Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

C harlotte pulled up to the cabin and looked over to Beau. "I've never driven you to town and back."

He didn't lift his head from the rest as he turned it to look at her. "Thank you, Charlotte."

"We got everything, so let's get you in bed." She reached down and picked up her purse, where she'd put his antibiotic and the few groceries she'd run in to buy while he'd napped in the SUV.

Beau was still handsome though he looked ragged around the edges. Walking pneumonia would do that to a person, she supposed. "Come on," she said when he didn't move. "The doctor said lots of fluids, rest, and to let me take care of you."

He said nothing, but he got out of the vehicle. She met him at the front and went inside with him. "Go get changed. I'll sort through the meds and bring you everything."

Beau pressed a kiss to the side of her neck, which made her smile and startle at the same time. "Thank you, little bird." He went down the hall, and Charlotte focused on the cough medicine—needed for sleeping—the antibiotic, and a nasal spray.

"And he needs painkillers," she said. She opened all the bags of prescriptions and set the little bottles in a row. She got him an antibiotic and a couple of ibuprofen pills, as well as one of his cough medicine capsules.

She poured a glass of apple juice and pulled out the buffalo chicken wrap she'd bought at the grocery store for his lunch. Down the hall, she knocked on his door. Pepper barked at the same time Beau said, "Come in."

Charlotte entered with the food and pills to find Beau propped up in bed. He had his phone, but he lowered it, his face softening when he saw her. She slid the plate onto his nightstand and held out her hand with the pills in it.

He took them and lifted the apple juice glass to his lips, swallowing everything without a single question.

"You have to eat with those," she said. "Or you'll be sick."

"Yes, ma'am." He didn't immediately reach for the wrap, but instead, he looked at her with glinting, mischievous eyes. "Come watch your live-stream with me."

A blip of unrest fired through Charlotte, and then she reminded herself it hadn't been that bad. She'd been a little stilted in the beginning, because she didn't have Beau's easy charm and quick wit. But she'd done a decent job.

So she went around to the other side of his bed and climbed onto it with him. She stayed over the covers as she cuddled into his side and he held up his phone so they could both see it.

"Okay, I think it's working," she said on the screen. It showed the pastures in front of her, Beau's three donkeys, and the barns and stables past that. The sky still held a horrible pre-dawn gray, so she hadn't missed it.

"Let me know if you can see our sunrise from the Texas Panhandle, here at Three Rivers Ranch. Then I'll know if I got it going right."

Emojis of hearts and thumbs-up started flying up the screen, and Charlotte grinned. "I was so relieved when I saw those."

"Oh, praise the Lord," she said on the live-stream. "Sorry to those of you looking for the Sunrise Cowboy. Beau is a little under the weather this morning, but I know he wouldn't want you to miss the sunrise here in our corner of the world."

She continued talking about where she'd set up and why, pointing out Tilly, Sprout, and Jasper, then the stables where she worked as the Stable Manager. She answered the questions that flew by, and she told them about this perfect autumn morning at Three Rivers Ranch.

After about twenty-five minutes, she ended the broadcast, the same way she'd seen and heard Beau do before. "Until tomorrow's sunrise," she said. "Have a good one, doing good things and living good lives."

She ended the livestream without shaking the phone, and she laid her head against Beau's chest. "I did okay, I think."

"Okay?" he asked. "Sweetheart, you killed that live-stream. It was incredible." He pressed a kiss to her temple. "Thank you for doing it for me."

"I almost fainted getting everything going," she said. "I was so rushed and afraid I was going to miss it."

"You really almost fainted, or you were just nervous?"

Charlotte paused for a moment. "I think a little of both, actually."

"Well, I'd have been mad if you'd have really passed out over a sunrise."

"It wasn't just a sunrise, cowboy."

Beau hesitated for just a moment. "What was it then? To you?"

Charlotte took a few seconds to think about that. "I'm not sure," she said. "I don't know how to explain it. I just didn't want the live-stream not to happen. It's important to you, so it became important to me, and I don't know."

Beau said nothing, which was his way of telling her to keep talking.

"I liked doing the live-stream too," she admitted. "No one knew anything I didn't tell them. I felt invisible, but in a good way. I'm not the same stubborn, headstrong woman who came here with something to prove."

"Mm." He kissed her again. "I think you're still a little stubborn and headstrong, but in a good way now."

She let her eyes drift closed, because he was right and she was so comfortable with him. "I think I'll always be like that, but I'm working on my temper and listening to others and you know. Things."

"Yeah? Why's that?"

"Because," she said. "I think I've proven what I wanted to prove, and now I just want to care for the horses here, and continue to be part of this ranch, and…."

The last thing had to do with Beau, and while she'd told him she loved him only a few hours ago, a sudden shyness came over her.

"And be with you," she finally finished. "I want to be yours, and I know I have to keep working on myself so we can be together."

"Baby, I think you're amazing."

"I know you do," she said. "You've always been so supportive, and I appreciate that. I…well, to be honest, I don't know how to be a good girlfriend. I don't have much experience with it."

"What about a wife?" he asked. "Do you think you could be that? Be my wife?"

"Well, now, you're making my heart freak out."

He chuckled lightly and tightened his arm around her. "Something to think about, then. I know you like to take some time to do that before you say anything."

"Yeah."

"I've changed a little too," he said.

"You have?"

"Yeah, I think so." He drew in a breath that lifted his chest where her head lay. "I used to be this flirty, dance-with-and-date-anyone guy. I still love to laugh and flirt, but I really only want to do any of that with you. I want to make you smile and laugh. I want to hear you say my name or call me cowboy . I one-hundred percent want to be your husband and have you be my wife, but I'm not in a rush."

"No?"

"I've waited forty years," he said. "I can wait a little longer, until we're both ready."

Charlotte wrapped her arm across his midsection. "If we get married, what color will your bowtie be?"

Beau laughed, which turned to coughing, and Charlotte sat up. "Sorry," she said. He shook his head, and Charlotte slid off the bed and went around to his side. "You need to rest. I'm going to go eat and get back to work. I'll check on you in an hour."

He quieted and met her eyes. "One more thing."

"No more things," she said firmly. "Only napping."

"Are you going to tell Mason we just talked about getting married? Or am I?"

Charlotte's blood seemed to turn into a solid, but thankfully it only lasted for a single moment. "I talked to him a bit ago. He knows it's coming." She sighed. "Honestly, he's going to be happy for us, don't you think?"

"I think your brother is unpredictable," he said with a smile. "Maybe it runs in the family."

"Okay, I'm going." Charlotte turned and walked away from him as he protested and tried to get her to come back. She turned at the doorway and added, "I'm taking your dogs with me. They don't have pneumonia."

"Don't go mad."

"I'm not mad."

"We can tell him together."

She nodded, her chest a little too tight still. "I'll text Felicity and set up dinner for a couple of weeks from now. You should be better then."

"Sounds great." He grinned at her, his flirty cowboy persona in full force. "Come kiss me good-bye, little bird."

Charlotte did love kissing him, and she'd been doing it plenty while he'd been sick. So she crossed back to him and let him gather her into his arms to kiss her. "I can't wait to make you mine," he whispered, his lips catching on hers.

And because Charlotte wanted that too, she said, "I can't wait for that either."

Then she left him to rest, and she took Pepper and Ruby out to the stables with her, where she went down every aisle and sang to every horse about how she and Beau were going to get married someday.

Once they'd all heard her songs and lullabies, she pulled out her phone and texted Felicity about her and Beau coming to dinner in a couple of weeks.