Page 27 of Unexpected Sweetheart
“It wasn’t a choice, Ry. It was destiny. We were supposed to find each other.”
Leaning in, I run the tip of my nose alongside hers. “I’ve never loved another person the way I love you,” I whisper.
“Good,” she says, brushing her lips to mine. “Because I willneverlove another man the way I love you. That’s a promise.”
“I can’t wait to marry you.”
“I can’t wait to have your babies.”
Those words make me grin from ear to ear.
“Think we have some time to get some more practice in?”
“There’s always time, Ry. Make love to me. Tell me I’m yours.”
“As you wish, heiress,” I say, kissing her hard as I lift her and carry her back toward the house. She pulls back and grins down at me.
“Not heiress anymore, remember? Queen of the ranch.”
“OK. Queen of the ranch.” I laugh as I kiss her some more and carry her directly to our room so I can worship her the way she deserves, in our own little castle, ruling over our own tiny kingdom. Together, forever.
This entire situation is completely different to what either of us expected out of life, but somehow, finding each other on this ranch is exactly what we needed.
Epilogue
Ten Years Later…
Rory
And they all lived happily ever after…
Mostly, that’s true. Ryan and I have had a very happy first decade together. Sure, there have been a few trials and tribulations, but we’ve come out the other end stronger each time. I think it’s impossible to be happy one hundred percent of the time, but we definitely give it a good go, and my love for the grumpy, bossy man who sets my heart on fire hasn’t lessened even during our darkest moments. In fact, I can unequivocally say that standing here today, I love him even more than I did when I was fresh-faced and begging. Time has brought us closer together.
“Look,” I say, leaning in close to our littlest cowboy, four-year-old, Jasper as he stands on the fence to see the heifers in the corral. “She’s having her baby.”
“Is it a boy or a girl?” our oldest cowboy, nine-year-old, Jonah asks.
“You can’t tell until they’re born, silly,” our only cowgirl, six-year-old, Jessie says, rolling her eyes at her big brother. She idolizes him, but she loves it when she knows something he doesn’t.
“That’s right,” I say, keeping my voice nice and low so we don’t disturb our birthing momma. “You’ll see two little hooves first, then the head, and finally the body. Once the momma cow cleans her new calf up, it’ll get up to have a drink. Then we can see if it’s a baby bull or a baby heifer.”
“I love calving season,” Jessie says with a huge smile on her face.
“Yeah. They’re crazy cute,” Jonah agrees.
“Can we take one in the house with us, Mommy? I want to keep a calf in my room.” Jasper asks, making me chuckle.
“It would poop all over the carpet,” I say, loving the way his face twists into a disgusted ‘yuk’.
“How’s she going?” A deep rumbly voice fills my ears as a strong arm slides around my waist, a stubbled jaw passing along my cheek before I turn to kiss the king of hotness himself, my husband.
“You smell like hard work,” I say, licking my lips as I pull back and touch his face lovingly.
“Lots of new calves out in the fields. The guys and I spent all morning tagging them. We’ve had a good year.”
“That’s wonderful. And it looks like we’ll have another one very soon. Thankfully Junior doesn’t make giant calves, so Daisy here is doing quite well.” We don’t get to keep a lot of bulls, but I was quite insistent we keep Junior. It was his birth that brought us together, after all.
“Looks like I got back just in time to see the show,” he says, lifting Jasper up so he’s got a better vantage point on Daddy’s shoulders. There’s a collective gasp as Daisy shifts, and the calf’s head and legs appear.
