by Seton, Cora
“You can’t turn down a lead role in a fantastic film,” Camila said as she passed out food among the gathered women. They sat around the Hall’s large dining room table for the meeting Regan had orchestrated when Ella confessed that she couldn’t make up her mind what to do. Ella had felt like she could take her time coming to a decision, but Regan seemed to think she needed to settle things fast. Ella assumed she was worried what would happen with Heloise if Ella left the ranch before April, and she tried to assure Regan she wouldn’t let anything ruin their chances to inherit Crescent Hall, but Regan persisted and Ella finally agreed that a meeting with her friends was bound to help.
Camila tossed her long, wavy hair over her shoulder. “I left my whole family behind to follow my dream, and it’s turned out okay for me.”
Ella wasn’t sure that was strictly true. Camila obviously loved running the restaurant with Fila, but she often grew quiet in the middle of a boisterous good time with the others, and Ella had the feeling she was thinking about the family she left behind. From what she’d learned, Camila was one of many children in a proud Mexican-American family that valued culinary skills above all else. Ella knew from sampling Camila’s food many times now that the woman could cook, but apparently she’d stepped on some toes back in Texas when the patrons at her family’s restaurant preferred her cooking to that of her older brother’s. Ella thought it was sad that Camila’s family didn’t feel there was enough room for several fantastic cooks in their restaurant, and that Camila had felt the need to move a thousand miles away to fulfill her dream.
“That’s just it,” she said to Camila. “I’m not at all sure that acting is my dream, and if it isn’t, why would I disrupt everything?”
“How can being a star not be your dream?” Maya asked. The younger woman seemed shocked by the idea. “Most people would kill for the chance.”
“It’s funny how many people say that and how few people actually try,” Ella said wryly. “Look, it is glamorous at times and I did enjoy aspects of the work, but a lot of the time it isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. It’s a lot of waiting around, memorizing lines, dodging the producer so he doesn’t feel you up, being talked about by the director as if you aren’t even there. It’s great, but… I don’t know.”
“What does Austin say?” Stella asked.
“He said I need to make up my own mind.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?”
“In theory, yes. But in reality it means that I have to figure out what to do all on my own.”
The other women chuckled sympathetically. Regan said, “How about this. Don’t think at all—just answer my question immediately, okay?”
Ella nodded.
“Do you want to move to Hollywood for six to nine months?”
“No!”
Everyone pulled back at her vehemence. “Okay,” Regan said slowly. “Let’s talk about that for a minute. Why don’t you want to go back there?”
Ella swallowed. “For one thing, I don’t want to be talked about anymore. I don’t want to be followed around. I don’t want photos taken of me. I don’t want to see my face on the covers of tabloids. I don’t want to be analyzed to death. I don’t want to be public property.”
Stella whipped out a pad of paper and a pen from her purse and began to scribble. “Is there more?”
“I don’t like the people. If I had this conversation with a bunch of other actors, or other industry people, I’d find half of it quoted in the celebrity blogs the next day. You can’t trust anyone. No one really cares.”
“Keep going,” Stella said.
“I want to try something new—something brand new. I think I want to work with horses and kids. I want to help make someone’s life better, you know?”
“If you make the right movie, it could have that kind of impact,” Regan pointed out.
“I know, but that’s not what I mean. I want a connection with the person I help. I want it to be one on one.”
Regan nodded. “Got it.”
“Anything else?” Stella said.
“I guess… I want to stay here,” Ella said softly. “I want to get to know all of you better. I want to be a part of what Austin and Mason and Regan are building here, and I want to be part of the community, too. I want to know how all of your stories end.”
Stella looked up. “Just so you know, I don’t plan on dying any time soon.”
“You know what I mean.” Ella laughed. “I like it here. I really do. I like myself here.”
Regan looked a little misty-eyed. “I’m glad you like it here. I’d miss you a lot if you left.”
“I think you’ve forgotten something—something important,” Stella said, her pen poised over the paper.
Ella nodded. “I have. The most important thing.” She looked around the table at her friends, and knew for sure that they were her friends and that she could tell them anything. “I love Austin. I love him. I don’t know why I love him, but I do. I want to watch him transform this ranch into a working operation and I want to help him do it. I want his children.” Now she was misty-eyed. “I don’t want to go.”
Regan leaned forward. “Then don’t! If you love Austin, you have to stay.” She looked triumphant, as if her words had decided things.
Stella sat back in her chair and held up the paper as if about to give them a lecture. “Hollywood is bad, Chance Creek is good and you love Austin. I think that sums it up, right?”
Ella laughed. “I guess so. I thought I was a little more complicated than that, though.”
“Simple is good,” Camila said to Ella’s surprise. Was that envy she saw in Camila’s expression? “When you know what you really want, it’s easy to go and get it. If what you want is this ranch and this man, then grab on tight and don’t let go.”
And that, Ella thought, was very good advice indeed.
There was only one problem. When she’d told Austin she loved him, he hadn’t said it back.
Chapter 31
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Why had he told Ella to make up her own mind about whether to stay in Chance Creek or accept the part in the movie she’d been offered? At the very least Austin should have showered her with good reasons for not leaving, but instead he’d chosen to be gentlemanly and let her decide for herself.
He was an idiot.
But he was an idiot with a plan. Austin had thought about Regan’s suggestion about the obstacle course and decided she was right; he could do something with that. He’d zipped into town for all the fixings he needed—champagne and a picnic basket packed full of luxury items from the best grocery store in town, supplemented with some gourmet sandwiches from his favorite deli. He hid everything in the woods in the basket and an ice chest and then went to lure Ella to the obstacle course.
He should probably wait for her to tell him what her decision was before he popped the question, but he’d decided that was backwards. She had to know exactly where she stood with him. She had to know he wanted her to be his wife for real. How could she make the best decision without that knowledge?
He found Ella exiting the Hall’s kitchen door after her visitors’ vehicles pulled out of the driveway. “You got a minute?” he called out, crossing the ground between them in long strides.
“Sure.” She moved forward to meet him happily and it warmed his heart to see her smile. She looked peaceful somehow. At ease. Austin stopped in his tracks. Had she made her decision already?
Had she decided to leave?
Ella stopped, too. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” If she’d decided to leave, he’d change her mind. “Come on, I want to show you something.”
“Okay. Mind if we talk while we walk? I’ve got something I’d like to tell you.”
Austin picked up his pace. “Let’s talk afterward. This can’t wait.”
“Oh, okay.” She looked up at him expectantly. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see in a minute.” Damn, it was harder than he had expected to get her to the cour
se before she spilled her guts about her decision, or he spilled his guts about what he had planned. If he walked any faster, he’d have to take her hand and drag her over the grass, but if he didn’t speed things up, she might ask too many questions, or blurt out the fact she wanted to leave. That would ruin everything.
Austin began to jog. After a startled moment, Ella jogged too, catching up with him. “Are we going to the obstacle course?”
He put on a burst of speed. A second later, she was dashing along beside him. “Austin!”
“Here we are,” he said with a flourish, coming to a stop by the first set of monkey bars.
“What is going on?” At least she was laughing, although she probably thought he’d lost his mind.
“We’re going to race.”
“Race? Are you kidding?”
“I’m not kidding. There’s a prize at the end for the winner. It’s worth a lot, so you’d better go for it.”
“I can’t… Austin, you know I can’t do half the obstacles!”
“I’ll help.”
“But…” She looked at him helplessly. “Okay.”
“Really?” He’d expected her to argue.
“If you say we should race, then we’ll race.”
“Okay, then.” He breathed a sigh of relief and decided not to question her acquiescence. He tugged her into position in front of one of the sets of monkey bars and took his own place in front of the other one. “On your mark, get set, go!”
* * *
Equine therapy. Once more she was practicing her own brand of equine therapy in which she was the horse. This time Austin was the client who needed to regain trust and confidence.
Although the man exuded confidence. Especially when he whipped across the monkey bars in two seconds flat, jumped down and went up and over the wall like an Olympic athlete leaping a hurdle.
Just like Richard, he popped back around the wall as she jumped down from her own set of monkey bars, crouched in the dirt and laced his fingers together to lift her up. Unlike Richard, he knew exactly what he was doing. He rose to his feet, boosted her with a manly hand on her ass that had her more flustered than the wall itself did, and managed to run around and catch her on her ungainly way down the other side.
He held her hand as they trotted to the next obstacle, then let go when they had to run the tire course, putting a foot down in the center of each tire like football players did to practice agility. Then they were down in the dirt crawling under the barbed wire.
“You’re doing great,” Austin called, and Ella realized she was. Last time when she’d done this with Richard she’d gotten the hang of army crawling about halfway through. This time she went all out, conscious that about an acre of dirt was headed under her waistband as she did so. She actually beat Austin out from under the wire by a half-second.
“Yeah! That’s how you do it!”
Had his father cheered him on like this when Austin had been little, Ella wondered as they each ran to grab a rope swing over a gully. Apparently Austin hit it just wrong because he didn’t make it across the first time. Was he too busy watching her to see what he was doing? If so, she’d take advantage of that. She traversed the next few obstacles quickly, no longer looking over her shoulder to check his progress, and when she got to the log balance beams she was so intent on winning she didn’t slow down to ask for help. Instead, she ran full tilt at the inclined log leading up to the beam and just had time to notice that someone had tied loops of thick rope around it to provide more footholds than had previously been there.
Now she slowed down and began to very carefully step down the length of the log. It was wide enough that she shouldn’t have had any problem making her way along it, but it was also high enough to make her very nervous about falling down. She kept her focus straight ahead and held her breath nearly the whole way until finally she could slip and skid down the far log and jump to the ground.
“That was amazing.”
Ella nearly jumped out of her skin to find Austin so close. At her startled look he said, “I spotted you. We always do that for people who are new to the course—this is the most dangerous obstacle.”
He drew closer and Ella saw the admiration in his eyes. “I’ve only seen a handful of women do the course—girls, really, back in our teenage years—and I’ve never seen anyone so graceful on the beam.”
Ella soaked up the compliment readily. And the kiss he followed it up with. Kissing Austin was something she’d never get tired of, that was for sure.
“Come on, you still have a few obstacles to go.”
“And you’d better get back there and do the balance beam, soldier.”
He grinned. “I will. Good luck on the salmon ladder.”
“Fuck.” Whoops. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but she’d forgotten about the stupid salmon ladder. Thirty pull-ups would take forever in her case. She’d better make use of the time he’d spend retracing his steps to do the balance beam. “See you at the finish line.”
Austin was chuckling as he moved away. Ella dashed to the salmon ladder, put her metal bar in position on the first set of rungs and started her pull-ups, doing a few at a time. At ten, her arms burned. At thirteen, she thought she would die. She began to do one at a time, jumping down to pace in a circle in between. Austin rejoined her when she hit seventeen. He jumped up to grab his bar and began to pop up the salmon ladder in an incredibly sexy, incredibly aggravating way. If she didn’t want to lose, she’d have to distract him—fast.
“Go, Air Force!” she yelled.
“What?” Austin dropped off the ladder, mid-pop. He turned on her, his hands on his hips. “What did you just say?”
Ella did another pull-up. And another one. “Didn’t I tell you I love fighter pilots?”
“Like hell you do!” Austin confronted her. Ella jumped up and did another pull-up.
“They’re so much smarter than all the other servicemen.”
Austin scoffed. “Pilots are idiots. All that flying scrambles their brains.”
Ella did a pull-up. “They’ve got hot butts. And abs.”
“Hotter than this?” Austin tore off his shirt and flexed his muscles. Ella, in the middle of another pull-up, didn’t quite make it up. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
“But they are cute. Even you have to admit that.”
Austin snorted. “I’d sooner jump out of a plane without a parachute.” He headed back over to the salmon ladder and started over. The play of his muscles under his skin was delicious, but Ella forced herself to do another pull-up. That was twenty-two. Eight more to go. Meanwhile, Austin was popping up the salmon ladder like there was nothing to it.
“Go, Navy!”
He jumped down again. Faced her. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
She did another pull-up. Or almost did. It was close enough. She knew her face had to be bright red with the exertion. A bead of sweat was trickling down between her shoulder blades. Attractive. Real attractive. “Come on, everyone loves seamen.” She cracked herself up with her own silly joke, or maybe it was the exertion which had made her light-headed. Either way, her grip slipped and she fell off the bar, collapsing into a heap on the ground.
Austin shook his head at her. “What is wrong with you?”
She flopped onto her back. “Too many pull-ups.”
“You’ve got to be nearly to twenty by now.”
She sat up and glared at him. “Twenty? I’m past that! Richard said it was thirty!”
Austin stretched out a hand and pulled her to her feet. “It’s thirty for boys. Twenty for women. Now stand here and see how it’s done.” He let go of her hand, returned the bar on his set to its starting position and grabbed hold of it, popping his way up from one level to the next. “It’s all upper body strength and control,” he called down. “You see, you—”
Ella didn’t stay to listen. She dashed on to the next obstacle.
Chapter 32
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Austin jumped down
from the salmon ladder when he’d completed it to find he’d been talking to himself. Ella was nowhere to be seen. Sneaky woman. He trotted off to find her and put on speed when he realized how far she’d gotten ahead of him. He made short work of the next obstacles and caught up with her as she reached the final stretch to the finish line. Ella looked to be going for broke, running as fast as she could, and Austin reminded himself that he wanted her to win, but he wanted to be there for the win, too, so he picked up his pace again.
“Hi!” he said when he caught up.
Ella shrieked, veered off the path and would have smacked straight into a tree if he hadn’t yanked her away at the last second. They both nearly overbalanced but he caught and steadied her until she’d regained her feet. She glared at him, breathing hard. “If you’re going to keep cheating, I’m not running this race!”
“I didn’t cheat—I just said hello.”
“You snuck up on me!”
“I promise I won’t sneak anymore.”
She started to jog again and he followed suit. “Stay where I can see you,” she demanded when he lagged a little behind her again.
“I’m right here.” He had to let her win, after all.
She stopped in her tracks. “All of you. I want to see all of you, or I’m not going a step farther!”
She was cute when she was mad. Sexy, too. He could forget the race and take her right here… No, he had to keep going. She had to win so he could give her her prize. But if she wanted to see all of him, he’d be happy to oblige.
He began to strip.
“What are you doing?” Her voice lifted into a squeak and Austin laughed at the look of consternation on her face.
“I’m letting you see all of me.” He unzipped his pants and dropped them to the ground, his boxers with them.
“Oh, for heaven’s sakes.” Ella pivoted and began to run again. Austin made short work of undressing and soon caught up. Running naked was… well… freeing. And a little strange. He belatedly hoped Richard wouldn’t choose today to show up as he passed Ella, turned around and kept running backward.
