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I needed to get the fuck out of this building so I could think. So I could breathe. So I couldn’t smell Indya’s sweet rose perfume.
She was here. For how long? I hated that I still hoped for more than a week.
This was my land. This was my home. Why would Indya do this? Revenge? Did she really hate me that much?
Indya knew what this ranch meant to me. To my family. It was as much a part of my body as my bones.
Maybe my only option was to drive her away. I hated myself for what I was about to say, but it wasn’t the first time I’d hurt her. It wasn’t the first time I’d told myself it was for her own good. “You don’t belong here, Indya.” She flinched, her gaze dropping to an invisible spot on the floor. “I know.”
Dad drew me pictures a lot when he had to explain hard stuff. He’d drawn me a lot of pictures this year, so I knew what cancer meant.
“You know what, Daddy?” I took his hand so he could swing it between us. “What?” “Tomorrow, I’m going to win back my twenty dollars.” He let out a loud, booming laugh. The kind of laugh I hadn’t heard much this past year. “That’s my girl.”
“You’re late. I said eight o’clock.” He arched an eyebrow. “Baby, I do not answer to you.” Baby. He used that word like a weapon. It used to bring me to my knees.
Fix it. How the hell did I fix it? Indya. She was the only way out of this clusterfuck. Which meant it was time for more bargaining.
“Stop.” She sliced a hand through the air, cutting me off. This was a different look for her, bold and in charge. It was sexy. Not that I’d admit that, to her or myself. “Stop fighting me.” “Then stop trying to run my business.”
A job offer. She was making me a job offer. I opened my mouth, about to tell her to shove it, when she held up a hand. “Don’t tell me to shove it.” This woman. She’d always been good at reading me.
My gaze shifted to the Beartooth Chalet. It was the best cabin on the ranch. I’d made sure of it. If there was anything extra, I’d poured it into that building. A new roof. Updated plumbing. Fresh paint. New hardwood flooring. Most of that work, I’d done myself in the winter when the resort was slow. For Indya. I’d wanted that cabin to be nice in case one day she came back. I should have saved that money. And let the Beartooth rot.
Had West been the mastermind behind these changes? Did he ever think about this cabin? Did he ever think about us? I did. Every day. Every hour.
“I don’t know if I can work for you.” His throat bobbed as he swallowed and reached for his back pocket, then took out a fold of white papers. “But I’ll try.”
Collisions on crossroads. West and I were nothing but collisions on crossroads.
“Wait. What? You’re working for her?” “Yes. I’m going to manage the ranch.” “Are you fucking kidding me?” “No.” His jaw dropped. “Why?” For Indya.
I wasn’t sure which of us moved first. Maybe me. Maybe Indya. One minute I was lost in those caramel eyes; the next, my hands were in that wild blonde hair, and my mouth was crushed against hers. A single lick across her bottom lip, and she parted. Our tongues tangled in that familiar, beautiful dance. She tasted the same. Sweet, like summer strawberries on a woolen blanket in a mountain meadow. Damn, this woman. How I’d missed her mouth.
Kissing Indya was as natural as breathing. It should be. I’d been kissing her since I was a kid.
This was the moment when she’d fist my shirt and drag me inside. When I’d carry her to bed. Except she didn’t pull. She pushed. One shove, and I rocked back on my heels. While she slammed the door in my face and flipped the lock.
My love for reading was the only hobby Mom and I had in common. She always let me pack extra books on our trips. In Paris, she’d shopped for handbags at boring designer stores. I’d insisted we go to Princes’ Park, where the Paris Saint-Germain football club played. But the day we’d had the most fun was when we’d bounced from bookshop to bookshop together.
What happened if he fell in love this year? Either with his childhood sweetheart or someone else? I’d be here to watch. I’d be forced to watch. It would break my heart.
“What do you want?” I whispered. She reached backward, fitting her hand between us. And as I slipped a finger into her pussy, she dragged her hand over my cock. “West. Fuck me. Please.” “You’re the boss.”
“Indy.” West leaned in closer, his hand sliding into my ponytail. “I want to kiss you. Is that okay?” I nodded and closed my eyes. His other hand came to my face first, his palm warm against my jaw. Then he dropped his mouth to mine, and God, his lips were soft.
“Are you going to go on the trail ride tomorrow?” he asked, twirling a finger around one of my curls. “I guess.” He chuckled. “Told you I could change your mind.” “Maybe I’ll change my mind again.” West kissed me again.
I’d loved West Haven for what felt like my entire life. Even though I’d never said the words. Even though I’d never made him a promise. Even though I’d married another man. West was mine. Even though he wasn’t.
No wonder I’d fallen into his bed last week. He looked sweaty and tired and utterly breathtaking. He looked like the boy who’d kissed me in his truck when I was sixteen.
“She renamed our fucking ranch.” Jax shot out of his chair. “Our family’s ranch. Can she even do that?” Would I ever stop being she? And yes, she could do that. “To what?” West’s voice was low. Dark. I sucked in a breath. “Haven River Ranch.” West stayed silent. Jax stood statue still, waiting for his brother’s reaction.
“West,” I called. He turned. “Yeah?” “Do you like the name?” Please, say yes. The name was for him. It was all for him. “Yeah, Indy. I like the name.”
Then I let him carry me inside. And lock the door. West was my first. He made it the best night of my life. We woke at dawn so he could leave before my parents returned from camping. He kissed me before he sneaked out of the cabin. And as I watched him walk away, I smiled, knowing this was exactly where I was supposed to be. With West in Montana.
Haven River Ranch. She could have given it her name. Keller River Ranch. Keller Mountain Resort. Anything else. But nowhere on that website, not even on the About Us section, was a mention of her name. Instead, she’d left the story Grandma had written thirty years ago about how the Havens had come to live on this land. She’d left pictures from decades ago to tell my family’s story, not hers.
“I liked this shirt,” he said. “It will look better on my floor.”
Tonight, all that mattered was the feel of him inside me. I latched on to his corded throat, dragging my tongue up and down his skin as he carried us to the bedroom. Not the bedroom where I’d stayed as a kid. Not the bedroom where he’d been my first. The other guest bedroom. One I’d never slept in before. One my parents hadn’t stayed in either.
The hold on his control was slipping. For me. I loved that he lost control for me. So I lost control for him and shattered.
“For the record, I like that you’re not a cowgirl.” “You’re not into cowgirls?” “Not really. I’m into you.”
I’d sneaked out of Indya’s bed like a damn coward. She terrified me. Indya Keller absolutely fucking terrified me.
Time was always strange when it came to West and me. It existed. And it didn’t.
West, the broody, serious cowboy, was gorgeous. But this West, carefree and smiling, was breathtaking.
“Maybe more land too. I might rename the place someday.” “Really? What would you call it?” “Haven Ranch. Haven River. I don’t know. Something along those lines.” Something with his family’s name. That fit. Crazy Mountain Cattle Resort was fine, but this place should be named after the Havens. “I like it.”
For the first time in my life, I could have West for more than seven days. Except we were still sneaking around like teenagers. There were no promises. No commitments.
If he were stranded on a deserted island and he could take only three things, he’d choose an axe, a lighter, and me. He’d choose me for his island. Every time I thought about it, I smiled.
“Woman.” He rubbed a hand over his jaw, covering a smile. “Sometimes I wonder if you were born to argue with me.” “I like arguing with you.” “I like it too.”
Indya had always been mine, but only while she was in Montana.
Never in my life had I been awestruck by a woman like I was with Indya. Something expanded in my chest, making it hard to breathe. Maybe it was seeing her in my shirt. Maybe it was just having her here. Mine. She was mine.
I wish. I wished I had kept her. I wished our timing had worked years ago. I wished I had waited. I wished she had waited too.
I loved her. I fucking loved that woman. I’d loved her my whole damn life.
“I want everyone to know you’re mine. Employees. Guests. Anyone who sets foot on this ranch. We were a secret for too long, baby. I’m not hiding this anymore.”
“I need you inside.” My mouth locked on her throat. “You want my fingers, my mouth, or my cock?” “All of it,” she panted, grinding against me, seeking that friction for release. “I want all of it.” “That’s my girl.”
Dad should have been here to make these decisions, not me. I hit his name, then held my breath as I pressed the phone to my ear. “We’re sorry. You have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. Please check the number dialed and try again.” Wait. What?
“Let it go, Indy.” “It hurts.” I sobbed. “I know, baby.” He held me tighter. “Let it out.” So I did. For the first time in my life, I let West see me cry.
I’d give anything to hear him say those two words again. Still alive. Fuck you, cancer. Fuck you.
