“Charlie, it’s ten o’clock. Get dressed. I’ll wait for you out there,” she said, gesturing to the main room.
I stumbled out of bed and found my jeans, a T-shirt, and one of Hudson’s big hoodies. After slipping on my trainers and running fingers through my hair, I wondered if I should wake up my dad.
Better not.
If I found Hudson… when I found Hudson, I wasn’t sure I should subject him to the full Murray straight off.
“I’m here,” I mumbled when Mama and I joined her. “Let’s go.”
When we exited the bunkhouse, she began talking a mile a minute. “I don’t even know where to start. Where would he go? The ranch is huge. He could be anywhere.”
I glanced at her. “No. I’m sure he’s at the creek.”
“How do you know that? What creek?”
I knew better than to try and saddle a horse myself, but I also knew Mama could help me find my way to the creek on foot.
I turned back to face Darci. “If you haven’t heard from me in twenty minutes, wake up the gents and tell them to come to the creek, yeah?”
She nodded and headed back toward the warmth of the little cabin. I whistled to Mama and took off in the direction of Hudson’s thinking spot.
It took me the full twenty minutes to find my way in the dark, but I could tell from the large horse-shaped shadow I’d found the right place.
“Psst.” I didn’t want to startle the man into an early grave. “Hudson.”
No answer. I wandered closer and pressed a palm over Kojack’s long nose. “You keeping him safe?” I whispered to the big animal, catching sight of Hudson’s form lying in the grass. For a split second I wondered if something was wrong with him, but then I noticed him shift and his sleep-hoarse voice drifted through the night.
“Irish? That you?”
After commanding Mama to lie down, I made my way over and dropped down next to him, leaning over to take his face in my hands.
“You scared me,” I whispered. “I can’t decide whether to beat you or kiss you.”
He yanked me down into a kiss that stole the breath from my lungs. Without taking my lips off his, I climbed on top of his warm body. He felt like home. Kissing him in the middle of the night on the ground in small-town Texas was quite bizarrely exactly where I was meant to be.
“Mpfh,” I grunted when he flipped me over onto my back. After pressing another hard kiss to my mouth, he pulled away and looked down at me.
“What are you doing out here?”
“Came to find you. Darci was worried. Said you’ve been out here a couple of hours.”
“What? Shit. Really? Do you have a phone with you?”
I pulled it out and handed it to him. After a quick text to her number, he handed it back.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “How’s things with your dad? He in the bunkhouse?”
I rubbed my hands up and down the back of his canvas jacket. “No, we had dinner at the farmhouse, and the gents insisted he stay in a proper guest room.”
“Oh good. Is he still mad?”
“No. Not at all. Though he’s single now. Long story.”
Hudson dropped down next to me and laid his head on my shoulder as if we were in bed. “Bruce said they were relocating me after the acquisition.”
My heart dropped to the floor. “Oh, Hudson. I’m so sorry.” I couldn’t imagine how disappointed he must be. I knew how much he loved being close to his family. “Where?”
Please say Dublin. Or London… hell, I’ll take Paris, Frankfurt, or even New York…
“Chicago.”
Fuck.
I moved my hands under his coat to the warmer surface of his button-up shirt and continued stroking the long muscles of his back.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. Heartache was plain as day in his eyes. “I—”
I put my fingers on his lips, and tried to hide how much he’d just gutted me. “Shh. I know. It’s not your fault. We knew this was temporary, yeah? I’ll be heading back home too. It wasn’t like…”
I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence. Instead, I leaned in and kissed him, pouring my broken heart into him and trying my best to take his as well. I didn’t want to waste some of our last days together with heavy emotion.
“No, Charlie, you don’t understand. I don’t want to go. I want to find a way to—”
I interrupted him again. “I know, love. But we’re not going to solve it tonight. The pub opens tomorrow and we’re going to go back to the bunkhouse, make love, and then sleep. Yeah?”
My lips found his again for a good healthy snog.
When we finally pulled away to catch our breaths, Hudson’s hand smoothed down the jumper I wore. “You’re wearing my hoodie.”
“Yes. It’s cold as balls, Hudson. I was half-asleep when your girlfriend turned up in my bedroom.” I was taking the piss, but he didn’t realize it.