Page 50 of The Cowboy's Secret Babies

Because one thing Ryder knew about Rosie was that she liked a happy ending.

He’d made sure to give her one, because deep down, he was pretty sure that was what she wanted.

Their boys were there, dressed up nice and fancy—though Levi had already lost his tie and Eli looked like he’d tried to wrestle his coat into submission—and when they came charging over to hug on them, shrieking in all that ear-splitting joy, Rosie stopped pretending she wasn’t crying.

Ryder hooked an arm around her neck, kissed her face, and said, “I decided we needed a big thing, after all.”

“It’s perfect,” she told him in a low, choked voice. “It’s everything I said I didn’t want, Ryder, and I’m so glad you did it anyway.”

He took pleasure in the way she looked around, taking in all the people who’d come out for her this afternoon. He saw her smile at her family, his family. It widened as she saw all the friends who never would have missed this, her mother and an assortment of folks from the community out in the boonies.

And then he watched that smiled dim as she looked at some of the other townspeople, like that Gwen Sheen. She was standing in the corner with her mother, both sets of their eyes a little bit bright with an avid sort of speculation.

It wasn’t nice, whatever they were thinking over there. Ryder would have ignored them the way he’d done in the feed store.

But he saw the way the Rosie looked at them, and then looked down.

“Don’t pay attention to them,” he told her, putting his mouth to her temple again. “They both like to run their mouths. Like mother, like daughter, I guess.”

The little twins had toddler adventures to take care of, so off they went in a rush, safe in this room with so many watchful adult eyes. Once they were off, Rosie turned to him.

Her eyes were so full. She reached out and took his hands.

“I want you to know, it’s okay,” she told him. Very seriously, he could see.

Like these were new vows.

“What’s okay?” he asked, because somehow, he didn’t think she was talking about Gwen and Marla Sheen, of all people.

Rosie moved in closer and tipped her head up, a lot like she was about to whisper love words. He would have liked that just fine, but she didn’t.

“It’s okay that you don’t love me, Ryder,” she told him instead.

And not for the first time in her presence, he felt as if he’d been cut in two.

He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t breathe. It was that same terrible feeling all over again, tossed high into the air and ready to hit ground, so hard, that he might just consider it lucky if it killed him on the spot.

Meanwhile, she was still smiling at him, softly. That made it worse. She was still wearing that silly, bright hat and her puffy coat.

She was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen. He’d thrown her a wedding party because he’d wanted to see her smile. He couldn’t make sense of what she was saying to him.

“Rosie—” he began.

But she reached up and put her fingers over his mouth, quieting him like he was one of their kids. Only unlike them, he actually went silent.

“It’s okay,” she said in that same quiet, serious way. “What matters is that you love the boys. Good marriages have been built on less.” When he started to argue, there against her fingers, she shook her head. “I knew when I met you that night in Austin that you weren’t a man who stayed put. I accept that. I want you to know that I’ll always be here, no matter what. Because I love you, and I’m not a doormat. That’s not what I’m talking about.”

She looked away for a moment, and he did too, catching a glimpse of her mother across the room. When he looked back, Rosie seemed more resolved.

“I intend to love you forever, Ryder,” she told him. “And that means all of you. You don’t have to stay here in Cowboy Point to prove anything. Not to me.”

He thought he would have liked it better if she’d actually hauled off and sucker punched him.

Ryder felt something almost volcanic inside of him. He was almost certain that he was going to erupt.

Because he couldn’t stand that she believed that he would treat her like that. He couldn’t stand that she believed he was so cold.

She didn’t justbelieveit. Sheknewit. This wasn’t even resignation. She’dacceptedit.

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