Kiss Me Cowboy (Cowboys of Crested Butte Book 3)

by Heather Slade

  “You can keep your eye on Jace too this way, without him knowing about it. You’ll, at least, know if he bucks off or gets a score.”

  It took Tucker three weeks of looking at houses daily before he found one he wanted Blythe to see. It wasn’t far from Billy and Renie’s ranch.

  Tucker carried her to his truck, where he had pillows lined up to prop around her.

  “You’re going overboard.”

  He glared at her.

  “Never mind,” she laughed. “This is perfect. I’ll be well-padded on every side. Will I be required to be wrapped in bunting whenever we go for a ride in your truck? Or do you think bubble wrap would work better?”

  “You’re on bed rest. Do you remember that part? I’m sure, if we asked the doc, he wouldn’t approve a twenty-minute ride on a dirt road.”

  She smiled and winked at him. “I love you, Tucker Rice.”

  “And I love you, Blythe…Cochran.”

  The house was spectacular. It was under construction, but it was almost finished.

  “I don’t understand. Did the people building it decide they didn’t want to live in it?”

  “Financial issues. Anyway, it’s surrounded by a little over one hundred acres, mostly forested. Isn’t it great?”

  “One hundred acres? I don’t even know what that means.”

  “Well, your parents’ place sits on about five acres. So we’ll have twenty times more than that.”

  “For what? Don’t tell me you want to have horses, Tucker. I’m not as into horses as Renie.”

  He laughed. “We don’t have to have horses, Blythe, but I need space. I may add a barn at some point, but it would be more of a workshop and art studio for me than it would be to board horses.”

  He walked around and opened her door. “Are you ready to go inside?”

  “You aren’t going to carry me, are you?”

  “Of course, I am.” Tucker carried her up the steps and nudged the front door open with his knee. “I think this counts as carrying you over the threshold, doesn’t it?”

  She held up her left hand. “I don’t see a ring on this hand, Mr. Rice. It doesn’t count until we’re officially husband and wife.”

  “Okay, then.”

  “Okay, then, what?”

  “Let’s look at the rest of this place.”

  They walked from room to room in the two-story house.

  “It seems huge, Tucker.”

  “It’s about six thousand square feet.”

  “Again, I don’t know what that means.”

  “It’s about the same size as your parents’ house.”

  “But their house is ginormous. What do we need with all this space, Tucker?”

  He patted her stomach. “For this little one and his brothers and sisters.”

  “How often do you plan to impregnate me?”

  “As often as you’ll let me.”

  Tucker led her over to the fireplace. The hearth was built up, so she could sit on it.

  “What do you think?” he asked.

  “I like it. But it’s up to you. If you like it, that’s what matters. Um…you know, can we, uh…afford it? I don’t make very much money you know.”

  Tucker kissed her forehead. “Yes, Blythe, we can afford it.”

  “Tucker?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What about your house in Spain? And your condo in Aspen, the one you share with Jace?”

  Tucker didn’t want to talk about the condo, but he was going to have to get used to talking to Blythe about everything. Not only the easy stuff, the hard stuff, too.

  “I signed the condo over to Jace. He owns it outright now.”

  “Does that mean you’ve talked to him?”

  No, it didn’t, he told her. He’d asked his father to handle it through their family’s attorney. Since they were brothers, a simple quitclaim deed took care of it. As far as the place in Spain, they didn’t need to worry about it for now. He wanted to take her and the baby there when they could travel. After that, they’d decide what to do about it together.

  “Tucker?”

  “You’re full of questions today, aren’t you?”

  “We’re making a lot of assumptions. Just because we’re having a baby together doesn’t mean we automatically have to start making all these decisions. Maybe we should figure out, you know, if we’re going to be together, or not, first.”

  He knelt down in front of her and pulled her in, close to him. “You like it when I make decisions for you,” he winked.

  “I do, when you’re picking restaurants, or what we’re going to eat, but when it’s about the rest of our lives, maybe you should let me give you my opinion.”

  “Okay, then,” he reached into his pocket. “What is your opinion of this ring? It’s the one I picked out in order to ask you to marry me.”

  Blythe stared down at the ring he had in his hand. It was an emerald-cut diamond, flanked by two similar-sized emeralds. “It’s magnificent,” she said.

  “Since you think so,” he slipped it on her finger. “Would you like to give me your opinion about marrying me?”

  “I would love to marry you.” She kissed him. “I love you, Tucker.”

  “I love you, Blythe. So, what do you think of the house?”

  “Also magnificent, even if it is a bit big.”

  “So it’s a yes to the ring, a yes to marriage, and a yes to the house?”

  “Yes, to all of the above.”

  She and Tucker walked through the house a couple more times and talked about which room they would use as a nursery, and what they might do with the others. When Blythe yawned Tucker told her it was time for him to get her back to her parents’ house. “Your dad is preparing a celebration feast.”

  “Why?”

  “Bree is coming over, and I heard a rumor that Liv and Ben are in town with little Caden, which means we are expecting Billy, Renie, and Willow, too. Oh, and Dottie and Bill. And Lyric. I think that about covers it.”

  Someone was missing. They both knew it—it didn’t need to be said. It had been over a month since anyone had heard from Jace. Tucker told Blythe that his mother said he was okay; that he was taking time for himself. When his mom asked if he wanted to know where Jace was, or how to get in touch with him, Tucker declined.

  “You’re both my children, and I hate to see you and Jace at odds. He’s your brother, Tucker,” she reminded him.

  It wasn’t a reminder he needed.

  On October 3, Cochran Henry Rice was born at two in the morning. Bree was in the delivery room with Blythe and Tucker, for moral support.

  She pulled out her phone and took photos of the baby boy as he was weighed and measured, and then wrapped in a blanket and handed to his mother. She took another picture of Tucker kissing first Cochran then Blythe.

  She texted every one of them to the same number she’d texted periodically over the last few months. She never got a response, so she didn’t know whether it was still Jace’s number. If it was, she wanted him to see the first photos of their nephew—Aunt Bree and Uncle Jace. He told her once, that they better figure out how to get along because he knew they both planned to be a part of this baby’s life.

  Epilogue

  It had been four months since Jace left Monument. Instead of heading to Crested Butte as everyone expected him to, he went north.

  He’d called Billy the day after he left Colorado. He owed him and Renie that much. They’d been good to him; he considered both of them friends.

  “Take the time you need,” Billy had told him “There ain’t nobody I know who hasn’t done somethin’ they regret, Jace, especially when they were a teenager. You don’t wanna hear my stories. I got a hella lot of ’em.”

  He thanked Billy and told him he’d be in touch. He had no idea when, but when he was ready, he would be.

  “You come see us whenever you want. You’re always welcome here,” Renie told him when Billy handed her the phone.

  In the weeks that fol
lowed, Jace competed in more regional rodeos than he could remember. After the first couple, they all started blending together. Each morning when he woke up, it took him a while to figure out where the hell he was. Once he did, he had to figure out where the hell he was going next. He traveled around Montana and Idaho, and then he traveled to Wyoming to compete in Cheyenne.

  Now he was somewhere in Montana, he wasn’t sure where. He’d been driving all night, headed to a stock contractor’s place. Someone at the last rodeo he was at told him there was an outfit up north, looking for help.

  His phone pinged, and he knew who the text was from. Bree was the only one he ever heard from, other than his mother, who didn’t text—she called.

  He didn’t hear from her often, but this time, he’d been expecting it. He pulled off on the side of the road and looked at the pictures she’d sent. His eyes filled with tears as he scrolled through the photos of his newborn nephew. Her last text said, Cochran Henry Rice, born 2:10 am, nine pounds, four ounces, twenty-one inches.

  He’d never wished he could be in two places at once more than he did right now. If only there was a way he could get back to Colorado to see his nephew, and his brother. But he couldn’t, mainly because he wouldn’t be welcome.

  Tucker knew how to reach him if he wanted to, and he hadn’t. He could feel it, or better put, he couldn’t feel it. Tucker was completely shut off from him. He had been for months.

  If he was being honest with himself—and these days, he was trying damn hard to be—he’d have to admit he’d been hiding out most of the last seven years. That’s what working at the dude ranch in Colorado had been all about.

  No one knew him there. They didn’t know his background; they didn’t know his brother. When he was there, he was Jace Rice, an easy-going cowboy. He flirted with the guests, who soaked it in, and then left when their six-day vacation was over.

  Until the day Irene Fairchild set foot on the ranch, he hadn’t been interested in getting to know anyone well enough that their lives would cross again after the summer ended. She had changed everything.

  In less than a year, he’d gone from that carefree cowboy to one who had to face the pain he’d worked hard to bury. In doing so, he lost his brother. It made him sick to his stomach whenever he thought about it.

  It would be easy to blame Tucker, say he was being an asshole about it. Billy was right, who didn’t fuck up when they were a teenager? Everyone did. Even Tucker had. But he couldn’t blame his brother. He’d had every chance in the world to come clean.

  Of his many regrets, he didn’t know which one was the biggest. Getting involved with Rosa? That had started the chain of events that had come to a crashing conclusion four months ago.

  He also regretted the way things had ended with Bree. It had been important to him to be the one to tell her the story himself, and when she’d questioned his motives, he got angry.

  The fact that she texted meant a lot to him. There had been several times he wanted to pick up the phone and call her. Or at the very least, text her back. But why? Her sister was married to his brother—the brother who never wanted to see him again. As much as he’d been drawn to Bree, leaving then had been best. She had plenty of her own shit to work through.

  He never answered, because he wanted her to forget about him. He wanted to forget himself. How ironic was it that only a few months ago, Tucker had wanted the same thing? He ran after the accident, intending to leave his previous life behind. Now Jace was the one who’d left his life.

  He pulled into a diner in Helena around dawn. He’d get something to eat here, find a place to stay, and then head out in search of the Beiman Rough Stock Company.

  The Beimans were big in Alberta, Canada, and old man Beiman had been inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in the early nineties. Jace remembered hearing about the rough stock contractor’s death a few years ago. He’d died in a car accident along with another rancher known for breaking horses and raising cattle. The loss of both men had been a tragedy talked about often in the rodeo world.

  Beiman’s sons had taken over the rough stock business, but it was becoming too much for the family. Jace heard that they were looking for help in the way of contractors, but he also heard they were looking for a partner, someone to take over the Montana operation.

  If what he’d heard was true, he planned to make the ranch outside Helena, Montana, his new home—at least for the time being. He didn’t allow himself to think too far ahead. Whenever he did, he couldn’t stand the loneliness he predicted would define the rest of his life.

  The meeting with the Beimans lasted a little over two hours. As it turned out, they weren’t looking for a partner as much as they were looking to sell. If he did this, it would mean tying up almost all of his money in the ranch. It wasn’t a decision he wanted to make without talking it over with his parents. He called his father, who agreed to fly up the next day.

  Jace almost cried when he hung up. He missed his family; he hadn’t realized how much. He wished he could talk to Tuck about it, too. This was the kind of thing his brother would have loved to see Jace do. He would have helped Jace come up with a name for the ranch and would have wanted to design a new brand. Jace couldn’t imagine that he’d ever like anything anyone but his brother designed.

  His mom came along, and his parents stayed in Helena for two weeks. When they left, his mom and dad were his partners in a 12,000-acre business venture they named Triple-Bar-R Rough Stock and Cattle Company.

  It hadn’t worked out the way Jace had originally planned, but his father was unrelenting in his insistence that he wanted to be a partner in his son’s venture. Jace only had to liquidate half of his holdings to make the deal; both his parents put up the rest of the capital needed. They were headed back to Aspen now but intended to come back and settle in one of the two main houses already built on the ranch property.

  For the second time in as many weeks, Jace found himself on the verge of tears. Having his parents close was something he hadn’t even considered. Maybe the on-going ache of loneliness would be somewhat diminished by knowing they were within arms’ reach.

  The day Bree graduated with her master’s degree was bittersweet. Her whole family was there, even Brooke and her husband flew in from Germany. No matter how many people surrounded her, it didn’t make up for the two who didn’t. Everyone knew she’d be missing Zack today, but no one knew there was someone else she wished was there.

  It had been almost a year, but she still thought about Jace almost every day, especially when she was with Cochran. When she wasn’t studying or working on her thesis, Bree spent as much time as she could with Blythe and the baby.

  She helped them furnish and decorate the house in Black Forest, and offered to babysit at least once a week, so Blythe and Tucker could have some time alone. They usually went out for dinner, which meant they were gone less than two hours, but Bree lived for that time with her nephew.

  He was growing up so fast, and Jace was missing it. She took pictures and wanted to text them to him, but since he never responded when she did, she wondered if maybe he didn’t want to see them. So she eventually stopped.

  After the graduation ceremony, they went back to her parents’ house, where they were hosting a barbecue. She spent most of the afternoon waging a battle with threatening tears.

  Blythe asked her if she wanted to go for a walk with her and Cochran.

  “I could tell you were uncomfortable,” Blythe told her.

  “Emotional more than uncomfortable.”

  “You miss him.”

  “Zack? Of course, I do. I miss him every day.” The tears she fought hard to keep control of began to fall. Thinking about Zack made her think of Jace. How crazy was that? But he would’ve understood how she was feeling today, if no one else did. God, she missed him.

  “Not Zack, Bree. I know you miss Jace.”

  That made her cry harder. “I do. I miss him so much. Is that horrible, Blythe? Am I a terrible person? I miss Jace
more than I miss Zack.”

  “I don’t think that’s true. I think you miss both of them. They’re intertwined. Jace became someone you leaned on after Zack died.”

  “Jace was…a friend, I suppose. I didn’t even know him very well. It’s silly that I miss him. Has Tucker talked to him?”

  “No, but we talk to his parents. They moved to Montana. Jace bought a ranch and they’re going to help him run it.”

  “Jace bought a ranch? Why?”

  “I’m not sure, but Hank and Carol are partners with him in it.”

  “Where is it?”

  “Somewhere near Helena, I think. I’ll call his mom this week and see what else I can find out. When I do, I’ll let you know.”

  “He’s raising rough stock,” Blythe told her a few days later when Bree was having lunch with her and Lyric.

  “What’s that?”

  “What’s what?” asked Lyric.

  “Rough stock,” answered Bree.

  “You know, broncs and bulls.”

  “Rodeo broncs and bulls?”

  “Well, yeah,” Lyric rolled her eyes. “What else would someone raise them for?”

  “Does he know what he’s doing?”

  “He must. It’s a big investment. I wouldn’t think he’d get into it if he didn’t.”

  Bree wanted to change the subject. She thought about Jace Rice too much as it was. Imagining him working a ranch in Montana wasn’t helping. Picturing him on the back of a horse, his face weathered from days spent riding…she fanned herself.

  “Have you decided what you’re going to do next?”

  “I’ve been applying for teaching positions. I may have a chance at a temporary position at the Air Force Academy. It’s at the junior faculty level, and only for two years, but it’s a start.”

  “You aren’t moving out?”

  “I hadn’t planned on it, but I suppose I could find another place if you needed me to.”