Page 197 of The Lonely Road

He answers on the second ring.

“Heard you got Trafton.”

“I did,” Taya interjects.

“Afternoon, Taya.”

“He’ll do it,” she says.

Kaz is quiet for a moment, and then I hear a snigger. “Hey, Brooks, your woman doin’ the talkin’ for you now.”

“Yeah,” I say unabashedly.

“Excellent. Why don’t we celebrate with dinner at Blackwood Prime tonight?”

I touch her hair, stroke it. “Sounds good.”

“And we can go through the contract.”

I grin. “I’ll bring my lawyer.”

When we hang up, she laughs again, freely. “You’re going to stay.”

“Never going to leave, even if you get sick and tired of me.” I pull her down for a kiss that takes longer than either of us intended. I roll her off of me and under me. “I know it’s not been long since we met—but…my spirit knows yours.”

Her eyes fill with tears. “Yes. I feel it, too.”

“Will you marry me?”

She sniffles. “Where’s the ring?”

I kiss her nose. “I’ll get you a ring.”

“Well, you can get my answer then, too.”

“You’re my home, Taya,” I tell her as I look into her eyes and see everything she’s giving, grateful for all of it.

“Welcome home, Mason.”

CHAPTER 48

mason

NINE MONTHS LATER

Inow know the pull-off outside Durango, and I’m not surprised when she slows down.

I reach over and put my hand on hers on the wheel when she turns off the highway.

We step out the way we did a year ago, before my first Bear Dance, and stand with the San Juan Basin opening up below us in the May morning—enormous, still, and entirely itself.

She’s quiet for five minutes.

I’m quiet with her.

As she watches the mesa, I watch her.

The braids she put together this morning.