AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s nice to see someone finally find the girl they want to be with.”
Ethan turned his attention to Simon once more. “Yeah, he looks pretty happy.”
Jack chuckled. “I wasn’t talking about Simon.” He gave Ethan a pointed look. “I’m talking about you.”
He’d been happily married twice now. If anyone knew what they were talking about, it was him.
Ethan coughed. “I’m sorry?”
“Becca. You. Even I can tell you guys make each other happy. There’s only one thing I’m curious about.”
“What’s that?” Ethan’s voice came out on a wheeze. His heart had started pounding as if it had joined the bass coming from the speakers.
“How are you gonna get a city girl like Becca to agree to come all the way out here?”
“What?”
Jack chuckled again, facing Ethan and staring at him pointedly. “There may be some deafness in my family, but I assure you, my eyesight works just fine. I can tell this is where you want to be. And I can’t remember where I heard it, but I’m pretty sure you were thinking about buying some land so you can move out here officially.”
“That was the plan,” Ethan forced himself to say. He hadn’t thought about this little kink in his plans. His feelings had come out of nowhere and tackled him to the ground. What was he supposed to do with his plans to move his family out here? How had his heart suddenly been shredded into pieces?
“So? Is she the kind of girl who would move out to the country? Or do you think you’ll have to scrap your idea for a ranch of your own?”
Ethan felt his stomach drop. It might as well have landed at his feet for how nauseated he suddenly became. None of this should have been a surprise. Initially, he’d planned on getting seriouswith Tina, and there was absolutely no way that woman would have wanted to move out to Montana.
Strangely enough, he could see Becca being more flexible. Was there still a chance he could have everything? He liked to think so. He just needed to dig up enough courage to ask. The city was too busy, too chaotic for him to want to spend more than a few hours there.
The more he thought about it, the more he realized he could see a future with Becca, raising a family with her, out here in Rocky Ridge.
Slowly, that doubt righted itself and Ethan offered a smile to his cousin. “You’d be surprised. Becca’s the kind of girl who just needs a little nudge in the right direction.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Becca couldn’t have writtena single word if she’d wanted to. The last few weeks she’d spent with Ethan had opened her eyes to a lot more than she’d thought possible. It didn’t matter how many times she told herself that they were just pretending. At some point, Becca had started wanting it all to be real.
There was only one problem.
She didn’t trust herself.
As such, she couldn’t bring herself to trust Ethan, either. The kiss they’d shared had been brought on by her own desires. Ethan might have just been doing what he thought she wanted, which put her in a sort of limbo until they really talked things through.
This was why her heart was in such tumult. As much as she wanted to pull him aside and ask him what he wanted, she needed to prioritize Katrina’s wedding and make sure she kept Tina from making trouble.
Becca sighed and closed her computer once more. Ethan hadn’t tracked her down yet this morning. After the bachelor party lastnight, she’d figured he’d have a late start, but not this late. For all she knew, he was avoiding her.
She slipped her computer into her bag and brought it to her chest as she headed toward the house. There was no telling when she’d see him again. She was tempted to just send him a message to make sure everything was alright.
Across the way, a familiar figure with a cowboy hat wandered toward the line of trucks. Her heart skipped and her feet sped up, though she knew she should let him come to her. This behavior could be considered overzealous or obsessive. She might scare him away.
And yet she continued.
For a brief moment, she thought he might not see her, that he would just climb into his truck and drive away. But at the last minute, Ethan glanced in her direction.
He stopped, frozen.
It was too hard for her to see anything from beneath the brim of his cowboy hat. Dang it! Was he unhappy to see her? Or was he just as nervous as she was?
Ethan gave her a little wave and her heart practically leaped right out of her chest. His head moved just right, allowing the limited early-morning sunlight to flood his face.
