Ready for Wild
Page 26
My face furrows as I take in all that she’s offering. To leave her home, her friends, and her family, relocate to Colorado and get a real job here—just to be where I am. It would sound awesome if I didn’t know what it’s like to be on the other side of a sacrifice like that. And even though I didn’t ask Amber to do this, I hate the idea that she would forfeit parts of her life to be with me.
There’s another solution though, one where it doesn’t seem like anyone would have to sacrifice anything.
“Or I could move to Austin.”
Amber sucks in a harsh breath. “You would do that?”
I shrug. “Garrett’s in Kansas now; Cooper’s busy with babies. My family doesn’t live here. I like my job, but it’s not my life, so I can find another one. And since going to Austin ruined me with real barbeque, now I can’t eat at True Grit and enjoy it.”
Amber grins. I tilt my head, pausing to be sure I’m ready to tell her the real reason why, whether it’s Texas or Tennessee, where I end up doesn’t much matter.
“I once moved across four states because a woman broke my heart. So I can certainly move three states to be with the woman who can help me make it whole again. Because she’s the one I want to give it to.”
We stare at each other for what feels like days. Two people so different, and so alike at the same time. Amber crawls off of my desk and into my lap.
“Do you remember that day we said goodbye outside your house? When we talked about no promises but made one anyway?” she asks.
I nod. Amber’s eyes go soft, lost in what looks like sentimentality. A feeling that I know she’s fighting hard to avoid running from, because she forces a long breath before saying more.
“We said we would forget all the reasons this shouldn’t work and try to find just one reason it would. I found that reason, Braden. It’s an easy one, too.” Amber gives me a weary smile. “Because I love you. That’s my reason.”
I swallow the rise of emotion that threatens to turn me into a blubbering fool, answering her with the only words I can manage.
“I love you.”
Amber lets her eyes drop closed, obviously working to keep her own blubbering at bay. She sighs and opens her eyes again.
“But we should keep discussing this. My life’s changing in big, scary ways. Now you’re talking about doing the same thing to your life. So we shouldn’t rush into this. We don’t have to decide anything today, or tonight. We can talk it out. Grown-up and mature-like.”
I put my arms around her, pulling her close and brushing my lips across hers.
“Sure. We’ll talk it out. All night or for as long as we need to. We have our one good reason, so all we have to do is start there and we’ll be fine.” I kiss her once, murmuring my next words against her lips. “Now. When you talk about being grown-up and mature, you mean naked, right?”
Amber laughs, relieved and relaxed. “Yes. Naked is very grown-up. And very mature.”
I lean back, look at her for a beat. “I missed you. Losing you turned me into a real asshole.”
Amber crooks a skeptical brow.
“Fine. It turned me into a bigger asshole.” I shake my head. “It’s possible I ruined some poor kid’s first deer hunt with a bow, that’s how much of a jerk I became. You make me happy. You keep me from acting like a selfish ass all of the time. And I need you to keep doing that so I can become the guy worthy of loving you.”
She wraps her body to mine as tight as she can, arms around my neck, legs around my waist, and her face tucked into my neck.
“You already are that guy. But I need you to have me one hundred percent; a full life, no compromises. Without you … I’d always come up short.”
Those words become everything. Filling in every scar in my heart and each empty space in my world. Amber made my once-simple existence so fucking complicated that I can’t imagine it without her again, and I don’t want to. She is the untamed, uncontrollable force I needed in my life more than I could have ever understood.
And I’m ready for her now. Ready for what makes her wild and wonderful, for the way I know she’ll always make every steep and muddy trail worth the climb—season after season.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to the amazing team at Pocket Books for all their efforts to ensure that the final installment of the Grand Valley series is the best it can be and finds its way into readers’ hands. Thank you also to my agent, Victoria Cappello, for her ongoing guidance and expertise.
Thank you, as always, to Warren. Ready for Wild demanded a fact-checker such as yourself. A check is in the mail for your services—in the meantime, go show those mountains who’s boss.
About the Author
Liora Blake is a contemporary romance author living in Colorado. She writes because it’s what she’s always wanted to do; she writes novels because she likes to tell the whole story; and she writes romance because a happily ever after is the best kind of story to tell. Visit her online at www.liorablake.com.
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ALSO BY LIORA BLAKE
The Grand Valley Series
First Step Forward
Second Chance Season
The True Series
True North
True Devotion
True Divide
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 by Liora Blake
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Interior design by Bryden Spevak
Cover design by Chelsea McGuckin
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Blake, Liora, author.
Title: Ready for wild / Liora Blake.
Description: First Gallery Books trade paperback edition. | New York : Gallery Books, 2017. | Series: The Grand Valley series ; 3
Identifiers: LCCN 2017021543| ISBN 9781501155178 (softcover) | ISBN 9781501155185 (ebook)
Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Romance Contemporary. | FICTION Contemporary Women. | FICTION Romance General. | GSAFD: Love stories.
Classification: LCC PS3602.L3458 R43 2017 | DDC 813/.6—dc23 LC record ava
ilable at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017021543
ISBN 978-1-50115517-8
ISBN 978-1-50115518-5 (ebook)