Always & Forever: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (ABCs of Love Collection, Books 1 - 4)

by Brenna Jacobs

  “I’ve seen them. They’re not bad.” He adjusted her helmet and swept back her braids so they fell down her spine. “But I’m not giving up on Montana.”

  And he didn’t. For the next six days and five nights, he had something new for them to do. During the day it was usually work, which turned out to be a lot less boring than Madi anticipated. There was always something new to be done that required a lot of different ways of thinking. Some days required math to estimate how much feed the cattle would need for the winter depending on how much more hay Cash was projecting they’d bring in. Other days serious relationship skills were necessary to keep horses, cattle, chickens, dogs, and people happy. Every day required some kind of serious physical exertion, and Madi found she liked those jobs the best. She’d always loved exercise, but the concept of staying fit by doing what had to be done to keep the ranch running really appealed to her.

  The nights, though, were her favorite. One night there was a theater production at the local high school. Sure, it wasn’t the same caliber as the shows she’d seen in LA, but everyone said hello to Cash and stopped to talk to him. They even ran into his old high school English teacher.

  “This is the man who taught me to love Jane Eyre,” Cash said as he introduced Mr. Garcia to her.

  “You don’t have to introduce this young lady to me,” Mr. Garcia replied. “Everyone in town is talking about your ‘internet lady.’” He didn’t bother with formalities, instead going straight for a hug. “My students love you. The girls and boys.”

  “Thank you so much.” Madi should have felt weirder about the hug and the whole town knowing her business, but she found both Mr. Garcia and Spring Creek endearing. They felt as familiar as family, and she’d always wanted a big family.

  The next night they went to a local rodeo—Madi’s first—and the same thing happened. People kept stopping Cash to talk to him about the ranch, how it was doing with the big city owner, and whether he planned to get an operation of his own.

  “Thinking about it.” He glanced at Madi and smiled.

  “Make it somewhere close. At least within a hundred miles. Wouldn’t be the same without a Murdock nearby,” one person after another said.

  “Your last name’s Carter. How do they know you’re a Murdock?” Madi asked.

  “I told you, that name carries a lot of weight around here. People don’t forget who belongs to the Murdock family, especially since about half of us are related.” Cash explained. “Plus, everyone loved my mom. They would’ve liked to see me inherit the ranch. I would have, if I’d been old enough when she died.”

  He kicked a rock off their path and stopped talking. Madi didn’t press him any further, letting the quiet that always followed talk about his mom settle over them.

  Cash taught her how to target shoot and rope, took her out for the best steak she’d ever eaten, and introduced her to Dutch oven cooking. Every day and night held a new adventure that made her fall more in love with Cash, but not necessarily Montana. She liked it for sure, and imagining a life on a ranch where the closest town was twenty-five miles away—and then that town was the size of one block in LA and had fewer people—wasn’t nearly as scary as it had been, but still felt lonely.

  The days and nights went too quickly until their last night together arrived.

  “I’ve saved the best for last,” Cash said after he’d finished work early for the day. “We’re going dancing.”

  “I thought you said you couldn’t dance.” With his permission she’d videoed him working with the horses. She planned to post it the next day when they were in town and had better Wi-Fi. Something about gentleness and persuasion always being more effective than fear or force, whether working with horses, children, employees, political opponents or, really, anyone.

  “Oh, I can dance. I just don’t line dance.” He helped her down from the corral fence. “No self-respecting cowboy does.”

  She didn’t need his help, but she sure liked his hands around her waist. She’d found a reason to sit on that rail waiting for him almost every day that week. “Then what kind of dancing do you do?”

  “Let me get cleaned up, and I’ll show you.” He started to walk away from her, but Madi grabbed his hand.

  “You don’t have to get cleaned up for me. I like you just the way you are.” She gripped his button-down shirt and pulled him to her, wanting to feel his lips on hers as much as possible before she left.

  At least she thought she did until the pungent smell of horse, leather and sweat up close hit her. She gently pushed him away. “Maybe you should get cleaned up.”

  Cash laughed. “Not even seasoned cowgirls like the smell of a man who’s been sweating hard all day.”

  “It’s not pleasant.” She stepped further away, and then waved good-bye.

  She hadn’t gone far before he yelled from the opposite direction, “I left something for you in your room.”

  Madi smiled and picked up her pace in order to get to the main house quickly. She hadn’t been so excited about a gift since the last Christmas she could remember believing in Santa.

  Lyla passed her along the way. “I know what that smile means,” she said to Madi. Her smile disappeared and worry took its place. “You still planning to leave tomorrow?”

  Madi stopped and her smile disappeared. “I have to… but that doesn’t mean I won’t be back.”

  “I hope so.” Lyla opened her arms to hug Madi. “It won’t be the same without you. I think you’d fit in here better than you think you would, if you wanted to.”

  Madi broke away. She’d never had a sister, but she thought Lyla would make a pretty good one. “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

  She continued on the path to the main house. Lyla had told her that cowboys loved a woman in a dress. Madi was a woman who loved wearing a good dress, and she happened to have one that Cash hadn’t seen. A red gingham sundress she’d bought for this trip, just in case she had an opportunity to go dancing. Once again she congratulated herself for bucking conventional wisdom and packing for every possible contingency. And then she congratulated herself for thinking in horse terms. Bucking. She never used to use that word.

  The dress would go well with her boots, but not her pink hat. She’d have to leave that behind. But maybe it was time to do that anyway.

  When she got to the house, Madi took the stairs two at a time and flung open her door. A good-sized box, clumsily wrapped, lay on her bed, a bouquet of wildflowers on top of it. Madi opened the card attached to it.

  Whether you come back for good or not, you’ve earned this.

  Love, Cash

  P.S. Please come back

  Tears sprung to her eyes, because she still didn’t know which of those two things she’d end up doing, but she suspected whatever was in the box might help her decide. As much as she wanted to open the box, she wasn’t ready to make a decision yet. So she got dressed instead, putting on full Insta-worthy makeup for the first time that week and curling her hair so it lay in beachy blonde waves down her back.

  When she was satisfied with how she looked, she sat on the bed next to the box. She’d looked at it about a million times, and she had to meet Cash in five minutes, so she couldn’t put off opening it any longer. She carefully peeled off the tape at the seams and removed the paper. Then she took the top off the box, but the word Stetson across the top had already given away what was inside.

  Madi pulled out a grayish-white cowboy hat with a twisted leather band around the crown. She ran her hand over the soft felt and loved it right away. She loved it even more when she put it on, and it fit perfectly. This hat would not be blowing off in the wind like her pink one. It also wouldn’t make her stick out like a sore thumb. She’d fit right in.

  She liked that idea. And she looked good in the hat. After one more glance in the mirror, Madi left her room to spend what she now knew wouldn’t be her last night with Cash. She still couldn’t see how they could both have what they wanted and each other at the same tim
e, but she was a step closer to picturing herself in a little house tucked in the mountains, surrounded by pasture.

  Madi left her room with a smile on her face and headed down the hallway to the stairs. She expected to see Cash at the bottom, but that’s not who was waiting for her there. The man wasn’t facing her, but she recognized the slouch in his shoulders.

  Even though she was sure she knew who it was, she hoped she was wrong with each stair she went down. He didn’t turn around until she got to the bottom and he heard his name.

  “What are you doing here, Vance?” She almost couldn’t get the words out. Two weeks ago she’d wanted him back, and now she wasn’t sure what she wanted. Seeing him brought back so many feelings, but few were good.

  Vance answered her by sweeping her into his arms and kissing her hard.

  “I came to get you,” he answered once she’d pushed him away. His self-satisfied smile made her stomach churn.

  “Madi?”

  Her heart dropped at the sound of Cash’s voice. She turned slowly to face him.

  “You want to introduce me to your friend?” Hurt was on his face, but his voice was all pain. And anger.

  Vance stuck out his hand, and Cash took it. “I’m Madi’s boyfriend, Vance.”

  “Ex,” Madi said over their handshake.

  Vance let go of Cash’s hand and put his arm over Madi’s shoulder. “A temporary break. We always get back together, even when she thinks she’s met someone new.” He kissed her temple before she could duck out of his embrace.

  Cash’s glare stopped her from defending herself. “Well, I’ll leave you two to figure that out.”

  Before she could stop him, Cash was headed toward the back door.

  “Cash, wait!” she called after him. He paused, but didn’t turn around and Vance grabbed her hand before she could run after him. “This isn’t what it looks like.” Despite their truth, the words were so cliché coming out of her mouth that she nearly winced.

  Now he did turn around and his eyes went straight to the hand Vance still held. “It looks like something I’ve seen before. You LA girls really are all the same.” Whatever softness he’d shown her before had turned to stone. Just like when he thought she’d rejected him when, really, she hadn’t heard him.

  “Then maybe you should look a little closer.” Madi shook her hand out of Vance’s, but she wasn’t going to chase Cash. She’d been ready to move to Montana for him, to change her whole career—she’d even spent the past week ignoring her business in order to Be Present for him—and now he was going to accuse her of doing the same thing that Lindsey had done to him? He was going to walk away from her without letting her explain?

  Oh, Hell-to-the-no.

  Madi turned her back on Cash before he could do it to her again. She wasn’t going to rearrange her whole life just to be with a guy who loved putting up walls even more than Donald Trump did. She couldn’t spend her life figuring out how to break down those barriers.

  He wasn’t being fair. She hadn’t asked Vance to come out here, but he had, and it was a nice gesture. She didn’t want him back, but he did deserve an explanation as to why. A lot had changed in two weeks, but he didn’t know that. Of course he’d think things would go back to the way they were.

  She tried not to think about just how much had changed, and how little she wanted things to go back to the way they were as she climbed the stairs with Vance close behind. Instead she did what she always did when she needed to get her mind off something: she checked her phone for messages.

  We need posts!! I’m out!

  I’ll pick you up at the airport. Gotta talk marketing for the holidays.

  I’ve got some ideas…

  Madi’s publicist had sent ten texts in the last hour. She’d let Madi have her vacation, and now she wanted to get back to work. And she was absolutely right.

  It was time for Madi to go home.

  She let Vance into her room where the first thing she did was set the hat back in its box and put the lid on top. Then she pulled her suitcases out of the closet and began packing. “If you came to get me, then help me pack,” she snapped at Vance, who, for the first time ever jumped to do what she’d ordered. Of course, she’d never actually ordered him to do anything. She’d always asked nicely. Or begged.

  It was humiliating to think about how she’d let him treat her, but even more humiliating to think about how Cash had just treated her. She’d been fooled into believing he would be better to her, better than every other guy she’d dated. She’d vowed not to sacrifice more than he was willing to, and then been on the verge of doing it anyway.

  Her hurt and embarrassment drove her to pack carelessly. Accessories got mixed with shoes, dresses with jeans, and t-shirts with underwear. Madi didn’t care. She just wanted to go home, and she didn’t care if Vance was her only ride there.

  A half an hour later the two of them were hauling her bags down the stairs when Madi ran into Lyla.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, her voice rising with panic as Vance opened the front door.

  “Your brother seems to think I’m the kind of girl who would run off with someone else, so I guess I’m proving him right.” Madi didn’t wait for a reply. She followed Vance to his rental car and tossed her bags into the trunk—he didn’t offer to help—while Lyla stood at the top of the stairs where Madi had seen her for the first time.

  Madi thought she caught a glimpse of Cash as Vance peeled out of the gravel driveway, but she wasn’t sure.

  “Don’t think this means we’re getting back together,” she said to Vance once they were too far down the road for her to ask him to turn around. “You’re a way for me to get home, that’s it.”

  Vance opened his mouth to say something, but her glare shut him down. Then she spent the next three hours on the drive to the airport ignoring him and catching up on all the work she’d put off doing over the last two weeks. Work she wasn’t going to let Cash, or any other guy, keep her from again.

  By the time they got to the airport, she’d changed her ticket to get on the first flight out of there by way of Denver, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City. It would take nearly twenty-four hours to get home, but it was worth it. Fortunately, when she didn’t offer to pay for Vance to change his flight, he was too cheap to do it himself. She left him trying to get comfortable in the terminal for the night. He’d tried to speak to her a few times, but she hadn’t answered, except to tell him again that they were through. She’d change her locks and block his number once she got home to make sure he believed her.

  It didn’t take long for Madi to discover the problem with booking one-way flights on different airlines was that she had to pick up and recheck her baggage on each leg. And she wouldn’t have Cash at any of her stops to help her. Her situation became even more problematic at her first stop in Denver when she dropped her phone, then accidentally rolled over it with her heaviest suitcase.

  With no phone and nothing to read as she flew from Denver to Phoenix, the only thing Madi had to do was think about Cash. She was still angry that he’d basically accused her of cheating on him, but she wondered if she’d overreacted by leaving so quickly. Had his reaction to seeing Vance kissing her given her an excuse to not choose between staying in California or moving to Montana? Probably. But was it fair that he was asking her to be the one to move and not willing to do the same himself?

  No.

  He may have had more reasons to stay in Montana than she had to stay in California, but he could have offered. If he really loved her, why wouldn’t he be willing to follow her to the ends of the earth if that’s what he was expecting of her? She deserved that. And if she couldn’t have it, then she didn’t need a man. She could have a rich life with friends and a career and without Cash or any other guy.

  She landed in Denver confident she’d made the right decision, but as her next flight took off and she looked over the Rocky Mountains she felt an ache that could only be compared to homesickness. The closer she got to LA,
the lonelier she felt. She thought about how connected Cash was not only to the land that stretched back generations, but also to the community his family had helped build. She’d never had that, and she never would in LA.

  If she was truly honest with herself, what she wanted more than anything for the babies she’d never thought about having until she’d met Cash was for them to know where they came from. There’d always been a big hole in her life where her father’s history should have been. She didn’t want that for her kids. More than anything Cash had shown her or taken her to do, it was his sense of who he was and where he came from that attracted her to him. That, more than anything, tugged at her heartstrings.

  By the time Madi landed in Salt Lake all she wanted to do was go back to Montana. Back to Cash.

  But she couldn’t unless he asked her to. Being able to stand on her own meant being courageous enough to be alone, even when it hurt. As long as he thought she’d cheat on him and wasn’t willing to sacrifice for her, no matter how perfect he was in every other way, she couldn’t go back to Cash.

  So she checked her baggage for the last time and headed for the terminal, tired, broken and a little ripe. But not in tears, and that was important.

  She stepped onto the moving sidewalk too exhausted to walk as fast as she needed to in order to make her flight. Her eyes drifted closed as she moved forward with less effort than she’d had to exert in the last twenty-four hours, and in her haze she thought she heard her name.

  Madi opened her eyes as a blonde woman with a pink hat similar to her own walked past her. Then she heard her name again and a man who looked an awful lot like Cash ran past her. She watched him catch up to the pink-hatted woman, still not believing what she’d seen.

  “Madi!” the man—who sounded an awful lot like Cash too—said as he grabbed the woman’s shoulder.

  The woman turned at the same time that Madi’s moving sidewalk ended. Madi, unfortunately, was too invested in what was happening between the Cash look-alike and Miss Pink Hat to notice that her automated journey had come to a conclusion.