“Yup.” The one-word answer was all he could manage. Too many important things needed to be said for more time to be wasted on small talk. “Are you glad you came? You never have said.”
“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t have missed it.” Sloan was emphatic about that.
Still not satisfied, Trey asked, “Then you weren’t bored?”
Laughter came from low in her throat. “When did I have time to be bored?”
“Not much, I guess,” he admitted. “Just the same, some people find all this open space a bit monotonous.”
“I suppose,” she agreed on a thoughtful note. Then her expression lifted and a soft marveling light entered her eyes. “But there’s something about the lonely grandeur of this land that grips your heart.”
A new ease flowed through him, unraveling the previous tension. There was a buoyancy to his stride as they reached the front steps. “I guess you’ll be heading straight upstairs to take a shower before supper.”
“A long, hot one,” Sloan confirmed. “At least I’m not as stiff and sore as I was after the first time you took me riding.”
He grinned. “We’ll make a horsewoman out of you yet.”
A teasing smile deepened the corners of her mouth. “Your grandfather warned me that this land has a tendency to make people dream big. He was right.”
“Speaking of Gramps,” he said, his thoughts already turning to look ahead as they climbed the steps in unison, “I need to talk to him before I clean up.”
Just as he expected, he found Chase in the den, ensconced in the big leather chair behind the desk. Trey closed both double doors behind him, ensuring their privacy. The significance of his action wasn’t lost on Chase.
He lifted his head, his eyes narrowing with sharpened interest. “This must be important.”
“It is,” Trey replied and then said his piece in plain words.
When he finished, Chase cocked his head to one side. “Are you asking my opinion?”
“No sir.”
Chase studied the quiet resolve etched in his grandson’s expression and nodded. “That tells me you’re sure of your decision.”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” It was a simple statement, made with no attempt to impress Chase with its certainty. But then Trey hesitated, regret showing. “I know I’m asking a lot, but—”
Chase cut him off in mid-sentence. “It’s yours.”
“Thanks.” Gratitude and affection mixed together in the look Trey gave his grandfather.
Knowing glances were exchanged when Trey suggested to Sloan that they go for a walk at supper’s conclusion. Everyone knew it was Sloan’s last night. It was understandable that the couple would want to spend it alone together.
Hands tucked in the pockets of his denim jacket, Trey stood at the top of the front steps, but he made no move to descend them. Sloan paused beside him, slipping a hand through the crook of his arm and drawing close. The gesture was a natural one that spoke of the ease she felt in his company. Like him, she faced the night scene before them.
A rising moon silvered the ranch yard with its light while overhead the black sky was alive with stars. Along the river, the trees made intricate dark shapes against the silvered grassland beyond them. A flurry of snorts and hoofbeats came from the corral by the barn. Then all was quiet again.
“It’s a bit chilly tonight. I’m surprised we can’t see our breath.” Sloan blew one out in a testing fashion to see if she could.
“The wind’s out of the north.” But Trey was more conscious of the warmth of her body pressed along his side than with the coolness of the air.
“So,” she said in a subtly prompting fashion, “are we going for that walk?”
“Not yet.” His gaze shifted to her, his head turning slightly. He sensed that he would never tire of looking at this incredible woman with her sun-streaked hair and midnight blue eyes. In many ways, she was a contradiction—strong and self-contained, yet vibrant and alive without artifice.
“That’s fine with me.” Supreme contentment was in her expression.
The moment of waiting was passed. Trey turned, angling his body toward her and touching the flawless skin on her cheek to draw the fullness of her attention. “There’s something I want to ask you, Sloan,” he said. “And ‘no’ isn’t going to be an acceptable answer.”
“Don’t.” There was a pained look in her eyes as she placed her fingers to his mouth. “As much as I don’t want to, I have to leave tomorrow. I can’t stay any longer. Try to understand that.”