Page 91 of Roping Her In

“That bad, huh?” Jake chuckled, though it felt like he’d swallowed a snake and it was striking his stomach, trying to get out. “I thought we’d already had the hard conversation.”

“And you handled it really well,” she said.

“Did I? I’m not very happy about you taking that job.”

“I know you’re not.” She stroked her thumb over the back of his. “But I appreciate your support.”

He nodded, because he figured the less he said, the better.

“No, this is about us,” Hailey said.

“I thought you said you didn’t want to break up.”

“I don’t. I want to talk about marriage.”

Jake swallowed. “Marriage, huh?”

“Yeah, because if I’m going to be living on that farm south of town, and you’re living on the ranch north of town, what are we going to do if this keeps going really great? Like…what do we do if we want to get married?”

Jake sat back in his chair, and Hailey released his hands. “I don’t know,” he said.

“Well.” Hailey brushed her hair over her shoulder. “You said this to me a little bit ago, and now I’m going to say it to you. I’m falling in love with you. And generally, when that happens, people get married. I already know you want to be married, and we’re not going to live in two separate houses if that happens, so maybe it’s something we should both start thinking about.”

Jake nodded, his tongue feeling too thick inside his own mouth to speak.

“It’s not like I need you to propose tomorrow,” she said. “We don’t need it all worked out, but I guess I’m just—we’re on the same page with this, right?”

He nodded. “Yes, sweetheart. Yes, I’m still falling in love with you.”

A relieved smile washed across her face. “Great,” she said.

It is great, he thought, because Jake really liked this warm, cozy feeling of being comfortable with another person to the point that he could say or do anything, and they’d understand.

“So…we can just think about it, and talk about it some more…whenever.”

Jake nodded, though he was sure Hailey had some sort of timeline, and that whenever wasn’t really whenever.

She exhaled and said, “All right, that’s it. I think I’ll be able to eat now.” A light laugh followed, and that somehow untied the knot in Jake’s tongue.

“That wasn’t so bad,” he said, though now he had to figure out how to maintain and advance his relationship with Hailey when they lived over an hour apart, and he wouldn’t have built-in times during his week where he’d be able to see her.

33

Hailey left the testing facility in Amarillo, her heart mimicking a lead weight and hanging down into her stomach. She adjusted the shoulder strap of her bag higher up on her shoulder and practically ran to the safety of her car.

Her breath came in quick gasps by the time she got behind the wheel. She tossed her bag onto the passenger seat and pushed a button to start the ignition—and the air blowing. She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves and managed to slow her breathing and have a rational thought move through her head.

You don’t need to pass this exam to work for Conrad.

She drew in another breath and reached over to dig through her bag to find her phone. It took several maddening seconds for it to connect to her Bluetooth, and then she tapped to dial Jake.

He’d been incredibly supportive of her decision to take the job at Conrad’s farm instead of a fully functioning vet tech position at Three Rivers or another clinic or ranch. Hailey felt good about her decision every time she got down on her knees, and she genuinely thought God was gently leading her along the path she needed to be on.

She’d never quite felt like that before, and as Jake’s phone rang and went to voicemail, another prayer started in her heart.

“Hey, it’s me,” she said to his voicemail. “I just finished my test, and it was a complete bomb. I failed it. I’m going to stop at Studemeyer’s here in Amarillo and get myself a bundt cake to soothe my ego. I’ll bring you something if you want, but you have to promise me we won’t talk about my test for more than three minutes.”

She reached out and tapped to end the call, a sigh filling her mouth and the car as she continued to drive.