Merry Anna closed her eyes.
“You’re crazier than I am!” Adam’s voice woke her.
Am I dreaming?She opened her eyes.
Adam and Zan stood at the foot of her bed. “I’d have brought flowers, but as soon as I heard, I came straight over. Thanks for calling me, Krissy.”
Krissy leaned over and whispered in Merry Anna’s ear, “Don’t let this guy go. There’s nothing that is going to break the bond you two have.” She walked around the bed and gave Adam a quick hug. “I’m going to go check on Tara. I’ll leave y’all. Zan, you want to come with me?”
“Can I?” She looked up at Adam.
“Yeah, go on.”
Zan skipped off at Krissy’s side.
“I didn’t know you had that kind of thing in you,” Adam said. “City girls don’t do what you did back there.”
“I didn’t know either, but when I saw your horses struggling, I just had this need to help them.”
“Thank you. What you did was crazy, but it was definitely helpful. I’d like to ask that you don’t do it again, though.”
“I think I can agree to that,” she said.
“Remember when you asked me to forgive you?”
She squinted and nodded.
“I do forgive you. How could I not?” He placed his palm on her chin.
She reached up and placed her hand on top of his.
“Merry Anna, I never meant to take advantage of you with taking care of Zan. I’m really sorry if it looked that way.” He kissed her on the cheek. “I have strong feelings for you. I’d do anything for you. Anything.”
“My own baggage may have gotten in the way. My self-confidence took a real hit after all that with Kevin. I was broken. You’ve been so good for me.”
“It works both ways.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “For two people who vowed they didn’t have time for relationships, didn’t need them, we both sure did flunk that test.”
She still felt icy cold to the bone, but somewhere inside, her heart was warming. “I really want to stay here in Antler Creek. When I realized how bad the storm was, all I could think about was you and Zan. I’ve fallen in love with you. There you were with all your cowboy bravado, like no one I’d ever known before. You didn’t want anything. You didn’t pressure me. It was safe, I thought. I don’t even know how this happened. I want to be here.”Please give me a reason to stay.
“I want you here too. They say God has our paths all planned out before we’re even on this earth. He knows what He’s doing. Who are we to fight it? I’m done fighting it. I feel my path leading me in a whole new direction, and you’re right in the middle of that road. I’m scared—I won’t lie—but I know it’s going to be okay.”
“Adam, I’ll love you forever, and I don’t even care if that means I have to hold my breath for eight seconds while you try to win a saucer-sized gold belt buckle.” She sucked in a stuttering breath. “I’ll be there for you. For Zan. Forever.”
“Well, I think I can make that choice easier for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I made my decision. That’s why I went down to Archdale the other night. I didn’t ride. I took the offer from Doc to join his sports medicine team on the rodeo circuit.”
“You didn’t ride?”
“No. I’ll be honest—when I got there, I thought about it, but I’m pretty sure if I’d tried to, Doc wouldn’t have approved me to ride after that last incident.”
“You had already decided?”
“Yes. I’ll be switching gears. All that money I’ve beenputting aside for bucking bulls—it was a risky plan anyway. Everyone knows it’s hard work and genetics, but it’s also a heck of a lot of luck to come up with rank bulls that pay out big. I’m going to be investing that money differently. Might even send my daughter to med school and work in some vacations. Do you know I’ve never been on a vacation?”
“Never?”
