Right as Raine (Aster Valley 1)

“What’s happening?” I asked carefully, beginning to get an idea.

“I bought this place for us,” he said before wincing.

“What place?”

“This place. Rockley Lodge. I bought it. Out from under the Civettis.”

I stared at him. “You what?”

“Please don’t be mad. Please. Am I a controlling asshole? Do you hate me for being heavy-handed?”

Lightness and laughter bubbled up in my chest. “You bought Rockley Lodge?”

He nodded. “Kinda? I mean. Yes. I did. I bought it. It’s ours. Well… technically it’s yours. In a trust for you. My attorney did it. Just in case you don’t want me invol—”

“Oh my god!” I lurched at him and crashed my lips against him, throwing my arms around his neck and trying not to feel the pain of the stretch in my shoulder and upper arm.

Tiller’s strong arms banded around my back and held me tight. I laughed against his mouth as his words continued to sink in.

“It’s okay?” he asked, pulling back to meet my eyes.

“You’re asking if it’s okay that you bought us a multimillion-dollar dream home in our new favorite place? That you invested in our future together?”

His body sagged. “Well, when you put it like that…”

“Of course I want you involved. How can you think otherwise?”

Tiller leaned in and pressed a kiss against the edge of my lips. “I need you to know, no matter what happens, you running this inn is a sure thing. Even if you decided to leave me one day—please don’t, by the way—this place would continue to be yours. It’s not contingent on—”

I shut him up with a kiss. My eyes smarted with happy tears. “I can’t believe it was you. You’re the one who bought it.”

He shrugged. “Honestly, part of it was selfish. If we own the inn, we can run it the way you want. And maybe that means we can hire someone else to manage it when we’re in Houston?”

The way he asked it as a question made it clear he was floating the idea of splitting our time between Houston and Aster Valley based on the season. He quickly continued. “Only for a few more years until my contract is up. After that, we can move here full-time, but I’m obligated to stay right now. It doesn’t mean you have to stay with me, but…” Tiller swallowed. “But I don’t want to be apart from you.”

“I don’t want to be apart from you either. I was going to buy a little place for us where I could run my catering business in the off-season and we could still spend the season in Houston. It sounds like we had the same idea, only… I don’t want to go back right away.”

“Whatever you want is fine with me,” he murmured, dropping a kiss against my temple. “Is it because of your dad?”

I turned my face into the familiar warmth of his neck. “My mom called to ask if I could water her plants while the family was in Galveston, I’d told her I was in the hospital in Colorado, and she’d said that was fine, she could ask Mrs. Nesbit, and she hoped I felt better soon. My father didn’t get on the phone at all.”

Tiller leaned back and pulled me into his chest. “Oh, baby. I’m so, so sorry. You deserve a better family than that.”

I thought of Moose and Jill, who’d already made themselves at home in the lodge and had gone above and beyond making me feel loved and cared for. “Maybe I can have yours one day,” I said softly.

I felt the huge grin against my head before the deep rumble of his voice hit me. “Only if one day is today. What’s mine is yours. I hope you know that. This… this is it for me, Mikey. You and me. This place. Our dreams. Together.”

My heart felt like I was going to overflow. “It’s going to be amazing. I can’t believe we own our very own lodge in Aster Valley.”

“And, ah… and the ski resort.”

I craned my neck to look up at him. “What do you mean?”

“The slopes. And the lifts. They were all part of the deal. So… congratulations? We are now the proud owners of Rockley Mountain and Aster Valley Ski Resort.” He reached his arm out toward the pristine slopes that were barely visible from this angle.

I sat up and stared at him. “You had to buy a ski resort to get this place?” My voice sounded ten times higher than I’d intended.

“I didn’t have to. But wanted to. I figured one day, when I retire, it’d be nice to have my very own place to snowboard. And I want to teach you to ski and bring our nieces and nephews here to learn, too. And between us and our new friends, I thought it would be a nice challenge for us in the next few years when we don’t have to be in Houston. While you get this place up and running, I’ll work on the ski resort. I thought we might make an attractive offer to Sam to come help us. What do you think? Want to bring the alpine industry back to Aster Valley?”