interested in teaming up with her, hanging up our shingle as PIs together. Says she needs a partner.”
Camellia had really been thinking about this, then. That must mean her feelings were strong. As strong as his? Man, he was starting to feel ten feet tall.
“What willyoudo here, Wolf?” she asked.
“My father offered to hire me on here at the ranch. I told him my skills are in building. I’ll check some of the local construction crews, I imagine.”
She said, “I thought you died, you know. When he shot you, I thought…”
He caught her chin and tipped it up and kissed her mouth and then kissed it some more. Fire rekindled, having never been banked, and when his mouth slid from hers to her jaw, to her neck, and into that tender hollow just behind her ear, words slid from his lips as if on their own.
“I love you, Camellia Rio. I love you, I love you, I love you, and I waited way too long to say it.” And then he kissed her lips again.
Her mouth curved into a smile against his as she whispered on a sigh, “Same.”
EPILOGUE
Wolf
The next afternoon, after a glorious morning with his parents, Wolf and Camellia drove Wolf’s rusty, trusty Ford truck over a long dirt road, beneath a big wooden arch with the words “TeXas Brand” cut out of it. The ranch house spread wide, and its full front porch sported a banner: “WELCOME HOME JONATHON WOLF BRAND.”
