“I bought us a ranch,” she corrected, grinning. “What do you think?”
“If this is some sort of act, you’re very convincing.”
“I’ve been told that before, but maybe we ought to leave my acting skills out of this. That’s what got us into trouble before.” She dismounted and walked over to him. “So, what do you say, cowboy? Will you marry me?”
“Hold it. I’m having a hard time putting this all together. You intend to stay right here?”
“Yep.”
“What about your career?”
“This is my career now. It’s the only one I want.”
She sounded very convincing, but he was still afraid to believe his good fortune, terrified to believe that she would choose him over her career. “You’ll be content to be a rancher’s wife?” he asked doubtfully.
“Absolutely,” she said without hesitation. “I’d already made that choice before you and I ever met. I wasn’t here on some lark back then, Wade. I’d come home. You made me certain I’d done the right thing.”
“But the excitement, the glamour, the money,” he said. “How can you turn your back on all of that?”
“It was a fluke,” she said. “I’ll tell you all about it if you want to know, but for now you just need to understand that I never wanted any of it. Oh, it was fun for a while and I got caught up in it, but this life is real. The people here are real.” Her gaze clashed with his. “And the man I love is here…and he’s real.”
He searched her face for even the tiniest hint that she was lying to him, but her expression was open and sincere. He wanted to believe her. God, how he wanted to believe her.
She touched his cheek. “The only question is, can you live with being labeled the superstar’s cowboy in every tabloid coast to coast? It will come to that. I can almost guarantee it.”
Wade thought about it, thought about learning to live with who Lauren Winters really was. And then it came to him, this was who she was, this sexy woman who knew horses, loved the outdoors and loved him. He’d never even met that other Lauren Winters, though in the past weeks he’d watched every movie she’d ever made two and three times. They had made him heartsick over what he’d lost. He’d realized she was good on-screen, so he knew now what she was willing to give up to be with him. The most amazing part of all was that she apparently didn’t consider it any sort of sacrifice. In fact, if she was being totally honest here, she seemed to think it was a more-than-even trade.
“What if I said no?” he asked carefully. “Would you still stay on here?”
Her eyes locked with his. “Yes,” she said quietly. “But I would miss you every single day of my life.”
The words settled over Wade like a benediction, chasing away the last of his doubts, promising him everything he’d ever dreamed of.
“Okay, then,” he said, the beginnings of a smile tugging at his lips. “I’ll marry you on one condition.” As if her agreement were a certainty, he was already reaching for her.
“What’s that?”
“Promise to take me to the Academy Awards one of these days, just so we can tell our kids we’ve been.”
She leaped into his arms and covered his face with kisses. “We’ll ride in on a pair of white horses,” she promised. “They’ll be talking about it for years to come.”
He laughed, suddenly feeling as giddy as if he’d been granted the moon and stars. He twirled her around until they were both dizzy, but then his mood sobered as reality crept in.
“Will you be content, Lauren? Can you be satisfied not being a somebody?”
She frowned at him. “Don’t you ever say that, Wade Owens. I will be a somebody. I will be a rancher and a mother and, best of all, I’ll be your wife.”
Wade nodded thoughtfully, then swept her up and kissed her soundly. “Then I don’t give two hoots what the tabloids call me, darlin’, because you and I are getting hitched.”
“Thank goodness,” she teased. “For a minute there, you had me worried.”
“No need to worry. You’re not the only one in the family with a flair for the dramatic. I know a happy ending when I see one.” He grinned. “In fact, it reminds me a little bit of Kiss the Stars.”
She looked surprised at that. “You saw that? When?”
“The better question might be how many times?” he admitted. “Probably a half-dozen. I think it was my favorite.”
“Mine, too,” she said. “The critics hated it. They thought it was sappy.”
Wade met her gaze. “What do they know? They’re just frustrated screenwriters who are jealous of a good thing.”
Lauren laughed. “When did you get to be so smart?”
Though she’d asked it in jest, Wade returned her smile with a serious look. “The day I fell in love with you.”
She rested her palm against his cheek. “This is better than any movie I ever made,” she assured him.
“It’s better than any movie ever filmed,” Wade said, then grinned. “Of course, so far I’ve only had a short course in Lauren Winters’s films. Maybe my judgment’s not so great.”
“I think your judgment’s just fine. You picked me, didn’t you?”
Wade stroked a finger along the pale curve of her cheek. “I don’t remember having any choice at all in the matter. You were just in my heart.”
He glanced toward the house. “You fixed up a bedroom in that place yet?”
“Oh, yes. Despite Gina’s pleas for me to do the kitchen first, I did the bedroom. I knew that was the first place you’d want to see.”
“Smart woman,” he said.
“The smartest,” she agreed, and led him inside, where Wade spent the rest of the day proving just how clever—and lucky—they both were.
He’d just wrangled a Hollywood superstar into agreeing to marry him. Or had it been the other way around?
