He stood and paced around the room, between the coffee table and the recliner to the kitchen door and back.
Rose waited as he gathered his thoughts.
“I know I disappointed you. I want to make it up to you. I finally realized the choices in my life are mine to make. I can choose to be happy, and I can choose to be responsible, and I can choose to love you. I want that. I want that with you.”
She’d been determined to hold onto her anger, but it was slipping away, mutating into hope.
He looked down at her. “Here's my plan. We’ll go to Phoenix. I'll get a job while you go to school, and I'll take care of you while you study. One day, when we save enough, I’ll build your dream house.” Adam laid a hand on the stack of pictures.
She opened her mouth to speak, but he raised a hand to stop her. “By the time you’ve earned your Ph.D., maybe I’ll have an idea of what I want to do with my life. I can’t ride bucking horses forever.” He stopped and drew in a deep breath.
She looked at him, trying to decide what to say first. She had so many questions and so many answers.
As Rose stood, Adam gathered her into his arms. He buried his face in her neck and whispered, “I know it won't be easy, but we can make it. I love you, Rose. I want to marry you. Say you’ll try.” Adam pulled back just enough for his lips to meet hers in a soft kiss.
Rose wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back with all the love she’d been saving in her heart since the day she’d met him.
-#-
Adam was finally free of his grandfather's curse. He’d granted himself the liberty to love and be loved.
Rose put her hands on his face and looked him in the eye. “Did you ask me to marry you or just cohabitate?”
Adam smiled at her. “Marriage, definitely. It would set a bad example for Tully if we lived together.” He stepped back and reached his hand into his pocket. Taking hers, he slipped on a white gold band with a Sapphire setting. “This was my mother’s. It was what was in the safety deposit box, along with some pictures and a letter.”
Rose held her hand away from her body to better admire the ring. “It’s beautiful. I wish I could have known her. Is the letter from your mother?”
Adam’s smile weakened a little. “No, it’s from my grandfather.”
“Can I see it?”
“Sure, it’s pretty typical of him.” He grabbed a manila packet off the floor then pulled out a smaller envelope and handed it to her.
Rose slipped the paper from the envelope and opened it. She read aloud.
Adam,
If you are reading this, I’m dead. The bottle of scotch in the box is so you can toast the fact that I’m gone.
She looked up at Adam. He held a pint of scotch in one hand and a tiny manila envelope in the other. She lowered her gaze back to the letter and continued.
There’s a lot of bullshit in this world. I know you never saw it this way, but by being tough on you, I prepared you for the crap you’d run into. You were too soft to make it, much like your mother, and I did the best I could to toughen you up.
I laughed when I wrote the will, and wherever I am now, I’m still laughing. You really fought your head over the terms, didn’t you?
I don’t know if you accepted my challenge—I like to think you did—or if you’ll succeed. Either way, I’ve done all I could.
You’ll find a key in here for another safety deposit box. Use the money to build a business or to ride those damned bucking horses or just to lay on the beach with a pretty girl.
Your grandfather,
Simon Sylvester Howell, III
Rose’s eyes were filled with tears, and she moved close to him, placing her hand on his cheek. “He didn’t hate you at all. He loved you.”
“Yeah, I guess he did, but he had a crappy way of showing it, and you haven’t answered me yet,” Adam said.
Rose’s brows knit together in confusion then she brightened. “Oh, I'll marry you, but you should know I'm a high maintenance girl.”
Adam lifted the manila envelope and tossed it onto her lap.
When she opened it a tiny silver key fell into her palm. “The safety deposit box?”
“Filled with fifty thousand dollars.”
Her hand flew to her mouth and her eyes widened.
“In his last senile days, Grandpa left me money. Think that’s enough to make you happy?”
“What an idiot,” she said with a big, sappy smile on her face. “And this time I mean you.”
“Me? What did I do now?”
“The last two times I called myself an idiot, not you, but this time you deserve it.”
Now he was confused. Rose could change subjects with lightning speed, and she’d lost him on this one.
“I don’t need money,” she said as she placed a hand on each of his cheeks. “I need you, only you. We’ll figure the rest out together.” Then she kissed him. “That is the first, best kiss of the rest of your life, Adam Cameron.”
About the Author
Stephanie Berget was born loving horses. A lifelong love of rodeo began when she married her Bronc rider. She and her husband traveled throughout the Northwest United States where she barrel raced and her husband rode bucking horses. She started writing to put a realistic view of rodeo and ranching into western romance. Stephanie and her husband live on a farm located on the Oregon/Idaho border where they raise hay, horses and cattle with the help of Dizzy Dottie the Border Collie and two Munchkin cats, Magic and Martin.
Visit her at www.stephanieberget.com.
Sugarwater Ranch
Salt Creek Cowboys-Book 1
Sean O’Connell’s life is perfect, or it was until his partying lifestyle affected his bull riding. Now he’s ended the season too broke to leave the Northwest for the warm southern rodeos. When a wild night with his buddies gets out of hand, he wakes up naked, staring into the angry eyes of a strange woman. His infallible O’Connell charm gets him nowhere with the dark-haired beauty. It’s obvious she’s not his usual good-time girl, so why can’t he forget her?
Bar-manager Catherine Silvera finds a waterlogged, unconscious cowboy freezing to death in front of the Sugarwater Bar. She saves his life--then runs faster than a jackrabbit with a coyote on its tail. Any man who makes his living rodeoing is bad news, especially if Sean thinks partying is part of the competition. He’s everything she doesn’t want in a man, so why can’t Catherine shake her attraction to the rugged cowboy?
Excerpt
Without thinking, Catherine moved closer and snuggled into the warmth of Sean’s body. “Did you call your sister? She wanted you to be there.”
“What good would it have by done then? Mom was gone. Frannie and I had never been close. She was a mama’s girl, and I went everywhere with my dad.” He paused for a moment, staring up at the stars. “God, I miss him.”
Turning, he put his hands on her cheeks. “Frannie is better off without me,” he whispered, staring into her eyes. “So are you.” His lips brushed hers gently before he increased the pressure.
His kiss kindled a flame, and heat spread through her body. This man could light a fire in her faster than a box of matches and a can of gas.
Sean’s warm hand slid around the nape of her neck and pulled her closer. It only took one step to be against his hard body. His warm lips slid across hers before moving to the soft spot beneath her ear.
She hadn’t kissed a man for a long time. The selection was slim in Dalhart, and since she’d come back, her working hours weren’t conducive to meeting the kind of man she wanted to date.
Like riding a bike, however, she found she hadn’t forgotten how to kiss. Sean wrapped both arms around her waist and pulled her tight against him. Catherine lifted her arms and circled his neck. Somewhere in her mind, a voice told her to stop, but she brushed it away like a pesky gnat. She’d missed kissing.
Her cautious side knew this wasn’t right, but her brain had slipped into mush mode. “More,” it called. “More.” She p
ushed up to her toes and kissed him back, moving from his lips to his neck. He tasted like salt and something wild. Sean wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her, pressing her lower body against his.
Catherine was usually reserved. She worked hard to keep her wild woman caged. Sean owned the key. She threw herself into the moment. Lifting her legs, she wrapped them around his waist. With her arms around his neck, she gasped when he rocked against her. She was glad she wasn’t standing, because her knees would never have held her.
Sean walked to the picnic table, sat and leaned back. The move caused Cat to straddle his lap, his erection pressing against her. Her breath came in short bursts, and her mind was a muddle. Sean, his scent and feel, were the only things her brain was capable of understanding at the moment.
Other men hadn’t affected her like this. Catherine had always been in control. She made sure when she dated that she called the shots. Never would she be like her mother.
His hands slipped under her shirt, and she felt his palms move up her ribs. The front clasp on her bra fell open, and her breasts filled his big hands. He lowered his head to hers, brushing his lips across her mouth.
She groaned, actually groaned out loud. She’d lost control and didn’t know how to regain it, or if she wanted to. His thumbs stroked back and forth over her hardened nipples, and she wiggled closer to his chest. The wiggle caused her to rock her body against his, and it wasn’t going to take much rocking to send her out of her mind.
Purchase Sugarwater Ranch
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
About the Author
Radio Rose (Change of Heart Cowboys Book 1) Page 29