Forever Wild: A Camden Ranch Novel

by Jillian Neal

  “Will going back and facing all of this be easy? Hell no. Luke screwed up. I screwed up. I ran away … again, instead of fighting for myself. We have a lot of work to do, but Luke and I, we’re worth fighting for. I am worth fighting for. I’ve got my flaws. You have yours. But we are nothing alike. The one and only thing we do have in common is the power to go after what we really want, and if we don’t quite get it, my God, at least we tried. No one can ask for more than that.”

  Her mother’s mouth was still gaping in abject disbelief. Indie headed to the bedroom to pack up the rest of her stuff. The fire in her soul blazed on. She forced herself to take another inventory of her face in her dresser mirror. This time she saw something in her eyes she’d never seen before—peace. She was going home, for good this time. It wasn’t perfect. Nowhere was. But it was hers, and the town had more than proven itself. With the clink of handcuffs, it had chosen her daddy over Ernie this time. All of the years she’d spent toiling in criticism and disdain of herself must’ve dissolved in all those tears she’d shed on the way back to Oklahoma. She could no longer locate it.

  Perhaps it wasn’t the future she’d always been so afraid of. Maybe it was the past repeating itself that had frightened her. Well, the past had repeated itself. Another affair involving her own mother and the mayor had taken place. There were sure to be newspaper headlines that would be hard to look at, yet again. But she’d survived. And she was going to keep on surviving. The future was hers to own, and she was going after it with everything she was.

  Knuckles wrapped across her front door. Furrowing her brow, she headed back to the kitchen.

  “So, you’re just leaving me here? Abandoning your own mother?”

  Rolling her eyes, Indie jerked open the door.

  “Please don’t slam that back in my face. I am so, so sorry, baby. Please, can we talk? I swear I meant to tell you I just … I knew … I knew you’d leave. I was a coward. I’ll never keep anything from you ever again.” Luke Camden, in all of his masculine perfection, was standing at her door staring down at his boots, apologizing. His voice was rough, haunted and quick. “I packed my stuff. I left the ranch. We’ll move anywhere you want.”

  This day just continued to stun her. “You can’t move off the ranch.” She threw her arms around his neck, startling him as he wrapped her up in that heavenly sanctuary of muscle. “I don’t want to live there without you.”

  “What?” He lifted his head and stared at her in rapt disbelief.

  “I was just getting my stuff. Mama is apparently staying here, but we are going home.”

  “I told you she just needed to see that fire, son.” Indie’s father stepped inside from the hallway.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Well, I thought if you wouldn’t listen to him you might listen to me, and I was worried about you baby girl. Been one hell of a day. ‘Sides, somebody had to tell him how to get here.”

  “You got that right.” She exchanged Luke’s hug for her daddy’s. “Look at me, Luke Camden,” she ordered next.

  “Nothing else I’d rather look at.”

  “I promise no more running away. Something bad happens, we stay and we fight together. But you promise no more keeping anything from me, ever.”

  “You got it. I swear, Indie. Nothing ever again. I know I fucked up, but from here on, we deal with things together.”

  “Ben Harper, are you actually going to go through with this nonsense with Ernie? You’re actually going to press charges,” Carolyn made her presence known. She always did.

  “You know, enough really is enough, Carolyn, and I’ve let you drag me and my girls through hell quite long enough. Can’t remember if it was Churchill or John Wayne that said some’um ‘bout if you’re going through hell, keep going. Well, we’re all at the end of our trip through. So, yes, I am pressing charges, and I am sorry for whatever that means for you, but there’s things worth fighting for. My little girl’s coming home. We have a garage to run on that land. Ernie’ll have to find his fool’s gold somewhere else.”

  “I never figured out what he thinks is on our land.” Luke guided Indie back into his arms.

  “I like the way that sounds. Our land,” she admitted.

  “Good.”

  “It’s alunite, which is basically worthless, but might be the reason we couldn’t get grass to grow right there beside your house. Ernie heard the word rare and stuck his head further up his ass, I ‘spose.” Ev Camden stepped into Indie’s apartment followed by Jessie, Melony, Tucker, Miranda, Holly, and Natalie.

  “Oh my gosh. What are you all doing here?” Every last remnant of fear melted away in the warm embrace she received from the entire crowd.

  “We came to tell you we love you,” Melony squeezed her tighter.

  “And that we want you to be a part of our family,” Holly and Natalie took her next hugs.

  “That’s right, sugar bee. I was just telling all of these youngins who’ve been forced to listen to Ev snore and me prattle on for the last nine hours that you cannot choose who gives birth to you, or whose bloodline you share, or whose DNA you carry. But you can choose your family. Blood don’t make a family, Indie Jane. Love does.” Jessie brushed a sweet maternal kiss on Luke’s cheek and then squeezed Indie for all she was worth.

  “That’s right. And Jess, and I, and all of the Camdens want you to be a part of our family, sweetheart.” Ev winked at her.

  “And so do the Kilroys.” Tucker wrapped his arm around Melony and beamed at Indie.

  “And so do the Harpers.” Miranda laid her head on Ben’s shoulder making him grin ear to ear.

  “Yeah, and Tuck’s daddy is gonna be the mayor,” Melony announced excitedly.

  Carolyn looked as though her youngest daughter had just backhanded her.

  “Pops figures Wes, and Duke, and I can manage the corn and that it was high time somebody was lookin’ out for the ranchers and the farmers in a town that’s nothing but ranchers and farmers,” Tucker explained. “He has to run first, though.”

  Hot tears that Indie had been certain an hour before her body could no longer produce trickled down her cheeks.

  Luke kissed them away. “I love you so much. I have always and will always love you. I’m sorry I screwed all of this up. If you want to make this official and become a Camden right now, I’ll drive you to Vegas tonight.”

  “Stop and smell the diesel, cowboy. We ain’t getting married in Vegas, and this day has gone on long enough. I do kind of wish we could go home, but let’s just camp out here or get everybody hotel rooms or something.”

  “If you want to go home, darlin’, that’s where I’m taking you.”

  “Luke, we’ve been driving all day.”

  He shook his head. “My girl wants to go home and stay. I ain’t stopping ‘til I get her there. I told you I’ll always give you whatever you need.”

  “I don’t have any more spare tires for my car.” She just couldn’t help it. Arguing was in her blood. Thankfully she’d found the one and only man it seemed to thrill. His answering smirk and the lift of his left eyebrow said he wasn’t too tired to take her on.

  “Don’t that fancy garage you used to work at stay open late? I’m putting new tires on your car, and you can quit while we’re there.”

  There was a host of eyes all locked on the two of them. Sinking her teeth into her bottom lip to keep her comment locked away for a split second longer, she threw her arms back around his neck. “I do so like your bossy side, Luke Camden,” she whispered in his ear.

  He didn’t conceal his answering growl as well as she’d hidden her response. A mix of groans, laughter, and eww’s filled the air around them.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “You really didn’t have to hit him.” Indie tried desperately not to be thrilled that Jason White, TriStar Automotive’s own resident douchebag, currently had the bruised, purple outline of Luke’s fist on his face.

  Luke was still grinding his teeth as he drove them steadil
y north. “Asslicker called you Headlights, asked if he could adjust your high beams, and then tried to grab your ass. I had every right to hit him. If the pansy-ass city-boy’d ever learned to take a punch, I could’ve gone several more rounds. What kind of weakling hits the floor on the first hit?”

  Leaning across the console, Indie brushed tender kisses along his bruised knuckles. “The asslicking, city-boy variety.”

  Luke grunted his irritation. “I’m kinda sorry I got you fired … I guess.”

  That did it. The entire insane, unending day erupted from her heart, and she laughed hysterically in the sudden rush of freedom and the certainty that she’d overcome her own fears. “I’m not. If that was all he said to me, I used to consider it a great day. Jason is the owner’s son, so he’s never had anyone stand up to him. You just promoted yourself from hero to legend.”

  His answering grin reminded her of the prayer she’d fumbled through that morning. So she’d been the one to make him smile. Pride welled in her soul. If she got to do that every day for the rest of her life, that was just fine with her. Maybe nothing did last forever, but she was pretty sure family did. And she would never know if she didn’t try.

  The sun warmed the wakening villages along I-80. Luke rolled down the driver’s side window of Indie’s car, letting the cool whips of wind help keep him awake. Constantly reminding himself to watch the road, his eyes kept sneaking peeks at his precious baby curled up in the seat beside him sound asleep.

  He’d blown his plan all to hell several times and still managed to get her to come home. With a nod skyward, he saw no reason not to thank whomever it was up in heaven that had made this all come true. When he’d woken up that morning, he’d been so certain she was gone and never going to return. Now, he felt like his life had just begun. What a difference a day makes.

  Rubbing his hands over his face several hours later, he tried to determine what had awoken him. The afternoon sun was sinking low in the sky, and Luke didn’t like the feeling that he’d slept the day away. Cowboys didn’t do such things, but damn he’d been worn through when he’d finally gotten them back to the ranch. Indie had pulled off all of her clothes, slipped into one of t-shirts, and he would’ve followed her anywhere. As it was, she took them to bed.

  Just then she appeared from the bathroom, looking partly relieved and partly concerned.

  “Come here to me, sugar.” He took her hand and guided her back in his bed. “What’s that look for?”

  “What look?”

  “Indie, honey, do we need to go over my ability to read your looks again?”

  “No. I just like to argue.”

  “Don’t I know it, and don’t you know that nothing gets me going like you being stubborn. But you didn’t answer my question.”

  “Nothing really. I just started my period, and I wasn’t sure if you’d be disappointed or relieved. I can’t decide if I’m disappointed or relieved, honestly.”

  Brushing a kiss on her forehead, he nodded his understanding. “Maybe a little disappointed, but not really. We were playing with fire, and we both knew it. Might be a better idea to buy the horse ‘fore we load up ten carts to pull with it, so to speak.”

  “I was looking for an excuse to stay. Something that would be more important that just my own happiness. I’m sorry I did that to you and to us.”

  “You got nothin’ to apologize for, sweetness. I was lookin’ for a good excuse to get you to stay. And if you study that real close-like, you can’t help but figure it looks an awful lot like I was trying to trap you into staying. I’m the one that’s sorry. Like I said, we knew we were playing with fire. You realizing that you yourself was the most important reason to stay is the best thing I’ve ever heard. You just made my whole damn life. We’ll get into the baby-making business whenever we both decide we’re ready.” The shame that had been eating at him for the last few days eased its heavy weight.

  She brushed a few kisses on his chest, making him grin, before she settled back. “We both screwed up a bunch of things, but that doesn’t scare me like it used to. I feel like I finally grew up. That’s weird, right?”

  Chuckling, he couldn’t seem to keep his lips from every part of her that he could access. “Not weird at all. ‘Sides, you’ll always be my sassy, foul-mouthed girl with wicked curves that go on for ten country miles, giving her locker what-for, to me. I swear, I fell for you right then, and I’m still gonna be chasing you in my wheelchair when I’m ninety. Get ready.”

  Her infectious giggle delighted his soul. “You won’t have to chase me. I ain’t running anymore, remember?”

  “My God, every time you say that I swear I come.”

  They both dissolved together in the melodic symphony of their combined laughter.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  A week later, Luke lightly swung one end of a gathered towel around Indie’s backside, caught the other end, and jerked her wet body to his as soon as she stepped out of the shower. His lips sought hers with frantic urgency. Knowing she was his forever had done nothing to quell his unending desperation for her.

  “We have to get ready to go. How will Pleasant Glen High have a reunion without their famous quarterback?” she sassed.

  As soon as she stopped speaking, he devoured her lips again. Grinning against his mouth, she wiggled her backside along the towel. He tightened his grip pulling her closer.

  “Mmm, your bondage fetish is getting out of hand,” she laughed.

  “You didn’t seem to mind last night. Turns me on like nothing else, having you bound at my mercy.”

  “Yeah, well now I have to wear that stupid bracelet thing Melony loaned me to cover that rope mark on my wrist. I’m thinking of returning the favor.”

  “You wanna tie me up, sugar, I’ll go get the ropes. Let’s do that tonight instead of going to this stupid reunion.”

  “I promised Cindy and Megan we’d be there. Geez, that sounds bizarre coming out of my mouth.” She shook her head. “And you know Tucker’ll have your hide if he and Mel go and we ain’t there.”

  “Yeah, fine, just promise we don’t gotta stay for the whole damn thing.”

  “We ain’t even married yet, Luke Camden, and you already sound like a cranky old man.”

  “You know that sassy mouth gets you in all kinds of trouble. I’ll get you down the aisle soon enough and that still won’t stop me from filling your ornery mouth full of my cock or blistering your sexy ass.”

  “Promises, promises.”

  An hour later, Luke begrudgingly admitted to himself that it was nice to see everyone they’d gone to school with.

  “So, Luke Camden and Indieanna Harper are back together again officially. Took you damn long enough, man, but it’s a welcome sight I must say.” Beau Riggins joined Tucker and Luke at the punch bowl.

  “Well, you know what they say about sleeping with a mechanic,” Tucker goaded. Luke rolled his eyes certain he knew what was coming. “They keep you well lubricated.”

  Shaking his head, Luke joined in the laughter at his own expense.

  “I heard Indie’s gonna run the shop this summer for Ben. Sasha said some’um about Ben takin’ his waitress chick out to the Grand Canyon.”

  “Yeah, they’re gettin’ pretty serious. Apparently they both always wanted to camp out there. She has an old camper so they’re going for it. I think Indie only agreed to run the shop so she ain’t gotta help me hay, though.”

  “Smart girl,” Tucker commented.

  “Hey, how’s Mel doing? That had to be one hell of a thing to find out when you’re an adult?”

  Luke had forgotten what a nosy motherfucker Beau always was.

  Tucker’s goading grin vanished. “Mostly good. Still come in and find her crying now and again. She don’t want it to be true. Still won’t talk to Carolyn when she calls from Oklahoma. They’ve added to Ernie’s original charges. He’s lookin’ at doing time, given the fact that he was a public official and used his title to commit crimes. It’s a clusterfuck
for sure. Now, Ben’s leaving for a while. Can’t blame him, but Mel worries. We’ll all be glad when the shit storm settles down.” Tuck supplied way more information than Luke ever would’ve.

  At that moment, the gaggle of women surrounding Indie and her sister broke out in hysterical laughter.

  “That can’t be a good sign,” Beau teased. “If cowgirls are smilin’, they’re thinking of doing something crazy. If they’re laughing, they’ve already done it.”

  Eventually Luke managed to extract Indie from the crowd and get her on the dance floor. “You look so damn gorgeous, baby. I just want to take you home.” His whispered as he swayed her back and forth on the old gym floor.

  “Not yet. We still haven’t made out under the bleachers.”

  “Is that what we’re waiting for? I can take care of that right now.” With a quick scan of the crowd and not really caring who saw them, he led her off the dance floor and tucked them back behind the home team bleachers to the approximate location of their first kiss. The full-moon glowed through the open doors to his right just like it had that fate-filled night so long ago.

  Anxious to get to more than making out, Luke leaned in just the way he’d done back then and the way he’d keep right on doing for the rest of their lives.

  “Wait.” She stepped back, almost hitting her head on the bleachers above them.

  “I don’t want to wait.”

  “Well, you have to.” She dug in her Wranglers and pulled out the small, velvet, grey box that he’d had hidden in his bedside table drawer for far too long. His grandmother’s large diamond ring shimmered in the moonlight. “You gonna marry me or not, Luke Camden?”