by Lane, Soraya
“It’s not just about impressing you with the plane,” Chase told her. “When we get there it’ll make sense. Trust me.”
“I’m just not sure about going back, Chase. I don’t want to keep thinking about what we lost there.”
He looked into the only pair of eyes that had ever had the power to truly captivate him, and gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. For the first time in his life he was ready to give up everything for a woman, and it scared the crap out of him.
“Just trust me, Hope. You’ll be happy you did, okay?”
Harrison slapped at Chase’s leg just as he was about to kiss Hope.
“Hey Chase? Do you mean like a real real plane or a pretend one?”
Chase looked at Hope and they both burst out laughing. “A real real plane, Harris. Now let’s give your mom a minute to get ready. You like video games?”
“Yeah!”
“Then how about I make a call and check we’ve got some good kids movies and games on the plane, huh?”
Chase ruffled Harrison’s hair, something inside of him turning to mush as the kid smiled up at him. He’d never been a soft touch, never, and all of a sudden he wanted to bend over backward just to make the boy happy. Not to mention the fact that he’d warned his brothers they might have to make some changes around the ranch. It’d break his heart to leave Texas, but if it meant keeping Hope and Harrison in his life, then there was nothing he wouldn’t do. He protected what was his and fought for what he wanted, and there was no battle too big when it came to family. Not one.
* * *
“I still can’t believe it,” Hope said, nose pressed to the glass as they landed at Grand Forks International Airport. “You didn’t have to make some grand gesture to impress me.” He didn’t have to, but he sure as hell had impressed her.
“It’s nothing.”
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Yeah, ’cause just anyone could fire up their private jet and whisk a girl off for the day.”
“Hey, if you want me to get the pilot to turn back around…”
“No!” Hope pried her eyes from the window and turned her focus on Chase. “I just can’t believe that when I woke up this morning I was prepping for a day at work, and now I’m here. The last time I was in GFK, I was a mess.”
Chase was sitting beside Harrison, who was too busy playing games on the screen that was attached to his chair to even notice that they’d just landed, and she was sitting across from him.
“These past couple of weeks seeing you again have been like…” Her eyebrows pulled together as she tried to find the right word. “Like a dream, I guess. Part of me still thinks I’m going to wake up one morning and I’ll have just imagined it all.”
Chase leaned forward and took her hand in two of his, turning it over so he could stroke her palm. “And the other part?”
She shook her head, refusing to cry even as emotion bubbled up in her throat. Hope took a deep breath and smiled as Chase brought her hand up to meet his mouth and pressed a gentle kiss to her wrist.
“That part is telling me just to stop overthinking everything for once and enjoy life.”
“I’d listen to that voice, if I were you,” he told her.
She smiled as the flight attendant approached them now that they’d landed. “Mr. King, is there anything you need?”
“No, thank you. We’ll be wheels up before dark, so please be prepared to leave again within a few hours.”
“If you were me, Chase, what would you be thinking right now?” Hope asked, still completely at a loss to figure out why he’d whisked her away from Texas on such short notice.
“I’d be wondering if I was going to visit my family’s old ranch.”
Her heart started to beat faster than it should have. She’d sworn never to go back there, to never torture herself by dreaming about what she’d never be able to have again, and now here she was desperate to head straight there.
“And if I asked you that?”
Chase leaned over and carefully took the headphones off Harrison, and that made Hope worry all over again. She loved seeing Chase with their son. The only trouble was that Harrison still didn’t know and she was terrified of telling him in case it all turned to shit. After so long of everything going pear shaped on her, she didn’t have a whole ton of confidence about life suddenly throwing her a lifeline.
“We’re here, little man,” Chase said.
Harrison looked up. “We’re home?”
Hope forced a smile when all she wanted to do was frown. “We’re almost back in Canada.”
She looked up at Chase. He’d never answered her question and she needed to know.
“It just so happens that we’re heading to Rocking R Ranch as soon as we get off the plane,” Chase was telling Harrison, but he was staring at her. “If your mom says that’s okay.”
“But the new owners…” she protested, torn between wanting to go back and hating the thought of seeing new owners on the property where she’d grown up.
“Were investors and have never moved in,” he told her. “There’ll be no one there.”
Hope’s heart started to pound again, heat spreading across her body. “So no one’s moved into the main house?” She wasn’t sure whether to be angry or happy.
“They’re all questions you can ask the realtor,” Chase said cryptically. “So I take back what I said before. There will be one other person there.”
If they’d been alone she would have leaped on him and begged him to tell her what the hell was going on, but with Harrison listening to every word they were saying, his eyes on theirs, she just squirmed in her seat.
“It seems like you know more than I do about the ranch,” she said, raising an eyebrow and reaching for her bag. “I presume the realtor is doing you a favor?”
“Everyone has a price, Hope,” Chase said. “Everyone.”
* * *
The drive from GFK to Rocking R seemed to take forever, but Hope didn’t want to give Chase the satisfaction of begging him for information. Harrison had fallen asleep, the journey on the plane taking it out of him. He was a great kid, but he was only four, and he was absolutely exhausted.
“We’re here,” she said, leaning forward as the property came into view. Two massive rocks marked the entrance, a wooden sign hanging high and bearing the ranch name, a sign that her granddad had made for her dad when she was just a kid.
Chase grinned and took the turn slowly in the rental car, driving at a snail’s pace as they made their way toward the house. Tears welled up in her eyes as she watched the trees waving in the wind, the large specimens planted all the way up on either side of the driveway.
“It’s beautiful, Hope,” Chase said, taking his eyes off the drive and reaching for her hand. “I didn’t realize how amazing it would be.”
“You don’t have to be in Texas to see an incredible ranch.”
Hope blinked away tears and when Chase stopped the car he turned to face her, brushing away a few tears that had escaped before they could fall right down her cheeks.
“I know this is hard, but you needed to come back.”
She shook her head, biting down on her bottom lip. “So I could remember what I’d lost?” She was trying not to be angry with him, her excitement turning to dread now they were here, but it was hard not to be pissed off with him all of the sudden.
There was a tap on the window and she turned away so the woman standing there couldn’t see her tears. Chase never took his eyes off her, she knew because his body didn’t moved an inch, and he reached for her hands, taking both of hers into his.
“Just trust me, Hope. I’m doing this for you, and it’s supposed to be a happy day, not a sad one.”
Hope nodded and let Chase kiss her. She craned her head to look at Harrison in the backseat, still asleep, and followed Chase’s lead, pushing open her door and stepping out. Familiar smells hit her straightaway; a rush of feelings that almost took the breath from her lungs.
> She could hear Chase talking, but she wasn’t listening. Instead she was looking around her, taking in the house that still seemed like home to her. The wooden exterior was in perfect condition, but it was nothing over-the-top or fancy from the outside, just a beautiful ranch house full of beautiful memories. Farther away were more trees, their branches covered in vivid green leaves, the fields a more parched shade of yellow stretching farther than the naked eye would ever be able to see.
“Hope?”
Chase’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. “Sorry, I was a million miles away.”
She noticed the realtor had returned to her car, was standing beside it and tapping at her phone.
“You want to take a look around?” Chase asked.
“No,” she said, shaking her head and wishing to hell she’d never set foot on the place again. “I don’t think coming back was such a good idea.”
“Can I ask you something then?”
She let him take her hand and turn her around. “Sure.” She wasn’t in the mood to play, but Chase had obviously thought he was doing something nice for her in bringing her back. It wasn’t his fault she couldn’t deal with it.
“Come on, I want to ask you somewhere more private.”
The husky note of Chase’s voice surprised her. The last time she’d heard him sound like that they’d both been naked—it was his seriously sexy, deep-in-thought voice. The one that usually sent shivers down her spine, anticipating what might come next.
“I don’t want to go too far,” she said, glancing back at their vehicle. “Just in case Harrison wakes up.”
“Neither do I. Just come over here by this tree.”
She followed. “Chase, I…”
“Just stop talking,” he ordered, grabbing her hand. “This will only take a minute.”
“What will?” she asked.
“This,” Chase said, his face lighting up as he grinned and dropped to one knee.
“Chase…” Her hands were shaking, her breathing shallow as Chase looked up at her, his dark eyes tinged with gold as he watched her.
“Hope, I let you walk out of my life almost five years ago, and it was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”
She let him take both of her hands, tears filling her eyes again as he smiled and gripped her fingers.
“I don’t want to make that mistake again, which is why I have something to ask you.”
Chase let go of one of her hands to reach for something, but he never once broke their gaze.
“Hope Walker, I love you. I can’t believe it took me so long to admit it, but it’s true.” He laughed, and she realized he was nervous—it was the first time she’d seen him look even remotely unsure of himself before. “Hope, will you marry me?”
“Marry you?” If she’d thought she couldn’t breathe before, then now she was positively being strangled. A rush of warmth through her body made her hold Chase’s hand even tighter, worried she was about to faint.
But Chase had other ideas. He let go of her hand and held it out instead, slipping something cold against her skin, something… Oh my God. The something was the biggest diamond she’d ever seen, a single solitaire on a plain platinum band. She looked from the ring to Chase and back again.
“What do you say?”
“Chase, you don’t have to do this,” she mumbled, shaking her head, trying to wake up from what had to be a dream.
“I don’t have to do anything,” he said, his voice strong and confident, as self-assured as she was nervous right now. “I want to marry you, Hope.”
“If you’re doing this to try to stay in Harrison’s life, because you think it’s the right thing, because…” He silenced her jumble of words when he stood, staring down at her with a determined look on his face that she’d never seen before.
“Hope, I want you to forget everything you worried about when Harrison was born, okay?” he said, cupping her face with both hands and looking into her eyes, his touch so tender, so soft it was almost painful. “I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And with our son. Is that so hard to believe?”
“I’m not even officially divorced yet,” she muttered.
Chase’s eyebrows shot up. “Need me to track the bastard down and kneecap him so he signs the papers?”
Hope sighed, but she wasn’t even sure if Chase was kidding or not. “No.”
“You sure about that?” His eyebrows were raised, a determined look on his face as he waited for her reply.
“Maybe you could just hurt him a little,” she said with a laugh. “Although knowing you, you probably won’t stop at one punch.”
“Done. A black eye but no broken bones,” Chase said. “Now I’m gonna do this again, and this time you need to give me an answer.” The no-nonsense look on his face was replaced with a softer, more loving expression.
Hope reached for Chase’s hands and held them tight when he dropped on bended knee again, his smile warming her like no other man ever could have. His eyes were bright and so full of kindness, so far removed from the man who was capable of protecting her in a rowdy bar, who she knew would have no qualms about physically dealing with her ex if she asked him to.
“Hope, will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she said straightaway, unable to contain her smile any longer. “Yes, yes, yes!”
Chase was back on his feet and scooping her up into his arms within seconds, his lips closing over hers in a kiss that was almost as dizzying as the way he was twirling her.
“I love you, baby,” he whispered against her mouth.
Hope looped her arms around Chase’s neck and kissed him again. “I love you, too.”
When he finally set her back down on her feet, he kept hold of her, his arm locked around her and keeping her snug against his body. They stood like that, staring out at the land, land that was a part of Hope’s soul, that she would never forget for as long as she lived. It was so surreal that she was convinced she was about to wake from a dream.
“Chase, why did you bring me here?” He could have proposed to her anywhere. “Why here?”
His smile was mischievous.
“Chase?” she asked, pushing away from him so she could try to read his face.
“This is your home, sweetheart. It should belong to you.”
She stared at him, eyes wide. “What have you done?”
“I found a very helpful realtor, and even though the new owners were very happy with their purchase, I worked out that magic price that made them reconsider.”
“Chase, you didn’t….”
“You want your ranch back, it’s yours,” he said simply, like he’d just offered to buy her a trinket or a piece of art, not something that cost tens of millions of dollars. “And there are no strings attached. If you’d rather be here with just Harrison, it’s still yours. But given what I just asked you, I think I’ve made my feelings very clear. About both of you.”
Hope took a few steps back, needed some space from Chase for a second as she tired to digest what he’d said. She felt her eyebrows pull together as she tried to comprehend what he’d just offered her. What he’d just agreed to.
“So you’re saying that we can live here? That you’ll leave your family behind, that you’ll give up running King Ranch to be here with us?”
Chase nodded. “I understand what it means to feel a connection with the land you love. But the only thing stronger than that is family, and you and Harrison are my family now.”
Hope couldn’t hold back her tears any longer. She gasped as emotion choked her, tears rushing down her cheeks at the enormity of what Chase was offering her.
“No,” she finally said, cocooned safely in Chase’s arms as she cried, pulling herself together. “No.”
“What do you mean no?” Chase asked gruffly.
“I’m not letting you leave your family or your ranch for us,” she said, feeling even more certain about her words as she said them, empowered by what she was about to tell him. “Yo
ur home is our home, and that means we all belong at King Ranch.” She reached up to touch his face, stroking down his cheekbone and to his jaw. “You’re building a new house there and I’m not going to be the one to make you leave your family. They mean too much to you.”
“So do you.” His words were simple. “I love you, Hope. Always have, always will.”
She smiled, blinking away tears that were bittersweet. “And I love you more than I love this place. Here”—she gestured around them—“is a place of memories. Beautiful, wonderful memories, but they’re in the past. You?” Hope stood on tiptoe and kissed him, indulging in the feel of his full, delicious lips against hers. “You’re my future, Chase. I’ll choose you every single time.”
He wrapped his arms around her, held her in a bear hug so tight she could hardly breathe. “I love you,” he muttered, “and for the record, I’m still buying you this place.”
“But…”
He released her and slung his arm around her, turning them back around so they were facing the house. The realtor was nowhere to be seen, but she was probably just giving them their space.
“It’s a good investment, and you have history here,” he told her as they walked, hips bumping as they made their way back toward the car. “Who knows? Maybe one day Harrison will want to run a quarter horse stud here like his mom wanted to? All I care about is making sure it’s here for him if and when he wants it. It’s his legacy." He grinned. “Hey, we found a new foreman for King Ranch easily enough, so we can appoint someone great to run this place too, someone who knows what they’re doing.
“You would do that for us?” she asked. “For our son?”
“Absolutely I would,” he replied. “But there is one condition.”
Hope groaned. “What?”
“No more keeping the truth from Harrison. We tell him,” Chase said, kissing the top of her head, “today. On the land he grew up on, with both of us together.”
Hope took a deep breath, knowing it was the right thing to do even though it terrified her. “Okay. But just because I’m letting you buy the ranch doesn’t mean I don’t want my own independence still.”
