Marrying The Cowboy: A BWWM Cowboy Billionaire Romance (5 page)

Kate rolled over, only to see a tiny box resting on the beside
dresser next to her.

"More presents?"

Bruce nodded. "Take a look."

"Promise me one thing first."

"What is that?"

"That you will not get tired of giving me so many presents and
surprises."

Bruce jokingly looked around the room. "Hmm, let me think."

"Stop it," she chuckled.

Bruce nodded toward the box. "Open it."

She leaned over, taking the box in her hands. It was flat and red,
tied with a soft white bow. Kate contemplated what could possibly be
in the box, but she was not sure. Flinging the top off, she opened it
to find two rectangular cards.

"What is this?" Her question was rhetorical.

"Plane tickets."

She examined it for closely. Two tickets to Paris, France. Kate
opened her mouth to speak, but did not know what to say.

"Seriously?"

Bruce shrugged. "I thought that maybe we could go back and take
the time to really enjoy ourselves. You were working so hard and all
we had time to do was steal a few moments here and there. It would be
great if we got the opportunity to go back and really see the city
and spend a bit of time with one another."

"This is fantastic. I guess I have to just rearrange a few
things on my schedule."

"Already done."

"What?"

Bruce kissed her on her soft, full lips. "I called Amelia and
she rearranged your schedule so that you could have the week off. On
top of that, Linda is going to keep the ship afloat while you are
gone. Everything is in line and you don't have to worry about
anything."

"I can't believe it." Kate clasped her hands in excitement.

"I can't either. You know, I fully expected you to say that you
had a hectic work schedule and that we should plan this for another
time."

Kate placed the top on the box and slid it in her nightstand drawer
for safe keeping.

"I told you that from now on, things will be different. I know
what I have in you and I don't want to lose that."

"Sounds sexy."

Kate tenderly returned the kiss, biting on Bruce's bottom lip. "You
could not possibly want to stay in bed all morning since we have a
flight out tonight?"

"That, my love, is exactly what I wanted to hear."

For the first time, Kate happily packed and readied herself for an
adventure. She had never put herself in the mindset of being in the
current moment and being fully present. It was important for her
moving forward to make sure that she enjoyed each and every second of
her life.

After having a talk with her mother, she knew she would have to live
in the now. Ms. Walker sat with her daughter over a warm cup of tea
and a slice of her heavenly peach cobbler and the women discussed
life and love.

Ms. Walker told her daughter that love only came across one's path
once or maybe twice in a lifetime. She did not want her daughter to
lose out on knowing love because she was overworking and leaning on
her hectic scheduled versus enjoying life.

Her precise words were, "You can't cuddle up to that job of
yours at night."

Never had truer words been spoken. Although Kate loved her job and
all that she had accomplished thus far in her career, she knew she
needed to fall back a bit from having such intense focus on it and
take part in some of what life brought her way.

Life had brought her Bruce Stanger. All of her friends wanted a good
man to make them feel complete. A man that would love them, cherish
them, and adore them. Bruce did all of that and so much more. He
encouraged her to be her best and all that he required of her, he
required of herself. Not only was he her lover, they had also
developed a friendship. She could share any and everything with him
and know that he would give her his honest opinion and always steer
her in the right direction.

When she found Bruce, Kate hit the jackpot. Her mother reminded her
that she would have to work for her relationship and that she would
have to put in the time and the effort to make it all work if she
really wanted it. What she really wanted to know was the secret to
making a marriage last. She assumed her mother knew the answer to
that question because she had been married to Kate's father for the
past thirty years. Somewhere in there were some gems that she had to
get a hold of.

There would be plenty of time to figure all of that out. They were
not even engaged at the moment, just on the way on an impromptu
getaway. Who couldn't use one of those?

There would also be plenty of time on the Transatlantic trip to
discuss where exactly the relationship was going. The more she
thought about it, the more marriage seemed like the next step. Kate
did not want to jump the gun or force the issue, but she wanted to
make sure she and Bruce were on the right path.

She could count on Bruce to move that train along. He would not let
them linger too long in retrograde. He was always the catalyst to
propel their relationship forward. It was a fact that Kate
appreciated. One of them had to be the one to do it, thank goodness
it was him. If it was left up to Kate, the relationship would
progress at a much slower rate.

Bruce was the perfect compliment and he knew it. His calm nature kept
her focused when she wanted to otherwise give in to her normal nature
and spread herself thin all over the place.

Kate watched Bruce sleeping. The first surprise had been the plane
tickets to Paris. The next was that they would pack to leave that
night. On top of that, Bruce chartered a private plane for their
trip. It was her first time on a private plane and it was the type of
thing Kate wanted to get used to.

It was one of the first times that Bruce flexed his billionaire
status. He never truly did that and lived a mostly simple life. Sure
he had the money to shower her with gifts and they ate at the best
restaurants, and not to mention the fact that he had a swanky condo
along with the ranch that he ran for his parents.

The fact that he was a billionaire was not something he immediately
disclosed when they met. She was happy he did not because Kate wanted
him to know she genuinely cared for him and not because of his social
and financial status.

"You're staring at me."

"What? Oh, sorry."

Bruce stretched. "No problem, my love. Did you get any rest?"

Kate shook her head. "None. At least not yet. I just got
finished sending a few emails and reading two magazines."

Patting her hand, Bruce got up out of the seat. "I need to
stretch my legs a bit."

She sat there waiting for him to come back. It was hard to really
relax when she knew it would be such a long flight.

Bruce returned with two glasses of champagne. "Hopefully this
will help you to calm down a bit."

The bubbly liquid warmed her inside and made her feel slightly more
relaxed.

"Thank you."

"How long was I asleep?"

"For about an hour or so. I did not want to wake you, you were
sleeping so peacefully."

"I needed the rest. And you will soon too."

"I'll be fine. Just a bit giddy with excitement. This time, I'll
get to see Paris in a whole different light."

"The best thing is that we will be doing it together."

When Bruce spoke of being together, it was like music to her ears.
There were so many more things she wanted to do together as a couple.

"So where do we start first? Do we need to make an itinerary?"
The words flowed from Kate's lips quickly as she thought about all of
the things they would do in Paris. Full of excitement, Kate clasped
her hands together, smiling as she thought about what a great
opportunity this was to vacation with Bruce.

Bruce sipped the rest of his champagne. "I did not exactly plan
the trip out to that degree. It was more of an impromptu thing, my
love. The kind of thing where we would pick up and go and not really
put that much thought into what we were going to do when we got
there."

"Oh." Kate considered what he was proposing. "I get
it. That would actually be kind of nice. I never really considered
taking a trip like that."

Bruce sat up in his seat, looking at her. "Are you serious?"

Kate shrugged.

"You mean you have never just picked up, paid for a hotel,
chosen a destination, and just gone there? No expectations. No
schedule. No idea where you are going and what you will do when you
get there?"

Kate shook her head. "No. Whenever we went on vacations when I
was a child, my mom had the entire trip planned out from start to
finish. We would see everything there was to see and then go home."

Bruce frowned. "That does not sound like too much fun. I mean,
not to disregard or disrespect the way your family did things."

"It's okay. I never thought of things in any other way because
that was the way we always did it. I think it sounds nice to just go
and enjoy yourself without putting so much thought into it. Maybe
with doing too much planning, we may have missed out some things."

"Should have, could have, would have. None of that will change
now. But I'm glad you are willing to see things differently today. So
are you game for vacationing on a whim?"

"Most definitely."

Bruce took her by the hand. "Good. Now, I have another question
for you."

"Shoot."

"I know we have talked about it before, but I feel like things
are changing between us, for the good. Where do you see the two of us
in about five years?"

Kate did not want to think too long about the question. "I know
that we will be together. I know I want to be with you. And I also
know that it is best if I just trust the process of it all."

Bruce cocked his head to the side. "Really? What brought on this
change in thought process?"

Kate sat back in her seat as the flight attendant served them a
dinner. They both thanked her and then continued their conversation.

"A little talk with my mother." Kate laughed.

"Ah ha. A chat with Mom will do it to you every time."
Bruce peered at her from the corner of his eye.

"What did the two of you discuss if you don't mind me asking?"

Kate cut her steak and took a bite of the medium rare meat.

"She gave me another perspective. Sometimes, it is helpful for
someone to remind you of what you have right in front of you."

Bruce nodded. "I can understand that. What prompted that
conversation?"

"She is not unlike every other mother. You know, she thought
that maybe I would be a spinster and never get married."

"And what do you think?"

"I have to tell you, I never really was the type of girl to plan
out my marriage or my wedding. You know that. We've talked about that
before. So when it happens that I found someone that I love dearly, I
am not exactly sure about how to push forward. The only thing I keep
thinking is there should be some kind of switch that flips and says,
'Okay, now it's time for you to get married' or 'Okay, this is the
proper time to have children'. And of course, this is not happening.
There is no green light to say what you should or shouldn't do.
Nothing to say 'Okay, Kate. This is the right time in your life for
love' or 'Okay, Kate. This is the right time in your life to get
married'. None of that is happening. So I kind of find it hard to
figure out what to do next."

Bruce chuckled. "It is amazing to me that the woman that is a
risk taker in fashion and in business will not take the same risks in
her personal life."

"Wait. What do you mean?"

Kate turned all of her attention to Bruce because she wanted to hear
his analysis on her life.

"Well, I'm just saying. You are so reserved and withdrawn in
your private life. It has taken this long to really let me in. And I
get that. It is not always the best thing to be so open in that
regard. But do you think so hard about whether or not to take on a
certain client? Or do you think that hard about how to take a fashion
risk with that client? I don't think that you do."

Kate opened her mouth to speak, but kept her thoughts to herself as
she considered the point of view Bruce posed to her. He stared at
her, waiting for her response.

"You could be right."

"I'm not posing it to be right or wrong. Simply putting it out
there because it's the way that I see it."

"That's really what you see?"

Bruce nodded. "I wish you would trust a bit more and take some
risks. I mean, your bucket list is full of exhilarating activities."

Just the mention of the bucket list brought back memories for Kate.
When she and Bruce first met, he convinced her to share with him some
of the things that she always wanted to do. There were random things
like she wanted to see a Broadway play and comfortably be able to
afford shopping in Bal Harbour or Rodeo Drive. She wanted to buy a
house for her parents and pay off all of her school loans. But then
there were more interesting things like bungee jumping and visiting
Paris for Fashion Week.

Bruce encouraged her to go after those things at any cost.

"Very true. I still want to bungee jump. Sometime soon. And
possible skydive."

"So there is a thrill seeker inside of you. Where is that person
when it comes to taking a chance on love?"

Kate shrugged. She had never thought about why she did not take
chances in her personal life. "I've never actually thought about
it. I mean, I've had relationships before, but none of them were the
type that made me want to have anything long term with them. None of
that occurred until I met you."

She inhaled, shocked that she had admitted those feelings to him.
Kate had been on the verge of admitting so much about how she felt to
Bruce, but held back. When she did, there was a load lifted from her
shoulders.

"Bruce, I never thought about marriage until I met you. So that
is why I have been taking my time with, well, with everything between
us. Do you know what it's like to suddenly be hit with the fact that
you met someone and fell in love so quickly?"