Chapter 21

I'm not sure if I can trust that she'll actually show up. She says she will and that she's going to divert all business to her CFO, but I'm still not sure. Can she really put away the work for an entire weekend and be with me? I suppose I'll find out on Friday. If she gets on the plane, I'll be happy. We can figure out the rest later.

My mother just showed up to the ranch again. She's suspiciously interested in my relationship with Julia and I making this work. She's pushing me to keep trying, and it's getting weird. She's staying for dinner, and I'm honestly dreading telling her about this weekend. Her energy can be too much for me sometimes, and I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those days.

As I put up the horses in the barn, I take a moment to gather myself before I head inside. I know Mom has been cooking up a storm, and it smells amazing. I sit at the table and take a deep breath as I see her shaking her head, gearing up to tear into me.

"You can't give up, Ryan, you just can't." She puts down her utensils and throws herself back in her chair.

I keep eating like she isn't in distress. She's made a steak with my favorite marinade and loaded baked potatoes. Might as well let her squirm while I enjoy a great meal. She keeps sighing heavily, the queen of passive aggressiveness. I'm about to give her the satisfaction of being right, but there's no harm in making her wait for it.

"Well, Mom, I'll have you know that Julia will be on the ranch this weekend."

She sits up straight. "She will? That's great! What do you have planned for her visit?"

"Planned? Nothing yet. I'll see if she shows up first."

"Come on, son. Have a little faith. She's trying, you know she's trying. Why can't you see it?"

"Because she's constantly canceling on me, dismissing me, and waiting days to answer my texts or call me back. She's made it clear that her job is the most important thing in her life, not me."

"Do you have to be the most important?" she says quietly.

I put down my utensils and tilt my head, realizing I'd never thought about it like this. Could I be important to Julia without being the most important part of her life?

"Her job seems to come before everything else, and that's getting in the way of us being together. I'm not sure how to move past that."

I go back to eating, taking more steak off the serving plate in the middle of the table. I know she made this meal to butter me up, but that's not going to stop me from enjoying every bite. Mom shakes her head again but goes back to her own plate as we eat without continuing the conversation for a few moments.

"You need to look deeper than that, Ryan." She's done eating, but I'm not. I let her keep talking without a response. "When you two first got together, she was all you could talk about. Now, after a few missed communications, you're willing to call it quits? That's not like you."

"It's not?" I finish eating and wipe my face with a napkin, "Do you remember what happened the last time I gave myself to someone fully? The last time I let myself be vulnerable?"

"Oh, come on now, Julia is nothing like her."

"So? Don't you think I have a right to protect my heart a little better after all that?"

She looks at me with such pity in her eyes, and I'm regretting bringing the whole thing up at all. But she needs to understand where I'm coming from, and she's acting like she's all too ready to forget how badly I was hurt before when she couldn't even bother to show up to the hospital to see if I was alive or dead. She stands up and starts to clear the table.

"Mom, wait. Let me do that. You cooked; I'll clean."

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay?"

"I'm sure. As much as I love you being here, I have a lot to get done if I'm going to enjoy this weekend with Julia, and a few things to plan out."

"That's the man I raised."

She puts down the plate she'd been holding and smiles at me. As she walks to the front door, she takes my hand and kisses me on the forehead. I can't help but feel warm towards her in that moment, even if she is pushy.

Friday comes around, and I'm nervous. Julia told me that she'd be on a flight out at 7pm and she'd be staying through until Sunday evening. It's only noon and I already have butterflies. I head out to do the afternoon and evening chores in hopes that the hard work will keep me busy and keep the nerves out of my stomach. We have reservations for a late dinner tonight. I don't want to mess that up.

As I go about feeding animals and repairing part of the fence on my back forty, I think about the other things I have planned. A moonlit walk after dinner over this pretty footbridge by the creek, horseback riding to a picnic out in the clearing where the trees create the perfect amount of shade, and Sunday brunch at home made by yours truly. I'm hoping that this is our way back to each other.

I want to make this work.

The sun goes down, and I eat some leftovers from my mother's dinner the other night for an early evening meal. I was up at dawn this morning, and that usually means two lunches, or two dinners depending on how you see it, and I don't want to be totally starving when we get to dinner later.

I close up the barn and do the last of the chores by the flood lights I have outside for after dark. Before I hop in the shower, I check my phone. There's a text from Julia saying she's boarding the plane and she'll see me soon. I read it back to myself three times. Part of me didn't think she'd even make it to the airport.

She kisses me after running to me as soon as she gets off the plane. I can't help but grin. She has her usual overnight bag and her briefcase, which I find disheartening. I concentrate on the kiss instead and whisk her off to the car to head to dinner. She has a few glasses of white wine with our dinner, and when I ask her about dessert, she waggles her eyebrows at me, and we head back to the ranch.

Fucking her in my bed feels like claiming her, like I get to have someone that other men want and she's all mine. And falling asleep next to her after I come, sated and slick with her juices on my face, is pure bliss. When I wake up the next morning, I can smell bacon cooking and coffee brewing. Now this is the real surprise.

I had no idea that Julia knew how to cook, let alone cook a proper country breakfast. She has biscuits in the oven, gravy on the stove, and I see some fat and crispy bacon on a plate, so I know she's using bacon grease in that gravy. She's sexier than I've ever seen her, wearing only my flannel shirts. It takes every ounce of my self-control not to bend her over that counter and take her right there.

"What do we have to do today?"

I go over to the coffee pot and get a mug down from the cabinet. "Well, I have a few hands hired to do most of the chores this weekend. We can relax this morning, and then we're hitting the trail for a picnic out at one of my favorite spots."

"You made a picnic?" Her voice goes up a few octaves on the end of her question.

"You didn't see the basket in the fridge?"

"No, I went out to the store for this stuff. I didn't know if you'd want me to use yours."

I'm floored. "You went out to the grocery store, 25 minutes away, and then came back here to cook breakfast? I hope you got dressed for that."

"Of course." She pulls the biscuits out of the oven, and my mouth begins to water. "I went for a run down the trail off the barn and then took a shower before I went out."

"When did you get up? It's only 7am!" I sit down with my coffee.

"I'm up every day at five. Internal clock."

I take a sip. "Wow," I say when my mug comes down, "and I thought I was an early riser."

"I'm glad you slept in a bit," she turns off the stove, "you work too hard."

I laugh at that, and coffee almost comes out of my nose. She gives me a stern look, and I go back to my coffee as she gets the rest of the meal ready to go for the table. She sets down plates and utensils, and she looks like she belongs here. With her hair swept up in a messy bun, smelling like my shampoo, I have a dream of every morning being like this.

"Dig in." She smiles and takes the chair next to me.

After breakfast, we get dressed and head out on the trail. I bring her the long way around since we didn't get to take the walk on that foot bridge over the creak the last time we went riding to check the fence line. We have to carefully walk the horses over it instead of riding, and we stop to look out at the scene in front of us when we reach the middle of the bridge.

"This is so peaceful," she says, and takes a deep breath in, then lets it out.

I'm happy she's in the moment with me, her phone nowhere to be seen. I'm not sure she brought it with her, and that surprises me. It pains me to admit it, even if it's in my head, but my mother may have been right.

We stop for the picnic, and I see her enjoying every part of the scenery and her lunch. She asks me about the ranch and what my week has been like, and she doesn't mention her job once. I don't bring it up either. I need a break from hearing about the goings on at her office, and right now, I'm completely in paradise.

There's no rush to get back, and we enjoy a good old fashioned make out on the picnic blanket. The ride back to the ranch on my horse is slightly uncomfortable with my semi. The rest of our night is wide open, and I know exactly what I want to do next.

As soon as we walk through the front door, she goes back to my bedroom, and I start cleaning up the kitchen. I look at that countertop and think about bending her over it again.

Julia comes back into the kitchen with her phone at her ear, and my heart sinks. Boner gone. I can already see where this is going, and I'm kicking myself internally for believing that I'd get the entire weekend with her. I stop what I'm doing, lean against the counter, and fix her with my best withering stare.

She doesn't notice.

I can only hear her side of the conversation, but I can tell that there's some kind of crisis that's going to make her think she has to fly back on the red eye tonight. She can't give me one more day. She's supposed to go back tomorrow evening. It's Saturday. What could they possibly need right this minute?

She's pacing the kitchen as she speaks, and then she walks over to the front entryway and comes back to the kitchen with her fucking briefcase. I throw up my hands and go to make some coffee. She still doesn't notice me, even though I'm making a lot more noise than necessary as I fill the coffee pot and add the grounds.

Her computer is out, and she's talking frantically. I see her put in Bluetooth earbuds, and I'm wondering if maybe she's going to try and handle this remotely instead of leaving. I'd still be unhappy about her working in my kitchen, but I wouldn't be as unhappy as if she asked me to take her to the airport.

She looks over at me with a grimace. I'm not sure if she's annoyed about my aggressive coffee making or if she's genuinely sorry that she's taking this call right now. Either way, I'm not letting up. The coffee percolates, and I cross my arms over my chest. When it's done, I pour a cup, and she looks up at me again, pleading with her eyes. I pour her a cup too and set it down next to her computer.

"Thank you," she mouths at me. "I'm so sorry."

She goes back to her conversation, and I sit down at the table with my coffee. I sip quietly and listen to her as she works. She's talking to her CFO about the IT project and the meetings from earlier in the week. As it goes on, I know she's about to ask me to take her to the airport.

"I'm looking it up now. I think I can switch for minimal cost," she says as she scrolls on her screen. "Can you tell him we'll do a brunch meeting? Can you get us in at that one place?"

I leave my coffee mug and go to the front door, not stopping as I go through and walk down the pathway towards my front gate. There's about a mile and a half to that gate, and I need to blow off some steam before I sit in a car alone with her. I can't fucking believe this.

Actually, I can. This is exactly what I thought would happen. And I'm seriously disappointed that I was right.