Just Once (40 page)

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Authors: Julianna Keyes

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BOOK: Just Once

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Lisa’s flight lights up near the top of the board, and she stands. “I guess I’ll be going.”

I rise to hug her. “You’re going to be all right,” I say into her hair.

Her grip tightens. “You too, Kate.”

I watch her until she passes through security, waving goodbye one last time, then buy a bottle of water and a gossip magazine and settle in to wait some more. I mentally vote on who wore which dress best and who looks terrible without makeup, polish off my drink, and buy another. I wheel my suitcases around the tiny airport and try on cheap sunglasses, but my enthusiasm for shopping is conspicuously absent. Something’s wrong, but it takes me another hour to admit what it is.

My flight’s at six, but at four o’clock I’m in the van, racing back up the winding mountain roads a little over the speed limit. Fine, I’m going nearly double, but there’s no one out here, and maybe there’s still a little bit of the old crazy Kate left in me.

I’ve decided I can’t leave. If all I’m going to do in Boston is sit around and plan for the coming season at the ranch, I can do that from here. Hailey rented a place, so I’m sure I can rent one too. And maybe I’ll take up snowshoeing or knitting or some other way to pass the winter indoors, because there’s no way anyone makes plowing these roads a priority.

I make the turn onto ranch property—my property—and pass under the arch welcoming me to Ponderosa Pines. I smile at the serene scene before me: a hundred-year-old lodge surrounded by mountains and trees, nature and freedom. The barn has been closed up, the door boarded like all the others, and the pickup is nowhere to be seen. The ranch hands are gone. It’s just me and my ranch.

I park and get out, laughing to myself like a crazy person. I don’t know the first thing about running a business, fixing a fence, or birthing a foal, but I guess I have plenty of time to learn. The air is soft and warm, and the first signs of fall color are appearing on the trees as I wind between the cabins, passing the empty pool and the back kitchen entrance.

Eventually I return to the front and sit on the porch, surveying my land. I laugh again, long and loud.
How did older, wiser Kate end up here?
I wonder. Maybe some things are meant to be.

“What’s so funny?”

I almost fall off the steps. It’s Shane, approaching from the trailer. He’s dressed in his familiar uniform of cargo pants and black T-shirt, the dark color highlighting his tan, his dark eyes, his dark hair. The man is perfect. And for some reason, he’s still here.

“I thought you left,” I say.

He stops in front of me, and I push myself to my feet.

“I thought
you
left,” he replies.

“I came back.”

“Why?”

“I’ve been told I have nowhere better to be. Where’s your truck?”

He bites his lip and looks away. “Guys took it. They went to Texas.”

“Without you?”

“That’s right.”

“Why?”

“I told them to.”

“You chose to stay at an abandoned ranch without any transportation?”

Shane looks thoughtful for a moment, then nods, looking up at me from under those devastatingly sexy eyebrows. “I’m reckless now, Kate. And I think you’re to blame.”

“Did you think I would come back?”

“I hoped so.”

I look away and blink rapidly so I won’t cry.

He touches my arm. “You were right to buy the ranch. I’m sorry about how I reacted.”

“I understand.”

“I don’t have an excuse. I’ve been told I’m a control freak. I’ll try to control it.”

I laugh under my breath. “Right.”

“You’ll do a good job here.”

“Will I?”

“Yeah.”

“Where will you be?”

“Right here, if you’ll have me.”

“As my…employee?”

“If that’s all you want.”

“What do you want?”

He leans down to whisper in my ear. “You.”

“Me?”

“I can’t believe it either.”

My blood quickens. “Why?”

“You know why.”

My heart pounds so hard I swear we can both hear it. “Tell me.”

“You ask too many questions, Kate.” He pushes my hair behind my ear and leans forward to kiss me, but I back away.

“Answer them.”

Shane stifles a smile and keeps his hand where it is, cupping my neck, rough thumb stroking my jaw. “All right, I hope you’re listening.”

“Of course I am. I’m three inches away.”

“I’m only going to say this once.”

“Just once?”

“Just once.”

“Because, you know, the last time you said something was only going to happen once, it ended up happening again…and again…and again…”

His lips are getting closer, tempting me, and I tip my face away, though I’m still held in his grip. I can feel the heat from his chest on mine, and get goose bumps up and down my spine.

Shane’s eyes lock on mine. “I love you, Kate.”

I take a deep breath. It’s corny, but I swear my heart swells. That’s the first time anyone has ever said those words to me and meant them in this way.

“You do?”

“I do. And I think I have for a very long time.”

“You have?”

“Uh-huh.”

He brushes his lips over mine, once, twice, three times.

“That’s really great news,” I breathe.

Shane pulls his head back, hand still holding me in place. “Are you going to leave me hanging?” he asks.

Now I smile, preparing to utter words I have never said before, not in this way. “I love you, Shane.”

He smiles back. “You do?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Say it again.”

“I thought we were only saying things once.”

“I love you, Kate.”

“I love you, Shane. I’ll say it for as long as you want.”

This time when he leans in to kiss me, I don’t move away. I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him closer, holding on, staying put. It’s taken me thirty years to figure out where I belong, and now that I know, I’m not going anywhere.

Acknowledgments

The road to publishing is paved with much rejection, so let me thank the wonderful team of women at Omnific who were the first to say yes.

Lisa O’Hara: For reading my query and requesting pages. Then reading them and requesting more. Then reading those too. Then passing them along. Thank you!

Elizabeth Harper: For being the first person to send me an email with “Manuscript Acceptance” in the subject line. Best. Day. Ever. (Except for that time I stood next to Colin Firth in HMV...)

Jessica Royer Ocken: Editor extraordinaire! Thank you for reading and re-reading and reading some more. And thank you for being patient and funny and helping the things I wanted to say come across as more than a bunch of hopeful stammering. Anyone who knows when and how to use a four-dot ellipsis is a star in my book.

About the Author

Julianna Keyes is a Canadian writer who has lived on both coasts and several places in between. She’s been skydiving, bungee jumping, and whitewater rafting, but nothing thrills—or terrifies—her as much as the blank page. She has volunteered in Zambia, taught English in China, and dreams of seeing pink dolphins in the Amazon. This is her first book.

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