36. Remi

Chapter 36

Remi

M y heart stopped beating in my chest the moment Angie slid from the top of the cliff. I waited for her to plummet to the ground. But she didn’t. Instead, the rope glided through her gloved hand with the calm assurance of an expert.

The tension in my jaw relaxed and my mouth sagged open. Athena couldn’t be more extraordinary than Angie rappelling this sheer ravine. Her feet hit the ground. The powdered dirt clouded into the air.

I opened my arms, ready to wrap her in a tight embrace.

“You.” She shoved me back. “You ruined everything.” She pommeled my chest with her balled up fists. “He was the one. A decent guy who had a stable job who treated me well. He wanted a family and kids … Yeah. He lied to me, but we could have worked it out.” Her hits became weaker as her sniffles grew louder.

“He lied?”

“Yes.” She sniffed. “He’s an accountant and doesn’t like extreme sports. His friend Ted Martin—”

“Ha!” I cut Angie off. “I knew there was something off about him.”

She growled and stomped away from me, but I captured her wrists before she walked out of my reach. I tugged her back to me and held her hands to my chest, covering my pounding heart. “How exactly did I ruin everything?”

“You confuse me.” She tilted her chin up. Her eyes shimmered with tears.

She didn’t explain anymore. Could it be possible she had feelings for me? Substantial enough that she turned down Smoot? “I get that. And this is a bad thing?”

Her lips quivered. “A person like you can’t possibly understand having a dream of a house with your kids with someone who treasures you above all else—there for you no matter what crap life throws at you—maybe even a dog and enough land for Mae, with trees lining the drive, and white fencing around the pastures.” Everything jumbled together as her thoughts poured from her. “The hospice nurse said Papa has weeks left. Weeks can be measured in days, and Papa is going to be gone, and my last hope to having him be with me on my wedding day is up there, and I’m down here …”

She kept going but my mind stuck on one word. Wedding. In my line of work, I provided solutions to problems at the negotiation table, and right now—her one problem—I was fully equipped to fix.

“Marry me.” The words slipped out faster than a prairie fire with a tailwind. Bless my heart. I’d just proposed marriage. To a girl. To Angie. As in one-person-for-the-rest-of-your-life-until-death-do-we-part kind of thing.

When negotiating terms of agreement, I relied on instinct, and right now, they hollered at me that this was the most important deal I’d ever closed in my life. I needed Angie like a door needed hinges. Without her, I had no purpose.

She stared at me, slack jawed. “What did you say?”

I said it again with more confidence. “Marry me.”

She blew air out of her mouth making her lips flap together. “You? Your second day working for me, you said, and I quote ‘I’ll never get married.’ When the next pair of tan, long legs pass by, you’ll be saying sayonara, babe. Good luck with raisin’ our kids on your own.”

Kids? Everything inside me froze. I could be a dad to Angie’s kids. “I was wrong. I didn’t know you existed when I made those decisions about marriage.”

She gave one more tug against my hands, and this time, she slipped free of my slackened grip. “You’re going to take my land and desecrate it with your cheap homes.”

“I won’t buy it. I already told my brother—”

“The problem is, I don’t trust you.” She took a couple steps away from me into the shadow of the overhang, still tethered to the rope.

“Why? Haven’t I proven myself to you? I’ve kept your farm running. I could farm next to you for the rest of my life and be happy. Kids, dog, white picket fence … you name it, and I’ll make it happen. And your parents love me.”

“My parents don’t know who you are.” She took another step back.

I followed until we were only inches apart. Taking hold of her harness, I hauled her toward me and unclipped her carabiner. “You have no other options.”

She laughed. “This is the best proposal ever. Marry me. I’m your only option.”

I placed my hands on her hips, pulling her against me and halting her retreat. I leaned closer to her. “Does that mean you say yes?”

She touched her bottom lip briefly with her tongue; then she nibbled on it with her upper teeth. Without even trying, she had me tied in knots. I held on to a thread of patience for her answer, wanting nothing more than to give her lips the same treatment with my own tongue.

“I’ll think about it,” she whispered.

My smile filled my whole body. “I couldn’t ask for more.”

Wrapping my arms around her once again, I lowered my lips to hers, giving in to my previous temptation.