“I didn’t do anything,” he pointed out. “Ruth’s the one you should be praising.”
“She’s amazing.” After another moment, Avery emerged enough to watch the bison groom her calf, wiping her cheeks. “But you fix things just by being here.”
He stilled again, love and pain welling within him in equal measures. He wanted to be here for Avery—always. If Elizabeth would come home and sort things out, he could be.
“One more day.” He didn’t realize he’d said it out loud until Avery shifted to look up at him.
“One more day until what?”
He hated the wariness in her eyes. He couldn’t blame her for it—he’d let her down before.
Could he tell her what he planned? He’d kept his secrets for so long their corners should have worn down, but he felt each one as sharp and ragged as when they were new. He was tired of having to hold back from her, and he was beginning to wonder if that had been a mistake from the start.
Why not say something true?
“One more day until I can be to you what I want to be.”
Her brow furrowed. “I don’t understand.”
“I’m going to ask you to marry me,” he clarified. He couldn’t pretend any more that he didn’t want Avery. Needed to let her know exactly what she meant to him. Elizabeth hadn’t come home yet despite promising to several times. There was no guarantee this time would be different, except this time, he promised himself, he would be different. If she didn’t show tomorrow, he’d tell Sue himself about Elizabeth’s lie. “Give me one more day.”
Her lips parted, and Walker would have given anything to kiss her right then, but he was a man of his word, and he’d promised—
“Just one,” he told Avery.
After a long moment, she nodded.
He held her as the sun rose and the baby calf struggled to its feet.
Avery sucked in a breath when the calf pushed up on its two front legs as if determined to stand. When its mother’s vigorous washing knocked it over again, it scrambled to regain its balance.
Could the baby bison see her? Avery wasn’t sure. All she knew was she’d never forget this—coming face to face with such beauty, such newness on the day that Walker had finally let her know what was in his heart. The newborn took an uncertain step, and its mother licked him. The tightness in Avery’s chest intensified. She’d just witnessed a miracle.
It was as if the universe was giving her a tiny gift, something to make up for all the loneliness she’d felt in her life. The promise that a new phase was about to begin.
The phase in which Walker wanted her to be his wife.
She was aware of every rise and fall of Walker’s chest as she leaned against him. The circle of his arms created a kind of safety she’d come to crave. She’d fallen for this man the moment she’d seen him, and he’d monopolized her thoughts ever since. When he’d believed Clem’s ruse, she’d been furious—heartbroken, really—but ever since he’d placed his fan in her hands yesterday, her anger had bled away.
That fan represented Walker’s heritage. More than that—his family. She knew he’d lost both father and mother young, his grandfather, too. That fan was a physical testament to all the generations of his past, and aside from his grandmother, he had no other links to them. When it had gone missing, he must have been frantic.
Now he’d given it to her, which meant he must really love her, despite his lapse in judgement. Clem had aired footage of her stealing it, and Walker had believed his eyes. Could she really blame him for that? After all, she was the one who’d been filming a series called Stealing from SEALs.
It was costing her to hold on to her anger and resentment, anyway. The last few weeks had been the worst in years, and it wasn’t like she hadn’t made her share of mistakes in life. Maybe it was time to let her anger go and get back to loving him. Just thinking about it made her heart lift. If Walker loved her, wanted to marry her, that meant they would be the ones to bring the competition for Base Camp to a close. They would win the ranch for all their friends and live here with them forever. Maybe have a baby. So many of the other women at Base Camp were pregnant, and she wanted that, too—so much.
Ruth raised her head suddenly, and Avery experienced that strange transcendence that happens when an animal looks at you—sees you—is thinking about you even as you’re thinking about it.
She wondered what Ruth saw. A short redhead in a green gown, watching this precious moment in her life?
Ruth grunted at her, a reassuring sound, and Avery let out a shaky breath.
“I love you, too,” she told Ruth as tears spilled down her cheeks again—tears of relief that all her waiting would soon be over. Like the bison had carried her calf, she’d carried the burden of her love for Walker for months, growing ever more uncomfortable with it. She was ready to give birth, too, to a lifetime commitment to this man she’d wanted for so long. “I will always love you—you and your baby,” she promised, since she couldn’t say those words yet to Walker. Not until she was sure of his intentions. “I’ll take care of you.”
The little bison looked up and bleated. It had wonderful little hooves. Expressive eyes.
Avery was entranced, and she stilled as a soft, warm breeze lifted the wisps of hair at her temples. Suddenly, she grew aware of how quiet it was out here, how startlingly beautiful.
This was exactly where she was meant to be, she realized. On this ranch, with these animals, in Walker’s arms. Here was the life she’d wanted for so long.
One more day.
The bison bleated
