Page 65 of Cowboy Falling Hard
“He didn’t pursue her.” Her words were thoughtful. “It almost felt that one woman would do just as well as any other. Maybe he lacked loyalty.”
She lifted her eyes.
“The exact opposite of you. You came here, you wanted me, and you didn’t quit. You pursued me. Even when I said no. You weren’t a jerk about it, and you weren’t creepy, but you let me know you wanted me, and you waited. You waited until I was ready. You didn’t give up and go to someone else and someone else and someone else. You stuck.”
He couldn’t let that pass. “That’s because you’re special. There is no one else in the entire world like you.” Maybe saying in the entire world was a bit of hyperbole, but he meant it. Maybe. “If there is anyone else, I don’t want to know them. I only want you.”
For the first time that day, her lips curved up. Even though there was still heavy sadness in her eyes, his words had touched her the right way. He wasn’t usually very good at saying the exact right words, but he was pretty sure he had just now.
“I think love is a risk at any time. A relationship, commitment. You never know when the other person will keep their word or not. If we didn’t have a problem, we wouldn’t need arbitration. There wouldn’t be divorce. People would just do what they said. So, there is a risk, but I feel like if you would wait a year and half for me to just say yes to you asking me out, that says a lot.”
“You’re worth waiting for. You’re worth giving up whatever it takes to have. There isn’t anyone who comes close to being what you are to me.”
She shook her head. “I don’t even understand how you can look at me and see something that is so much different or better or more worthy than anyone else, but that’s a gift.”
He held his breath.
“It’s a gift that I want to cherish. I... I want to be with you.”
Her words were soft, said in a bit of a rush, and breathy like she was scared. But she plunged on. “Not just because you seem to think I’m somehow amazing and special, but because you are too. You’re funny and kind, and how many men would sit in a kitchen full of ladies paring apples just so they could be with me? Would work in a sale barn, cleaning manure off cement, particularly when your real job pays so much. That really impressed me. Not that you liked me so much, but that you had that kind of character.”
She met his eyes directly, and the weight in his stomach was completely gone. His heart smiled, and it was almost like in the distance he could hear the beginning strains of the Hallelujah Chorus.
“I was afraid when I started hearing what was happening this morning, that Katie’s husband had done what he did, I was afraid you would have the exact opposite reaction. But somewhere in my heart, I believed that you had seen me for what I am, and not through the tarnished lens of what other men might do.”
“When I look at you, I see honor and integrity. I see loyalty. I see humor and someone who wants me to laugh and enjoy life with him. I see someone who’s not going to leave me. I see someone who isn’t afraid to work to be better. To admit that he’s not perfect and wants to grow. I see a man who wants me to be happy, and he treats me better than I ever dreamed someone would.”
“I want to point out that I’m still practicing. I might even get better.”
“Maybe I’ll get better too.”
“Does that mean we’ll grow together?” He stepped forward, tugging her to him. She came willingly, taking both her hands and threading them around his neck.
“I hope so because life is a lot more fun when I’m with you. Whether it’s making apple turnovers, which I’m looking forward to, or working in the sale barn, going wherever you want me to go. It wouldn’t be fun without you. But with you, I can’t wait.”
Her words warmed him from the very bottoms of his feet, clear up to the base of his head, radiating joy out. He felt like there should be rainbows and unicorns dancing around.
“It might be a little dangerous for me to kiss you when you’re talking like that, but it’s what I want to do.”
“I’m pretty sure we’ll be okay. We’re in the church, with pretty much all the ladies in the entire town standing outside this door.”
“I have a feeling I might not care.”
“That would make two of us. But I wouldn’t want to ruin your good reputation.”
He snorted at that and lowered his head, pressing his lips to hers, and everything that he thought would happen, did.
He forgot his name. Forgot where they were, forgot how to stand, forgot everything but her touch and her taste and her scent and the feel of her, soft and warm, under his hands.
He pulled away. “I love you.”
His words were slow and distinct and as heartfelt as he could make them.
He’d never said them to anyone before, and he didn’t want them to sound like he was just shooting them off, meaningless and empty, because that was what a man said when he kissed someone. Because it wasn’t. It wasn’t something he’d said just because he felt he should or it was expected. It was something he said, meaning he was making a commitment, a pledge, a life event where she meant more to him than anything else in the world, and he would give up whatever comforts he needed, whatever was necessary in order to show his love for her.
She pulled her head back just a little, searching his eyes, as though she could read from his tone that the words came from the very depth of his soul.
“I love you, too. And I want to spend the rest of my life showing you how much.”