Her Cowboy Billionaire Bad Boy

by Liz Isaacson

  “I’ll call them all when I’m done here.”

  “I think we’re done here,” Ames said, reaching over to stroke Cocoa. She looked at him with such love in her eyes, and Ames didn’t want to give her back to Ruff Rescue. He wanted to keep her. And Florence and Norman—and definitely Sophia.

  “We are not done here,” Mom said, adopting her hard tone again. “You belong in that town, Ames. I know you don’t like it, but you better learn to like it. And you belong with Sophia. Stop fighting against yourself and what you know to be true and just admit it.”

  Ames looked out the front windows of the house, his mind moving like molasses. “Okay, Mom,” he said.

  “Okay,” she repeated. “I love you, son. Maybe practice saying it a few times before she gets there.”

  Ames didn’t confirm that he’d definitely do that, and the call ended. He couldn’t admit anything to himself, and he wasn’t sure how to say it out loud to Sophia either. He’d only told his mom that to get her off the phone.

  He sat on the couch, feeling very much outside of his own skin and bones. His awareness floated around somewhere above him, seeing everything and feeling everything. All he had to do was keep stroking Cocoa.

  If he admitted to himself—and to Sophia—that he loved her, and she still wouldn’t go with him…. Then what? What if love wasn’t enough?

  He pulled himself together when Norman gave a single bark and trotted toward the front door. “She’s here,” he said, and he hated how negative he sounded. He should be thrilled his girlfriend was coming over. Excited to show her the things he’d been working on. Happy he had someone to share his life with, even this tiny part of it.

  Sophia knocked on the door, and Norman barked several times, as if Ames hadn’t heard him the first time.

  “Shush,” he told the dog as he got off the couch. He swiped his cowboy hat from the end table and smashed it on his head. He’d likely need to hide behind it at some point in the next ten minutes. “Go to your bed.” He pointed to the pillow next to Flo, and Norman obeyed. “Stay there.” He held his hand out to Norman and edged toward the door.

  Sophia stood on the other side, and her eyes were as wide as saucers. The nervous energy pouring from her made Ames jittery, but he stepped back to let her in. He closed the door behind her, the silence between them unbearable.

  “Come see this,” he said, and he took her hand in his. He loved the touch of this woman, and the way she made him want to be the strong, steady man she wanted in her life.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  He didn’t answer as they crossed over to the table. “It’s the dog academy,” he said. “I started sketching it out. I put in an offer on the land last night, and I just have to wait to hear back from the seller.” He put his finger on the length of fence that ran up the side of the rendition.

  “Where is the land?” Sophia asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

  “It’s on the east side of town,” he said. “It’s the old Jacobsen farm.”

  “Oh, yes,” she said. “Kenneth passed away.”

  “Yes.” Ames couldn’t look away from the drawing he’d been working on. “I think they’ll accept my offer. Then I can get the construction crews out to start on the buildings.” He reached for the edge of the blue folder, where he kept everything else. He pulled it out from underneath the foam board and flipped it open.

  He looked at the top sheet of paper and handed it to her. “This is a contract I signed with Josiah Moon. He runs all the police dog puppies in the western United States. I’ve told him I only want German shepherds to start with, though it is quite a ways off.”

  She looked at the paper, but he didn’t expect her to make sense of it.

  The next thing in the folder was his estimated budget for the construction, and it included the price of the land. He gave her that, with a brief explanation. “I can get the facility, Sophia. I can get the dogs. What I can’t do is then sell them without a certification.”

  He looked at the next piece of paper and scanned it, though he had it memorized. Finally, he plucked it from the folder and handed it to her. “I was wrong. It doesn’t take a year to train to be a dog trainer. For police dogs specifically, it only takes twelve weeks. I’ve been researching facilities all over the country, and this one’s the best.”

  He took a breath and then a moment to swallow. “They have other courses I want to take too. On their website, it says I can bring two dogs, but I called, and they’ll let me bring three because of my experience on the force in Littleton.” He was aware of how fast he was talking, but he couldn’t stop himself now.

  “I want to take their detection program too, as well as their search and rescue program.” He had, in fact, already registered for all three. His throat narrowed and dried right out, as if he’d just put a handful of cotton in his mouth. “They’re each twelve weeks. The first one starts on September twenty-eighth.”

  He forced himself to stop talking. Sophia stared at the paper and then looked up at him. “It’s in North Carolina.”

  “Yes,” he said. “It’s the best one, Sophia. I want to be the best. I know I can do it.” He put the folder down. “It’ll take at least nine months to build the facility, and I don’t need to be here to do it.”

  She simply looked at him, and Ames could see everything in her face. Her hopes, her dreams, her fears.

  He cleared his throat and pushed his cowboy hat back. He wasn’t going to hide while he said this. “I want you to come with me,” he said. “Because I’m in love with you too, and I need you with me.”

  Tears filled her eyes, but Ames wasn’t sure if they were happy ones or sad. She looked down at the paper again, her voice high and squeaky when she said, “Why does it have to be in North Carolina?”

  “Why does it matter?” he asked. He felt like his heart was hanging on by a string, and she was about to clip it free. Steal it right from his chest. “Did you hear what I said?”

  “I heard you,” she said, still weeping. “I hate North Carolina. I don’t want to go back there. Ever.” She looked up at him. “Maybe we can just press pause for nine months.”

  “I don’t want to press pause,” he said, frowning. “I want to be with you. I want to share this with you. I want you to come work at the facility with me.”

  “I can’t train a dog.”

  “No, but you can run the facility while I train the dogs,” he said. “And they’ll need special diets, Sophia. You can be their cook.” He actually smiled, as if he’d just cracked a funny joke. Sophia did not laugh or smile, and Ames saw everything he’d been fantasizing about wither before his eyes.

  “I didn’t go to culinary school to cook for dogs,” she said.

  “No, I know,” he said. “That was a joke.” He sighed, because this talk wasn’t even going how he planned. Truth be told, he hadn’t planned anything.

  She looked at the rendition of the facility he’d made. Her eyes drifted over the papers he’d shown her. To Ames, it felt like an easy decision. Marcy and Wyatt would be gone by then, so she wouldn’t be letting them down. She could give notice at the lodge now, six weeks in advance.

  His phone rang, and he nearly jumped out of his boots. His realtor’s name sat on the screen, and he said, “I have to take this. Sorry.” He connected the call, turned away from Sophia, and said, “Hey, Alyssa.”

  “The seller has accepted your offer,” she said, and she sounded like she’d just conquered the world. “You got the thirty acres, as well as the water rights. Congratulations, Ames!”

  “Thanks,” he said, a smile slowly working its way across his face. He wandered down the hall toward the three bedrooms in this house, a calm, peaceful feeling filling him. “That’s great news.”

  You better learn to like it.

  He’d better, because he now owned more land in Coral Canyon than any of his brothers.

  “It sure is. I’ll get you the signed forms in a bit when I get them from Xavier. We’re not doing
a loan, so things should be smooth sailing from here.”

  “I hope so,” Ames said. He suddenly had so much more work to do, but he just thanked Alyssa again and hung up. His purchase of the land would surely convince Sophia that he was serious about staying here. He was serious about her.

  He didn’t want to press pause, and he’d spoken absolutely true. He wanted her with him, and if that meant they had to get married by September twenty-eighth, well, Ames wasn’t opposed to that either.

  He loved her.

  Warmth filled him once, twice, three times over. He’d never been in love before, but this felt amazing. This felt precious. This felt right.

  He turned around to share the good news with Sophia, but she wasn’t standing where he’d left her. “Sophia?” He swept the kitchen and living room, and every cell in his body wailed when he saw the wide-open front door.

  “Sophia,” he said, almost running toward it. “No, no, no,” he moaned.

  Her car was gone.

  She’d left.

  And she’d taken his heart with her.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “What do you mean you just ran out?” Patsy asked.

  “I mean, he said he loved me, but he wants me to go to North Carolina with him,” Sophia said, her voice almost a hiss for how quietly she was talking. “And I ran out.”

  “Sophia,” Patsy said, and Sophia hated the condescension in it. At the same time, she deserved it. Who ran out on their boyfriend only a few minutes after he’d confessed his love for her?

  The woman who simply can’t go back to North Carolina, she thought as Patsy said, “Well, go back. Go back right now and tell him you’ll think about it.”

  “I don’t need to think about it,” Sophia said. “You have no idea what it was like there. No one does. I’m not going to North Carolina.”

  “You’re going to lose him,” Patsy said, worry in her voice. “Is that what you want? Is not going to North Carolina worth that price?”

  Sophia opened her mouth to answer, but she closed it again. She glanced out the window, but no one drove down this stretch of deserted road. She was only around the corner from Ames, and she could get back to his house in under three minutes.

  “Go back,” Patsy said. “I’m begging you. Go back.”

  Before Sophia could answer, another call came in. She checked the screen, her breath catching right behind her tongue. “He’s calling,” she whispered.

  “Good,” Patsy said. “Answer it and tell him you just needed a minute to think. I’ll get off this call.” With that, she was gone, and Sophia had two choices: Let Ames go to voicemail or answer the phone.

  “Hey,” she said, her fingers having connected the call of their own volition.

  “Where’d you go?” he asked. The wind swept across his receiver, sending an awful white noise into her ear.

  “I just needed some time to think,” she said. “I’m just driving for a minute.”

  “Are you coming back?”

  Her hesitation screamed between them, but she said, “Yes,” at the same time he said, “It’s fine, Sophia.”

  “I’m coming back,” she said.

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I’ll be back in ten minutes,” she said, and this time, she pulled a Patsy and ended the call before he could argue. But ten minutes was nowhere near long enough for her to figure out what to say to Ames.

  How could she explain that she loved him so much she’d follow him to the moon and back? That she loved him so much she’d go with him anywhere…except North Carolina.

  There was no explanation for that.

  When she pulled into Ames’s driveway, she found the man sitting on his front steps, hands between his knees, head down. He either didn’t hear her sedan or he was ignoring her. When she opened her door and got out, he looked up.

  He stayed seated, and Sophia was glad for that. He was so big, and he could intimidate her sometimes.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I just needed a minute.”

  “You took fifteen,” he said, his eyes shrouded in darkness.

  “Yeah.” She sat down on the steps and gazed out over the lawn. “I don’t know how to say this,” she said. “So I guess I’ll just say it. I can’t go to North Carolina. Literally, any of the other forty-nine states, and I’m there. Just not that one.”

  “Why not?”

  “My father lives there,” she said. “That was the last place I lived before everything disintegrated, and I vowed I’d never go back.” She hung her head too. “I guess I just never figured I’d have a reason to.”

  “It’s that bad?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said, her chest vibrating with the negative emotions piling up there. “I really think we could just push pause, and you could go do your dog thing, and then come back. I can keep an eye on your construction here, and there’s email and texting and video chat….” She let her voice trail off, because she knew none of those things were even half as good as being in the presence of a real person—especially Ames.

  She already missed him. Everything about him, from the warmth of his hands to the scent of his skin to the sound of his voice.

  He reached over and gently took her hand. “I don’t want to break-up.”

  “I don’t want that either.”

  He looked at her then, but she couldn’t carry his gaze, so she kept her attention on the front lawn and the road beyond it. She wished a couple of kids would ride by on their bicycles to remind them that the world would go on while they lived apart. This wasn’t the end.

  It was just a pause.

  “I suppose I can push pause,” he said. “If you’re sure this is about North Carolina and not Coral Canyon.”

  That got her to look at him, her heartbeat thundering in her chest. “It’s not about Coral Canyon. I just said any other state, and I’m there.”

  “What about Colorado, then?” he asked. “I could buy land there.”

  Sophia swallowed, Patsy’s words ringing in her ears. She’d never thought of her desire and decision to stay in Coral Canyon as having a price, but it did. “Yes,” she said. “I’d go with you to Colorado.”

  He studied her for another moment, and then he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her wrist. He looked back out over the lawn and tucked her arm under his, their fingers still intertwined. He said nothing, and Sophia didn’t want to ruin anything else between them, so she stayed silent too.

  “That phone call was my realtor,” he said. “I got the land here, Sophia. I’m not moving to Colorado.”

  “You’ll be back here before you know it,” she said, trying to infuse some false happiness into her voice. She failed, and they could both hear it.

  “Right,” he said. “Should I order some dinner? We can eat and cuddle with the dogs and help Flo feel better.”

  Sophia leaned her head against his arm and said, “Yes,” but Ames didn’t move. She didn’t either, because she wanted this moment to freeze in time. She wanted to stay right here at his side for the rest of her life.

  Tears filed her eyes, and she closed her eyes against them, managing to contain them. She breathed in deeply, and said, “I’m sorry, Ames.”

  “It’s fine,” he murmured. “It’s not the end. It’s just pause.”

  She hoped he was right, and they spent the evening just as he’d outlined. She’d tiptoed over to him close to midnight, leaned down, and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I have to go, Ames.”

  “Okay,” he said. It was more of a moan, but he managed to get the three dogs off his lap and legs and walk her out to her sedan. He kissed her under the August moon, and Sophia had never been kissed by a man who loved her.

  She tried to hold onto the feel of his hands in her hair, and the taste of his lips against hers. But the moment she got behind the wheel and started back up the canyon, she’d forgotten all of it.

  “How are you going to last nine months without him?” she asked herself, finally letting the tears c
ome so quickly that she had no choice but to let them stream down her face.

  “It’s a muffin bar,” a little boy said, and Sophia smiled at his exuberance. She used a pair of tongs to put out more blueberry muffins, as they were the most popular variety she’d made that morning. She’d also baked up corn muffins, banana chocolate chip, raspberry vanilla, and lemon poppyseed. Those were her favorite, and she glanced down the line to see there were only a few left.

  She’d kept one in the kitchen for herself, and after breakfast at the lodge, she took her muffin and walked back to the cabin.

  It was a Wednesday, and on any other Wednesday this summer, she’d have found Ames sitting on her steps, her porch, or in her living room. He’d have his dogs with him, and Sophia’s heart would expand with adoration for the man who carried his bad boy streak with him, but tempered it with kindness and attention to details.

  He wasn’t there that day, and Sophia sighed as she climbed the steps to her front door. He hadn’t come last week either, and she’d called him just before lunch to find out if he’d like to eat with her. He’d said yes, and they’d gone out. She’d spent the rest of her day off with him.

  All she needed to do was call. Heck, a text would work.

  Instead, Sophia sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen and ate her muffin, her mind moving through things one step at a time. She didn’t want to be the one to initiate everything. She hadn’t called her mom in a couple of weeks, because phone lines worked both ways. Her mother could dial out, Sophia was sure of it.

  Ames could too, and he hadn’t. He’d stopped inviting her to dinner. He’d stopped coming up to her cabin and suggesting dates he’d already planned.

  “He’s just busy with the construction manager before he leaves.” Sophia was the master of making excuses—for herself or others, it didn’t matter.

  She finished her muffin and slipped into staring. She hated times like these. She wasn’t good idle, and she hadn’t had a lot of downtime this summer. But Marcy and Wyatt were loading up tomorrow, and they’d return to Three Rivers until next summer. She was going over to keep the boys out of the way while Wyatt and Marcy loaded their truck and trailer.