by Becky McGraw
“When I was a kid, and my life got crazy, mostly because of Leland, this is where I came to think, to regroup…to breathe. I need to be here now.”
“Well, you’re here.” Ronnie was a little confused as to the point he was trying to make. She sighed and started to get up, but he pulled her back down.
“I am and I’m feeling better than I have in years, but it’s different.”
Ronnie shrugged. “Things change.”
“You changed them,” he said, with a little irritation in his tone. It sounded almost like he was blaming her for something.
Anger shot up inside of her like mercury in a thermometer. “What the hell did I do? All I did was try to help you get your life back.”
“You did that, but you also made me fall in love with you. That wasn’t something I was ready for. I want a life out here, but you don’t fit into that.” Trace swept a hand across the pond. “This isn’t you, Red. I can’t have both, and I need this right now.”
Ronnie’s heart kicked in her chest. Trace had just told her he loved her, but acted like it was the worst thing in the world that could have happened to him. Like she had forced him to do that, and was now forcing him to choose between her and his nirvana.
“You sure do make a lot of assumptions,” she said as she scooted away to stand. Ronnie brushed off the seat of her pants, then looked at him again. “I guess you have all the answers and we have nothing left to talk about.” She started to turn away, but glanced back at him. “Just a word of advice—in the future, you might get better answers if you let the person in question make his or her own choices.”
Ronnie turned and stalked toward the bike, ignoring the pain in her ankle, ignoring the pine needles poking her in the bottom of her feet, ignoring Trace as he called out to her to stop. She knew when to cut her losses, and this was the time. If Trace thought he could make decisions for her, he definitely had another think coming. And so did she. Maybe Trace Rooks wasn’t the man for her after all. Maybe she didn’t need one in her life. She’d done just fine without one for a very long time.
“Ronnie, wait!” he shouted, and she kept walking. She passed the bike and was about to the edge of the trees when she was jerked backwards. Trace took her shoulders and turned her to face him. His face was flushed and his eyes serious. “Okay, choose. I am not moving to the city. How the hell do you think you can practice law out here twenty miles from civilization, and another fifty to the city? I’m a broken down, unemployed ex-con who is trying to be a rancher.”
“You are a good man,” she corrected. “Not an ex-con, and at least you’re trying. There’s not a damned thing broken about you, except your sense of humor. You are not unemployed. I saw you working when I pulled up at that barn. No, you’re not a cop anymore, but I’m glad that you’re not.”
“If you stayed out here, you’d be unemployed too,” Trace interjected. He grabbed her hand to run his thumb over her palm. “I can’t see you being happy doing ranch work, Ronnie. You’d be bored out of your mind and unhappy. I don’t want to be the cause of that.”
“Well, you’re still making my choices for me, making those assumptions about me, and I have to tell you that makes me extremely unhappy.”
Trace huffed out a breath, dropped her hand and folded his arms over his chest. His dark eyes met hers directly. “Okay, you tell me how this would work out between us.”
Ronnie assumed a similar stance and held his gaze. “I heard Judge Jennings bench is up for grabs, since he killed himself. I might go for it. I’m not sure yet. Even if that happens, I’ll only have to be there two or three days a week. I can work on the phone from here otherwise. If I need to do work for that women’s group, I’ll just fly to Dallas to do that when they need me.”
“Can you ride a horse?” he asked out of the blue.
“No, but I can cook a mean cowboy stew,” Ronnie fired back.
He snorted. “Is that made from mean cowboys who make you unhappy?”
The corner of her mouth kicked up, “Only ones who try to give me shit. They give it a special flavor.”
Trace threw his head back and laughed loudly. Ronnie laughed too, and it mixed to echo through the woods. When he looked back at her his eyes glistened. “You really want to do this? You know we’ll make each other miserable, Red.”
“Misery loves company, honey, and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather be miserable with,” she said stepping toward him. Ronnie put her hand in the center of his chest and smiled. “And I definitely look forward to the makeup sex.”
“God, that is the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard,” Trace said sarcastically. He put his hand over hers. “Did you feel my heart go thud in my chest, Shark Lady?” His eyes grew serious and he stared at her a moment, then leaned down to kiss her gently. “I do love you, Red. I just can’t leave here.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to,” she replied.
“In that case, I’d suggest you make an honest man of me. It wouldn’t do for my mama to think we’re living out here in sin,” he said with a grin that did make her heart go thud. “I’ll consider the new bike my engagement ring, now all you have to do is ask.”
Ronnie stiffened and pulled back a little. “You want me to ask you to marry me?”
“Why not? You’re an independent, modern woman. You make your own choices. If you choose to live out here with me, you’ll have to be my wife. My mama is a Senator now, and her constituents are very conservative.”
Married? To Trace Rooks? To anyone. “Wait a minute now…” Ronnie gnawed her lower lip. She loved this man, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to be married to anyone. Realizing that she loved a man was shocking enough for now. What if he was just setting her up to humiliate her? Get his final revenge? She now knew what men who took this same leap felt like. What if he said no?
“Chicken?” he challenged with a smug grin. His eyes slid down her body then back up again. “Those tight leather pants cut off the circulation to your legendary balls?”
Ronnie grabbed his hand in hers and opened her mouth. Trace waved a finger in her face, “Ut uh, Red—you have to do this right,” he said. “I’m an old-fashioned kind of guy.”
“Right?” she repeated dumbly.
“You have to ask me on your knees,” he informed with a laugh.
Trace was teasing her. This was the man she remembered from four years ago. The one with the sense of humor. But maybe he wasn’t serious at all, and just wanted to see her humiliate herself. Ronnie dropped his hand and stepped back. “I love you, Trace, but this is taking things too far.”
“Where’s your sense of humor, baby?’ he teased. “This will be a story we can tell our grandchildren.”
“Children?” Ronnie’s heart skidded to a stop in her chest.
She had never thought of having kids. If they had a life like she had growing up, she wouldn’t ever have them. But Ronnie knew she would do everything in her power to make sure her kid had a better life. If she ever had a child that is. And Trace would too. His father had been no better than hers. Her eyes flew back to his. That one point though illustrated how much they still had to talk about. Marriage was a big step, not something to take lightly. “Um, Trace, maybe we should—“ she started then it hit her. She could let reasons why not and problems keep her from happiness. Worrying about things had never gotten her anywhere though. She was a free woman now and free women didn’t worry about things. They lived in the moment and grabbed their happiness with both hands.
“What?” he asked and put his hand on her cheek.
“How many kids do you want to have?” she asked with a smile.
His eyebrows lifted and a grin spread across his face. “I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it before. At least one, I guess. I know one thing though, with you as his mama, he’ll definitely be the best looking kid in Texas and probably hell on wheels too.”
“He?’ she honed in on the salient part of his statement.
His grin spread. “Or she.
But I need to prepare myself if I’m going to have another female like you in my life.”
“You don’t have me in your life yet, so how do you know you can handle just one?” she asked. Ronnie knew she was difficult, hard to handle and stubborn. It was just the way she was and that wasn’t going to change. She had been that way too long.
“Oh, I can handle you, Red. Have no doubt. And if we have a beautiful, stubborn, hardheaded hellion just like you, I can handle her too. I’d love you both. If she was like her mama, at least I’d never have to worry about her taking care of herself, or letting people take advantage of her.”
Ronnie’s heart wiggled in her chest, and happiness carbonated her blood. She took a step forward and slid her arms around his waist. “And that is why I love you, Trace Rooks. That was the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.”
Laughter rumbled in his chest under her ear and he hugged her tight. “Stop being mushy, Red, you’re scaring me. Daylight is wasting, we need to get busy putting that bun in your oven. Propose already, before Lou Ellen shows up with her .45 and takes us to the preacher.”
With a final squeeze, Ronnie grabbed his hand and stepped back. Throwing as much theatrical flair as she could muster into the motion she sank to one knee and looked up at him. “Trace Rooks, I love you. Would you marry me and make me the most miserable woman in Texas? I can’t think of a man I’d more like to be miserable with for the rest of my life.”
“I don’t know,” he said and she stopped breathing. “What else you got besides that Harley?” he asked with a sexy grin and a nod toward the shiny black bike a few feet away. “Taking you on is a lot to ask, Shark Lady. I need to make sure it’s worth my while.” His eyes locked back on hers and her breath whooshed out when she realized he was joking.
A smile eased up the corners of her mouth. “Free legal services for life. Lord knows you’re always in enough trouble to need a good lawyer at your side.”
“You’re hired,” he said with a laugh.
“Not so fast. You’re not so easy to put up with either sometimes. What am I going to get out of this deal?” Ronnie asked.
Trace pulled her up to her feet and took her hand to lead her toward the bike. “The ride of a lifetime, baby.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Becky McGraw is a married mother of three adult children, and a Southern girl by birth and the grace of God, ya'll. She resides in South Texas with her husband and dog Abby. A jack of many trades in her life, Becky has been an optician, a beautician, a legal secretary, a senior project manager for an aviation management consulting firm, which took her all over the United States, a real estate broker, and now a graphic artist, web designer and writer.
She knows just enough about a variety of topics to make her dangerous, and her romance novels interesting and varied. Being a graphic artist is a good thing for her too, because she creates her own cover art, along with writing the novels.
Becky has been an avid reader of romance novels since she was a teenager, and has been known to read up to four novels of that genre a week, much to the dismay of her husband, and the delight of e-book sellers.
She has been writing fictional short stories and novels for fun, as well as technical copy for her jobs for many years. She was a member of the Writer's Guild on AOL during her last venture into writing romance, as well as a founding member and treasurer of the first online chapter of the Romance Writers of America, From the Heart Romance Writers. Currently, she is a member of both organizations.
You can contact Becky McGraw at [email protected]
Please 'Like' Becky on her Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/beckymcgrawbooks and visit her website at www.beckymcgraw.com