“You married me anyway.” I pull her close, my hand resting on her stomach. The baby kicks against my touch, and we both laugh.
“She’s almost ready to meet us.”
“I can’t wait to meet her,” I murmur, kissing Kali’s forehead.
We stand there for a while, just the two of us. The ranch is thriving, Wyatt and Anna’s new baby boy was born a few months back, and the rest of my brothers are home or on their way. Plans are in place to build onto the ranch to take advantage of the growing tourism industry in Rock Creek. And for once, everything feels like it’s exactly where it should be.
A pickup door slams in the distance.
I glance over to see my brother Rhett climbing down from the cab, hat pulled low. Even from a distance, I can see the tension in his shoulders that either means trouble or he has a story to tell. Maybe both.
Kali grins. “You’d better go see what’s up.”
“Can’t a man just enjoy a few quiet minutes with his wife?”
“Not around here,” she teases.
I press one last kiss to her lips and step down off the porch.
Whatever’s coming next, we’ll handle it.
Because this place is home.Ourhome.
Ten Years Later…
Kali
Even after ten years of living on the ranch, evenings like this still make me stop and appreciate everything about this life.
The sun hangs low over the pastures, painting the hills in gold. The air smells like hay with the slightest trace of rain that’s promised later.
I pull my horse up and look behind me at my family. The girls, Britt and Susie, almost ten and eight, ride their ponies, our youngest, Benji, sits in front of his father on Cash’s stallion.
We’ve built a life here. One I never could have dreamed of.
There are awards on my office walls now, framed magazine covers of the features I’ve written, even a few plaques with my name on them. But none of those accolades could compare to the view in front of me. My favorite people, all on horseback, laughing and smiling, and the man who still somehow looks at me after all this time like I’m the most beautiful woman in the world.
Cash’s brothers and their families ride with us. A family horseback ride, one of our favorite things to do all together. One big happy, loving and sometimes crazy making family.
My heart swells with the love I feel for all of them.
Cash rides up beside me. The brim of his hat tipped low against the setting sun. “You still get that look when you watch them all,” he says.
“What look?”
“The one that tells me you’re about to cry.”
I laugh, blinking hard. “And what if I am?”
“You’re soft, city girl.” He leans over in his saddle, stealing a quick kiss as Benji groans. “Good thing I like my city girls, soft.”
“Good thing,” I whisper back.
Together, we follow the others back toward the barn and help the kids down before supervising them in their chores.
All the children are growing up immersed in ranch life, and that means helping out and doing things for themselves. Only with lots of love and guidance, just the way Cash’s mama did things. Cash and all his brothers are working hard to recreate the way things were on Rock Creek Ranch when they were children, before their tyrant of a father changed how they felt about this place.
Now, there was nothing but love and happiness here.
