“In New York. When I’m home I have to do my own chores, just like when I was a kid.”
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him. “Your mother raised you right.”
“My sister made sure it was fair,” he said, laughing. “You try having Katie Dobbs as a sister. I got absolutely no breaks.”
“I would love to have Katie as a sister. I have no sisters.”
“Yeah?” He brushed her hair away from her face and smiled down at her. “How about as a sister-in-law?”
Tears filled her eyes. “I talked to Trip. He said you talked to him too. What did you say to him?”
“I told him I was in love with you and that I wanted to make you happy. I asked him for your hand in marriage.”
Shocked, her mouth dropped open. “You did not.”
“I did.”
“What did he say?”
“That I’d better ask you. I love you, Tabby. I’m sick about leaving Sweet without you by my side.”
“Me, too.”
“It could work, you know. We could go back to New York and bring Tenterhook with us. He’ll be happy in a ranch just outside the city. And you’d be able to see him whenever you wanted.”
“No. He can’t leave Lone Creek Ranch. He’s still healing.” She reached up and kissed him on the mouth to wipe away the disappointment she saw in his expression. “But I can come to New York. And when I come home to Sweet, I can see him. Promise me we’ll do it often?”
“I always planned on coming home to Sweet. I want to buy a big spread here and have my own ranch. I just need to tie things up in New York first. That may take a while. A year or two at most. I miss this big Montana Sky that I grew up with. But I’m going to miss you more if you don’t come with me.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, you’ll come with me?”
She giggled. “Yes, to it all. Promise me we’ll come back here to raise our babies and teach them to ride and rodeo and I’ll go to New York and be your wife.”
He lifted her up on her feet and twirled her around. “I promise. Oh, I love you so much.”
“I love you, too, Kas. Lone Creek Ranch has been my home for a long time, and it will always be my home. But I know I’ve found a home with you, too. No matter where we are together, I’ll be able to look up and see that Sweet Montana sky and feel love.”
Sweet Home Montana: Chapter One
Not many people could say they took a giant leap of faith and ended up landing in the same spot they started. Or sitting in her car, as was the case for Katie Dobbs. It took a special kind of talent to marry the wrong guy, and end up back at square one.
Katie apparently excelled at it.
It all seemed so familiar. She was sitting in her car on a cold winter night, headlights illuminating the long driveway leading to her parents’ house. Decisions were made that night. The leap. And now she was sitting in the same spot in the driveway on a snowy night nearly ten years later. Only this time, instead of rushing into the house to pack her things and tell her parents she was leaving, no one was home.
Katie stared at the dark front door that was so familiar and once held comfort. She knew the exact spot to push on it when it was stuck in the summer when the heat made the wood swell just enough to make it stick. She knew she had to warm the key between her fingers in the winter to make sure the key fit in the lock during the cold weather.
She grabbed the button on her seat belt to unfasten it, but then stopped. She’d forgotten to turn on the front porch light again so she couldn’t come home to a dark house. She’d never remembered to do that when she was in high school. She didn’t have to. Her parents remembered for her. And when her brother, Kasper, had been staying at the house while he was home over Christmas, he’d done it. But Kas wasn’t coming for a visit for a few weeks.
So it had been up to her. And she’d forgotten. Now the dark house mirrored what she felt like about her life…pathetic.
She undid her seatbelt with the keys still in the ignition and heard the beep to remind her to stay buckled. Placing her hand on the steering wheel, she contemplated going inside, making dinner, and then going to bed at the hour she’d done when she was ten years old.
Yep, pathetic.
She blew out a quick breath. Wasn’t there some kind of app she could get for her phone that would take care of things like turning on lights in the house, magically cooking dinner so she wouldn’t have to do it? Okay, so maybe not the dinner. But surely, Rachel, her coworker at the bank, knew of some app that would take care of lights. Katie would have to ask her about it tomorrow when she went back to work.
Rachel was ten years younger than Katie was. She was in touch with all the new tech stuff everyone was using these days. Katie was older, but not sure she was wiser.
She pushed the car door open and felt the rush of cold air envelope the space around her. Winter in Montana dragged on through late spring some years. This year it seemed a bit longer. Although it was only March, they could easily get a bad dump of snow as late as May. The thought of it was depressing.
“I don’t want to cook,” she mumbled to herself as she started to step outside the car. Then she stopped herself and thought about where she wanted to be. It was odd. But no stranger than half the things she’d done in her life.
She got back into the seat
