Page 116 of Paper Horses

He glanced back at me, his eyes creased with strain and emotion.

“Did you make the deal with your mother already?”

“Right before I came to see you. I’ll just go back to Montana. She’ll hate me again and likely disinherit me for real this time, but I won’t push you into something you don’t want.”

I huffed, and his eyes narrowed.

“Did you really give up everything thinking it would make me happy?” I asked, taking a few steps forward.

He cleared his throat, saying, “Yeah. I know I didn’t think it through.”

“Because that’s who you are,” I said. “Impulsive, rash, a dreamer who doesn’t think about consequences because he believes so much in that dream that he’s willing to risk everything for it.”

Chestnut eyes darkened to the color of the land. “You don’t have to insult me.” Authoritative, his tone took on an edge, and I could see his demeanor shifting. Losing the beaten-down, desperate man and replacing him with the grumpy one who had told me to leave his ranch the day I’d stepped back into his life. He had his defenses, and I had mine. Together, we were like a volatile firework show, but that was us now, and it was beautiful enough to fight for.

“You ran from your dream and returned to a life you detested for what?”

His eyes hardened, his jaw twitching as he dropped his coat and stepped up to me, towering over me and sending the air fleeing from my lungs.

“For what, Hudson?”

“For you, Olivia.”

I let my mask fall, a smile forming, one that had his eyes lighting. Reaching up and sinking my fingers into his hair, I said, “And that makes you the most foolish, beautiful dreamer I’ve ever met. A man I would willingly give up my lattes and manicures for in exchange for terrible diner coffee and cracked nails because he makes me happier than anything I have here.”

Confusion wrinkled around his eyes. “Did you rile me up on purpose?”

“Damn right I did. I like it when you’re grumpy.”

He chuckled, pulling me to him. “So you accept my offer?”

“No.”

His arms released me, and he moved out of my hold, but I grabbed his jacket, tugging him back. He was a wall of solid muscle, though, and all it did was unbalance me so that his hand caught my waist and kept me on my feet.

“This isn’t you, Hudson.”

“I’m not me without you. I haven’t been since you left me.”

His words sent the air whooshing from my lungs, and it took me a moment to recover.

“I won’t accept your giving up your happiness for mine. I could never accept that because how could I ever say I loved you if I made you miserable?”

“I won’t be miserable because you’ll be with me.”

“We’ll both be miserable, Hudson. You belong outdoors, with the mountains in the distance and horses running through your fields. Not here. And I belong there with you.”

His brows pulled together, eyes searching mine. “But this is your home.”

“No, you’re my home, Hudson. It’s lonely here. So lonely, and I don’t want to be lonely anymore. I want to be with you, working through my past and accepting that it doesn’t define me because what you give me redefines me. I wanted time apart because I needed to see that, to realize that. There are parts of my life here that I love, but now they don’t shine as brightly as they once did. Not when I hold them against what you and I have.”

“What are you saying, Olivia?”

“That if you had waited a few days, I would have been at your door telling you I want us. That I still don’t know who I am, but I want to continue discovering her with you. That I can work in Montana and run the company with Gabe from there most of the time. In fact, maybe all the time, from what he suggested this morning. It will take some work and some figuring out. Hiring, finding a building, getting the ranch up and running. A ton of work that⁠—”

He captured the rest of my words with a kiss that had me melting into his hold. It swept through me like wildfire, burning the tattered pieces of my heart and reforming them into something unbreakable.

“Fuck, are you serious?” he muttered between kisses.