“You want to live here. On the family’s ranch. Yousaid you didn’t want to play football professionally and that you’d be happy quitting school.Now.”
Oh. “You mean if I quit and came home to run the ranch, you’d have to quit school, too.”
She looked at my chest. “Yeah. I don’t want to quit, but I don’t want to give you up either.”
Give her up? Never. I leaned in and kissed her.
“I would never let you give up your dreams.”
She looked up at me through her dark glasses. “What about yours?”
I looked around. “My dreams? This place? It’s here waiting for me. For us. You think I’d leave you at school all by yourself? You think I could spend one night without you now that I made you mine? Now that I know how sweet that pussy is? How your mouth looks wrapped around my dick? Shit, I’m getting hard just talking about it. Besides, who else are you going to tutor?”
The corner of her mouth tipped up. “What are you saying?”
I brushed her hair back. “You’re my life, sweetheart. Where you are, I am. I’m in college until you’re done.”
Her eyes widened. “Really?”
“I go where you go.”
She put her face to my chest and hugged me tight. “I love you,” she whispered.
I stilled at those three words. I felt my world fall into place. I was happy at school, but I’d just been living. I was good at football and winning felt good. My brother Trig had been a rodeo champ and he kept climbing on the back of an angry bull for over fifteen years because he craved the win. The rush of the ride.
He walked away when he met Ellie. Sure, he’d had a bum knee, but I had no doubt he’d have quit and settled down even if he hadn’t gotten hurt.
Me? I was fourteen years younger. I wasn’t ready to settle down and make babies, but I was ready to start my life with Cammie. Now that I found her, I couldn’t imagine anything else.
Being twenty, our life together was different than what my siblings had with their spouses. I didn’t have a house on the ranch. Yet. I’d shown her the spot where it would be. Maybe these two last years in college were when we could build it together. Have a place to come to when we graduate. Enough Wilder kids went through the Devil’s Ditch school system that we knew lots of teachers. Lots of administrators. I had no doubt Cammie could get a job here in town.
“I love you, too,” I murmured, then tipped her chin up and kissed her. Because I had my whole life in my arms.
23
CAMMIE
Dinnerwith the entire Wilder family had been pretty crazy. Surprisingly, everyone fit around the huge table. Mr. and Mrs. Wilder. Beau and Lainey. Trig and Ellie. Colt and Molly. Bray and Katie. Cam and Taylor. Buck, Hayes, and Shep. Plus me and Zeb, the only two who didn’t live in Devil’s Ditch.
Lainey, Ellie, Molly, Katie, and Taylor were all pregnant, with Ellie being due first. Their men sat beside them, loading their plates with food, rubbing the back of their necks, refilling their glasses. I had a feeling all of them would go pee for them if it were possible.
I found it amusing, especially seeing Beau dote on Lainey. For such a gruff guy, he was sweet with her. She wasn’t so sweet back.
There was so much food, so much talking over each other. Laughter. Shouting.
“Sorry we missed the game yesterday,” Bray said to Zeb.
Zeb waved him off and shovelled another piece of peach cobbler in his mouth. He’d already had three pieces of chicken, mashed potatoes smothered in gravy, green beans, three rolls, and strawberry jello.
“It’s fine. It was a crazy week with midterms. I was distracted.”
“By midterms or Cammie?” Shep asked, grinning.
I could feel my cheeks heat, but a roll went flying across the table. My brother launched the thing like a missile. Or a football.
“Were you at the game?” Mrs. Wilder asked me, ignoring the antics.
I nodded, then pushed my glasses up. “Yes, ma’am. My first one, actually.” I took a sip of my water.
