Page 36 of A Mustang River Christmas

“You make me feel like that too,” she said.

But it had taken her five years to get to a place in her last relationship when she had realized that it was a mistake. How could she know that this was love? After only a few weeks?

And then she realized. All the happy couples around her had always said that when you know, you know. And standing there, staring at Pike Malone, she suddenly knew.

And she had never known before. Which meant she had thought that was nonsense, but it wasn’t.

It really wasn’t.

It was always and only ever the truth.

Not something that you could explain to a person until they were sitting there staring destiny in the face.

But something else became clear right then. Destiny could only become destiny if you reached out and took it.

“I’m really very happy with so many of the things that I have,” she said. “But I let go of the idea that I could have it all. And yesterday, I told Chloe that she could have it all, but I realized that I didn’t seem to think that I could. But I want it. I really do. I want it with you.”

“I love you,” Pike said. “And I am going to spend every Christmas after showing you exactly what that means.”

“I love you too,” Laney said. “I really do. I’ve said it before, but never like this. I love you, Pike. Everything about you.”

“I love you too.”

“You already said it.”

“Yeah, I’m probably going to say it a bunch more times.”

She smiled. “Okay. I can live with that.”

Laney Forrester could pretty much DIY anything, but she realized that she wasn’t going to have to do everything herself ever again. Because she had Pike. And he made everything better.

Epilogue

The year had flown by in a blur, and it was Christmas again before Pike knew it.

This year for the holiday, he and Laney had put together a gingerbread Main Street of Mustang River. It had been elaborate, and a lot of work, so much so that Laney had been kind of fatigued over the past week or so, but he couldn’t blame her.

The day had been a great one. Marlowe and Cody had finally gotten married. Addison and Walker had already gotten married a few months earlier—and nobody had run away from the altar. Zane and Kara had married nearly a year earlier, and Nolan and Lila had eloped and then had a reception at the ranch later. But Marlowe and Cody had waited a while, and Pike could understand it. Because Marlowe had been married before. And sometimes when you’d had something that wasn’t quite right, you wanted to sit and luxuriate in the thing that you had gotten just so. At least, that’s what he’d been doing for the last year.

And now he had a ring that was burning a hole in his pocket.

It was Christmas Eve, and he fully intended to propose right in front of the giant tree in the lobby.

A very tired-looking Laney walked out of the kitchen, and he walked toward her.

“I have something to ask you,” he said.

But at the same time, she said, “I have something to tell you.”

“Well, you go first.”

“You’re not going to believe it,” she said.

“I don’t know. I have a pretty high threshold for the remarkable.”

“Okay. I... Pike, I just took a test. I’m pregnant.”

That completely stunned him.