That isn’t a no. “People do.”
“I’m…” She shrugs. “Maybe.”
“Tell me.”
“I like being a hands-on mom. As horrible as it was sometimes on the homestead, and how that wasn’t really what I wanted for myself…I got to be with her every minute of every day. And that was what we both needed.” She gives me a sad little smile. “I really did like the midwife who helped me give birth. I thought about maybe doing something like that, but it’s a lot of school. Maybe one day I’ll be a doula.”
“What’s that?”
“A birth support person.”
“I can see that. You’ve got healer vibes.”
“Do I?” She looks pleased. “Thank you. When I was in high school, there was a hot second when I thought I might want to be a doctor.”
“Oh yeah?”
“But then I got pregnant, and I wanted to be a mom even more.”
“You still could.”
She laughs, but it’s a thin sound. “Zane.”
“I mean it. There’s nothing about being a mother that means you can’t go back to school. The timeline’s different, that’s all. You’re twenty-two. You’ve got time. Maybe after this baby, you’ll feel differently. And we’ll?—”
She jumps to her feet. “We don’t need to get ahead of ourselves.”
But it’s hard not to let my dreams race into the future.
I leave it alone, though.
We explore around the base of the waterfall, then slowly make our way back, Bellamy insisting she can walk the entire way.
Which means by the time we get to the garage to pick up Hope’s car, the three-year-old is fast asleep in her carseat in my back seat. “She’s tuckered out from the hike.”
“I’ll carry her to your car.”
“It’s okay.” She squeezes my forearm. “Let her stay sleeping. You can drive her back to the ranch, and her carseat can stay in your truck. I probably won’t be driving her anywhere in my car for the next while anyway, right?”
I catch her hand in mine and lift her knuckles tomy mouth. “That you trust me with your daughter means the world to me. I’ll drive very safely.”
She leans over the console and brushes her mouth against mine. “See you soon, Cowboy.”
“Not soon enough, City Girl.”
She hops out and meets Cash in the doorway of the garage. He waves to me when she gestures and explains that Bellamy is asleep in the truck. He hands her keys over, and she gives him a tight hug, which makes him shoot me a helpless look over her shoulder. He’s never known what to do with unexpected affection. I laugh into my fist.
She’s not a stranger to my family. I was worried about her meeting my brothers, the big brutes, but so far, she’s charmed Ridge and Cash with ease, because she’s meant to be, meant to soften the hard edges of my family.
Time to follow her home.
She slides into her driver’s seat.
I reverse out of the parking lot, making room for her to pull out in front of me.
Following her out of town, déjà vu courses through me as we pass the spot at the top of the road where we first met. Same two vehicles, a week apart. Very different energy. Now I feel like this is completely right. Nothing holding me back, no hesitation.
I don’t care what people think when Hope has a baby in seven months. Fuck the world. Fuck the gossips. She’ll be my wife and that will be my baby. The first baby in our little family to be born with the name Kincaid since my mother, fifty years ago.
