Page 239 of Ironwood Ranch Cowboys

“You changed everything here.”

Annie laughs softly under her breath. “Well. That sounds dangerous.”

“It is,” I say.

She looks toward me then. I’m done pretending this thing inside my chest is manageable.

I step closer. Close enough to touch.

“I think I fell in love with you somewhere between financial crimes and emotional collapse,” I admit.

Annie blinks.

I shrug helplessly. “In my defense, you looked very hot exposing billion-dollar corruption.”

That gets a startled laugh out of her.

But her eyes shine immediately afterward.

Cody looks down briefly before speaking. “I tried not to.”

Annie turns toward him slowly.

Cody removes his glasses, rubbing one hand across his mouth as if the confession physically hurts.

“I thought this was temporary,” he continues. “You were supposed to leave eventually. Temporary things are safer.”

My chest tightens.

Because yeah. We all thought that at first. But now I’m certain Annie will stay. She has a home here with us.

Cody looks back at Annie finally. “Then you started mattering more than my own self-preservation instincts.”

Annie’s expression softens so completely it nearly ruins me.

Silas watches all of us silently. Then he reaches for Annie’s hand. “I spent most of my life believing love was responsibility. Something heavy. Something you survive.”

Annie’s fingers tighten around his automatically.

Silas’s voice roughens. “But you walk into a room and suddenly things feel possible again.” He exhales once. “And that scares the hell out of me because losing you would destroy me.”

“You idiots,” she whispers.

I grin faintly. “Romantic idiots.”

“Dangerously attached idiots,” Cody corrects softly.

Silas just watches her as if she hung the moon personally.

Annie laughs once. “I love you, too.”

My entire body goes still.

Beside me, Cody closes his eyes briefly. The words physically hit him somewhere vital.

Annie shakes her head, smiling through tears now. “All of you. Which feels medically concerning.”

I bark out a laugh loud enough to echo through the empty hall.