15. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

After stops to check on the horses, water them and get coffee, it took them almost twenty-two hours to get to the ranch.

He was dead tired, but he didn’t think he could stand to stay the night at the ranch. Dallas had his ranch hands take the horses off the trailer and Sig oversaw them being pampered in their new stable.

He went to each and said his goodbyes, feeling a tug in his heart that he’d likely never see them in person again.

“You all be good and run like the wind for these fellas. Do us proud.”

Jace came into the stable and gave him a hug, clapping him hard on the back. “I know you’re gonna hate me, but the plane is delayed in Pennsylvania. There was a problem with the weather.”

Sig stared at the ground, toeing some hay there. “Any chance of getting me to a motel off this place?”

“Sig, it’ll be another hour, and you look about to drop. How about I set you up in a cabin that you didn’t stay in, neither did…anyone you know? Sleep a few hours and then we’ll get you set up with the plane.”

Sig looked up at the stallion and said, “I guess I can come see these guys again. I can let your boys know the temperament of each and their quirks.”

“Good! Good. Come on. I’ll take you.”

Sig got into Jace’s truck, and they started off for the cabins. “I’m sorry you had to come back here, buddy.”

“The guy broke his arm halfway to my place. Not much else I could do.”

“Yeah, true. Not much else.”

The cabin was indeed different from the one where he’d stayed or Rowan's. He got in and dropped the bag, fell into bed fully clothed, and fell immediately to sleep.

When he woke, the light had definitely changed, but there was light. It was early morning. He’d slept away the afternoon and the night.

Getting up wasn’t easy. He’d slept too hard, and his body ached from it. Getting into the living room, he stretched a little and went right for the coffee pot in the kitchenette, getting a pot going as he took out his phone to see if he’d missed any messages or calls.

Two from his ranch hand about Polly missing him but that was it. Of course, it was. Rowan had left him behind, even in his mind.

He walked outside the front door to sit on the wooden chair that sat outside the door as all the cabins had. He nearly stepped on it, a chunk of wood on the little stoop.

He reached for it, wondering how he hadn’t seen it the previous day, but he was tired, so he didn’t question it long.

It was a simple chunk of what he guessed had been a 4X4 board. Flipping it around as he sipped his coffee, he almost spit it all back out as he saw the strange, crude carving.

It was a flower…at least he thought it was a flower. It had some squared petals and what Sig thought could be a stem and even a couple of rectangles that could be leaves.

What struck him more, however, were the initials on the corner, which were large for a “signature.”

RM

“Rowan? No, I’m imagining things.”

Then his eyes moved from the block of wood, and he saw another. And another. Only the rest of them were face-up, with the weird flowers showing.

He went back into the cabin to set his mug down by the door and started walking along the other blocks of wood. Like rose petals, they were leading thirty feet to the cabin next to him.

Suddenly, his heart was pounding so hard, he figured the ranch hands would hear it all the way back in New Mexico. He got to the cabin’s door and saw one of the wood blocks hanging on a string on the door. Only, instead of a flower, it had words, and they were as square and crude as the flowers had been.

They read, COME IN.

“What the Sam Hill?”

He turned the knob, and it was unlocked, so he pushed the door open and peeked inside the cabin. The windows were all darkened with not only the curtains but with what looked to be extra towels and sheets.

“Jesus,” he said before laughing. “Hello?”

The light in the room danced and he saw why when he opened the door a little more to see candles sitting atop the fireplace mantel.

And there was Rowan, on the sofa, fast asleep. “Good job, falling asleep with lit candles, you adorable idiot.”

His heart was flying. He didn’t remember ever being so happy. As he moved into the cabin and shut the door behind him, Sig smiled and went to the sofa, taking a seat in front of it, close to the beautiful man’s face.

“Rowan?”

Nothing. Not even a flinch.

Instead of speaking again, he moved close and kissed Rowan’s sweet, parted lips that were letting out tiny snores.

Finally, he came awake and once he saw Sig, he smiled sleepily. “Dammit! I wanted to be so…romantic.”

“You fell asleep with the candles lit. You’re lucky you didn’t wake up cooked like a chicken.”

Rowan simply smiled that sweet little smile he had, and Sig felt his world righting again. Those doom and gloom thoughts were erased, and he felt like the sun would shine in his life again.

“What are you doing here?”

“That was going to be part of it. Can you…I mean, this is gonna sound dumb, but can you maybe go back to the other cabin for a minute and let me get ready for you again?”

“As long as you don’t fall back asleep and get burned up, I think I can handle that.”

After shutting the door, Sig started to pick up the wood blocks from the ground, making three little stacks of them by the door of the cabin he’d used. He gave it another minute and walked back over, knocking.

“Come in,” Rowan called.

Sig opened the door, and he almost fell outside right on his ass when he saw Rowan, on one knee just inside the door. In his flat hand, he held a box. A jewelry box.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Sigmund Longfield, the man I am so in love with that I haven’t stopped thinking of a way to get back to him this entire time, will you marry me?”

It was too crazy. They weren’t kids. Getting married after…

After falling in love with one another. After finding each other in the strangest place. He stepped to Rowan and took the box, opening it to see a ring.

It was a titanium ring with roses embossed in it. He felt the tears coming but didn’t attempt to hold them back. One fell right on the ring.

“Rowan, what the hell? Marriage?”

Rowan stood and laid his palm on Sig’s cheek. “So, we’ll have a long engagement. I just want to know that you might eventually want to…to be my husband. I love you. I couldn’t stop thinking about you for a second.”

“But you had all those gigs, and you started to taper off calling. I thought it was over!”

“I know. I kinda did that on purpose. I wanted to surprise you, and…well, I called and got some help.”

He couldn’t imagine what Rowan was talking about, but he didn’t need to wonder long. Rowan grabbed his phone from the couch and FaceTime someone. He held up the phone to Sig, who saw Jace and Dallas McIntrye waving at him without the cast.

“Congratulations,” they both said in unison, then the call abruptly ended.

“Do you mean to tell me his arm isn’t broken?”

“Fake cast. Took me three times to find one that didn’t look fake!”

Sig laughed with his head thrown back. When he righted it again, he asked, “How long have you been planning this?”

“Well, I got home and…put my house up for rent a week later, then I…came back here and they’ve been helping me since.”

“You’ve been here?”

Rowan smiled shyly. “Mad?”

He felt the ring box in his hand and said, “Hell, no. I’m so fucking happy right now. Fuck, baby, you have no idea.” Rowan jumped up to wrap his arms tightly around Sig’s neck and started kissing him roughly, only managing to make Sig laugh more. “You’re fucking crazy.”

“Crazy about you. So…you didn’t answer.”

“Of course, I’ll marry you. You name the time and place.”

“Here…this week?”

“I thought you just said we’d have a long engagement.”

“I was letting you decide that. I’m ready right now. I found the love of my life. Why would I want to wait?”

“How about we’ll talk it over, but first, I want to get a shower and then fuck the hell out of you. I missed your body almost as much as your heart and mind.”

“I’m good with that.”

“I’ll be back, and I have something for you too.”

“You didn’t know I’d be here!”

Sig sighed and said, “There’s a story behind it. It’s a little embarrassing, and a lot sad, but it’s no longer sad. I’ll be back.”

“I’ll be here.”