Page 152 of Knot my First Rodeo

"I didn't choose the club."

I look at her, but she only shrugs.

"Hunter did. I love Gidge. I love my brother, even when I want to strangle him." A smile flickers briefly. "But that life was never something I picked."

The stone slips from her fingers and drops back into the water.

"I'll miss them. I'll miss Gidge a lot." Her smile softens. "I'll miss Hunter, too. Assuming he eventually apologizes for being a stubborn ass."

A laugh escapes me. Autumn smiles when she hears, it then her expression turns serious again.

"But I'm not losing them." The certainty in her voice makes me look at her. "They're a phone call away, a plane ride away, even a road trip away." She shifts slightly, turning toward me. "I'm not choosing between them and you. I'm choosing all of it."

For a second, I can't seem to breathe quite right, because I've been carrying around a fear she doesn't even have. I convinced myself I was trying to protect her, when really, I was only protecting myself, and her words just proved it.

The realization is embarrassing and freeing at the same time.

I look out across the creek, then back at her.

"I'm tired of fighting this."

Her eyes don't leave mine. "Briggs..."

"I love you," I blurt out. "I've loved you for a while."

The smile that spreads across her face is small at first, then brighter. It’s full of what I can only describe as relief, like she’s been waiting for my ass to catch up.

"Don't look so smug."

She laughs softly. "I wasn't."

"Liar."

This time, the smile stays, and when I reach for her, I cup her face and kiss her beneath the shade of the cottonwoods, and it feels like coming home.

Chapter

Forty-Four

Autumn

I wake up still thinking about the creek. A stupid, smiling-at-the-ceiling-like-a-teenager type of grin that would be deeply embarrassing if anybody saw it, spreads across my face.

Which is why, when Clint knocks once and pushes my door open with a mug of coffee in each hand, I immediately flatten my face into something that probably looks suspicious as hell.

I stare at him as he pauses in the doorway.

"Don't."

His mouth twitches. "I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking it."

He crosses the room and hands me a mug. The coffee is perfect because Clint has this habit of remembering things after I mention them once, which would be annoying if it didn't make my chest feel all warm and stupid.

He studies me over the rim of his own mug.

"So."