Six weeks later I exit the international arrivals in Inverness and search the sea of eager expressions for Tayla's familiar face. Even with video chats, I'm thirsty for a glimpse of her. A dehydrated man in a desert.

Then I spot her, weaving through the crowd. I stop pushing the trolley with Rex's crate, drop my bags in the middle of the exit lane, and ignore all the grumbling people dodging my dog and bag. I rush toward her, lifting her off her feet and sweeping her into a hug. Her delighted laughter rings in my ears, and I soak her in.

Framing her face, I stare into her eyes. "God, it's good to see you."

"I can't believe you uprooted your whole life to follow me here." She's on her toes, arms around my neck.

"Didn't feel like much of a life without you in it." Then I kiss her, letting all the longing and sadness from the last few weeks fall away. We're together, and whatever happens, we're going to handle it side-by-side.

Tayla deepens the kiss, and I wonder how fast she can get us back to the farm. Rex barks in his crate, abandoned in the middle of the exit lane.

She breaks the kiss and laughs. "Rex is going to love the farm. Not sure the sheep will love him. They're a special kind of ornery."

"The Highland Cattle and I are going to be buddies. I'll let the dogs wrangle the sheep." I sling my arm around Tayla's shoulders while we walk back to retrieve Rex and my bags from the exit ramp.

"They are well trained. I'd be lost without them." She walks beside me while we exit the airport and head for the parking garage. She eyes my cart with my luggage and Rex. "I'm glad I brought the vet ambulance, otherwise this all wouldn't fit."

"A vet ambulance?" I frown. "Have you had to use it yet?"

"Not yet. Angus said he bought it a few years ago at his wife's insistence, but it's only been used a handful of times to cart animals back to the clinic." She glances at me. "It's a long drive back. How's your jetlag?"

My adrenaline kicked in when I saw her, so for now I'm good. But my experience with other time changes makes me realize my buzz might be short-lived. "I'm good for now." I grin. "Stupidly excited to be here."

Her smile matches mine. "Me too. I just—" Her smile fades a little. "I hope you like it here."

"If you love it, I'm sure I will too." Except I'm not quite as confident as all that. I love Tayla, and I love animals. But a farm? I'm a city boy at heart. Zoos and farms are places people like me visit, and I've never dealt with an animal larger than me before. This whole experience might have a sharp learning curve, but I'm up for it. Whatever I don't know, Tayla will teach me. I've got nothing to worry about.

~ * ~

Rex meets the working dogs, and after some circling, they all seem to decide to ignore each other. In fact, Rex sticks to my heels while Tayla shows me the vet clinic.

"You sent pictures, but it's a lot bigger than I expected."

"He has a good practice," Tayla admits. "Between house pets and farm animals, I am almost too busy. Doesn't help that everyone seems to have made an appointment in the first month to meet me. I'm not sure if Angus told everyone to do that or if it's just the smaller community thing, but the onslaught of people was overwhelming."

I rub her back, and she throws her arms around my waist, pressing her face into my side. "I'll take over whatever you need to ease your load," I say.

"I can't believe you're here." She snuggles in before peering at the clock over the register. "I need to get the barn animals fed and then we can figure out what we're eating for dinner. I also have an ewe I need corralled into the barn so I can get a better look at her. I think she's sick."

"Have you done that before? Corralled one of the ewes?" Will we be rookies together or will this be the start of my teaching?

She laughs. "I rely a lot of the working dogs." She takes my hand and leads me to the barn. "Angus left a helpful list of commands for the dogs hung up in the barn. I'd be useless without them. They're such smart dogs, but they rely on us to be smart too."

"The dogs understand our American English?"

"A lot of the commands are hand signals and whistles," Tayla says, smiling over her shoulder. "But when I give one and they stare at me blankly, sometimes I have to whip out my very poor Scottish accent."

I chuckle. "I'm going to need a demo of that later tonight."

"Want to hear the great part?" She opens the side door to the barn. "You can get a demo every night because you live here now."

I catch her around her waist and spin her in my arms. She laughs, and I kiss her, warmth flooding my chest and migrating to my pants. God, I missed her. "My first priority might be a roll in the hay."

She rises on her toes, kissing me, pressing herself along my length. "Ornery sheep first, and then we make hay."

I'm not sure if she literally means we'll have sex in the barn or if our euphemisms have gotten out of control, but as long as the end result is us, tangled together somewhere, I'm not going to question where. She hadn't shown me the house yet, but I doubt itchy hay is the best option.

When we step out into the field, Tayla whistles for the dogs and they come running toward the fence.

"How are they going to—" The words die on my lips as both dogs fly at the gate and squeeze through the metal rungs on their sides before landing on their feet. "That is slick," I say while the dogs bound over to us.

"Yeah, the first time they did it, I was sure they weren't going to make it. Never stops being impressive."

"Which sheep is it?" Rex is at my heels, and I'm not sure if taking him out into the field is a great idea or a terrible one. He needs to get used to the farm, but he's had a big day. "Should we bring Rex?"

Tayla purses her lips and glances at the two working dogs. "Maybe not. Rex won't know to watch for the hooves just yet, and one good kick and he'd be in trouble. Maybe stick him in the barn for now?"

I cross back to the barn doors and let Rex inside before rejoining Tayla. We haven't gone far when her phone rings in her pocket. She takes it out and grimaces. "Give me a sec." She answers and wanders a little way from me.

While she talks to someone who sounds like a vet client with an emergency, I stare out across the fields. So much green. Between the fence and the hills and the breeze of early fall, I could be in a postcard. Which reminds me, Aaron told me to snail mail him a postcard.

Tayla comes back, her brow creased. "One of my clients has a pig in trouble, and I need to get over there to check it out. We can track down the sheep later. If you want to hang out in the house while I'm gone, explore, whatever."

"Which sheep is it?" I peer at the flock at the far end of the property.

"I marked it with an X, but you don't need to worry about it. I have to run. I'm sorry." She gives me a helpless look before kissing me on the cheek and dashing toward a small car in the lot.

The two working dogs circle me, and I glance from them out to the field. "How hard can it be? You two know what you're doing, right? One sheep back to the barn. Can't be too hard, right?" The idea seems simple enough. No harm in trying.

Before I head out, I put Rex in the main house and then I grab the laminated set of commands off the back of the barn door and the whistle. While the dogs and I walk out to the field, I try to make sense of them. When we get close to the herd, I put the whistle in my mouth and try out one of the sequences on the page. The dogs bolt off at a dead run toward the sheep, and I wonder whether they are both supposed to run at once. I scan the sheet, but I can't see anything that tells me.

Why didn't I watch some herding videos on the plane?

The dogs are driving the sheep toward me, which is the command I think I gave them, but to have so many of them streaming right at me is more intimidating than I anticipated. I take a step back and almost trip over a rock. My arms flail and the command sheet flies out of my hand just as I catch sight of the marked sheep.

"Shit." I scramble to grab the commands before its trampled by sheep and no longer legible. The wind grabs the flapping paper and blows it closer to the approaching herd. When I finally snatch it off the ground, I lift my head to a stream of white wool coming at me full force.

Frantically, I stick the whistle in my mouth and search for whatever makes them stop. I blow it hard, but the sheep keep coming, barreling around me. Afraid to move, I stand stock still and hope none of them head butt me or knock me off my feet.

American man, trampled by sheep, is only funny when it's someone else being trampled. Perhaps I should have listened to Tayla and waited for her in the house.

I take a deep breath. I can do this. She asked me to come, and I'm determined to be helpful. The dogs moved the sheep, that's a start. When the herd has passed me, I scan the commands and blow the whistle again. The dogs move the sheep to the left. When I blow it again in a different pitch, they move them to the right.

Okay. Okay. I'm getting this. Except, I'm herding all of them back to the barn, and I really only need one.

I purse my lips and stare at the sheet, then without looking up, I execute a few whistles to divide the herd. Surveying the groups, I spot the one Tayla marked. Glancing at the sheet, I blow the whistle with less certainty this time, but the dogs jump into action, dividing the group with the marked sheep even more. Buoyed up, I keep the rhythm of commands going, and eventually I don't have to consult the sheet.

The marked sheep isn't happy about being separated from the rest of the group, but it's slowly getting closer to the barn. I rush to open the barn door and then I open a pen directly across from the opening. Excitement stirs in my chest. If I can manage to get the sheep into the barn by commanding the dogs, I might just be able to hack farm life.

I blow the whistle for the dogs to drive the sheep into the barn. But this time, they head in the wrong direction, herding the sheep back to the rest who are mingling a short distance away.

Shit. I fumble with the paper to double check my next command and let out another series of whistles that reverses my mistake. When I glance up, the sheep is charging toward me because I've stupidly stood in the entrance. Stepping out of the way, I trip and clutch onto the pen gate, practically falling over it before swinging it closed behind the sheep.

I right myself and let out a whoop of triumph just as the side door to the barn pops open. Tayla's face is alight with a grin.

"You got the ewe in the pen?"

"I got the fucking sheep in the pen." I rush her, sweeping her up in my arms and twirling her around. "I will not be useless on the farm."

She laughs and squeezes me tight. "You were never going to be useless."

There's no point in correcting her, but I definitely had my doubts about my farming abilities. A lot of things might still get the best of me, but I won tonight. "How was your call out?"

Her smile fades. "Had to put the pig down."

"Ah, Tay. I'm sorry. That's shitty."

"It's always hard, even when it's for the best." She stares up at me. "But for the first time since I got here, I knew I had something to brighten my day at home."

"The sheep in the pen? Was that the thing brightening your day? It's sure as shit brightened mine." I still can't believe I managed it. Well, the dogs managed it, but I didn't screw it up.

"You're very proud of yourself." She teases. "Your ego going to be able to make it into the house for dinner?"

"Depends on what's on the menu," I murmur against her neck.

She leads me out of the barn, and just before we get back to the house, I glance over my shoulder. The fields are bathed in the fading light of the sunset, and I draw her against me, turning her to gaze out over the fields with me.

"Pretty, isn't it?" she says.

We stare out at the property in silence, and a calmness I haven't felt in a really long time seeps over me. This is where I'm meant to be, and Tayla is who I'm meant to be with. "Thank you." My voice is thick with emotion.

She glances at me over her shoulder, her hands resting on mine at her waist. "For what?"

"For giving me another chance, for letting me back in, for showing me that fear of the unknown can be beautiful instead of scary."

She turns in my arms and frames my face. "I'm going to love you forever, Simon Buchannan."

I kiss her, pouring my heart into the embrace. When she melts against me, I sweep her into my arms and carry her toward the house to show her that forever is just the beginning.

The End

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Last chapter I asked for guesses on the top country after the US. At the time of posting, it was Nigeria, which was a first for me. It has since been passed by India. Those who guessed Australia, you weren't far off. It's right up there too! In fact, Australia is currently in 2nd for Scarred Crowned, my royal romance.

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