“It’s hardly that far,” she replied dryly.
“To a place where I have no people. No land. No animals. Nothing I know.”
“I know it’s a sacrifice, but you’d have me, Ben.” She pressed the ring to her heart finally. “It’s only a year.”
“Another year after being apart four.” He blew out a frustrated breath. “A year is an eternity on a ranch, and it’s hard enough work without me frittering away my responsibilities.”
“Frittering away… But your family’s given you their blessing to go.” She wanted to strangle him. “They want you?—”
“I need meaningful work, Hannah,” he said in a clipped voice, “and there won’t be any of that for me where you’re going.”
“I need it too. Becoming an herbalist will let me help people. Maybe I might even save someone like Sarah.”
His jaw flexed, but he remained as silent as a tomb.
“You aren’t even willing to try.” Dammit, she could hear the break in her voice again as she studied his brooding glare. “For me. For us.”
He walked Flame to her gardening table out back against the side of the house and set her flowers on it. Then he edged back and started pulling in the rope with his work-roughened hands, the hands that had taught her everything there was to know about what a man and a woman could be to each other.
“There are plenty of herbalists who train online.” He looped the rope in circle after circle, going around just liketheir conversation. “You have the riches of Wild Mountain at your fingertips. As my grandma Elena wrote, everything you could ever want plant-wise grows there. You’re just like my mother, up and leaving because Sanctuary Springs isn’t enough for you.”
She inhaled sharply at the slap. “That’s not true! You know how hard it was to tell my father I’m not going to medical school to become a doctor like him. Becoming an excellent herbalist is my dream, and I have a chance to be schooled by the best. You were right there when I applied for the scholarship.”
“I didn’t think you were going to get it.”
“What?”
He gave a troubled wince. “The plan was to finish school and get married.”
Of all the gall…How can he say he loves me when he didn’t even believe in my ability to achieve the scholarship?
“Then you lied to me when you said I should go for it,” she nearly shouted. “Do you have any idea how many people applied for a full scholarship?” From what Hannah understood, there were about seventy-five applicants, which wasn’t surprising, given that it included room and board.It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I am so over arguing the same thing, especially given Ben’s mulishness.
He secured the rope to his saddle, giving her a view of his cowboy hat. She knew what he’d say next, so she spoke first. “And I’m not running away.” She gripped the windowsill, wondering if she should go downstairs to be on even ground with him. “Becoming a renowned herbalist is the only way I know to show Dad I’m not squandering his investment in me, both in his practice and for helping pay for college.”
“Then why is he as against you going as I am?” Ben shot back, gathering his reins.
“Because I’m not going to medical school like he wanted.So you’re both against me. You know how I felt when—” Hannah choked up. Even now, it was so hard to think of her.
“I know, sweetheart, I know.” He ran a hand over his jaw. “Let’s leave it there. Your father is probably listening, like the rest of your neighbors.” She picked up the cowboy boot and hurled it at him.“Youchose the least romantic spot in the universe to propose.”
“Youwere leaving this morning.” He tipped back in the saddle so her boot sailed past him. “In case your own thickheaded brain isn’t working, having a ring means I’d planned to propose. Right before you discovered that scholarship, in fact. I was going to ask you on Wild Mountain under Big Red. It’s been the place of nearly every big moment for us.”
Their first official date had been there, a picnic amid the wildflowers under that old ponderosa tree, and then the time when they’d both given themselves to each other, under those stars of theirs.
So many good moments, ones she’d thought were the building blocks to the life they would enjoy. Together. She uncurled her hand and studied the ring, her blood pulsing in her veins. He was the other half of her. He’d always been.
She couldn’t imagine being without him. Maybe she had to make her own offer. “What if I agree to marry you now?”
He lifted his chin a touch higher, his keen eyes searching hers in the soft morning light. “You’d make me the happiest man alive, but I hear the catch coming.”
She wet her lips. “How about I agree to marry you, but I still go to Scotland?”
“No,” he said with a curt shake of his head. “I agreed to wait until we graduated from college, and that was four long, hard years of being apart. When you agree to marry me, we get hitched right away. I won’t put a ring on your finger and then watch you hightail it out of here to another continent.”
“That’s not what I’m doing?—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know.” He waved an absent hand inher direction. “No need to get all riled up. So I take it that’s a no, then?”
