Page 54 of A Cowboy's Claim
They gathered up their plates and made their way to the side counter just as a bell rang loudly.
Petra shook a dinner bell above her head. “Everyone! The party’s not over, but we need your attention for a sec.”
Julia and Zach wove through the crowd with glasses in hand, making sure everyone had something to toast with.
Standing at the front, Aiden and Petra smiled at each other before Aiden turned to the crowd. “Our wedding was a little unorthodox. Which, if you know anything about Petra, is typical.”
A cheer went up along with a ripple of laughter.
Petra stuck out her tongue for a moment then eased in and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “So while the wedding happened back in the winter, we wanted to take this moment to celebrate with all of you. Our friends, our family, and a big important part of our future.”
Aiden took his turn again. “Coming to Heart Falls was the right thing, not only because we found all of you, but because Petra’s brother was brilliant enough to already live here, so it brought her here as well.”
“You’re welcome,” Zach called. “Invoice is in the mail.”
Laughter rippled through the yard.
Petra grinned. “Coming to High Water was scary. But I knew I was coming home. I just didn’t know I’d find the one person who would make it perfect.” She turned to Aiden. “You are my heart. I love you.”
“Love you forever. Forever and a day,” Aiden replied.
They kissed. The cheer that went up was deafening.
“If you’ll all raise a glass with us,” Aiden called, “this is our official ‘we got hitched and we want the world to know it’ party.”
“To Petra and Aiden!” Tansy shouted, leaning into Jake with Jeffrey on her hip.
“Auntie Petra and Uncle Aiden!” Jeffrey echoed, holding his glass of orange juice high.
The toast echoed through the crowd, delight ringing in every voice.
Sydney stood on the edge of the gathering, watching the joy, the love, thecertaintyflowing through the crowd like sunlight.
The temptation to step forward, to reach for that kind of future—God, it was strong.
But she still didn’t see a way forward. Not while she was beholden to Grandpa Nate’s money. But knowing it and accepting it were two different things, and the difference was starting to tear at her.
Maybe that was part of what Tamara had seen.
Sydney wanted more.
12
Declan’s plans to take Sydney by storm were messed up the very next day when Petra’s brother Zach gave him a shout and asked for help dealing with a horse issue for Red Boot ranch.
The trip took the two of them out of town for five nights on the long haul to Winnipeg to pick up horses Zach’s dad had received in some sort of odd research trade.
They stopped four hours out of Heart Falls on the way home to grab a final meal before completing the trip. Drizzling rain had followed them all the way across the prairies, and it was nice to finally sit down with a hot coffee and watch the shitty weather instead of white knuckling through it.
“Thanks for being a good sport about the horse run.” Zach leaned back in the booth and pushed his empty breakfast plate away. “It’s not been the nicest trip ever.”
“You just drive to the conditions,” Declan said easily. “Run it by me again—how did your dad end up with the horses?”
Zach snorted. “He’s an inventor, remember? Somebody owed him information and decided to donate his entire research project in the hopes Dad would take over and finish. Only, that’s not that kind of researcher my dad is. The horses are in good shape in spite of whatever nonsense their previous owner was putting them through.”
Now it made more sense. “Okay. Yeah, I couldn’t figure out how your dad was using horses, let alone getting them into his laboratory.”
It was midafternoon by the time they got back to Heart Falls, and nearly supper when they’d finished unloading the horses into the barn, all of them cared for with Cody Gabrielle’s help.
