“Good. I’m glad we get to keep you. They showed me the pictures on a Zoom call. They were all so lovely. But it was actually the cowboy pictures we all loved. They had so much emotion. So much story. I loved the subtle change in his images and how the colors went from dark to light. It got us thinking that we’d love to do a piece on the modern American cowboy and possibly feature most of your images—and more, if you’ve got them.”
I laughed. “I’d love that.”
When I stepped back outside a few minutes later, I found Jake stretched out on my porch, his legs crossed and his cowboy hat covering his face. It was too inviting a scene to let go, so I sat down and snuggled into his side. His arm snaked around my shoulders, tucking me in close while my head found its home on his chest.
“About time,” he said. “You know I can’t get a decent nap without you right here.”
“This is a strange place for a nap.”
“When are we moving?”
I smiled into his chest. “We’re staying right here.”
He tensed, pulling the hat from his face to look at me. “Tuck, tell me you didn’t?—”
“It’s now a remote position,” I broke in. His eyes softened in question as they took me in. “The lady interviewing me lives in Hawaii. She said a lot of the photographers live in their area and just work so many hours a week from home. I’ll have to go to Boise to be trained next week, and I’ll have meetings there several times a year, but I can live?—”
He rose up on his elbow before his hand found the back of my neck, bringing me up to meet him. His lips were soft and hungry.
“I was about to call them and beg for your job back,” he said, a moment later.
He would have. Maybe this insecurity of his, this fear, would never fully go away, but I vowed to do my best to convince him every day that he would always be enough for me.
Starting now.
“Jake Nancy Evans.” I pulled back and stared into his eyes. “You are not a consolation prize. You are the grand prize.Mygrand prize. I would have turned this job down a thousand times over to be with you. I told you that you being on the table changed everything, and I meant it. This life with you is what I want. I want to live on this ranch with you and Sophie. I want to raise our babies with our friends down the road. I want to go fishing and ride the trails. I want to have a shooting competition every day to determine whose TV show we’re watching that night.”
His eyes widened as a teasing grin crossed his face. “Raise our babies? Tuck, did I miss something? I didn’t even know you knew how?—”
I jabbed at his stomach, feeling my face flush. “Jake!!”
He only laughed and brought me back down to his chest.
“Of course that’s what you’d get from all of that,” I said.
We lay there for a long moment, feeling the warm summer breeze on our faces. And then he spoke.
“I want all that too. You’re the sun, Tuck. My whole earth went out of whack without you. Now you’re here, and things are right again. Wherever you are, that’s where I want to be.”
The true matchmaker of Eugene and his pathetic students
Jake: All you sniveling busybodies and wannabe matchmakers are hereby un-cordially invited to a poker game at my house where I will proceed to take all of your money.
Logan: Be prepared to pay up because you owe us big.
33
JAKE
Later that week,the boys gathered for a Texas Hold 'Em poker game on the picnic table in front of my cabin. This time, it was me doing the inviting. And this time, I invited the girls because Shelby and I were at that stage in our relationship where being apart from her, even for one night, was not something I was willing to do. The kids were all scattered around the grass, playing a game of tag and running from the slide to the swings.
Currently, I was the dealer. And currently, I was holding two aces in my hand. There was one already in play on the table. The best hand this whole group had seen all night. Briggs folded. The girls had folded. Cade and Logan were still in. I had a big grin on my face, which caused all the boys to eye me warily.
“Don’t put much stock in the big idiot smile,” Logan said to the others. “It’s just what his face looks like lately.”
My hand found Shelby’s knee and squeezed.
“I like it,” Tessa smiled at us both. She was currently holding a sleeping newborn. “And you’re welcome.” She gave a small bow.