by Liz Isaacson
Lynn texted with a This week is your first trip with Gavin, yes? I want details!
Navy had been very thorough about keeping her friend up to date on the progression of their relationship. She needed someone impartial to talk to about the legend of Three Rivers, and that certainly wasn’t Gavin. They hadn’t spoken of his distaste for the history of his hometown, and she hadn’t brought up anything concerning astrological signs.
Lynn gave her advice when she needed it. She didn’t judge. She simply offered her friendship and support, and as Navy hadn’t really made any friends in town, her communication with Lynn was really important to her.
I’m super nervous, Navy texted.
About what?
That he’ll be sick of me after one day. She twirled the owl ring on her pinky finger, her nerves parading through her like a marching band.
He hasn’t gotten sick of you yet.
He lived out on the ranch now, and we see each other for an hour or two at night. But this week it’s just us.
Just keep doing what you’re doing, Lynn texted. Or don’t. Do something different. You’ve done lots of things differently with Gavin, and it’s working out.
Navy felt the truth of Lynn’s words, and she smiled as she thumbed out Thank you.
Gratitude filled her, but she jumped when Gavin knocked on the door. Her heart leapt into her throat and she hurried to the door. Gavin stood on the other side wearing his trademark jean shorts and somehow he made every T-shirt look sexy, even faded gray ones with the outline of Texas and the words IT’S BETTER HERE in all caps. He had his head bowed so all she could see was the top of his cowboy hat.
“Hey.” She backed into the house so he could enter.
He lifted his eyes to hers, and her breath seized in her lungs. He was so handsome, and so charming, and absolutely everything she wanted in a partner. Her heart tapped and then started drumming in her chest as she realized she was in love with him. Maybe not very far, but the “in-love” door had been opened and she’d stepped through it.
“Hey, yourself.” He filled the doorframe and came inside.
She threw herself into his arms, laughed, and released her anxiety. Now that he was here, she couldn’t believe she was worried about spending time with him. He twirled her around the way a strong cowboy boyfriend should before setting her on her feet and kissing her properly.
When he broke their connection, he said, “I was worried about this week,” he said. “But I’m not sure why.”
“You were?”
“Yeah.” He emitted a nervous chuckle. “Silly, right?”
“No, I was a nervous wreck this morning even though I’ve had my bags packed for days.”
She watched him lick his lips before he spoke, one of his mannerisms she adored. “I’m glad it wasn’t just me.” He reached for her suitcases.
“What were you nervous about?”
“Everything.”
“We’ve taken a road trip before.”
“I know.”
“We have separate rooms in Lubbock.”
“I know.” She followed him out to the truck, where he tossed her bags in the back. “Why were you nervous?”
Navy tucked her hair behind her ear and turned to survey the expansive lawn between her cottage and the Shepherd’s house. “It’s silly.”
“Tell me anyway.”
“I’m worried you’ll get sick of me after a week together without a break.”
His fingers tripped along hers. “That is silly.”
“Believe it or not, I’ve heard it before.”
“You’ve gone on week-long trips with men in the past?”
“You’ve been engaged,” she said. “You never took a trip together?”
He shook his head, a dark look in his eye. “No, Joan wouldn’t leave Three Rivers for longer than a few hours.”
“Well, it’s a major step in a relationship.” Navy slipped her free hand to the back of his neck and played with the hair there.
“How so?”
Navy shrugged, glad when he released her hand and held her close to his chest. “We’ll basically be together all day and most of the night for the next five days. It’s intense. I don’t know. It’s…intense.”
His pulse picked up, and Navy smiled against the fabric of his shirt. “But it’s gonna be fine.” She pushed out of his arms. “More than fine. Fun. I mean, it’s five days of chocolate. So let’s go.”
16
Any concerns Gavin had about taking a five-day trip with his girlfriend were eradicated within the first hour of travel. Things between him and Navy were easy, casual, comfortable. After their initial excitement, she pulled out her e-reader and he turned up the radio. He imagined their life together being this carefree, and he started singing along to the country song blasting through the cab.
After several songs, Navy reached over and turned the volume down. “You really are a fantastic singer. Tell me what happened to ruin that.”
Gavin glanced at her, and part of him wanted her to know everything about him. Wasn’t that what couples did? Shared their lives—the good, the bad, and the ugly—with each other?
He took a deep breath, his nerves dancing again. “So the first woman who came to Three Rivers with a bus ticket and all her hopes hinging on finding her match—her name was Debbie. She was blonde, petite, a real firecracker.” Gavin thought of the woman; the first woman he’d really fallen for.
“She knew exactly what she wanted, and most of the time, she got it. She met with Grandmother, and I happened to be moving in next door.”
“So this was a while ago.”
“Oh, about eleven years now.” Gavin sighed. He couldn’t believe he’d been making the same mistakes with women for so long. Or that he’d stayed in Three Rivers for so long. A saner man would’ve been driven out of his hometown by now.
“Anyway, Grandmother told her she should be looking for someone who could sing, and somehow, that’s what Debbie seized on.” He thought about what Navy had said about her match reading. How it was for her, and not about a man at all. He wondered if that was really true.
“So she showed up at church that Sunday and moved all over the chapel. I didn’t find out until later that she was listening to the men who were singing. Apparently I was one of the best, because she asked me out.” He shrugged. “Honestly, I was flattered. So I went out with her. She dated three of us that summer—unbeknownst to any of us—and encouraged us all to sign up for this singing competition in Amarillo.” He chuckled, glad he could talk about this disaster without getting angry or feeling humiliated. He used to do both.
“So I show up at this competition, and there’s these two other guys standing with Debbie. She’s smoothing down one’s shirt and fixing another’s hair. I figured things out pretty darn quick after that.”
“Did you sing?”
“No way.”
“So she broke up with you.”
“I never saw her again. Apparently, whoever won the contest was going to be her choice and she was going to propose. She never came back to Three Rivers at all.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.” Gavin released a breath, released a portion of the negativity he’d carried for that particular blonde. “I call that the Debbie Debacle.”
“And yet you went out with another blonde, another woman who met with your grandmother.”
“I can’t seem to fix my mistakes.”
“Hey.” She slugged him, and he laughed.
He laced his fingers through hers. “I guess I just keep hoping that one of these times, I really will be the man someone wants.”
“Stop it.” Navy laid her head against his bicep. “You’re a great person.”
He noticed she didn’t say she wanted him, but Gavin trusted his feelings. And she kissed him all the time, sat right next to him in the truck, seemed happy and comfortable with him. Her actions spoke louder than her saying he was the man for her.
At least he hoped they did.
Activity and sunlight doused Gavin’s senses. They’d parked—quite a ways away too—and paid to get into the five-day Death by Chocolate event. “This is insane,” he said, glancing around. “Where do we even start?”
“Let’s see.” Navy studied a pamphlet she’d been given. “Do we want to attend the cooking demos? There are tastings afterward. Or we can head over to the big tent, where they’re doing chocolate crafts in about forty-five minutes.” She glanced up, her eyebrows drawn into a V as she made sense of where she was. “There will be booths along here. We can just wander.”
“I think the tastings sound fun,” he said.
“Me too.” She pointed to her left. “They’re doing mini lava cakes in fifteen minutes.”
“I’ve never said no to a lava cake.”
Navy giggled, secured her hand in his, and strolled with him toward a blessedly air conditioned building which was almost full already. They managed to find seats on the side with a decent view, and Gavin enjoyed himself as the culinary instructor whipped up a cake batter and slid two dozen cakes into the oven.
“And you want to make sure you time them exactly,” the woman said. “No more than twenty-three minutes.” She pulled a tray out of another oven. “You’ll be tempted to leave them in longer. But look, we want the middle to be liquid.” She poked one of the cakes. “See how it jiggles, just a little? That’s what you want.”
Two assistants came from the door behind the demo area, carrying trays of cakes. The instructor said, “Come get one, and there are recipes online. You can scan this code, and it’ll email it to you.”
Gavin had never seen people rush a counter before, and he actually feared for the instructor. A line formed after the initial surge, and he and Navy waited to get their lava cake. He thought sure they’d run out, but the assistants kept bringing more and more, and he and Navy both got one. She scanned the recipe code, and they stepped out onto the shaded lawn beside the building.
“That was awesome,” she said, breaking into her cake with her plastic fork. “Look! Mine’s oozing.”
Gavin beamed at her exuberance. Being with her, watching her childlike excitement, thinking of all he knew about her, Gavin realized how much he liked her. In fact, he may have crossed over from like to love.
“Have you talked to your parents?” he asked.
“Yeah, I called them a couple of days ago. They’re still worried about me being up here all alone.”
He ate his lava cake while she talked about her younger brother, who’d apparently just asked his girlfriend to marry him. “Mom says I have to be home by the wedding, and I told her of course I would be.” Navy put her empty plate in the trashcan. “Am I bad person if I say I don’t want to attend the wedding? It’s just….” She got that faraway look on her face she often did when she spoke of things that reminded her of what she didn’t have.
The fact that Gavin knew that made his heart sing. “It’ll be hard for you,” he said. “But not because you’re not happy for him. But because you want to be married too.”
“Yes, exactly.” She looked at him. “Mom said they won’t even get married until next summer, so it’s not like I won’t be back in time.”
His heart somersaulted. “Of course you will be.” He sounded like he was choking on the last bite of his cake, but Navy didn’t seem to notice. “Do you miss your job?”
“A little.” She sighed. “Actually, not that much. I mean, I love taking care of the babies. I just…it’s so nice not to work for fourteen hours. Nice to sleep at night when most people do. Nice to just…be.” She gazed into the sky and then pulled out the event pamphlet again. “There’s another demo in twenty minutes. Chocolate dipping.”
Gavin tossed his trash in the same can she had. “Let’s go then.”
“I bet they’ll do fruit,” she said. “Which is just a crime. Fruit and chocolate do not go together.”
“No?” Gavin had gotten used to some of her food quirks. She liked onion rings, but not onions. She liked blueberries as long as they were cooked into something like muffins or pancakes. Otherwise, no. She disliked anything grape-flavored, including grape juice, but grapes themselves were tolerable.
“No.” She shook her head. “Those chocolate oranges everyone gives at Christmas? Disgusting.”
“I like them.”
“You like everything.”
“That’s not true.”
“Name one thing.”
“I think plain vanilla ice cream is a crime. No one should consume that, under any circumstances.”
Navy took one step and then burst into laughter, complete with her cute little snorting every few beats. Gavin tucked her against his side and pressed a kiss to her temple, falling all the way over the like line and into love.
A blip of anxiety squirreled through him, but nothing like he’d experienced before. He really wanted—needed—her to be different from the other women who’d come to Three Rivers.
She is, a voice whispered in his head, and he seized onto it.
Please let her be, he prayed, unable to come up with anything else.
By the end of the week, Gavin had tasted more chocolate desserts than he’d thought humanly possible. Navy’s favorite was the chocolate baklava. His was the chocolate-dipped cherries, which she’d also deemed “awful” just before spitting it into the trash. At least she’d tried it.
They’d eaten their fair share of chocolate chip pancakes on the final day of the festival, and Navy had insisted they stay to watch the children slide face-first down a sheet of plastic covered in melted chocolate. Gavin had to admit he’d never seen anything like it.
He’d never done anything like the Death by Chocolate Week at all. Never gone away with a woman like that. Never wanted a woman the way he wanted Navy.
Back in Three Rivers, he had a mountain of paperwork on his desk in the admin trailer, and the task of hiring two more cowboys as a couple had quit while he’d been gone.
Squire was in a foul mood because he’d had to deal with all kinds of management issues while Gavin had been tasting chocolate covered raisins, so Gavin kept his head down and got the job done.
At lunchtime, he took a few precious minutes to check the real estate listings for ranches in the area. He’d been looking every few days to see if anything new came up, and today there were two new cattle ranches.
His heart ba-bumped in anticipation as he scanned the info. Both were in his price range. One was located about forty minutes southwest of Three Rivers, which was an easy distance to travel to check on his grandparents if he needed to.
The ranch was only five hundred acres, and only two thousand head of cattle. But it was a ranch Gavin could afford. It boasted a nice-sized homestead, with two barns, a stable, silos, and three cowboy cabins. He wanted to see it in person, see if he could feel God’s presence in the wind at Dripping Springs Ranch, so he clicked the “Request Showing” button and put in his information.
The paper he’d taken a couple of weeks ago simply was land, and he’d decided that was too much work. He didn’t have time or resources to build a house, a barn, a corral, the cows, any of it.
The other ranch was also in his price range—but for a reason. It had been abandoned a year ago, and needed some serious work to get it functioning again. The three thousand head of cattle had been looked after by a neighboring ranch, and the funds to keep paying him had run out.
“Seems like the B&B,” Gavin muttered as he read. Family-owned and operated. Down on their luck. Sold a bunch of cattle and equipment to try to salvage things, but in the end, it was simply time to let go.
“Might as well go see it too,” Gavin said. The ranch was in farther west in Texas, closer to the New Mexico border than he liked. He clicked the button, put in his info, and finished the day in the trailer. As he drove to Navy’s for a home-cooked meal, his phone rang.
He answered it, and it was the realtor for the first ranch. “When can you come?” she asked.
“W
hen works for you? Evenings are best for me,” Gavin said. “I manage a ranch in Three Rivers.”
“Tomorrow night? Seven o’clock?”
“I’ll be there.” Feeling warm and happy and like maybe his dreams could come true, Gavin hung up. He couldn’t wait to tell Navy about the ranch. He didn’t even knock, just burst into her house.
She twirled from her position at the stove. “What’s going on?” She abandoned whatever she was cooking and came toward him, a concerned expression on her face.
“Nothing.” He grinned at her and kissed her quick. “But I just scheduled to go see a ranch tomorrow night. Will you come with me?”
17
Navy blinked at Gavin. He’d found a ranch? And not only that, he wanted her at his side when he went to look at it. She loved that he’d included her in his life so intimately.
“Of course I’ll go with you.” She stretched up and kissed him. “Where is it? Do you have the website?”
He swiped and tapped and typed and showed her the listing. “It’s small,” he said. “But I can’t afford big. I should probably face that fact.”
“It’s nice.” She swiped right to see more pictures. “Look at those barns. Those look great.” She glanced up but didn’t really focus on Gavin before returning her attention to the ranch. She finished, a warm feeling extending down her arms and making her smile swift. “Dripping Springs Ranch. It looks awesome, Gavin.”
He took his phone back, and she rushed over to the stove, where she’d left the grits. She stirred the gloopy mess and it came back together with a bit of extra cream. Gavin’s arms snaked around her from behind, and she giggled.
“Smells good.”
“I made beef Bolognese and grits.”
“I don’t know what Bolognese is, but I heard beef and grits.” He pressed a kiss on her neck and tightened his grip on her body.
“Behave yourself.” She swatted at his strong arm, but he didn’t move an inch.