AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She pulled away and looked up at him, searching his face for the answers she needed. “Because of last time?”
“I just don’t see the point,” he said.
“I’m not going to cheat on you.”
“I know that.”
“There might be some aspects of the wedding that will take time to plan.”
“Like what?”
“The venue,” she said. “Some places get booked out for months or years.”
Blaine toed the ground, his eyes trained on it again, the cowboy hat he wore a barrier between them. “I was thinking we could get married on the ranch. It’s available any day.”
“The ranch?”
“You saw it for Spur’s wedding. It was beautiful.” He looked at her, his expression open and vulnerable. “Right?”
“It was,” she conceded. She’d just never thought of getting married outside, on a ranch.
Why not?she asked herself. “Okay,” she said. “We won’t have a long engagement. You still have to ask first.”
“You still need to find time in your schedule to come look at rings with me.” He raised his eyebrows as if he was using them to raise the ante on her.
“I know.” She sighed. “Let’s go one night this week. I can schedule it in to be done by five, and we’ll have dinner and look around.”
“To be clear,” he said. “I’m not going to buy you the ring. I just want to see what you like. Get a feel for your style.”
“Yes,” she said dryly. “You’ve explained it to me a hundred times.” He wanted to get her a ring she’d love, but he wanted it to be a surprise. The shopping trip was just to “gather ideas.”
“Just being clear.”
“You’re in the clear, Blaine.” She stepped out of his arms and added, “I should go.”
“Yeah.” He reached past her and opened her door. “Call me when you’re on your way home from your mom’s so I know you survived.”
She smiled and got behind the wheel. “Okay.”
“Blaine leaned in after her and kissed her again. “Okay. Be safe, Tam. Love you.” He closed the door and turned to go back to his truck.
Tam could only stare at him, noting the way his plaid shirt pulled across his shoulders and the curve of the brim on his cowboy hat.
“Love you?” she repeated. They’d been talking about marriage and wedding planning and looking at rings. Sort of. He’d mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, but they hadn’t actually looked at any diamonds, nor talked about it again.
“You literally just talked about getting married on the ranch,” she said. “Not having a long engagement.” She put the truck in reverse and backed up. She never wanted to come to this strip mall again.
They hadn’t said “I love you,” to each other. Six weeks ago, he’d said he was falling in love with her. He hadn’t said he was all the way there.
Tam stewed on his words all the way back to her shop. She worked steadily throughout the afternoon, Blaine never far from the front of her thoughts. She did have to push him aside from time to time as she focused on carving the design in the leather saddle seat. Otherwise, he ran rampant through her mind, and everything felt so tangled.
When it was time, she made sure the two saddles she’d shaped that day were strapped tight for the drying process, and she went home to shower. She stood too long in the hot water, thinking. She’d forgotten if she’d already washed her hair, so she did it again just to be sure.
“Let’s go,” she said to Jane and Jasper after rushing through her hair and makeup. “We’re late.” She hated being late, and she honestly wasn’t sure where the time had gone.
She drove to Dreamsville, where her parents still lived in the house they’d moved into all those years ago when they’d relocated from Tennessee to Kentucky. When she pulled up, the driveway already held two extra cars, and she knew she and the corgis were the last to arrive.
“Come on, guys,” she said, opening the back door for them to jump down. Jasper barked as he did, always the more vocal of the pair.
