Home.
Yeah, I’d missed my ranch while we’d been staying at a rental home in Billings, but home was really wherever Sierra and I were together.
Cole and my cousins had been seeing to the horses and taking care of things while we’d been here.
“It will be nice to have my girls back in Crystal Fork,” I conceded, finally able to imagine what the future was going to hold for us.
“It will be nice to have you home,” Cole said hoarsely.
I looked at my younger brother, and it finally dawned on me that the last several months had been hard on him and Lauren, too.
They’d made Sierra and me their priority.
“It’s over,” I said to my brother, repeating what he’d said to me moments ago. “I’ll be there for you when it’s your turn.”
Cole snorted. “After watching you, I’m not so sure I want to go through that kind of hell.”
Oh, he would.
He’d do it because he’d want that child and because his wife wanted it, too.
I hoped to hell he went through a much easier pregnancy than me, but I had no doubt that Cole and Lauren would end up having a family. They both had too much love to share with a child, and they both deserved a family of their own.
After everything Cole and I had been through together, it would feel like we’d come full circle when I saw him holding his child.
In my mind, our life now more than made up for everything we’d been through in the past.
“You’ll do it,” I said with certainty as I slapped him on the back. “And I’m going to be there for it.”
All of his family would be there for it.
We were done being alone.
Cole and I were finally done fighting the whole world.
We were Remingtons, and after a long journey away, we were finally exactly where we belonged.
Sierra
One Year Later…
“Kaylee was exhausted. That was quite a birthday party for her,” I told Asher as we laid in bed later that evening.
My mom had departed right after the party, and my daughter was sound asleep.
I loved this time of night when I could be close to Asher and the house was quiet.
It was our time, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
I enjoyed the liveliness and chaos of having a one-year-old daughter during the day, but I cherished the moments when I could have some alone time with the man I loved.
“It’s her first birthday,” he said nonchalantly as he wrapped a strong arm around my waist and pulled me tightly to him.
I chuckled. “And that means she needed more gifts than she can appreciate at her age and an enormous party? I think a much smaller cake and our family would have been fine.”
Instead, we’d ended up having a clown that had made our daughter cry, more food than anyone could eat, and a huge cake that should never be necessary for less than a hundred people.
It had taken a very long time to help Kaylee open the ridiculous amount of gifts that Asher had bought for her.
