But Jess had other ideas. She laughed and pushed my hat away from my face. “I don’t mind a little rain so long as I’m with you.”
And she found me, there under that stormy moon. Her lips tasted like honey, the warmth of her skin against mine was a homecoming to my battered spirits. I kissed my Jess until her shivering stopped, and I’d dried every last raindrop and tear from her cheeks, and then I kissed her a little more.
“I love you, Dusty Walker,” she whispered against my lips. “And if you’ll let me, I want to stay here forever.”
The storm was starting to let up a little. The rain had slowed, and the clouds were shifting to the east. I pulled back just enough to admire how a fresh shaft of moonlight splintered over her face, illuminating those glorious eyes and that smile that was just for me. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you do that.”
The hurt in her eyes was immediate. A crease formed on her brow, and her throat bobbed in a restrained sob. “Oh.” She sucked in a short breath and nodded jerkily. “I… I see. I’ve waited too long. I know I—”
I touched a finger to her lips and chuckled. “Jess Thompkins, I’d have waited forever for you. But I’d really like to get you and this calf warm and dry. After that, if you don’t mind, I’m hoping to kiss you some more, and maybe talk about holding you for the rest of my life.”
A smile formed under my finger, and she softly pressed her lips to it. “Okay, cowboy. I’ll follow you wherever you go.”
Jess
A blanket draped around my shoulders, and a steaming mug of tea appeared before me. I grabbed the hot mug and looked up, expecting Kelli or Meryl. But it was my cowboy, easing onto a straw bale beside me. He spared a glance at the calf I was guarding, sleeping under a heat lamp in fresh straw, but then his attention was all for me. His cheeks were bright red with the cold, but his smile was as warm as the sunrise.
“How’s the calf doing?”
I sipped my tea. Rich and sweet, just like I liked it. How did he know? “I’m no expert, but he’s not shivering anymore. Meryl helped me get a bottle of milk into him, and he took it really well.”
He nodded. “Good. I brought his mama up with me. We can try reintroducing them after she’s eaten and settled a bit. Mind if I share that blanket?”
I set down the tea mug and spread the blanket he had given me over his shoulders. Then I nestled into the crook of his arm. He was far more comforting than any old hot mug, and I pressed my cheek into the warm flannel at his throat as a sigh soaked through my being. My cowboy was here, he was real, and he hadn’t turned me away when I’d finally come to my senses. He’d had work to do because I’d come to him at the very worst time. But he had carried out his duty, faithful and true, and was already back with me sooner than I’d dared to hope. “I though you’d still be out helping Luke.”
“Evan and Brandon came out to spell us. Luke went to the house to warm up, but I had something more important to do.” Dusty turned his face to nuzzle my hair, and my insides turned to butter when I realized he wasn’t just pressing a quick kiss to my head. He was drinking me in, just reveling in holding me, and heedless of the fact that I probably looked like a wet mop and smelled like a musty old cowboy hat. I felt his breaths deepen and slow, and his arm tightened around me.
“And what was that?” I whispered into his ear. I just wanted to hear him say it.
“Watching over the calf, of course,” he said casually.
I elbowed him lightly in the ribs. “I know you’ve got better lines than that, you big tease.”
“I have no idea what you mean by that.”
I turned my face into his and let my forehead rest on his cheek. “Do you know why I dated Austen?”
He swallowed, and his breathing dipped. “It really wasn’t my business, Jess.”
“Yes, it was. I thought he was you.”
Dusty stiffened. “I don’t understand.”
“The poem in my pocket. The note at work. And the journal! I can’t believe I thought Austen could have written that. Even the poem he copied out of that magazine and gave me in that stupid Valentine’s Day card. I was looking forthatman, but instead, I looked right past him and found the wrong one.”
He was silent for a few seconds, his eyes low. Then, he lifted them to me—clear and blue as the summer skies and gentle as a spring mist. “That was it? Really?”
“You stole my heart, cowboy. I just didn’t know where to find you, and I trusted the wrong person. I believed him when you were the one I wanted all along.”
He blinked, and his shoulders sagged. “I thought you just weren’t interested in that sort of thing. I’ve tried to figure out how to talk to you for years, and that was my best idea. When it didn’t work, I figured it meant that was it. I’d missed all my chances.”
My lower lip trembled. What had I put this poor man through? “Did you say‘years’?”
He grinned shyly. “Yeah. Half my life.”
“Oh, Dusty! And I was that blind, that stupid!”
“Jess, love, don’t ever say that. You couldn’t know what I never told you. The blame is mine alone.” He caught my hand and caressed my fingers like I was his finest treasure. And just like in all the romance books, and all the silly movies, my body and spirit sparked with electricity. Hunger. I didn’t just love this man for his goodness. I wanted him with every fiber of my being like I’d never wanted anything in my life. And I’d already waited too long to show it.