Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 99583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
He leaned back, flashing me a brilliant grin. “Just giving you something to look forward to later on.”
Fuck later on, I thought to myself before I captured his mouth in mine. I didn’t care that well more than half the town was there and we were on full display. I was damn proud of Richard and what he’d accomplished since moving to Wyoming, and I liked making it clear he was mine.
Once I was getting close to the point where I really was thinking about dragging Richard inside, he squirmed away and slid under my arm so he was standing next to me, his hand resting on my chest. He let out a happy sigh that made my heart smile.
“You think it’s going okay?” he asked.
I snorted. “I don’t think it could go any better.”
Richard twisted in my arms and looked up at me. “I can think of a way.” Something mischievous sparkled in his eye. It made me wary.
“Do I want to know?”
He nodded very seriously. “You do. You very much do.” Then he turned, threw up his arm, and shouted, “Hit it!”
I swear to god, an entire marching band came streaming out of the horse barn, drums beating in time to their steps. Two dozen middle-school-aged boys and girls came running forward in the crowd, which parted to give them room. When they reached the clearing at the base of the porch stairs, they arranged themselves in a semicircle.
“What in the—”
Before I could finish the statement, Richard vaulted down the steps. The drums paused. An older teen held a baton in the air, counted off the beat, and then lowered it. At his signal, the band burst into music, horning blaring and drums thumping. The semicircle of kids began to dance in unison. The crowd had thronged around them and started to clap along.
It was like a damned flash mob on my own ranch.
And in the center of it all was the man I loved—the man who’d taken my practical, ordered life and made it shine with color and whimsy and fun—watching me with so much heat and affection on his face I could barely breathe.
Jed elbowed me toward the stairs, and I descended, never taking my eyes off Richard. And when I finally stood in front of him, he dropped to one knee at my feet.
I’d imagined this moment many, many times in the months since Richard had moved to the ranch, but in every iteration, I’d been the one doing the knee-bending, and there hadn’t been a tuba in sight. This seemed really silly of me in retrospect.
“Boone Hammond,” Richard began, tilting his head back to look up at me. His chin wobbled a little, and his eyes went shiny. “Do you know how I knew you were the one for me? Because you never asked me to give up my sparkles in order to fit in around here. Even when you doubted me, you gave me a chance to prove myself. And now I know…” He made a noise like his throat had gone tight. “Now I know I’m a hard worker. Because it turns out, I wasn’t proving myself to you or anyone else.”
The adoration in his gaze made my knees weak. I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life being his home and his safe place. The audience for his zany ideas, his co-conspirator, and his comfort when some of them didn’t go the way he hoped.
“You believe in me,” Richard said softly.
“I love you,” I corrected just as softly, and Richard’s eyes lit up with the kind of joy he brought me every damn day.
“And I love you, Boone Hammond. So much. Marry me?”
I felt my face crack into a wide grin as I pulled Richard to his feet and gave his sparkly hat a little tweak. “Name the day and time, cowboy.”