Page 60 of Rescued By the Mountain Man Cowboy
"Yeah, Brown Eyes."
"My turn?"
"Your turn."
"Sit down."
"What?"
"Sit. On the couch. Now."
I huff a laugh because I do not see this woman coming half the time and I love it. I sit on the couch. She stays standing in front of me, arms crossed.
"Luke Davis."
"Anna Kim."
"I don’t want to go back to Portland."
I open my mouth. She holds up a finger.
"Hush. I'm not done."
I shut up.
"My apartment is small and I never liked it. My job, my old job, my dead boss's job, I hated it. I hated every single hour I spent in that building. I hated the fluorescent lights and the campaigns I didn't believe in and the man I worked for, who, as it turns out, was a literal criminal, so my instincts on that front were correct."
I almost laugh.
"My friends in Portland are coworkers I drink with twice a year. My family is on the other coast. My grandmother is in Texas and my mom wants me to marry a Korean dentist she found on Instagram. My life up there. Luke. My life up there is a list of things I've been doing because I thought I was supposed to. Not because I wanted to."
She steps closer.
"I have been here nine days."
"Yeah."
"And in nine days, I have eaten the best food I have ever cooked. In your kitchen. I have ridden the most beautiful horseI've ever sat on. I have slept harder, the few times I've slept, than I've slept in years. I have learned how to throw an elbow. I have been held while I cried by a man who didn't try to fix me. I have been called Brown Eyes more times than I can count, and every single time, I–"
She stops. Swallows.
"Every single time, my heart does something it didn't know how to do before."
"Anna."
"I’m not done."
"Yes, ma'am."
"I’ve, in nine days, fallen so hard for a thirty-eight-year-old grumpy ex-Captain ranch hand cowboy with an old dog buried up the trail and a cabin he keeps too clean and an espresso machine I'm pretty sure he doesn't know how to work, that I cannot, in good conscience, climb in a car tomorrow and drive back to Portland."
I stare up at her.
"I want to stay."
"Anna."
"I want to stay if you want me. I want to stay if I drive you crazy by reorganizing your spice cabinet again. I want to stay even if it takes me a year to figure out what I actually want to do for work, because as it turns out, my marketing degree, plus my actual experience, is probably extremely useful to a cattle ranch and a distillery that's been growing fast, and Madison already mentioned it to Gabe in the truck on the way here last night, and –"
