Epilogue
Hadley
Flames crackle, embers rising to the sky every time I poke it with the long stick I found earlier. The backyard bonfire is a coming-home tradition we’ve made. And it’s been thirty-two days, nine hours, and eleven minutes since Maggie left on assignment.
She takes three she deems meaningful every year.
Something about keeping her promise to Cap.
Those three stints without her are the longest days of my year, regardless of the season. It’s almost midnight, and the sky has been gnarly all day.
The wind is crisper than an Arctic gust. I wrap my jacket around my body, zipping it up.
Tires over gravel close in.
I fling the stick into the fire and push through the back door. Taking stock of the renovations we did after we settled the ranch debt, I make a small detour to grab up the small box on the kitchen counter.
It’s been two years since Sunshine came home.
Since we sent Nia off to a fancy college.
Hells Bells was the last bull I rode. I officially retired on a high note with the Pbr Championship, although the celebration happened from a hospital bed.
The journey may have been rough, but it was worth it.
And when Maggie told me about her father, Evan Gallagher, I was heartbroken for her.
And acutely aware of how much she had to overcome to fall in love with a cowboy like me.
“Honey! I’m home,” Maggie coos as the front screen door snaps shut.
I don’t wait for her to find me. I’m out the back door before she sees me. Everything is set up.
Candles in jars dotted around the porch—check.
Bonfire raging—check.
Snow falling softly—check.
Cowboy down on one knee—check.
Ring that took me over twelve months to save for—check.
Heart on my damn sleeve—triple check.
“Hads?” she calls, wandering through the house.
The moment the back door opens, my heart backflips in my chest. That feeling I have when I see her always takes me by surprise and will never get old. Standing just outside the door, her gaze tracks the candles, the bonfire, and finally lands on me.
On one knee.
The moment I’ve been waiting for, for longer than I’ll ever admit.
Hell, that first night we met, I felt it then.
I wasn’t the person she needed then. But we grew on each other as we grew together over the months our decrepit vehicles forced us into confined spaces.
I’ll forever be grateful for my rust bucket pickup. It was the push I needed.
“Hadley Jones, why are you on your knee?”
She closes the distance between us, hugging her coat around her.
“Because, Sunshine, this is the only way I know how to show you that you always come first. That I will always be here, at home, waiting for you no matter how far you go. And maybe you’ll let me come along sometimes.”
Her head tilts to one side. “You wanna see the world with me, cowboy?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“What about your ranch?”
“I have help these days. Besides, where you go, I go, from this day forward.”
“Even if the bunk is so tiny, you have to sleep on a ruler’s width?”
“Even then.”
“Even if I get it wrong sometimes and push you away?”
“Especially then.”
“How about when everything feels like its falling apart?”
“Absolutely, baby.”
She glances at the bonfire, her face tight with emotion.
“Maggie?” I search her face.
She smiles down at me, snowflakes falling over her hair and shoulders. “Yeah, cowboy?”
“Marry me, Sunshine.”
She moves into my space, bending down to plant a kiss on my forehead as she cups my jaw and tilts my head up. “How could I ever live without you?”
I push to my feet, studying her face, a hand sliding behind her neck as I tug her closer. “Yes?”
“Yes, baby.”
I smash my mouth to hers.
Her hands tangle in my snow-dusted hair, fingers curling around the locks. I haul her onto my hips, and she huffs a sweet laugh. Her arm slides around my neck and I grab her left hand, sliding the ring from the box and onto her finger.
The diamond that will come to house every promise I’ll ever make this incredible woman glitters in the firelight.
“You did good, cowboy.”
She’s not talking about the ring. The life we promised each other is finally starting to unfold. This official part is the first stepping stone on the way to bigger, happier things for us.
“Hadley?”
“Maggie?”
She brushes her lips over mine. “I missed you so much.”
I chuckle, stepping up onto the porch. “Well, we can’t have that now, can we?”
We’re inside a moment later, heading for our room. Maggie slides my coat off, tugging at my work shirt. Not waiting for the buttons, she rips it off.
“Oh baby, don’t go racin’ ahead of me now.”
Her mouth trails kisses over my neck. I squeeze her ass in both hands, cock impossibly hard already.
I reach the bed and give her a lopsided smile. She catches the meaning the second I release her, and she’s airborne for the bed.
The giggle slipping past her lips turns the last semblance of civility in me feral. I’m ripping her jeans off, panties over her hips a second later.
I’ve waited far too many days to taste this sweet pussy, and I’m not waiting another damn moment. I run my tongue through her center as she wriggles, taking off her coat, sweater, and shirt. That wriggle turns to writhing as she lies bare, my hands pushing her thighs back as I take my fill.
A whimper leaves her throat and turns desperate, and I know she’s close. I slide two fingers deep inside, working her over as I pump them in and out. She tightens around me as her hips buck from the bed, grinding all over my face as she chases her release. I lap up every drop she gives me.
Fine hands search for my face, and I crawl up the bed. They drop to my jeans, flipping the button open. I’m bare with her before too long and she tracks her fingers over my body, like she’s refamiliarizing herself.
My favorite part of every return trip is this moment.
It’s not because we forget, it’s because we get to remind each other every time.
It’s kind of incredible.
“I need you inside me so bad, Hads.”
With a low growl, I clamp around a nipple and nudge her thighs apart further.
“You always come home to me, Sunshine, you hear?”
My words are thick, gravel and raw.
Losing my father to absence paled in comparison to this woman walking away from me. I will never forget the perspective she gave me with that one action.
Luckily for me, neither of us could live without the other.
Maggie palms my jaw, dragging my gaze to her. “Always be right here waiting for me.” The last word breaks.
Our hurts were what led us to the place we found each other. They are, ultimately, what holds us together after much evolution. I dip my head to hers, nudging her entrance with my cock as she studies the emotions coursing through my eyes as I reply, “Yes ma’am.”
I sink into her.
The sounds leaving both of us tangle into something ethereal. Her palm presses to my chest, the diamond on her hand sparkling with so much damn promise my throat thickens.
We finally both made it home.