Page 18 of Her Jolly Cowboy
He stops, drags a hand through his hair. “I’m getting married, man.”
“Yeah. You are.” I grin. “Frankie’s the best thing that ever happened to you.”
“I know,” he says with a smile. “What about you?”
I know exactly what he’s asking. “Yeah. Me too.”
He studies me for a long second. “You love her.”
It’s not a question, but I answer anyway. “More than I thought I could love anybody.”
“You gonna leave the ranch?” His voice is quiet. “Follow her to Denver?”
I don’t even hesitate. “If that’s what it takes to keep her, yeah. I’ll sell my share, figure out city life, whatever she needs. I’m not losing her.”
Rhett’s eyes go soft in a way I’ve never seen. “Dad would’ve liked her.”
“Yeah,” I say around the sudden lump in my throat. “He would’ve.”
We stand there for a minute, two brothers who lost everything once and somehow found our way to this. The door creaks open behind us. I turn and there’s Holly.
She’s in a soft gray dress that hugs every curve, hair twisted up with loose pieces framing her face, cheeks pink from the cold. She looks like she stepped out of a dream.
Her eyes flick from me to Rhett and back, and I realize she heard every word.
“Luke,” she whispers.
Rhett clears his throat. “I’ll just go check on Grandma.” He claps my shoulder again and disappears, pulling the door shut behind him.
The room is suddenly very quiet. Holly takes a shaky step forward. “Did you mean it?”
“Every damn word.”
“You’d move to Denver? For me?”
“I’d move to the moon if you asked me to.”
Her eyes fill. “I don’t want you to leave the ranch.”
“I don’t want to leave either, not really, but I want you more.”
She crosses the room in three strides and throws herself into my arms. I catch her, lift her off the ground, and she wraps her legs around my waist like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
“I love you,” she says against my mouth. “I love you so much it scares the hell out of me.”
I kiss her hard, tasting salt from her tears. “I love you, too, Holly Jameson. And I’m keeping you.”
She laughs through the tears. “I don’t want Denver anymore. I don’t want to be ruled by checklists and timelines. I don’t know what I want exactly, but I know I want you.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I promise. “Together.”
She nods, forehead pressed to mine. “Together.”
Rhett and Frankie’s wedding ceremony is perfect.
The barn glows with a thousand fairy lights, pine garland dripping from every beam. Frankie walks down the aisle on her dad’s arm, looking like Christmas morning, and Rhett forgets how to breathe when he sees her.
Holly stands off to the side in her headset and clipboard, but every time our eyes meet, she smiles like it’s just us in the room.
