Stay with Me (Cowboys of Crested Butte 4)

her chair, her arms folded in front of her again.

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you how rude that is?”

“What?”

“Folding your arms when someone is talking to you?”

Bree released her arms and rested her hands in her lap. “Better?”

“Much better. Now, as I was saying…”

December 23. He still had time to drive to Monument and spend Christmas with his family, but he would have to leave now. Jace went upstairs to pack a bag.

After he’d painted all the rooms on the main floor, he finished repairing the wood floor, and installed the tile in the kitchen and in the downstairs bathroom. He hadn’t started the work on the upstairs of the house yet, but there would be plenty of time when he got back from Colorado.

Whenever he went up the back staircase, he thought about what Vi had said about the attic. There’d be time, later, to explore up there too.

Vi’s words that day, not only about the house, stuck with him. “Not everyone is cut out for life on a ranch,” she’d said.

The more time he spent at home, the more those words rang true. Even if a relationship with Bree was possible, how could he ask her to move to his isolated ranch?

The last time they spoke, he was in Vegas for NFR and she was on her way to Idaho. Was she back in Monument with her family? Only one way to find out.

“Hey, Mama,” he said when she picked up the phone. “I’m fixing to leave now, so I’ll see you sometime late tomorrow night, as long as the weather’s good.”

“Jace, you might not want to leave yet.”

Before he could ask why not, he heard a rap at the door. “Give me a minute, Mama, someone’s at the door. It’s probably Yance. I asked him to swing by the house when he had a few minutes. I’ll call you right back.”

“Come on in, Yance,” he yelled from the kitchen after he hung up. When the ranch manager didn’t open the door and come in, Jace thought maybe he hadn’t heard him.

“Got cotton balls stuffed in your ears?” He pulled the door open, and instead of Yance, Bree stood on the other side of it.

“Hi, Jace.”

“Hi.” Jace stood back from the door, where the wind blew snow across the threshold. “You must be freezing. Come on in.”

He stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. “Uh, can I take your coat, or, uh, are you cold? Do you want to leave it on?”

“No, it’s fine.” She shrugged her arms out of it, and Jace hung it across the back of a chair in the dining room.

“Come in,” he said again, motioning to the living room.

Bree stopped in front of the suitcase that sat at the bottom of the stairs. “Were you going somewhere?”

“I was, but that isn’t important now that you’re here.” He put his arms around her and pulled her close to him. He leaned down and brushed her lips with his. “Why are you here, Bree?” he whispered.

“I needed to see you.”

Jace walked to the couch, holding her hand. “Come sit down. Your hands are so cold. I’ll light a fire.”

He did, and then sat next to her.

“I missed you, Jace,” she shifted back on the couch, farther away from him. “I’m sorry.”

He moved forward, closing the gap between them again. He reached out and cupped the side of her face. “For missin’ me? That’s not somethin’ to be sorry for, darlin’.”

“I should’ve called first,” she looked around, as though she expected to find someone else there. “You were leaving.”