Page 157 of Cash

“She’s starting a cult, isn’t she?” Ryder asks Sawyer. “I’ve always wanted to be in one of those.”

Sawyer nods. “She’d make a great leader. Very charismatic.”

“Y’all, hush,” Cash says.

I’m still smiling, but now I also feel like I’m going to cry. “As much as I appreciate the compliments, I’m not starting a cult. Yet. Instead, I’m starting a new ranch. Or would it becreating one? Combining one? Setting a new ranch up? I, um, didn’t think that verbiage through.”

Cash’s eyes flicker. “Don’t have to be perfect, Mollie.”

“It just has to be with you,” I blurt, then turn the laptop around so that he can see the horseshoe logo I designed on the screen. The ends of the horseshoe are pointed down, so the wordsLucky Rivers Ranchare wrapped around the horseshoe’s curve at the top. “You helped make plans for Bellamy Brooks. I want to help make plans for Rivers Ranch. Run it with me—your ranch and mine. Not as my foreman, but as my partner. Total equals. We’ll put everything together, pool our resources, and turnourranch into the one you’ve always dreamed about.”

The room goes dead quiet. Cash stares at the screen, his blue eyes wide as he looks, and looks, andlooks.

My heart works its way up my throat. Oh boy. Maybe I misjudged this one. It’s ballsy of me to suggest joining forces when Cash never expressed interest in any kind of partnership. I’ve way overstepped. Jesus, what was I?—

“Lucky Rivers Ranch,” Cash says at last.

I nod, sweat breaking out along my scalp as I bend my neck to look at the screen. “That’s what I thought we’d call it. I’m not married to any of it, though.”

“Good,” Duke says. “Because the horseshoe?—”

“Don’t,” Cash cuts him off.

I start to panic. “Don’t what?”

Goody clears her throat.

“Someone tell me, please,” I beg.

Wyatt glances at Cash. “That horseshoe, with the ends facing down, it can, uh, sometimes be a symbol of bad luck. Like the horseshoe was full of good luck, but now you’re letting it all out by putting it that way.”

“Oh.” My face burns as I look back at the screen. “Oh my God, how stupid of me?—”

“It’s perfect.”

I look up at the decisive rumble of Cash’s voice.

He’s getting up.

He’s rounding the table.

“Y’all aren’t up on your horseshoe shit.” His gaze is locked on mine as he approaches. “That kind of horseshoe can mean you’re letting luck out. It can also mean you’re letting luck rain down on anyone who passes underneath it.”

Sawyer clicks his tongue. “Dang, that actually makes sense.”

“It’s perfect,” Cash repeats. “My answer’s yes, honey.”

Then he takes my face in his hands and crushes his mouth against mine.

The room erupts in hoots and hollers. I try to break the kiss, pull away, but Cash holds me steady, giving me a long, deep kiss that’s definitely inappropriate to share in front of others.

Cash, of course, doesn’t care about that. Instead, he licks into my mouth and says, “On one condition.”

“Name it.”

His kiss deepens. Sucking on my bottom lip, he nicks it with his teeth, then pulls back. “Marry me.”

My heart explodes. A starry, happy rush fills my skin, like my pulse has dissolved into a million tiny pinpricks of light.