But I tell him what he wants to know, partly because I don’t want to regret not telling him how I feel, even though he doesn’t feel the same. I’ll treasure the time I have with Trick for the rest of my life. I might as well go balls out.
“I said ‘I love you’.”
His brow wrinkles. “But what about Brent? And your father? And…everything else?”
“I don’t care about anyone else. Or anything else. All I care about is you.”
“So you’re not back with Brent?”
“No.”
“If you love me, why didn’t you come to me? Why have you stayed away?”
It’s my turn to frown. “I did come to you. I went to your house and talked to your mom. Didn’t she tell you?”
Trick sighs and lowers his forehead to mine. “No, she didn’t.”
Something alarmingly close to hope unfurls in my chest. A question stands on the tip of my tongue. My heart pounds as I let it go. But I have to know. And I might not get another chance. “Would it have mattered?”
Trick looks at me. “Of course it would’ve mattered. Cami, I’m in love with you. I stayed away because I thought it’s what you wanted?”
I hear nothing past the part where he said he’s in love with me. The tears flow faster.
“What’s the matter?” he asks softly, catching a tear with his thumb as it slides from the corner of my eye. “Why are you crying?”
“I thought you were gone. Forever. I thought I’d lost you.”
“I thought the same thing,” he admits, kissing my eyelids and my cheeks. “God, Cami, I didn’t know how I was gonna live the rest of my life without you.”
I wrap my arms and legs tighter around Trick, a physical way of expressing that I’m never letting him go. Never.
The action causes him to move inside me and my body reflexively squeezes, drawing him even further in. I hear the breath hiss through his teeth.
“Damn, can we talk about this later? I can barely think when you do that, much less talk.”
I laugh. In my heart, in my head, in my soul, I laugh. “Yes, we’ll talk later. I think we’ve already covered the most important things anyway.”
He pulls out and thrusts back into me. The sensation steals my breath. “I think there’s one thing left that I need to ‘cover’ if you don’t mind.”
He bites my chin playfully as he flexes his hips, sending fingers of sensation skittering through me.
“Do what you must,” I say.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO - Trick
I put the truck in park right at the edge of the clearing where the house will sit. At least I think that’s where it will sit. My wife will have the final say. Provided that she says yes, of course.
I look over at Cami, sitting quietly beside me, all blindfolded and excited.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
“To see what you bought with all that money from the car? Hell yeah, I’m sure.”
“I told you part of it went to Mom and some of it went into stabling Rags and getting him ready to race.”
“But the rest you invested. You already told me. And now I get to see what the big secret is.”
She rubs her hands together excitedly. Now I’m having second thoughts. She’s obviously anxious to know what it is, but I wonder if she has some preconceived notion of what it is. What if she’s disappointed?
I get out and walk around to her side of the truck. I help her down, but leave her blindfolded.
“Come on. I’ll go slow. Just hold on to me.”
Always game, Cami nods and lets me lead her into the clearing. In the distance, I can see where the stable I had built sits at the edge of the field. I hope Cami doesn’t mind staying in the tiny apartment in the top half of it until the house is completed. Since Rags won his first two races, I had enough money to get her a ring plus some to spare for a down payment on a construction loan. All the bank needs is the house plan.
And all I need for that is Cami.
I grab her by the shoulders and position her facing the house site and the stable beyond. “Stay right here.” I drop to one knee and dig the ring out of my pocket. After a deep breath, I tell her, “You can look.”
I watch her face as she pulls off the tie I’d used to blindfold her and looks around. She scans the clearing first and I see her eyes pause on the stable before they search for and find me, kneeling at her side.
When she understands what’s going on, her hands fly to her face. She covers her mouth and turns to face me. My heart jumps up into my throat.
“I know how much you’ve sacrificed to be with me. Having to stay with Jenna because of your dad and having to put off school for a while. And I promised you I’d make it up to you. This,” I say, sweeping my arm out to encompass all the land that I now call mine, “is the first step. I want this to be our home. I want to build a life with you and a business around Rags that we can run together. I want to pick out carpet and curtains with you. I want to pick out new horses with you. I want to pick out baby furniture with you. I want to grow old with you. I want you. Forever. I’m hoping that if you can see that future, the future that I see, you can wait just a little while longer for all of it to come together. I’m working on it. Every day, I’m working on it. For you. For us. But until then,” I pause, holding out the ring. “Cami, will you marry me?”
I’m pretty sure I can’t breathe. My chest is so tight it feels like it might pop from the pressure.
Although she only pauses for a few seconds, it feels like an eternity. When she drops to her knees in front of me and takes my hands, I feel a relieved sigh rush out in a flood, taking with it all the last little bits of doubt I’d had.
I can see her answer in her eyes, before she even opens her mouth. And it makes me want to celebrate.
“Yes. To all of that. I don’t have a life without you. I never did. I never could. You’re everything to me. You’re all I’ve ever wanted and all I’ll ever need. I’m never letting you go.”
When she brings her mouth to mine, I can’t help but smile. Yes, I’m happy—so, so happy—with her answer. But that’s not all. I get to make her even happier later when I tell her that I finally got her father’s blessing.
About two weeks ago, when I bought Cami’s ring, I made an impulsive detour on the way back from the jeweler’s. I decided to stop by the Hines ranch. I knew Cami wouldn’t be there; she’d already moved in with Jenna. What I didn’t know is whether or not Jack would be there. I knew it would be worth a try, though. And it was a good gamble. Turns out he was there after all.
The housekeeper, Drogheda, had smiled when she answered the door. I liked her instantly. Something in her eyes welcomed me as the guy who would make Cami happy. I didn’t realize how much I needed to see that from someone else. Someone who loves Cami almost as much as I do.
Without a word, she led me back to Jack’s office. He was sitting behind his desk looking at something on the computer when she stopped in front of the open door. He looked up, not in the least surprised. Or so it seemed. He nodded to her and she walked off, leaving me standing there to be examined like a bug under a microscope. But I didn’t care. Jack was the least of my worries. But he’s important to Cami and she’s the one I care about, so I stood my ground.
He didn’t invite me in, but I went in and grabbed a chair anyway. We sat in silence for a painfully long time before I decided to take the bull—or in this case, the jackass—by the horns.
“I know you don’t respect me. I know you would’ve chosen someone else for your daughter. But I also know that you could scour the Earth for the rest of your life and you’d never find someone who loves her as much as I do. She’s one of the few things in the world that really matters to me and I won’t rest until I give her the life she deserves. Whether or not you want to be a part of that is up to you. It would mean an awful lot to Cami if you’d stop being so stubborn. And, no offense, but her feelings are the only ones I care about.
“You don’t have to care about me. You don’t have to respect me. Hell, you don’t even have to like me. You care about Cami and that’s enough for me. That’s all I ever need to know. How much you’re willing to sacrifice for her, though, is entirely up to you.”
I was ready to leave after I said my piece. But I felt obligated to wait for him to respond, so I did. I leaned back in the chair and laced my fingers together over my stomach and I eyed him. Just like he was eyeing me.
When he finally spoke, he surprised me. I really didn’t expect the old bastard to cave. But he did. I was right all along about that, too. Cami is his kryptonite.
“All right.”
“All right?”
He nodded. “All right. I believe you. And I’ll give you one chance to prove it. But just one. If you hurt her, I’ll castrate you. And you’ve lived in the country long enough to know what something like that looks like. You get my meaning?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes, sir. Lucky for both of us that’s not gonna happen. I love her. More than I do myself. I’d rather die than hurt her.”
“Just remember that. Because I can see to that, too.”
I nodded. He nodded. And then he turned back to his computer screen.
That was the best I could hope for from Jack Hines. But that was all I needed, so the rest didn’t matter.
But now…now I get to tell Cami that I finally got that cold prick to see I’m what’s best for her, that no one will ever love her like I do. That alone makes it all worth it. Cami’s worth everything. At least now more than one person knows that it’s become my mission in life to give this girl everything she ever wanted. And maybe even a few things she didn’t know she wanted.
Until she met me.