Wearing the Rancher's Ring

“You’ve had a long day,” Beatrice said. “You ought to finish that tomorrow.”

Olivia smiled at her. “I’ll be finished in a few minutes and then I’ll head on home.”

“Well, drive carefully. I glanced outside earlier and it’s snowing again.”

“I’ll be careful and you do the same.”

With a backward wave, Beatrice disappeared and Olivia went back to typing up the notes she’d scribbled down earlier this morning when she and Wes had visited a section of state park land that was losing an inordinate amount of pines to a spreading parasite.

She was finishing the last paragraph when a knock suddenly sounded on the doorjamb. Startled, she whirled her chair around and stared with shock at the man standing in the dimly lit opening.

“Clancy!”

He stepped into the room and Olivia could see his sheepskin jacket and brown Stetson were dusted with snowflakes, while his cheeks were ruddy from being beaten by the freezing wind.

“I met your secretary as she was leaving,” he explained. “She told me I’d find you here working.”

Her mind whirling with questions, she slowly rose to her feet. “What are you doing here?”

His expression suddenly took on a sheepish quality. “I wanted to apologize to you.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, her voice scarcely above a whisper.

He closed the small distance between them and as his hands closed over the top of her shoulders, Olivia’s heart leaped into a wild gallop.

“Neither do I, Livvy. All week long I’ve thought about everything I said to you. And I realized I behaved badly. I asked you out and then started beating you up emotionally. I’m sorry. Very sorry. And I wanted you to know that.”

Suddenly her throat was so thick all she could manage was to choke out his name. And then before she could ponder or stop herself, she flung her arms around his waist and buried her face in the middle of his chest.

“Oh, Clancy, I’m sorry, too.” Tears flooded her eyes and as they spilled onto her cheeks, she didn’t try to stem them. It felt too good to finally quit hiding her feelings, to finally let him see how much the past had hurt her.