by Claire Adams
Whether she liked what I had done or not, I was prepared to sign the ranch over to her and walk out of her life forever, if that was what she wanted. Of course, I hoped that by professing my love for her she would be excited about that opportunity instead of angry, but I didn’t know women as well as I thought I did sometimes.
“Just think about how amazing this will be if it works out. I’ll move back there and we can run the ranch together. We can build it into a huge industry and hire locals, which would build the economy. I’d have the woman I loved and the relaxing life I’ve wanted for the last few months.”
“I do have to admit, you’ve been pretty crabby since returning to work.” Marcus laughed. “Everyone has noticed it.”
“They have not,” I argued.
“You told everyone they couldn’t take the Fourth of July off.” He laughed.
“That’s only because I had no idea what month it was. Of course, they can take the holiday off.”
“You’ve been more than a little distracted.”
“I can’t stop thinking and making plans. Then when I do, I imagine everything going wrong and I cancel all the plans I’ve made.”
“Tyler, this is a big deal. You are basically going to surprise her with a proposal to live together and run a business together. And you haven’t talked to her in six months. You should be nervous.”
“I’m not actually proposing, though,” I said with a grin. “I thought that might be a little too much to spring on her all at once.”
“Yeah, you think?” Marcus rolled his eyes. “Not everyone is an all or nothing personality type. I know it’s worked for you in business, but Kelsi might need to take it a little slow. Be prepared to meet her halfway. Think about where that might be for you and don’t take it personally if she’s not over the moon excited when she sees you at first.”
“I’ve got this Marcus, geez. You’d think I’d never made a business decision in my life by the way you are talking.”
“Tyler, this is a hard decision, and it’s different than business. You’ve got to be ready to go with your heart and to listen to hers.”
I understood what Marcus was trying to say. It was a hard decision, and that was why I had done everything over the past six months. I’d assigned Marcus to take over Market Mayhem International, and I was officially stepping back from the day-to-day operations. I’d formed a new firm for investing and started with the Sullivan ranch, but I had some other purchases also. This was my new life, a dream of a life, and it only worked with Kelsi in it. If she said no to me, everything I’d worked so hard for was going to go down the drain.
For my plan to work, I was still assuming that Kelsi had feelings for me and was going to want to be part of this with me. Nothing was going to work if she had moved on from those feelings. I’d just give her the ranch and have to move on without a plan at all.
The day of my trip, it was overcast in Birmingham, and that contributed to my mood feeling down as well. My confidence was fading the closer I got to the surprise meeting. One minute, I was positive that Kelsi was going to be excited and jump into my arms and kiss me, but then the next moment, I pictured her slapping me and running out of the room. Both options seemed like possibilities as my plane landed at the small airstrip in Rainbow, Texas.
Fittingly, there was a rainbow across the sky as the rain had just stopped when we landed. The sun was out and it quickly warmed up as Maryanne met me at the airport. She looked good. Happy, healthy, and doing well since I’d left.
“Today’s the big day, stud,” she said as she hugged me.
“Yep, you should stay in town; I might need a shoulder to cry on later,” I joked.
“I’ll be around. Just call if you need anything.”
Maryanne and I had been getting along much better since our father’s death. Something had changed between us, and we both seemed to appreciate the relationship we had much more than we had before.
“I’m nervous,” I admitted as she drove me to the bank.
“You should be,” Maryanne teased. “If you weren’t nervous, I’d think there weren’t real emotions at stake.”
“Yeah, it’s good to be nervous. It means I’ve got some skin in the game,” I said as I repeated something one of my mentors had said about business.
“Exactly. All you can do is give it your best. Things will work out, or they won’t. But I know you’ll be all right no matter what. Good luck,” Maryanne said as she dropped me off. “Do you want me to wait for you?”
“Nope, I’m sure I can get a ride, even if things blow up and turn out horribly.”
“Smile: girls like it when you smile,” Maryanne said as she pulled away.
I stood in front of the glass door to the building for a few moments as I took in a few deep breaths and tried to calm my nerves. I wasn’t used to being nervous before a business meeting. I wasn’t comfortable with being nervous at all. But Kelsi was worth it; this was all worth it.
Since returning home to Alabama, all I thought about was getting back to Kelsi and Rainbow, Texas. I hadn’t gone about it in the most conventional of ways, but then again, I wasn’t the most conventional of men. But being home again felt right to me. It was the only decision I’d made in recent years that truly felt like a perfect decision.
I opened the glass doors and stepped into the bank, and I was immediately met by Kirsten, the branch manager. She had been very helpful in arranging the purchase of the property and in keeping my secret over the last few months. I was beyond grateful for everything she had done.
“She’s in there and has no idea what’s going on. The realtor is also in there and our regional manager. I’ve printed up the paperwork for both the options you mentioned, but I’ve only brought the first option into the meeting.”
“Okay,” I said nervously.
“I don’t know Kelsi well, Mr. Pace, but I do know she is an honest woman and she won’t bullshit you. No matter what happens, I suspect you’ll have your answer within the first moments of seeing her.”
“Yes…wait, what do you mean?”
“I mean, we better get started so you can breathe again.” She laughed as we walked down the hall.
Kirsten opened the door to the meeting room, and I saw Kelsi’s red hair. She had her back to me and didn’t turn around. I walked with Kirsten around the table and sat down across from Kelsi. The room felt dizzy as I tried to pull in a breath while I watched her and waited for her reaction.
Kelsi’s eyes slowly lifted from the table and looked at me and then around at the faces of the people in the room. Everyone there knew I was the one who purchased the ranch, except Kelsi, so it was no surprise to them that I was there. She didn’t say anything. I couldn’t read her face at all. She was just staring at me with a blank expression, and I felt like I was going to pass out.
“Hi,” she said as a smile spread across her face, and I took in a huge breath of relief.
“Hi,” I responded.
“I have no idea what’s going on,” she said softly and looked at me and then to Kirsten and the realtor.
“I think it would be best if we let Mr. Pace tell you why he’s here,” Kirsten said.
“Okay, Mr. Pace,” Kelsi said with trepidation. “Tell me why you’re here.”
“I bought the ranch,” I blurted out without remembering how I had planned to say anything. “I’m the owner. It was me. I hope you’re not mad. I didn’t buy it to win you back, but I do want to win you back. Okay, this isn’t what I wanted to say…” I trailed off as I reached into my jacket to find my notes.
Kelsi didn’t run out of the room screaming, and she hadn’t tried to slap me yet; those both seemed like very good signs to me. But I still didn’t have that warm and fuzzy feeling like she had the same feelings for me as I had for her.
“Continue,” she said with a small grin.
“I, um…I love you,” I said as I threw the paper away. “I knew it the second I went back home and you weren’t with me. I knew it
the second you got mad at me and all I wanted to do was make you feel better. I want to marry you…wow, I didn’t think I was going to say that, okay…” I trailed off again as I tried to think of what I was going to say. “It’s true, though. I do want to marry you. But I want a lot of things, and I’m not sure any of it will work out. Most of all, I wanted you to have this ranch and even if you want nothing to do with me, I want to give it to you. That’s why we are here. I am signing the ranch over to you with everything you need to run it.”
Kelsi was quiet. She looked from me to the other people in the room as if she had something to say, but then said nothing. I couldn’t take it any longer. I had to know what she was thinking.
“Do you have questions? Is this making sense? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have surprised you like this,” I said as I sat back down. I looked over at Kirsten and shrugged my shoulders in defeat.
“You waited six months!” Kelsi said as she jumped up and banged her hands on the table. “Six months and now you tell me all this. I can’t believe this,” she said as she pushed her chair out of the way and made her way toward me.
I really wasn’t sure if she was going to slap me or not, but I was prepared. I held onto my chair and stood up to face whatever it was she wanted to do to me.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I stood there.
“For six months you lied to me,” she said stern-faced as she stood there looking up at me.
“Yes.”
“For six months you let me build the ranch of my dreams, and you weren’t here to see the joy on my face.”
“Yes,” I said as I started to smile. Things didn’t seem to be going as poorly as I thought they were going.
“Don’t smile at me; I’m angry,” she said sternly.
“I’m sorry, but you’re so sexy when you’re angry.”
“I’m not sexy. This is serious, Tyler. You could have just told me, and we could have done this all together.”
“I beg to differ: you really are sexy when you’re angry,” I teased.
“So, you’re moving back here?”
“If you’ll have me,” I said as I moved closer to her.
“You knew about this the whole time?” Kelsi said as she turned her attention toward Kirsten. “You knew it was him and you didn’t tell me?”
“I couldn’t; it’s very secret bank manager code of ethics,” she said.
Kelsi put her hands up to her head and paced back and forth for a minute as everything sunk in. It was a lot to take in all at once, but as she turned to face me, I saw it in her eyes. I saw the glow of admiration as she rushed toward me and flung her arms around me.
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Yes, come home.”
The relief that rushed through me was nearly orgasmic as we kissed. Her embrace was what I had dreamed of, her love what I had hoped I would get at the end of all the trickery surrounding the ranch.
“Can you two sign these?” Kirsten said as the real estate agent slid the papers over to us. “This includes the Sullivan property, Pace, Anderson, and Decker farms.”
“What?” Kelsi said.
“I think if we are going to build an empire, we are going to need all the land we can buy. If it’s all right with you, I am including the other land in our new ranch deal and we are going to be co-owners of it all.”
“You don’t have to put my name on it, I’m not an owner. I didn’t put any money into this.”
“Kelsi, this is ours. You are just as important to this deal as me. You are the one who has the vision. It’s you who made me realize this was what I wanted, too. We are doing this together.”
She hesitated for a moment as she looked at the papers and then back toward me. She wasn’t the type of girl who liked things given to her. But she was going to have to get used to that if she was with me because I planned on giving her the world.
“I can’t believe this,” Kelsi whispered as she signed the papers.
“It’s a lot of property,” the realtor added.
“No, this,” Kelsi said as she pulled me toward her. “You, I can’t believe you are here. I’ve dreamed about this since we were kids. You were always part of the dream.”
“I was?”
“Yes, but if I told you that, I thought it wouldn’t come true.”
“It’s coming true, Kelsi. All of it. You and I are going to live happily ever after.”
With one swift motion, I dipped her back and kissed my dream girl. Kelsi was mine, and I was hers. It may have taken us fifteen years to figure it all out, but it was officially the start of something beautiful.
Epilogue
“Campers,” I screamed into the megaphone. “I need all the theater kids over by the Birch building. All the painters by the Elk building. All the equestrian campers by the Myer’s building. We have to get through registration before the fun can begin.”
“Clyde, can you take this little girl over to the Birch building? She’s here for theater camp,” Kelsi said as she came up to Clyde and I as we looked out over the large group of kids.
“This is it. We are official,” I said to Kelsi. “Can you believe we sold out for our first official year?”
“I can believe it. Our camp is kick ass. Kids don’t have to choose between one thing or another; they get it all here. They get outdoor fun, theater, and art all in one location. When I was a kid, I would have begged my parents for the entire year to send me someplace like this.”
Kelsi was right. Her dream for the ranch had turned into a niche in the market that I couldn’t have seen. Kids did want it all. They wanted to do theater, but still canoe in a lake. They wanted to learn how to paint, but still ride horses. If our first camping season was any sign of what was to come, we were going to have one hell of a ride with our new camp.
“Guys, I was going to take the four-wheeler out to the Decker-end of the property to check on the theater and make sure it was finished. Is there anything else you need while I’m out there?” Hannah asked.
“Actually, I’d really like to take a look at it myself. Do you think you and the counselors could wrangle everyone up and Kelsi and I can meet you in a little bit?”
“Sure, it’s going to take a few hours to get everyone settled. You two have a fun ride; I’ll keep Clyde with me here.”
“Are you up for a ride?” Kelsi asked me as she tried to grab the keys from Hannah.
“Oh, no, I’m driving,” I said firmly as I took the keys before she could get to them. “We don’t have time to get coated in mud.”
“Fine, I’ll let you drive this time,” she said. “But I get to drive next time, without any arguments from you.”
“I’ll try not to argue with you, but you’re so adorable when you’re angry with me.”
“You know that is ridiculous that you actually like it when I’m angry. You know that’s weird, right?” She laughed.
“Yep, and you’ll just have to learn to live with it. Forever and ever,” I said as we climbed onto the four-wheeler to head over to the construction site. “No mud puddles this time. I don’t want to end up naked and in the river.”
“So many rules.” She laughed as we took off.
The Decker property was being turned into our huge theater performance area. The main theater was almost complete and would house up to 500 people. It was our hope that at the end of camp, families could come to see their children’s performances, but we also wanted kids to get to know the inner workings of a real theater. We had room for sets, dressing rooms, and even a building area for what we hoped would be a new woodworking part of our program.
I couldn’t take credit for much of the theater plans or programming, though; it was all Kelsi. She envisioned the kids getting to learn about everything from lighting to directing while they were at camp.
“Look at it, wow,” I said as we climbed off the four-wheeler and walked up to the main entrance. “It’s so professional. We might have to start doing some community theater shows out here.”
“That�
��s a great idea! We could do that during the winter months. Look who’s coming up with ideas now,” she teased me.
“I’m not just a handsome checkbook.”
“Nope, you’re much more than that. Can we go in and walk around? I’d like to see how close we are to being finished.”
“Crap, I forgot the keys.”
“We could drive back I guess. But we’d have to come back tomorrow because I need to be there for dinner to talk with the campers.”
“It’s an hour back home; I’m not waiting. Let’s just find a way in,” I said as I started jiggling the doors.
“Why do they even lock this thing? We are in the middle of the country; no one’s going to break in out here.”
“Like we didn’t break into a house out here once?” I teased her. “I think it’s a good idea we keep things locked up, especially with all the kids here. We don’t want them sneaking in and causing trouble.”
“It’s like we have hundreds of our own teenagers. That’s some serious parenting skills we need to have.” She laughed. “Don’t break a window please.”
“I wouldn’t do that. These windows were really expensive.”
We moved around to the back of the theater where there was a door cracked open a bit. It was the door I had instructed the workers to leave open because I had planned this visit out all along. Kelsi didn’t know it, but the theater was complete, and she and I were going to be the first official couple on the stage.
I had to take my time getting her up onto the stage, though. There was a big surprise that we were trying to arrange and they were going to need some time to make it happen. So, Kelsi and I walked through all the rooms backstage until I got a text message saying we were cleared to go onto the stage.
“It smells new in here,” she said as we walked through the backstage area toward the main stage.
“I’ve got a surprise for you. Close your eyes,” I said as I held onto her hands and walked with her onto the stage. “Kelsi Lynn Sullivan,” I said as I kneeled down. “Open your eyes, silly.”
“Oh, sorry, wait…what are you doing?”