Right?
“Hi,” Asher greeted her with a short clip in his tone. Now what? What to say or do?
She smiled with a huge, warm grin.
“Hello, Asher.”
“What… what place is this?” He couldn’t wait to ask. He couldn’t be cool or casual with her. His stomach hurt and his feet felt so restless, he almost tapped them.
“My office.”
“What?” He blinked at her simple answer.
She nodded. “Yes. I own this space right here. I bought it six months ago. Just waiting.”
He blinked. “Waiting? For what?”
“You. To realize that we love each other and it’s worth taking the chance.”
“Wait. You bought it… a place in Brewster? For what reason?”
“To do what AJ told you to propose.”
“How did you know about that?” He frowned.
She shrugged. “Mom told me. They still talk. AJ moved to your ranch after his trip to Bali, and your texts lined it all up. When your mom died, I wanted to be with you. As a lawyer, I can practice many different places, so why not here? You can’t do your ranching just anywhere though. We have lots of choices in life. But I won’t compromise on you.” She shrugged and added, “Hell, we can both have what we want, with a few tweaks here and there. No big deal. No huge problems.”
Asher was stunned and stiff as concrete as he stared in shock at her. He swallowed and finally croaked out. “So, you planned all this?”
“Yes. I knew you needed time after Kate died. But I knew you’d come around. It was all there. Our feelings and love. We fell right back into it like peas and carrots, or steak and ketchup. Whatever goes together well. We always were compatible. Now we both compromise a little and make it happen. You go fully analytical when you’re scared. So, I wasn’t surprised at how you thought you ended it. I didn’t really believe you and here we are.”
Here they were?
“Here we are at your office in Brewster?”
“Yes. Not a terrible commute. What? An hour? Zero traffic makes it doable. I can work from home too. Telecommuting opens up so much now.”
“But living in a small town and practicing law isn’t what you worked so hard for. You must want more than that…”
“The law is the law. Cases arise everywhere. Yeah, it can and will be what I want. It’s what I’ve decided on. And Asher? They have judges and colleges in this area too. So don’t count my ambitions out.”
Daisy blew Asher’s mind. He turned to look at the space and she whipped out a key and opened the door. She wasn’t lying.
Entering the main room, he found it freshly painted with warm lighting and brilliant colors. A toasty beige and dark wood trim made it fancy and inviting. Best of all, Daisy already set it up.
“It just needs my shingle outside. I haven’t decided what to call it yet.”
He blinked, and his head was spinning. “Daisy, you really did all this?”
“You really switched houses with your dad in one night and took his? Just so you could give me a place to live closer to where I could practice law?”
He smiled. Oh, yeah, he did that. “I did. I really did.”
“That was truly you giving up all your dreams for me. I don’t want you to give them all up. Just maybe, tweak them a bit. That’s all we both have tweak our dreams. But we still get them.”
“I just want you, Daisy.”
“I want you too, Asher. But not at a loss to either of us.” She gave him an odd look, then asked, “Do you think your dad would give it back?”
Startled his jaw might have hit the ground. “What?”
“Reed Ranch. Your ranch. Our ranch. Do you think he’d give it back to us?”
“Us?” His eyebrows shot up to his hairline. She wanted his ranch. And she wanted to call it theirs? His heart beat so hard it might bounce out of his chest.
“Yes. Ours. Our home. I wouldn’t mind it if your dad wants to live there. I think it would be good for him to be with us. The house is huge and his company makes me feel safer. But there is no reason for him to take it. He should hold onto his and Kate’s house until grief isn’t fully deciding his decisions.”
“I’m sure he’d give it back. Yes. But… Out there? You want to live there? But… Daisy… We can sell my parents’ house. Or keep it. There’s so much equity that we could sell it easily. I don’t expect you to live on my isolated ranch.”
“I think I’d like to. The work you put into it. Asher, you put your soul into that place. I value that, and I want to see you continue to do that. I know how happy that place makes you.”
He shook his head. “You. Being with you makes me happier.”
“But it’s not an either or this time. So ask your dad to live with us, work with you, all of it. But you are the Reed of Reed Ranch.”
He pressed a hand to his head. This could not be real. “I can’t believe this. You can’t mean all this.”
She smiled. “That’s why I asked you to wait so you could see it in person. It’s the first step toward our commitment to forever. A shared life. A real one. Us together. Both of us all in now. I am, if you are.”
She put her hand out.
Swallowing, he set his hand on hers. She pulled him toward her. “Well?” she inquired with a small grin and an eyebrow rising with impatience.
A broad smile brightened his face, and his utter joy banished all his doubts. “I am too.”
A long, slow kiss sealed their love. No longer confined to their youth, they found a true compromise, and the maturity they acquired promised an amazing future.
Asher held Daisy close to him, as tightly as their bodies would allow. AJ was right, the journey was the purpose, and if it ended prematurely, it didn’t matter. The journey was the whole point.
“I love you, Daisy Rydell.”
“I love you, Asher Reed.” She looked up at him and he remembered all the times she said that to him. The girl who first crushed on him. The bubbly girl who struggled but found a way to still love him and become the woman who guided and supported him through the worst moments of his life.
“Go big whatever you do… do you think she knew this was our future? Was this what she meant?” Asher asked.
Daisy replied, “Of course, Kate knew. She always knew we loved each other and wanted us to work it out while still becoming ourselves. Of course, that’s what she meant. She said it.”
“And you did it?”
“I did,” Daisy chirped with a small, private smile. Asher knew Kate believed in them, especially Daisy. She outsmarted him. She found an office and devised a plan, the same one he eventually discovered. She was a lot like his damn mother.
He leaned forward and kissed her forehead before saying, “Better late than never?”
“You’re always late in admitting your feelings. But never again will you be left alone to figure them out.”
“To what end, Daisy?”
“I’m all in. With a few kids, the ranch, my practice and anything else we decide. We do all of it together. We figure it all out, by being honest and dealing with it together. We also need to put a sign up over the entrance to the ranch saying, Reed Ranch. No more Rydell River Ranch for me. I’m going to be a Reed.”