Fall for Me (Cowboys of Crested Butte 1)

“Um, okay. Renie, you can pick, but please don’t pick horror,” said Luke.

“I want to watch Ghostbusters,” she said.

“Ghostbusters? What’s that?” asked both his boys.

“You haven’t seen Ghostbusters? You’re kidding. It’s the funniest movie ever. Don’t tell me you haven’t seen Airplane either.” Both boys shook their heads.

“Oh this will be a very fun week. Renie’s ride through the funniest movies ever made, before you both were born. We’ll have a blast.”

“Are you gonna stay at my dad’s house?” asked Jake.

Liv nodded.

“Yay!” Luke jumped up and down.

“Do you remember how to get there?” asked Ben.

Liv smiled. “I can probably find it.”

“Tell you what, we’ll follow you to your hotel. You can check out, and we’ll help load your stuff into your car. Then you can follow us to the ranch.”

“Perfect.” Liv kissed his cheek.

Ben really, really hoped this wasn’t a dream.

23

It was dark, so Renie wouldn’t be able to appreciate the ranch for what it was until tomorrow. The boys fought over who got to carry the bags inside, and once they did, they had no idea where to put them.

“Where are you sleeping?” Jake asked Renie.

“I don’t know, let’s ask your dad. This is a very nice house, by the way.”

“My mom used to live here too, but now she lives in a different house, and she has a different husband,” Luke told her.

He was a wealth of uncomfortable information, thought Ben. “Okay, partner, let’s get Renie settled in the guest room downstairs, and we’ll let Liv stay in the one upstairs.”

“Liv isn’t gonna sleep in your room, Daddy?”

Luke again. Where did his kid get this stuff?

“We’ll see about that later. Now how about that movie? If you don’t start watching it in…thirty seconds, you won’t be able to watch it tonight because it’ll end later than your bedtime. Follow me, Renie, I’ll show you where you can set up your movie marathon.”

Liv stood in the family room, looking out windows she never thought she would again. She was here, with Ben, and Renie was with her. If anyone had told her last week that this would be happening she would’ve bet a million dollars they were wrong. Yet here she was.

“Come on,” Ben said, taking her hand. “They’re settled in, and Renie promised she’d make sure she’d find whatever they needed on her own.”

Ben led her into his bedroom, and closed the door behind them. Somehow, suddenly, she was in his arms. She pressed herself into him so she felt his heart beating. The warmth of his body seeped through the clothes she longed to rip off him.

“You’re shaking,” he whispered. “It’s okay, Liv. This is where you’re meant to be. Kiss me, give it all to me, every bit of you.”

“Ben, we have to talk.”

“No, Liv, we don’t. Not now. Now I want you under me, naked. Then later, over me. And then all around me. I love you so damn much I can’t think about anything else.”

“But—”

“Liv, I’ll get down on my hands and knees and beg if I have to. Please, take off your clothes. Please, I can’t stand it another second.”