“Done.”
I grin. “This next one might be a little hard.”
“Okay.”
“And you might have to really push to get it done.”
He side-eyes me. “Okay.”
“I don’t want you to be gentle about it,” I say. “This is one of those things that you might not get right immediately, but you can practice until it’s perfect.”
“I’ll do it. What do you need?”
I lean forward until my lips hover against his. “A baby.”
His body stills.
“I want a baby, Hart.” I grind against his cock, letting the words drift across his mouth. “Right now. I’m done being scared.”
And I’m done wasting time.
I thought I was out in the world living, but really, I was putting off life. I had these blockades around my heart that took way too long, and the hands of one very particular ranch, to deconstruct. But as I sit in his arms, feeling safe and loved in a way I didn’t know was possible—that I didn’t let myself feel, I know this is living. This is what I’ve always wanted. This is what terrified me because I could lose it.
But nothing in this life is guaranteed. And like Hartley said, I’d rather feel this kind of love for a day and risk losing it than never feel it at all.
He looks at me, and the love in his eyes almost makes me cry. “You’re serious?”
“Your friends are all going to have babies,” I say. “Wouldn’t it be fun to raise our children together? They could run these fields like we did growing up.” I smile. “I think there’s something really sweet about that.”
He doesn’t answer. I think he’s in shock.Again.
“Grief stole a lot from me over the years,” I admit. “And I watched a video tonight of my parents, who made me realize how precious life really is. It was just Markie, them, and me playing at a park, and they looked so happy. At first, it hurt my heart, and I wished I hadn’t seen it. But then I realized—how selfish is that? They lived fun, happy lives and had two children.It’s such a detriment to their legacy not to think about them. To avoid watching the videos and looking at pictures.” I shrug. “And what a travesty it would be to waste my life being scared of losing someone else.”
He brushes my hair out of my face. “I love you, Mira. I don’t think you understand how amazing you are. How brave. How strong. But I see it. And there’s nothing, and I meannothing, more I’d like than to have a family with you.”
“You can. We can. Because I’m not going anywhere. All that shit I said about making a divorce easy? Ha. If you ever try to leave me, I’ll fight you so hard that you’ll just come back to me out of convenience.”
“Hold on to me.”
He stands with me, clinging to him like a monkey. I wrap my legs around his waist as he carries me through the house to our room. There are touches of me in almost every room of the house now. A picture here, a new curtain there. The dishwasher I chose at the appliance store. The throw pillow on the recliner. I never really realized just how much our lives had mixed naturally.
But it works. Just like we work.
It was all meant to be.
EPILOGUE
Hartley
Two weeks later …
“I swear to all that’s holy, if you fall in that fire, I’m not helping you get out,” I say to Brooks.
He slaps himself in the chest. “You do realize that I was once a professional athlete. Balance comes naturally.”
“Where’d the girls go?” Gray asks, coming out of the back of his cabin. “Brooks, get the fuck off that stump. You’re gonna fall in the fucking fire.”
“Does no one have faith in me?” Brooks asks, looking around.
