Page 74 of Love Me Again

He didn’t release her right away. “Tell me the truth. Are you just coming back because of my family?”

She laughed against his mouth, then sighed. “They’re a pretty nice bonus.”

“I’ll take it.” His grip tightened, his expression went serious again. “You’ll never be sorry. I’ll never rip any roots out. I’ll tend to them. I’ve got some great examples on how to do that kind of thing, and I’m going to look up to them instead of run away from them.”

It was a beautiful promise. One she’d believe in.

His grip finally loosened. “I guess I better go in or they’ll tell me I’m too late.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

So she waited with Molly, who filled her in on everything that had happened at the ranch while she’d been gone. There was no judgement, no icy reserve. Josie realized she’d been a little afraid everyone would be mad at her.

But she should have known better. They’d all bring her back into the fold again with open arms. It was what the Tyler family did.

And that was the lesson. Life hurt. People died. People left. There was actually no way to protect herself from that. But she had a choice in what she allowed, what she forgave, what she opened her arms to.

And she was opening them to a second chance.

“I’m sorry I had to leave,” she told Molly. Because she was sorry. “But I don’t think I could… I couldn’t forgive him, believe again, if I didn’t feel what it meant to be alone, and to realize it’s worse than being afraid of losing.”

“You don’t have to apologize for the way you had to learn a lesson, Josie,” Molly assured her. “One of the things I’m trying to accept about my own life is… Sometimes you do have to make the mistakes, make the wrong choices, leave the place you love to figure out who you are. And who you aren’t. You know who you are?” Molly bumped her shoulder.

“I’m not sure I do just yet.”

“Sure you do,” Molly said. “You’re a Tyler.”

A Tyler.

Yeah, she was.

EPILOGUE

The following spring

They renewed their vows on the Tyler Ranch with the wildflowers blooming in a riot around them. It hadn’t taken long for Boone to wear her down. He’d recovered from his surgery at the house for a few weeks while she lived in the cabin and worked on getting her Colorado vet’s license.

But by the time he was up on his own two feet again, there wasn’t a night he spent at the main house. He was at the cabin, in her bed, with her every moment he could be.

They’d spent too much time apart already.

So, when he asked her about renewing their vows, he hadn’t expected her to necessarily say yes right away. They’d only been back together a few months. She was working part time with Karl, and he was taking an online accounting class.

He couldn’t say he had any great love of math, but when he was the only one who could help Micah with his math homework one night, and Josie had been at her wit’s end trying to figure out her taxes and Boone had swept in and figured it out in less than an hour, his mother had suggested giving it a shot.

And Boone Tyler was now a man who gave things a shot. Maybe he’d fail.

Maybe he wouldn’t.

He’d aced his first test, made dinner for Josie, and had been flying high on success when he’d suggested, when they were ready, they should renew their vows with the wedding they’d never really had.

Josie had looked him right in the eye, considered, then said: why not May?

So it was May, and he was in a suit in the backyard of the Tyler Ranch. The new additions were ring bearer and flower girl, though that mostly just meant they got special outfits the women in the family picked out since the babies were too little to do anything but sit in their parents’ arms.

Boone had tapped Micah to be his best man, because he knew the kid would get a kick out of it. Molly was Josie’s maid of honor.

Shane walked Josie down the aisle.

Because she was part of the family.

Boone was glad they got to do both. The courthouse ceremony years ago with her dad. This slightly bigger ceremony with his family.

He wished he’d been ready to do both back then. Strong enough to be what she needed, when she needed it, but he was slowly learning to forgive himself for his mistakes, his failures.

Like Gavin had said back when Josie had first shown up…it was the fixing mistakes that mattered. So these days, Boone didn’t set out to never make a mistake. He set out to fix them, no matter what they were.

His knee surgery had mostly been a success. He still had days of pain if he overdid it, but that was his lot in life. He took it as a kind of talisman, these days. Not of failure, but of surviving.

And when Josie beamed up at him and said I do, again with tears in her eyes, Boone Tyler knew there was no failure he couldn’t survive.

Because Josie Tyler was his wife. His love, his hope, his soulmate.

Forever.