Long Time Gone (Rough Riders) by Lorelei James

we’re talkin’ about the weather now?”
    Cal smirked. “Darlin’, sixty percent of rancher’s conversations are about weather and thirty-nine percent of conversations are about cattle.”
    “And the other one percent?”
    “Everything else.”
    Kimi slid her hands up his chest. “Glad to know I made the one percent for a little while.”
    “You’ve been ninety-nine percent this week and you know it.” He tugged her against him. “I’ve been wrestlin’ with how to say this, or if I oughta say it at all. I know you have to go. But when you get tired of the gypsy life, come back here. Come back to me. I’ll be waitin’ for you. For however long it takes.”
    She lost the ability to breathe.
    “I trust in this, what we have between us, to know that it’ll last. I’m confident enough to let you go, because I realize this ain’t the right time for us, but there will be a right time. And you will be back.”
    “So you’ll just…?”
    “Live my life as I’ve been. I’m not askin’ for any promises. I don’t need them because I know in my soul that you’re mine.” Cal tipped her head up and gazed into her eyes. “You’ve been mine, Kimi West, since the moment I saw you. My heart knew it; it just took a year for my head to catch up.”
    “And for me to grow up.”
    “Well, that was hangin’ over us too. But now…” He kissed her, almost chastely, but that kiss was a promise. “Now I’m stakin’ my claim on you. And I’ll be right here, waitin’ until you’re ready to do the same to me.”
    Then Cal stepped aside and opened the driver’s side door for her.
    The drive to Gillette was silent. But after Cal’s declaration there wasn’t anything else to say anyway.
    Cal unloaded her bags and sat with her in the terminal after she’d bought her ticket.
    When the intercom announced boarding, he walked outside with her.
    The exhaust fumes from the bus eddied around them, churning the stiflingly hot air until she felt she was choking and couldn’t breathe.
    “Take care of yourself, darlin’.”
    “I will.”
    “Have fun, be safe. Shoot first, ask questions later.”
    She laughed through her tears.
    “Keep in touch. Let me know when you get settled.”
    “I’ll miss you.” I already miss you.
    He kissed her forehead.
    “Cal—”
    “Go,” he said gruffly, “before I change my goddamned mind and make you stay.”
    She stood on tiptoe and kissed his chin, his dimple, and those beautiful lips. She whispered, “See you around, cowboy,” and forced herself to get on that bus. She took a window seat on the opposite side of where Cal had stood.
    But when the bus pulled out, ten minutes later, she saw him, standing there, watching her leave.

    ***

    Later that night Cal sat on the tailgate of his truck, throwing the ball for Gigi, trying like hell to focus on the sunset, or all the shit he had to catch up on starting tomorrow. He tried to think about anything besides the hole in his gut that half a bottle of whiskey hadn’t filled.
    The sun had dropped below the horizon. He rested back on his elbows, wondering if he oughta sleep out beneath the stars tonight. He knew his bed smelled like her and that might just do him in.
    A truck barreled up the driveway at breakneck speed. He wondered if there’d ever come a day when his brother didn’t drive like a damn idiot.
    Carson jumped out of the truck and Gigi was right there, her ball in her mouth, her tail wagging happily. He tossed the ball a few times before he grabbed a brown paper bag out of his truck and ambled over.
    Cal kept his gaze on the horizon. A bottle of Wild Turkey appeared in his peripheral vision.
    “I figured you might need this,” Carson offered as an explanation.
    “Why? That stuff tastes like shit.”
    “You’re gonna drink until you pass out so you might as well not waste the good stuff. And this shit ain’t half bad comin’ back up in the middle of the night.”
    “Thanks for that. I thought maybe you were just