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Goblin immediately climbed halfway into her lap, stubby tail wagging as though he had personally arranged the engagement and required acknowledgment.

Mac rubbed both hands over his face. “Couldn’t give us thirty seconds, eh, bud?”

“He helped rescue me. He gets thirty seconds whenever he wants.”

“That’s going to become a problem.”

“I think it already is.”

Jodie buried one hand in Goblin’s fur. A month ago she had thought she knew what she wanted from the rest of her life. Keep Watchdog running. Help where she was useful. Love Mac if she got lucky enough that he’d keep choosing her.

Apparently she had been thinking too small.

Mac stood and helped her up. After they kissed for a while, they moved back toward the party. Ben and Charlie were pretending very hard not to watch them. Arden didn’t even try to pretend. Kyle stood beside her with his arms folded, and even from this distance Jodie could tell he was smiling. Beyond them were people she had fed, scheduled, reminded, nagged, and worried about for years.

People who had supported her right back when she couldn’t do a damned thing for any of them. The knowledge no longer made her want to look away.

Jodie patted the pocket where Mac had put his ring. “You’d better not lose that.”

“I survived CANSOF, the RCMP, Watchdog, and one extremely bossy receptionist. I think I can manage to not lose a ring.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Future veterinarian,” he amended.

The words still gave her a little shock.

Future veterinarian.

She could see it now without immediately calculating what she would have to give up to get there. There would be classes and labs and exams, work schedules and long nights and probably at least one spectacular meltdown in which she informed Mac she had ruined her entire life and was dropping out to raise goats.

Watchdog would change. Someone else would sit at her desk. The world would continue turning.

And she would still belong in it.

Just then, cheers broke out.

She closed her eyes. “Oh, no.”

Apparently everyone had abandoned the pretense.

When she opened her eyes, Arden was crying. Kyle had one arm around her. Ben stood with his arm around Charlie, his eyes suspiciously bright. Virgil lifted a beer in their direction. Stephanie clapped beside the fence, looking way too happy with herself. Hank stood a little apart from the others, tiredness carved deeply into his face, but when Jodie met his eyes he smiled and nodded.

Later, after food and cake and too many people asking to inspect the ring, Jodie slipped away to the fence again. The sun had dropped behind the mountains. Luna grazed close to Sagebrush while Lucky wandered farther out with Jet. Goblin lay across Jodie’s boots, exhausted from the responsibility of supervising an engagement party.

Mac came up beside her and rested his forearms on the rail. She leaned her head against his shoulder.

“I’m happy.”

Mac kissed her hair. “Good.”

Jodie watched Luna lift her head into the evening wind, mane moving against her neck. For once, there was nothing Jodie needed to fix.

So she didn’t.

She stood beside the man she loved, with her dog asleep at her feet and wild horses running around her finger, and let the whole impossible life belong to her.

THIRTY