Loving You (Love Wanted in Texas) (15 page)

“You better and I hope you have plans on making it up to me.”

Taking my hand in his, we headed back into the bedroom. The cabin was three rooms. The living room, kitchen, and dining area was all in one big open room. The bedroom and the bathroom made up the other two rooms. Everything had been remodeled and was actually nicer than my apartment in Austin. It was just small, which was okay.

“Let’s get dressed and we’ll head into Llano. I’m sure my mother is on pins and needles waiting to finally meet you. You can also meet Ava, Walker and Liza.”

My heartbeat increased as I frantically looked for boxes that held all of my clothes. Most of my stuff I wore a lot I had brought with me to my parents’. I made a mental note to head over there and get it all as quickly as possible.

“I have nothing to wear! All my good stuff is at my parents’ house.”

Jase pulled his jeans on and looked me up and down. “Anything you put on will look amazing on you.”

With a frustrated sigh, I looked around. “I can’t just wear anything! It’s your parents. Your sister!”

He stood there staring at me with a dumbfounded look on his face. “Just wear the sweats you had on yesterday and a T-shirt. You looked adorable.”

With a stony expression, I rolled my eyes and grabbed a pair of jeans and a sweater.

Men.

Luckily it was chilly outside. I could wear my boots and add a scarf to dress it up some. By the time I was finished getting dressed, Jase had found the box with the Keurig and made us each a cup of coffee.

Glancing up, he grinned and took a sip before slowly shaking his head. “Damn, you look beautiful, Tay.”

I had pulled my long brown hair up and put it in a ponytail. With just a few light touches of make-up on, and a quick spray of perfume I was able to find, I felt like I was ready to meet the parents. Of course with the way Jase was looking at me, I felt like a princess.

“Thank you for the compliment and the coffee!”

He handed me a cup he found packed away in a box. “Good thing you take it black since you don’t have any food in the house.”

My stomach fluttered at the notion he knew how I drank my coffee. “I’m impressed you remembered how I take my coffee.”

“I’ve tried to memorize everything about you.”

My tongue ran along my upper lip while I tried to give him the sexiest look I could. “Keep talking like that and we’ll be here all day.”

Jase pushed off the counter and stopped directly in front of me. “I’d normally be okay with that, but we need condoms.”

Chewing on the corner of my lip, I nodded. “Right. That is our number one priority today.”

After finishing off our coffee, we unpacked the rest of the kitchen stuff and headed out to Jase’s truck.

“Should I drive and follow you?”

Jase stopped and looked at me like I had grown two heads. “Hell no. The more time we are together, the better. I’ll drive since I know where I’m going. I’ve texted my mom to let her know we are on our way.”

“I feel sick,” I whined while placing my hand on my stomach.

Grabbing me, Jase spun me around as I screamed and threw my head back laughing. “Stop it! You put me through hell yesterday, so now it’s your turn.”

When he set me down, I shook my head and pointed at him. “The difference is, I didn’t knowingly lead you into the wolf’s den. My parents just showed up. You’re lucky they didn’t drive into Austin and catch us in the act.”

Jase shuddered and opened his truck door for me. “Point taken.”

He took my hand and helped me into the truck, causing that ever-growing feeling of happiness in the pit of my stomach. “Such a gentleman,” I whispered. He reached in and kissed me gently on the lips while flashing the dimples.

Watching him walk around the front of the truck, I pinched my arm.

“Yep, I’m awake,” I mumbled under my breath.

Taylor

The drive to Llano was beautiful
. I can’t believe I ever thought I would be happy living in Austin.
The Texas hill country was and always would be my home.

“What are you smiling about over there?” Jase asked while taking my hand in his.

“How beautiful it is in the hill country. I wonder how long I would have been happy living in Austin?”

His lips pressed against my wrist. “I’m not going to lie and say I’m not over the moon you’re not in Austin. I hate that you left your job, but damn I’m glad you’re so close to me.”

With a giggle, I took in Jase’s features. His jaw was strong and he had the most beautiful eyelashes. I’d kill to have them. Everything about him was perfection. Even his nose was beautiful. We would have beautiful babies.

My head snapped forward as that thought hit me a little too close to home. Closing my eyes, I said a quick prayer I wasn’t pregnant.

I jumped when Jase started to speak again. “I love Texas and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”

“You said your sister’s best friend Ava was in town? Does she live out of the state?”

“Ava, no she lives in Austin. Both my family and her family went to Montana, remember?”

I nodded as he kept talking. “Well, it turns out she knows one of the guys who is helping us go organic. His family owns a huge ranch up there and they invited us up to see how an organic cattle ranch runs. While we were there, Ava broke her leg and her ankle. She’s been playing house with Ryder.”

“Ryder? He’s the guy she knew?”

“Yep. I will bet you a million dollars she is not home to stay.”

“Why?” I asked.

Jase laughed and shook his head. “If I know Ava, she’s fallen in love with Ryder and coming home to pack up her shit and head right back up there.”

“So Ryder lives there?”

Looking at me he winked, “I know it’s so damn confusing. No, he lives in Austin but will be moving back to Montana.”

“Wow. It’s like a soap opera.”

“When it comes to Ava, you have no idea. I’m pretty sure there were bets placed that the two of us would end up together.”

My interest was piqued. “And? Did y’all ever date?”

“Nah. We messed around together a few times in high school with a bit of kissing and touching, but it never led anywhere. Afterwards we laughed our asses off. She really is like a sister to me. I like this guy Ryder, so I hope things work out for both of them.”

A streak of jealousy zipped quickly through me before I pushed it away. It was high school and I had no reason to be jealous.

I studied him more before he turned and captured my eyes. “What?”

Slowly shaking my head, I softly spoke, “Nothing. I’m just trying to figure out how this all happened. I feel so happy and I’m so afraid something is going to pull the rug out from under us.”

With a squeeze of my hand, he replied, “I refuse to believe anything will ever come between the two of us again.”

He turned left and took off down another country road.

Deciding I needed to push my negative thoughts away, I looked back out the window. “So, your parents and Walker’s bought y’all land? That was really nice of them.”

“Yeah it was. An older couple, Mimi and Frank, had a huge working cattle ranch next to ours. Not as big as my dad and Reed’s, but big. Frank got too old to take care of it and offered to sell to my father. They bought it up and left some land for Mimi and Frank and divided up some for the four of us.”

“What will Ava do with hers if she moves?”

He shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I never even thought about that. If she wants to keep it great, if not I may buy it from her since it backs to mine.”

We drove for a little bit in silence when Jase pulled over on the side of the road. “What are we doing?”

“Come on, I want to show you something.”

Opening the truck door, I went to get out, but Jase quickly was there helping me down. “Do you often stop on the side of the road for no reason?”

With a smirk, he took my hand and led me up to the fence. Looking out over the land, I smiled. “Wow. It’s beautiful. Whose land is this?”

“Ours. In this very spot is where my father saw my mother for the very first time.”

My heart skipped a beat. “How do you know?”

Pointing to the fence, it was painted red. “My father and mother have told us so many times how they met. They didn’t hit it off at first. My mother was a city girl from New York with a broken down car and my father was as much of a cowboy as humanely possible.”

My smile grew bigger while I watched Jase’s face light up when talking about his parents. “My father comes to this exact spot and sprays it with paint so he never forgets the spot where his life changed.”

Dropping my shoulders, I teared up. “That’s so romantic.”

Jase’s grin grew wider. “Yeah they are disgustingly romantic, but I love when they both talk about each other. You see the love in their eyes, their smile. Hell the way their voice changes. I’ve always looked at that and wished like hell I would be lucky to find it.”

My heart rate spiked as Jase looked away. “For the longest time I thought I wasn’t good enough for you.” His eyes met mine. “You’re so beautiful, Taylor. Not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. The thought of you looking at me like my mother looks at my father . . . it’s something I have never wanted so badly before in my life like I do with you. After all the shit I put you through, I wanted to stop here . . . in this spot were true love first found each other. To tell you I swear I will do everything in my power to make you the happiest woman on earth if you let me.”

Tears pooled in my eyes as my heartbeat filled my ears. No one had ever made me feel like Jase had. Even when he pushed me away, he had a way of letting me know how much he loved me.

I searched for the words to say. His eyes focused on my face for some kind of clue to what I was thinking.

“I . . . I’ve never been so happy as I am right now. I keep saying it, but I feel like I’m in a dream that I never want to wake up from.”

Taking my hands in his, he smiled the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen. In that moment I knew, we would be together forever. “God I feel the same way. I love you, Taylor.”

“Oh, Jase,” Throwing myself into his body, he wrapped me up in his arms and lifted me off the ground. “I love you too.”

A horn honked as Jase put me down and we both turned to see a Ford F-350. “Who’s that?”

“My dad.”

“Oh,” I mumbled.

“Come on, he’s probably wondering what in the hell I’m doing and praying I’m not asking you to marry me.”

Marry me.

The idea made me happy and scared me at the same time.

The window rolled down and I almost gasped when I saw Jase’s father. He was an older version of Jase. His blue eyes stood out against the black cowboy hat he had on. I imagined he had dark hair under the hat and would look even more like Jase when he took it off. Turning to look at Jase, my mouth dropped open. They looked almost alike. “I know. Everyone says I’m a mini version of my father.”

“I’d say,” I replied so only he could hear.

“Dad, this is Taylor Atwood. Taylor, this is my father, Layton Morris.”

I attempted to reach up and in to the truck to shake his hand and failed. Everyone laughed as I made a face and felt my cheeks heat up. “I guess I’m shorter than I thought.”

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Taylor.” Layton looked over to Jase. “What are y’all doing on the side of the road?”

Jase pointed back to the fence and the exact spot we were standing at. “I was showing Taylor where you and Mom met.”

Layton’s eyes lit up and I could see the love for his wife on his face as he glanced over to the spot. “One of the best days of my life. That’s a good spot.”

“Yes, sir, I’m sure it is,” I said peeking back over to it.

“Well, get her back in the truck and head on to the house. I’m sure your mother is wearing the floors out waiting to finally meet Taylor.”

With a light chuckle, I looked away and then to Jase as he replied to his father, “Yes sir, we’re right behind you.”

Placing his hand on my lower back, I got that silly feeling in my stomach again as he led me to his truck.

After helping me up into the truck, he stepped up and slid his hand behind my neck, pulling my lips to his. With a fast kiss, he whispered, “One down. One to go.”