Boots Up (Port Ranch Book #1)

Chapter 25

MITCH

The glow of the flames is the only thing giving us light. Granger helped Brooke, Britt, and the boys get back to their houses, and soon after Charlie and Bev ducked out. Something is going on with those two that I don’t want to touch, but I know the girls can feel it. I haven’t been around Bev enough to feel like I can give my two cents, so I’ll just let it be for now.

We’ve moved some sitting to laying down, Brielle’s head resting on my chest with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. I absentmindedly drag my fingers up and down over her arm, almost lulling even myself to sleep. “What are you thinking about?” She asks.

“You,” I answer without pause.

“Shut up! I’m serious.”

“Don’t you know by now that you’re always the first thing on my mind?”

“Okay,” she scoffs, “other than me, what is on your mind?”

“Just thinking how great it would be if we could spend every summer night like this.”

“I agree, wouldn’t it be just a dream? “

“Maybe it is more than just a dream, Brielle. I can see it now. I’d want the back of the house to face west so we could sit on the back porch and watch the sunset. If we were feeling it, we could come down and sit by the lake and start a fire. Maybe even build a firepit with seating.”

“You’re almost talking like it is something that you want to do.”

I brush the hair back off her neck and place a kiss on her shoulder. “Maybe it is something I want to do. It isn’t even a maybe.”

“I don’t know what to say right now,” she whispers.

“You don’t need to say anything, Sweet Brie. Just know that when we’re ready to take those steps, I’m ready to give you what you want.” My feelings come as a surprise to me as much as to her. Before I met Brielle, it never occurred to me that I’d find somebody to make these dreams with. My playboy days aren’t a secret to anybody, I figured that I’d always be this way. It’s crazy how meeting the right person can change your entire outlook on life and your future.

“I don’t even know if my dad would let me build out there.”

“Oh, I don’t think you would need to do much to convince him. He doesn’t want his girls to leave the ranch, so if you told him you wanted to build out here, he’d say yes.”

“It’s expensive,” she comes back with.

“Now you’re just making excuses,” I laugh.

“I don’t know what to say. I guess I’m scared that I don’t feel scared. Does that make sense?”

I move us from a lying down position to a sitting one and then lift Brielle up so she can straddle my lap. My lips press against her forehead and then get lost in the image of her. Even with no makeup and hair messed up from an evening in the lake, she’s the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen. “It makes sense to me, Brie. I’ve never wanted to go all in with anybody before. It’s an abnormal feeling for me, but it feels right.”

Brielle nods and then wraps her arms around my neck, “I know you don’t want me talking about him, but Lex has been my only other boyfriend, and the idea of a future within got to the point where it was actually scary, not enjoyable. So now you came into my life and I’m not worried. I don’t fear that it is too much or too soon. I don’t feel forced or coerced.”