“His name is Sky Captain. They call him Captain. Like I said, I want to buy him but so far they won’t sell. He wasn’t a great bucker himself, but he sires spectacular foals. His offspring have won competitions from Texas to Canada.”
“He sounds wonderful.”
“It’s going to take several years before my foals will be old enough to compete. I’m working on acquiring a string of horses for rodeo stock but I’m picky and not everyone wants to sell.”
“Chase, I need to ask you something.”
“That sounds serious.”
“It is. You’re positive it’s what you want and not because of me?”
He stopped walking Sugar Lips, pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “Did you really just ask me that? Do you think I’d have bought Sugar Lips, who wasn’t cheap, by the way, if I wasn’t positive?” He kissed her again. “You decided you wanted us to be together before you knew I’d retired. I decided to retire and raise bucking horses when I wasn’t sure we’d ever get back together. Sounds like we’re both sure of what we want.”
She put her arms around his neck and kissed him. “I love you, Chase.”
“I love you, Ella.”
“Let’s go home.”
*
Six Months Later
Chase and Ellahad been more or less living together since their return to the ranch with Sugar Lips several months ago. Sometimes they stayed at Ella’s, sometimes at the big house. Chase was tired of it. He wanted to stay in one place and make it home. Ella’s cottage was too damn small. It had housed the ranch manager and occasional others who worked the ranch, as needed. It wasn’t really intended for more than one person to live in.
He wanted to build a house. A house for himself and Ella and any kids they might eventually have. He knew the perfect place too. There was an unimproved section of land that included a creek, called Spanish Oak Creek for the beautiful red oaks that grew alongside it. It was on the opposite side of the Walker ranch from Gabe’s cottage, far enough away from the main house and barns to have privacy but close enough that the barns were readily accessible. Chase wanted to set the house on a hill, with a view of the creek on one side and on the other, land that could easily be turned into pastureland. Marshall and Damaris hadn’t needed it but there was no reason he couldn’t use it for some of his bucking horses. The mares would go into the barn when they were close to foaling but most of the time the horses would be semi-wild and live in the pasture. They’d have to be trailer trained and trained for the chutes of course, but he intended to set up a chute and corral for that.
Call him old-fashioned, but to him all that, especially the kids, meant marriage. He was ready but he wasn’t sure about Ella. Still, there was only one way to find out. One beautiful spring afternoon he convinced her to take a ride with him. As usual, she was on Midnight. He rode Hector.
“Why so mysterious?” Ella asked as they rode.
“I wasn’t being mysterious.”
“You wouldn’t say why you wanted to take a ride or why it had to be now.”
“I wanted a ride and figured you would too. I know you’ve been all over the ranch but there’s a place I want to show you.”
Once at the top of the hill they dismounted and ground-tied the horses. “What a beautiful place. All those trees along the creek are so pretty.”
“It’s my favorite place on the whole ranch.”
“Why haven’t you ever showed it to me before?”
“No reason to, really. Most of the time when we rode we were checking fences or seeing about the horses.”
“True. So why now?”
“I’m getting to that.” He thought he’d figured out how he wanted to ask Ella to marry him but now that the time was here he’d forgotten his plan. “I want to build a house here. A house for you and me to live in.”
“Tired of my cottage, huh?”
“Yes. And tired of spending time between my room and the cottage. It’s time I had a place of my own. A place with you.”
“You want to officially live together, is that it?”
“Kind of.”
Puzzled, she looked at him. “Kind of?”
