It took her a sec, but when she got it, she felt the grin burst across her face. “That’s perfect!”
“Pretty good, huh?” He smiled. “And I want you with me. I hate all the business stuff, but I thought maybe you’d…”
“You thought maybe I’d…?” She raised her brows, beaming, holding her breath to see how he’d finish.
“Help me. ”
She deflated the tiniest bit. Eddie’s expression had turned so serious, she’d thought maybe their conversation was headed in another direction…of the relationship variety. “Oh. Sure I can help. ”
She went into autopilot and turned her mind to practical matters. “If I’m not taking back my other job, they’ll still need me more than ever at the lodge. But I guess with Hope there, we can manage. ”
“Of course, of course. I assumed you’d need to spend most of your time managing the Big Bear. I just thought you could advise me on the business end of things, you know, as I get it all up and running. I’ll need to establish it as an official nonprofit, all that. ”
A glimmer of sadness came and went. It was time to accept it—she was and always would be spreadsheet girl. And yet it was true consolation to feel how, more than anyone else, Eddie respected her. He valued her opinions and her help…valued her. “I’d love nothing more,” she told him truly.
“You don’t need to love it. You just need to love me. ”
“I do, Eddie. I do. ” Something deep down unclenched. She might’ve been all business, but Eddie loved her all the same.
“Then there’s one other thing. ” He dropped to his knee.
“Oh!” She’d been right—he had been heading in a relationship direction. But still, she had trouble completely trusting what was happening. She had to be certain, because she was having trouble believing what her eyes were telling her. “So…you’re not just offering me a job?”
“No, silly. ” He twined his hands with hers. “I am offering you something else. Me. ”
She shook her head, speechless, the emotion threatening to overwhelm her.
He knelt there for a second, teasing her. “What, no crying?”
She felt her expression explode into a joyous smile—her heart brimmed with it. As always, Eddie’s easy good humor sent a warm and happy calm spreading through her chest. “Give it a second. The waterworks are on their way. ” Deciding it was her turn to get playful, she peered down at him. “But I’ve yet to hear a question. ”
“I’ve known you all my life, Laura Bailey. ” He held tightly to her hands, growing more serious than she’d ever seen him. “And I do believe I’ve loved you from the start. So what do you say? Make me an honest man? Marry me?”
“You’re already an honest man, Eddie. The best I’ve ever known. And yes, I’ll marry you. I do believe I’ve been yours all along. ”
Thirty-eight
Laura pulled into the ranch driveway, and something in her shoulders released. Tension had a way of fading like that whenever her fiancé was nearby. It’d been a couple of months since she’d decided to stay—really stay—once and for all, and she was grateful every hour of every day that Eddie Jessup was the sort of man who didn’t give up.
It was a gorgeous fall afternoon, the sort of day when the sky was wide and blue, but the air was crisp enough to cool the sun on her shoulders. When she turned off the car, she could hear the classic rock station blasting through her closed windows. She had to smile—it was just that sort of scene, the kind that gave an easy, grinning, sunshine feeling. Like a deep breath in.
Like her man.
The Fairview project might’ve been canceled, but the work hadn’t stopped. Eddie continued to renovate the ranch house, only rather than turning it into a resort, it would host his camp for at-risk kids. That’d been his stipulation for not talking to the press about Fox and his antics. The man had known about the nesting area, but it’d been news to the Fairview board of directors, and they weren’t too pleased about being associated with razing threatened wildlife.
Fox was fired, Fairview made a sizable donation to Eddie’s new nonprofit, and as long as construction remained several hundred feet from the habitat, they were good to go.
Eddie had a whole crew of volunteers to help him, too. It seemed to her like the place was crawling with Jessups, but notably, Rob Haskell was also helping out, and he often brought Luke, his and Helen’s eldest. They were at the stage in construction that was all final finish work, like painting and installing fixtures, and it was really any day now they’d be done.
She opened her car door, and their new puppy, Buck, sprang out. “Go get him,” she called. After weeks of cajoling, Eddie had finally dragged her to the pound in Silver City, but she’d been the one who fell in love the moment she saw the rescue pup, a husky mix he liked to call a malamutt.
As Buck bounded toward Eddie’s voice, she pulled their lunch from the trunk—a basket of cold fried chicken that Sorrow had helped her assemble from the day’s tavern special. She’d stashed it in the back, having learned the hard way not to leave food unattended for longer than two seconds around the dog, and this would’ve been more temptation than the little guy could’ve handled.
At the sound of eager barking, Eddie came out onto the porch, and the instant he saw her, a smile burst onto his face. “Hey, gorgeous. ” He leaned down to scruff Buck’s head but didn’t take his eyes from her. “I’m happy winter’s coming, but I swear, I miss seeing you tromp around here in your short shorts. ”
“Hey, are you saying you don’t like my jeans?” She twisted backward to get a better look at herself.
“Not at all. I’m saying I like your legs. ” He came up to her and stole a kiss that robbed her reply, which she quickly forgot, anyway.