Page 50 of The Cowboy's Best Friend

And she left them there at that table, sputtering.

When she walked back out of that house, she felt light. Airy. Like she could dance all the way to the moon if she wanted.

Instead of driving over to Grey’s Saloon, she left her Jeep where it was and walked, which was the closest to dancing on moonshine she could manage tonight. It was a pretty, happy walk. Marietta was cooling down after a hot, bright blue summer day. She could smell campfires and barbecues. Folks wavedhellosfrom their porches and she waved back. There were people out walking, taking in the sweet summer evening.

On Main Street, there were people on the sidewalks and gathering in loose groups outside the open restaurants and bars, and more of them as she got closer to Grey’s.

Sierra felt… outside her own skin. Or maybe just turned inside out. Halfway to the moon, somehow.

She kept thinking about that first year of junior high. How much she had liked Boone. How much that had scared her.

And how many years she’d spent trying to avoid the things that scared her when, it turned out, that didn’t work at all.

She stopped on the next corner and stepped back against the nearest wall so that no one would walk into her. Then she stood there, looking at Grey’s. It had been the first building ever to be raised up in Marietta, because Montanans always had their priorities right.

Maybe it was time she got hers in line.

When someone stopped in front of her she braced herself, thinking it would be something unpleasant, like Matty—

But when she looked up, it was Boone.

Everything else faded away, like he was the actual moon all along.

“You got out early,” he said, that curve to his mouth. “I figured you’d be fighting with them for at least another hour.”

“Actually, I walked out.” She nodded when his brows rose. “I told him they have one more chance to behave and if they don’t, then I’m done with them.”

“About time.” He reached over and smoothed his hand over her head, then down the length of the French braid she wore. Like he was feeling her out in braille. “I’m sure they took that well.”

“It was time to set a few boundaries, that’s all.” Sierra smiled. “And they were not enthused, no.”

“I think—” he began.

But Sierra had been letting anything and everything lead her around for way too long. It was high time she took charge. It was past time.

And as she’d told her parents already tonight, she had wasted far too much time already.

“Boone,” she said, cutting him off. “You keep telling me that you love me.”

His eyes sharpened, then focused in on her. “I do. Because I’ve loved you forever. And still do.”

“It’s not that I don’t love you,” she whispered. And when that seemed to make his face tight, she moved closer and slid her palms over his chest, not caring who was watching them. She wouldn’t care if the entirety of Crawford County pulled up seats. “Because of course I do. But when have I ever chosen anything? How can I be sure that this time, despite everything, I’m making the right choice?”

He grinned, though his gaze stayed serious. “Come on, baby,” he said. “That’s not a real question.”

“It feels like a real question to me.” She sighed. “It feels like the only question.”

“Sierra.” He pulled her into his arms, clearly as unconcerned with the people who thought the worst of them as she was. “You’ve been figuring out what to do with how much you love me since the day we met.”

Of course he knew.

She laughed, and she could feel all that light and air within her again. Because he’d known all along. There wasn’t a single thing about her that Boone didn’t know, and how lucky was she to finally be able to celebrate that the way she should?

“How do you know that?” she asked him, her voice shaking—though her grip on him didn’t falter a bit. “I only realized I knew that tonight.”

“You have some stuff to work through,” he said. “And I don’t think I made it easy for you. Maybe if I’d gone away left you to it, you would have figured it out quicker.”

But she found she was shaking her head. “Maybe,” she said. “But being without you sounds a whole lot worse than being a little bit lost. I don’t think I would have liked that at all.”

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