Chapter Forty-One

Jesse

It had been a month since I asked her to be my wife, and things had moved quickly. We didn’t want to set a date yet, not with Amber and Luke still to be married. It took a lot to even tell anyone about it because we didn’t want to usurp their day. But she wanted to wear her ring, and we knew that wasn’t going to last long, so I took Luke aside and told him while she did the same with Amber. They both gave their blessing to let people know, and things started rolling.

Unfortunately, the legal battle began almost immediately after that. Papers were served to the Andersons, and Oland was arrested again. I refused the deal they’d proposed, and now he and Lacey were going to be tried criminally for what they’d done. That had triggered another investigation by the feds, and the governor got involved personally, suspending the Andersons from their positions and hiring interim deputies.

I’d been dealing with that for days when I woke up to a text message that was much better news. Smiling, I stuck the phone back in my pocket and went to pick Charlotte up at her parents’ house. She’d gone back to Dallas to officially quit, and they’d given her a pretty nice severance package to stay for two weeks and train the next regional manager. When that was over, she essentially moved back home, though she spent quite a few nights at the ranch with me.

“Where are we going?” she asked as I drove her along the road.

“You’ll see,” I said.

“Last time you said that, it was a horse barn,” she laughed.

“Well, I can assure you, it’s not a horse barn this time,” I said.

“All right,” she said, settling back in her seat. “I’m game. Can we listen to some music?”

“Sure,” I said.

She placed her hand over mine before I could hit the button for the streaming station on my phone.

“I want to hear your stuff,” she said.

“Really?” I asked. “Aren’t you sick of it yet?”

She shook her head, and I shrugged.

“Play the song you wrote for me.”

“Which one?”

“You know which one,” she said.

I grinned, cueing up the song that I’d written for her after our meeting in Oklahoma. It was my first hit with my self-named band, and the lyrics were pretty damn clear about who it was for.

As we pulled up to the lake, she leaned forward in her chair and peered out curiously. Glancing back at me, she looked almost sad.

“I didn’t bring a bathing suit,” she said. “Or any picnic stuff. Why didn’t you tell me we were coming here? I would have loved to do a whole thing.”

“You couldn’t know because I have a surprise,” I said.

“What?”

“Come with me.”

I led her to the edge of the lake, looking out at where I envisioned the hotel would be. “See that, right there?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“That’s where the hotel is going to go.”

She looked out over the lake quietly for a moment before looking back up at me.

“What?”

“I bought it,” I said.

“The lake?”

“The land around it, so, yeah, kinda,” I said. “Mr. Pratchett owned it and wanted to sell. So I bought it. It’s already zoned for commercial use because of the Andersons, so…”

“So you thought we could build the hotel here?”

“Exactly.” I waited for some kind of reaction, but when none came, I looked down curiously. “What do you think?”

“I think… I think you might be the greatest man who has ever lived.”

The smile that spread across her face was like the sun shining through dark clouds. She jumped into my arms, and I held her aloft as she kissed me repeatedly. I laughed through the kisses, trying to catch a few of them and then giving up and just letting her pepper my face.

“This is incredible,” she said. “Absolutely incredible. I can see it. I can see it.”

“We might have to wait just a little while, first, though,” I said.

“Oh?”

“Not long. It’s just that Luke and Amber want to do their wedding right here. At the lake.”

“Oh, well, that’s a good enough reason,” she said. “That’s fine. Can we talk about the hotel, though?”

I loved seeing the excitement in her face, and we linked hands. Taking a long walk around the lake, we discussed all the different things we could do with the land. Where the building would be, the amphitheater, a playground and the parking. Our visions were nearly identical, and we fed into each other’s creativity, though her ideas were routinely better than mine.

When we finally returned to the car, the sun was slowly going down over the lake. She leaned over to lay her head on my shoulder, and I kissed the top of it.

“So Luke and Amber want to get married here, huh?” she asked.

“Yup,” I said. “It was apparently an idea of hers way before I asked Mr. Pratchett about buying it, so I couldn’t say much.”

“I don’t mind,” she said. “It’s a gorgeous place for it. It will be beautiful.”

“It will,” I agreed.

“What about us?”

“Hmm?”

“What about June?”

“For our wedding?” I asked. “Next June?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I always loved June.”

“It’ll be hot,” I said.

“We can get married indoors,” she laughed. “With air conditioning.”

“Ahh,” I said. “Then yes, June sounds perfect.”

“We’re going to be very busy this month with helping them with their wedding.”

“I know,” I said. “But it’ll be fun practice.”

“I love practicing things with you,” she said coyly.

“Same, same,” I said, grinning. “Would you like to go home and do a little practice now?”

“I would like to do some practice right here in the truck, but there are still people around, so that’s not going to work.”

“Good enough,” I said. “It would be a lot easier if there were a hotel around here somewhere.”

“Someday,” she laughed.

“Someday soon,” I said.

I stood against the lake, watching my brother take his bride’s hands in his and recite his vows. Collin had taken control of the wedding to the point that Logan gave up on being the minister, and Mr. Pratchett ended up being called in for duty. He had been so serious about getting certified by the state that he said he might want to go into doing weddings as a little side business from now on. Something to occupy him in retirement.

As Luke kissed Amber and the crowd erupted, I glanced over to Charlotte on the other side of the aisle. Her eyes matched mine, and the whole world faded away. It was just us and the lake, the rest of the world doing whatever it wanted to do around us.

When Luke and Amber walked back down the aisle, I took Charlotte’s hand, and we followed them. The reception was under a huge tent in the same place the lobby of the hotel would eventually go. As we walked toward it, I could see the future in my mind.

Not just the hotel. Everything.

I could see how we would live here, occasionally traveling, living in every moment together. I couldn’t see children in our future, but I didn’t discount it. I would love kids, but I never wanted to force one into the world. Life would find a way if it wanted, as far as I was concerned. Unless she told me she wanted one. Then it would become a job.

A job I would have a lot of fun going to.

I could see how we would grow together, how our lives would intertwine further and further. How this hotel would be a legacy for us, for our families. How we would transform this part of Foley, Texas into our vision. The businesses would come. The tourists would come. The world would come.

And I could not be happier to do it all with her by my side. I wouldn’t be able to do any of it without her. And I never wanted to.

Charlotte was mine. And I was hers. And on this lake, we would make our future together, one that would be filled with love, surprises and music.

A love that hit all the right notes.