His lips pressed against my wrist. “I’m not going to lie and say I’m not over the moon you’re not in Austin. I hate that you left your job, but damn I’m glad you’re so close to me.”
With a giggle, I took in Jase’s features. His jaw was strong and he had the most beautiful eyelashes. I’d kill to have them. Everything about him was perfection. Even his nose was beautiful. We would have beautiful babies.
My head snapped forward as that thought hit me a little too close to home. Closing my eyes, I said a quick prayer I wasn’t pregnant.
I jumped when Jase started to speak again. “I love Texas and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”
“You said your sister’s best friend Ava was in town? Does she live out of the state?”
“Ava, no she lives in Austin. Both my family and her family went to Montana, remember?”
I nodded as he kept talking. “Well, it turns out she knows one of the guys who is helping us go organic. His family owns a huge ranch up there and they invited us up to see how an organic cattle ranch runs. While we were there, Ava broke her leg and her ankle. She’s been playing house with Ryder.”
“Ryder? He’s the guy she knew?”
“Yep. I will bet you a million dollars she is not home to stay.”
“Why?” I asked.
Jase laughed and shook his head. “If I know Ava, she’s fallen in love with Ryder and coming home to pack up her shit and head right back up there.”
“So Ryder lives there?”
Looking at me he winked, “I know it’s so damn confusing. No, he lives in Austin but will be moving back to Montana.”
“Wow. It’s like a soap opera.”
“When it comes to Ava, you have no idea. I’m pretty sure there were bets placed that the two of us would end up together.”
My interest was piqued. “And? Did y’all ever date?”
“Nah. We messed around together a few times in high school with a bit of kissing and touching, but it never led anywhere. Afterwards we laughed our asses off. She really is like a sister to me. I like this guy Ryder, so I hope things work out for both of them.”
A streak of jealousy zipped quickly through me before I pushed it away. It was high school and I had no reason to be jealous.
I studied him more before he turned and captured my eyes. “What?”
Slowly shaking my head, I softly spoke, “Nothing. I’m just trying to figure out how this all happened. I feel so happy and I’m so afraid something is going to pull the rug out from under us.”
With a squeeze of my hand, he replied, “I refuse to believe anything will ever come between the two of us again.”
He turned left and took off down another country road.
Deciding I needed to push my negative thoughts away, I looked back out the window. “So, your parents and Walker’s bought y’all land? That was really nice of them.”
“Yeah it was. An older couple, Mimi and Frank, had a huge working cattle ranch next to ours. Not as big as my dad and Reed’s, but big. Frank got too old to take care of it and offered to sell to my father. They bought it up and left some land for Mimi and Frank and divided up some for the four of us.”
“What will Ava do with hers if she moves?”
He shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I never even thought about that. If she wants to keep it great, if not I may buy it from her since it backs to mine.”
We drove for a little bit in silence when Jase pulled over on the side of the road. “What are we doing?”
“Come on, I want to show you something.”
Opening the truck door, I went to get out, but Jase quickly was there helping me down. “Do you often stop on the side of the road for no reason?”
With a smirk, he took my hand and led me up to the fence. Looking out over the land, I smiled. “Wow. It’s beautiful. Whose land is this?”
“Ours. In this very spot is where my father saw my mother for the very first time.”
My heart skipped a beat. “How do you know?”
Pointing to the fence, it was painted red. “My father and mother have told us so many times how they met. They didn’t hit it off at first. My mother was a city girl from New York with a broken down car and my father was as much of a cowboy as humanely possible.”
My smile grew bigger while I watched Jase’s face light up when talking about his parents. “My father comes to this exact spot and sprays it with paint so he never forgets the spot where his life changed.”
Dropping my shoulders, I teared up. “That’s so romantic.”