Stick in the Mud Meets Spontaneity (Meet Your Match, book 3)

by Rachael Anderson

  New York was definitely negotiable. Colton was not.

  The pressure of his lips eased off hers, and he dropped his forehead to hers. His chest rose and fell in cadence with hers, and ever so slowly the outside world began to fade back in. Water gurgled and splashed, birds chirped and sang, kids giggled and squealed, and Colton’s voice sounded still and quiet.

  “I’m falling in love with you.” He didn’t preface the words with “I think” or “I’m pretty sure.” He stated them with calm conviction.

  Her eyes flew open and her breath caught in her throat. Colton looked down at her, his gaze intense. The air around them seemed to spark and snap as though it had just been charged with electricity, and the light behind his head became blinding. A delicious warmth gushed over her like a tidal wave, making her feel like she’d been lifted off the ground and carried away.

  This is what magic feels like, Sam thought.

  “I’m falling too.”

  Colton quickly discovered that when Samantha said she wanted to make every day count, what she really meant was every second of every minute of every hour of every day. Over the next few weeks, they flipped the town, rented Segways and drove them through the streets of Colorado Springs, went paintballing, and had a moonlight picnic. They rode horses and four-wheelers and even caught a few spectacular sunrises from the small rise above The Shack. Then one morning, she hauled him up the mountain to a place with rock climbing, zip-lining, and ropes courses, and he quickly hauled her back down—at least part way—to some caves. There, he introduced her to a sport that kept them on solid ground—spelunking.

  Together, they created memory after memory after memory. Time skittered past like a lizard in the desert, and as the end of July drew near, a nagging thought intruded on all the fun.

  Samantha wouldn’t care so much about making every second count if she was planning to stay.

  Colton was becoming an expert at shoving it aside, but, like a determined fly, it didn’t stay gone for long.

  On the evening of Kajsa’s first barrel race, the McCoys, Mackies, Granthams, and Kinseys all piled into the stands on the south side of the rodeo grounds. When it came time for Kajsa’s race, they cheered wildly as she tore through the course, her dark ponytail and pinned-on number flapping in the air behind her. She rode with style and confidence—a natural. But as she circled the last barrel, she cut in too tight and knocked it over. Afterwards, it took a gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream and Colton’s promise to take her with him to the Mustang Makeover Contest to cheer her up.

  “Mind if I tag along too?” Samantha had asked.

  “Of course not,” said Colton, not sure what to think. Her job started in August, and the competition took place in September. Was she planning to fly back for it, or (dare he hope?) still be around? The subject of Samantha’s job never really made it into their conversations. Whenever Colton hinted at it, she quickly changed the subject, which wasn’t a good sign. Samantha would have told him if she’d turned down the job, which meant she hadn’t, which meant… what?

  After a particularly sleepless night, Colton rose before the sun and saddled Maverick. Riding always cleansed his mind, and today he needed it. As the sun crested the top of the horizon, he galloped across the fields, taking Maverick high into the hills. At a small lookout, Colton pulled him to a stop. Below them, the valley looked unreal, like a tiny model of Colorado Springs you’d find in a visitor’s center. It was a view that normally stole his breath, but today, he didn’t see anything.

  What will I do if Samantha decides to leave?

  A feeling of dread settled in his gut, and Colton pulled Maverick around, spurring him higher into the hills. They zigzagged through trees, leapt over small streams, and continued to climb until Maverick’s coat glistened with sweat and his breathing became ragged. Still, the dread gnawed. It didn’t matter how far he rode, how fresh the air was, or how warm the sun became, he and Maverick couldn’t outrun it.

  Giving up, Colton finally turned his beloved horse around and rode back down. As he loped up the lane leading to the barn, all was quiet on the ranch. His father and brothers had already left to collect the sheep and broncs for the family rodeo tonight, and his mother was probably at the store. Samantha had given herself several food assignments and wouldn’t be coming until later, with her family.

  From across the field a giggle sounded, followed by Kajsa’s voice. She was talking to Maj. When did she get here?

  Colton squinted through the sunlight and saw Kajsa standing—standing!—on Maj’s bare back with her arms stretched out to the side while the horse stood ramrod still. Her trim body trembled and swayed as she adjusted to stay balanced, and after a moment, she crouched down and straddled the horse, taking a fistful of dark hair in her small hands.

  “Let’s go, Your Majesty!” she yelled. Off they went, galloping across the field with no saddle or bridle, only one hundred percent trust between an eleven-year-old girl and a one-thousand pound animal that only two months ago had been wild.

  Colton had always known that Kajsa had a knack with horses, but he’d attributed it to her lack of fear and youthful, sometimes naïve, trust in the animals. But he’d underestimated her big-time. She had a gift that few had—one that Colton, his father, and his brothers didn’t. Self-proclaimed “horse whisperers” were people most ranchers took about as seriously as fortune tellers. They’d been the butt of more than a few jokes over the years. But as Kajsa leaned forward over Maj with her hat low on her forehead, skimming the field the way an eagle might skim the water, in a graceful, fluid way, Colton became a believer.

  A thick sensation ran through his veins, and for the first time all morning, Colton felt peace. Kajsa had just proved that anything was possible, even the impossible.

  He swung down from Maverick and took his time caring for his horse. He brushed him down, dug dirt from his hooves, and fed him some oats. Then he released the horse into the field and took a seat on the fence while he waited for Kajsa to return. When she did, her face was flushed and radiant.

  Until she spotted Colton.

  Immediately, she slid off Maj’s back and shoved her hands into her back pockets. Maj jogged away like a coward, leaving her young rider to face Colton alone.

  “I, um…” Her left boot kicked at the soft earth.

  “You, um, what?” Colton wasn’t about to make it easy on her.

  Her eyes flashed to his before dropping back to the ground. Finally, she shrugged. “Nobody was in the house when Cassie dropped me off, so…”

  “So you decided to take a barebacked ride on a wild animal?”

  “She’s not wild.” A pause. “And I couldn’t get the saddle on her.”

  “I see,” said Colton. “What other choice did you have, right?”

  “Um…” In her mind, she probably agreed but knew better than to admit it out loud. Kajsa had taken a ride without permission on a horse she’d only been allowed to ride inside an enclosed corral. Yeah, she was way too smart to fall into that trap.

  “I’m sorry?” The apology came in the form of a question, as though she wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to say.

  Colton nearly laughed, knowing she wasn’t the least bit sorry. He jumped off the fence and walked toward her, stopping about one foot away. “Tell you what, Kajsa. After careful consideration, I’ve made a decision this morning. You’re not going to be my training assistant any longer.”

  Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped slightly, and a mixture of fear, despair, and maybe even some anger flashed in her eyes. “I told you I’m sorry. I really am!”

  She meant it this time, and Colton nearly laughed again. He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked into large blue eyes that shined with unshed tears. “From here on out, you’re going to be the trainer, and I’m going to be the assistant. At the competition, my name will be listed as the official trainer, but it’s you who is going to show those judges what Maj can do.”

  She blinked once, twice, then
joy replaced the despair. “Really?”

  He nodded. “You have a gift, Kajsa, and it’s high time we started utilizing it. I’m the one who should be sorry for not really seeing you until now.”

  Kajsa threw her arms around his waist and hugged him fiercely. And then she was gone, running back through the fields, undoubtedly excited to share the good news with Your Majesty. It wasn’t her sister, her father, or her new step-mom she wanted to tell first. It was the horse.

  His phone buzzed in his pocket with a text, and Colton pulled it out, seeing a message from Samantha.

  Thinking of you was all it said.

  Colton smiled and slipped the phone back into his pocket before heading toward the barn. For a morning that had begun on a sour note, the day suddenly seemed full of hope and promise.

  Sam slammed her shoulder into Colton’s wooden front door again, and again, and again before it finally flew open. Then she lunged for the knob to keep the door from hitting the wall behind it. Colton needed to trim that down. It made it really difficult to sneak into his shack when everyone at the main house had probably heard the loud bang.

  She’d come a little late to the barbeque on purpose, wanting to make sure that The Shack was empty so she could come and go undetected. The foil-wrapped wooden sign had been sitting in her top dresser drawer for too long while Sam waited for the perfect opportunity to give it to him. But that time never came. And since Colton’s birthday was still five months away, it was either wait until then or give it to him now.

  Sam wasn’t nearly as patient as Colton.

  She crept down the hall and knocked softly on his bedroom door. When no one answered, she pushed it open without a squeal. At least he’d oiled the hinges, she thought as she padded lightly across the floor. The bed was unmade and some jeans and a few shirts were thrown across the footboard. Other than that, it was pretty clean. Sam tugged the dark gray comforter back in place, plumped his two mismatched pillows, and made the bed look as decent as she could. Then she set the present down in the middle.

  As she stepped back to make sure everything looked okay, she noticed a small framed picture on his nightstand. The night of their first date—the rodeo—Colton had put his arm around her and pulled her close for a selfie shot. He’d texted her a copy, and she’d made it the background image on her phone, but she hadn’t gone so far as to print and frame it. But Colton had, and the sight of it made her insides feel all bubbly and fizzy, like sparkling apple cider.

  Behind her, the floorboards squeaked, and Colton’s voice called out, “Sam? Are you here?”

  She quickly set the frame down, but it fell over. Before she could right it, his voice came again. “There you are.”

  Leaving it lying on his nightstand, she stood and turned around, feeling like an intruder. He rested his shoulder against the door jamb and folded his arms, cocking his head at her. “Breaking and entering?”

  She clasped her fingers together and moved to block his view of the present. He’d never seen any of her designs, and she’d rather not be around when he saw this one. If he didn’t like it, she’d be crushed.

  “If anything’s broken, it’s my shoulder. When are you going to fix that door once and for all?”

  “When I get around to it.” His brow lifted. “What’s going on?”

  “Oh, I was just…” What now? Sam hadn’t planned on getting caught. “Um… looking for an earring that I’m pretty sure I lost here.” It sounded even lamer out loud.

  “In my room?”

  “Well, I couldn’t find it in your great room, so, you know, I thought you might have, uh… stepped on it with a muddy boot and tracked it in here. I mean, stranger things have happened, right?” Wow, she was really bad at this.

  Colton’s lips twitched.

  “You know what?” she blurted. “We should go.” She grabbed his hand, trying to pull him down the hall, but he hooked an arm around her waist and held her close. “You could have just said you were leaving me a gift and didn’t want me to open it until after you were gone.”

  Of course he’d seen it. The shiny foil reflected the light like a sparkly diamond. Sam should have wrapped it in gray camouflage. “Okay, fine. I am leaving you a gift and really, really, really don’t want you to open it until after I’m gone.”

  “Gone where?” Although his eyes glinted with humor, there was an underlying hint of serious.

  “Home. Tonight. After the rodeo.”

  He nodded and released her waist, stepping toward the bed. “What if I don’t want to wait?”

  “You’re the most patient person I know. Of course you can wait.”

  Colton picked up the present and smoothed a hand over the package. “I didn’t say I couldn’t wait. I said I didn’t want to. What is it?”

  “Nothing really. Just a belated thanks-for-the-riding-lessons present.” She wrung her hands, feeling nervous and vulnerable. “What are you doing here, anyway? Shouldn’t you be helping your parents with the barbeque?”

  “Everything’s all ready. I just came back to change real quick. It’s hot out there.”

  “Oh, okay. Well, I’ll leave you to it then and see you over there.” She took a step toward the door, but he grabbed her arm to keep her in the room. “Not so fast. I suddenly find myself really curious about this present.”

  “Curiosity kills cats.”

  “But not humans.” He smiled and sat down, pulling her on to his lap.

  “Are you really going to open that in front of me?”

  “I really am.”

  “You’re mean.”

  His arms wound around her waist, and he pulled her against him. Then he slid off the bow and tore open the foil and tissue paper.

  “What’s this?” He ran his fingers across the top the way a blind person might do, touching all the grooves and edges.

  “A sign. To hang next to your front door.” When he didn’t say anything, she added, “But only if you like it.”

  “I love it.” Colton held it closer to his face, inspecting the details. “Did you make this?” His voice held a note of reverence, and Sam nearly sighed in relief. Oh good. He liked it.

  “I only designed it. A professional sign company lasered the image into the wood.”

  “But you drew this?” He pointed to the simple graphic of a cabin surrounded by a few trees.

  She nodded. “On the computer. I manipulated the font a little to make it fit around the image right there and there.” She shrugged. “It’s what I do.”

  “I know. I just…” A pause. “Wow, you’re really good. I mean really good. Thank you. It’s awesome.”

  Sam twisted on his lap so she could see him better. Under the rim of his hat, his eyes looked inky and mysterious. She wanted to run her fingers along the defined contours of his arms, shoulders, chest, and neck and feel the scruff from his five o’clock shadow. She wanted to feel his breath on her neck and his hands in her hair. But mostly, she wanted him to understand how conflicted she felt about the job and him.

  “I am good,” she said quietly, her eyes pleading with his. “The job in New York isn’t just any job. It’s the job. Brecken Design is internationally ranked at number four, and out of hundreds of applicants, I’m the one they chose. I have an opportunity to learn from the best of the best and be involved with the kind of projects most designers only dream about.” She hesitated. “It’s the kind of opportunity that doesn’t exist in Colorado Springs or even Denver.”

  The edges of his eyes crinkled, and it looked like it took effort for him to swallow. “So what you’re saying is that you’re going.”

  Sam placed her hands on the sides of his face and forced him to look at her. “I’m saying I’m greedy. I want both you and the job.”

  “You want me to move to New York?”

  “No. I would never ask you to do that. I know your life is here.” She bit down on her lower lip for a moment before continuing. “But I want to ask you something else.”

  “What?”

&
nbsp; “I love you,” she said. “More than anything, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. But if I turn down this job, I’ll always wonder what I could have done, what I could have learned. So I’m going to ask you something I have no right to ask. To wait. Give me two years, and I’ll be back. Just two years.”

  Colton didn’t say anything. He just watched her with dark, cloudy, mysterious eyes. Unreadable eyes. What was he thinking?

  “I’ll come home as often as I can, and you can fly out to see me. We can—”

  “I don’t fly,” he interrupted.

  “What?”

  “I. Don’t. Fly. I’ve never once set foot on an airplane.”

  Sam blinked, trying to understand what he was saying. “There’s a first time for everything,” she said, her voice small.

  He sighed and slid her to the side, off his lap. Then he stood and turned around, shoving his hands into his pockets. “You don’t understand. I have a crippling fear of heights. Any time I get higher than ten feet off the ground, the world starts spinning and I can’t catch my breath. It’s so bad, I can’t climb a ladder to fix a broken shingle on the roof.”

  Sam stood slowly. “So that’s why you refused to go ziplining or rock climbing.”

  “Yes.”

  “But airplanes are different,” she tried. “I mean, you’re inside them, and when you’re up in the air it feels like you’re just in a tall tower, looking down.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t do tall towers either.”

  “Then you can shut the windows and sit in an aisle seat.”

  He was still shaking his head, and so many of her hopes begin to crumble. She’d envisioned them walking together through Central Park, taking in some Broadway shows, and going to see touristy things like the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. And what about traveling the world at some point? There were so many places Sam wanted to see; so many cultures she wanted to experience. If she married Colton, would she be destined to do it all without him? Or give up those dreams altogether?