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“Just for the night.”
“Oh. I assumed—” He coughed, unable to finish his sentence.
“No more assumptions. We let that hurt us the first time, and I don’t want to lose you to them again.” She kissed his hand, which shouldn’t have hurt, but he was pretty busted up and it stung like heck.
“Fair enough.” Gander licked at his arms, whining. “Hey, boy. You did it. You found her.” He choked out a sob.
Maggie cried, bending down to hug him. He groaned under the pressure of her body against his, but when she went to give him space, he clung to her as tightly as he could. The tight cords cinched around his chest popped one by one, and despite his injuries, he could breathe again for the first time in months. Years, if he was being honest.
“You’re hurt, but your mom and brother are on their way.”
“The fire.” He wheezed.
Maggie shook her head, and with what little energy he could muster, he raised his hand to her cheek and brushed the tears that fell. “How did you get through?”
She smiled and, darn, if that didn’t make him feel at least twenty percent better just seeing it.
“You put it out. It was a stupid move, one you should have left for the fire department, especially since it did this to you,” she admonished, gesturing to the whole of him with a frown on her face. He must be pretty banged up. The corner of her lips turned up, then. “But you’re a hero.”
Now it was his turn to smile. It was the one movement that didn’t make him feel any worse.
“Nah. You are. You did this.” He waved at the pipes still raining much needed water on the valley.
“We did this. We make a good team, you know.” Maggie’s eyes sparkled and she bit her bottom lip.
“I’ve been trying to tell you,” he said, then chuckled at her faux-frustrated expression. “Maggie, I need to tell you something—”
“No. Me first.” He rolled his eyes but smiled and nodded that she continue. “You’re amazing, Bennett.” He opened his mouth to reply but she shook her head, cutting him off. “And not just because you almost died trying to save my ranch. I wanted to tell you before I left that I’d made a big mistake not allowing you to—” She shrugged and held up her palms in supplication.
“To help you?”
She grinned, her cheeks pink with embarrassment. Goddamn, she was beautiful.
“Yeah. That. I’m sorry. I see now that it isn’t a sign of weakness, but strength to let someone in and allow them to help make your dreams come true. Most people don’t get that lucky, and me? I got it twice in one lifetime. And this time I’m not letting it go.”
Bennett’s lower jaw trembled. Was she saying what he thought she was?
“I love you, Bennett.”
Yeah, she was.
“And I’m not going anywhere.”
“What about the guy from Orin I saw earlier?” C’mon man, stop giving her reasons to leave.
“Well, as you can guess, he offered me a job.”
Bennett’s stomach fell.
“But I turned him down. Well, sort of.” Her smile said he had cause to be excited, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why. Orin was based in San Antonio. “I met with the CEO, and we called the guy in charge of operations who confirmed they were interested in expanding to Austin.”
She’d be fifteen minutes away instead of ninety. Okay, maybe that was worth a little excitement.
“And? What did you decide?”
She shrugged. “I thought I’d give it a try. I kinda like it here. For so many reasons, including the neighbors.”
He finally released the grin that had been hiding in the wings waiting for her to make the choice that was best for her. That it was pretty damn good for him didn’t hurt. His cheeks were damp and not from the pipe above them, but rather from the stoved-up one in his heart that had finally burst.
