Page 256 of The Cowbears of Curvy Bear Ranch

“This is too much,”shesaid.

“Nothing’s too much for you,” he said. “I believe in you and I know that you’re going to be an amazing artist. Regardless of what happens between us, I want you to follow your dreams and become a professional painter. Will you do thatforme?”

“Yes.”

As she flung her arms around his neck, a bottle of turpentine rolled onto the floor. He grabbed her and swung his arm down toretrieveit.

“I know you’ve only tried watercolors, but I thought you might want to give oil painting atrytoo.”

“You’re not going to turn the barn into a painting factory, are you?” she asked in aplayfultone.

“I hadn’t thought of it before, but now that youmentionit…”

She giggled before forcing a more seriousexpression.

“Cody?”

“Yeah?”

“I wanttostay.”

“You do?” He sat upstraighter.

“I do,” she said. “I don’t want to rush what’s happening between us, but I’m not ready to leave. I don’t know if all this fated mate stuff is real or not, but I want to find out. This… what you just did… you understand me in a way no one else evercould.”

He pulled her into his arms and gave her the kiss of a lifetime. By the time he released her, her spine had turned to jelly. She slid back against thepillows.

“We could drive down to Texas together to get your stuff,” he said as he slid under thecovers.

“I’ll have it shipped. I have no desire to go backthere.”

“What about your parents?” heasked.

“They can comevisit.”

“We don’t have much room at the ranch,”hesaid.

“I’ll get an apartment in town. I really don’t want to rush this,” she said. “I care about you a lot, but I need time to take itallin.”

“Okay.” He snuggled against her. “But I’m not the most patient man when I find somethingIwant.”

“I gathered that from all the overnight mail stickers.” She waved a hand towardthebox.

“Well, I needed some way to convince you to stay.” Hegrinned.

“I would have stayed anyway.” As she leaned over to kiss him, she knew it wouldn’t take much time for her to make up her mind. Unless he was hiding another deep, dark secret, she could see herself falling in love with him faster than ashootingstar.

Epilogue

One monthlater…

Abby helda glass of champagne in her hand. As she looked around the packed gallery at all her friends and family, she couldn’t stop smiling. The last month had been a whirlwind of getting to know Cody. The more time they spent together, the more she knew what shewanted—him.

When she spotted him across the room, her heart melted. He’d been fidgety all night. Although she’d told him he didn’t need to wear a suit, he’d insisted on dressing up for the premier of her first art collection,Bears of Yellowstone. He looked so incredibly handsome and she couldn’t wait to peel thosepantsoff.

Her mom steppedintoview.

“Darling, I love the grizzly bear paintings.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “And I saw how much they’resellingfor.”

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