Epilogue
Ethan pushed open the barn door and stepped inside, clapping his gloved hands together against the cold.
Christmas Eve in Montana was no joke. A storm was predicted by nightfall, and he wanted to check the horses before it hit.
He stopped at Vader’s stall first. The gelding pushed his nose through the bars immediately and Ethan rubbed the soft spot between his nostrils.
“Hey, boy. Bet you’re glad to be in here, aren’t you? It’s damn cold out.”
Vader blew into his hand in agreement.
“Boss.” Johnny appeared from the far end of the barn, moving toward him with his hands tucked in his jacket pockets.
“Johnny. How’s the new mare settling in?”
Johnny stopped beside him and gave Vader a rub of his own. “She’s good. But I don’t think she’s Vader good.”
“I’m not sure we’ll have another one like him.” Ethan looked at the gelding fondly. “He loves what he does. You can’t train that into a horse.”
“You’re not going to sell him, are you?”
“That was the plan. After he was trained and had competed.” Ethan grinned. “But Naomi loves this horse.”
Johnny looked at him. “So, what are you saying?”
“I’m giving him to her for Christmas.”
Johnny’s face broke into a wide smile. “She’s going to lose her mind.”
“I hope so.”
“That’s great, boss. Real great.” He tilted his head. “I’m trying to figure out what to get Serena.”
“I’m sure anything you give her will make her happy.”
“I hope so.” Johnny was quiet for a beat. “So is Vader the only gift for Naomi?”
Ethan looked at him. “No.”
“No?” Johnny straightened. “You’re not going to tell me more?”
“No.”
“Damn, boss.”
Ethan chuckled. “Ask Serena. She knows.” He pushed off the stall. “Whether she tells you is another matter entirely.”
Johnny laughed. “That woman can keep a secret; I’ll give her that.”
“I know.” Ethan pulled his gloves back on. “I need to get to town before the weather turns. Naomi’s out with Aftyn, Ryan, and Serena so I’ve got a window.”
“I bet those four are tearing Clifton apart.”
“Probably.” He headed for the door. “I hate going out on Christmas Eve, but I don’t have a choice. Those four do, but they wanted to do some last-minute shopping. I’ll see you later.”
“Yep.”
Outside it was flurrying, light and lazy for now, but he’d lived in Montana long enough to know that could change inside of an hour.
He crossed the yard to his truck, wishing he’d started it earlier, and climbed in.
The seat was cold and the engine turned over reluctantly but caught, and he sat there a minute letting it warm up, watching the snow come down on the ranch.
He thought about what was waiting for him in Clifton and felt something warm settle in his chest despite the cold. He put the truck in gear and drove.
He parked on Main Street and sat for a moment looking at the jewelry store across the road.
The bakery, Sweet Nothings, was next door and the smell of chocolate and sugar drifted even through the closed truck windows. Festive Finds had its window dressed for Christmas, lights and garland and the kind of careful decoration that made the whole street look like something off a postcard.
He got out and crossed the street.
The bell above the jewelry store door announced him and a woman he recognized as Patricia Miller looked up from behind the counter and smiled.
“Mr. Harrison. It’s ready.”
“Good.” He stepped up to the counter.
She disappeared into the back and returned with a small velvet box. She set it on the counter and opened it.
He looked at the ring for a moment. Simple and elegant, a round diamond set in a platinum band.
He’d spent two hours in this store the week before going back and forth and had finally decided that Naomi wasn’t a complicated woman when it came to the things that mattered.
She was direct and honest, and she didn’t need anything flashy.
Just real.
“It’s beautiful,” Patricia said.
“Yeah.” He picked up the box and looked at it a moment longer, then closed it and slipped it into his jacket pocket. “It is.”
He paid, thanked her, and walked back out into the snow which had picked up since he’d left the ranch. He stood on the sidewalk for a second with his hand over his jacket pocket.
He wasn’t nervous. He was certain.
That was how he knew it was right.
He got in the truck and drove to Cole’s.
Cole met him at the door before he’d even knocked.
“It’s in the spare room,” Cole said, stepping back to let him in. “Come on.”
“Aftyn still out?”
“Won’t be back for hours knowing those four.” Cole led him down the hall. “Probably cleaned out every shop in Clifton by now. I don’t know why anyone would go out on Christmas Eve.”
He pushed open the spare room door and Ethan stopped in the doorway.
The dollhouse sat on the low table Cole had set up for it, a two-story Victorian with a wide front porch and window boxes and every room furnished down to the smallest detail.
Tiny rugs on the floors, miniature books on miniature shelves, a little kitchen with a little wooden table and four chairs.
A bedroom with a brass bed no bigger than his palm.
He stood there looking at it and thought about Naomi as a little girl pressing her nose against a shop window while her grandmother looked away because she couldn’t afford it.
Not anymore.
“Help me get it to the truck,” he said quietly.
Cole nodded and picked up one end without another word, which was exactly why he was the right person to have kept it.
The snow was coming down steadily by the time he got back to the ranch.
He pulled around to the barn and backed the truck in out of the weather, which was partly practical and partly because he didn’t want Naomi pulling in and spotting something in the back seat before he had a chance to get it inside.
He cut the engine, got out and Johnny was already there, appearing from the far end of the barn like he’d been waiting.
“Need a hand?”
“Yeah.” Ethan opened the back door. “Careful with it.”
Johnny looked at the blanketed shape in the seat and whistled low. “That’s a big gift.”
They lifted it together, slow, and careful, and carried it to the back of the tack room where Ethan had cleared a space earlier in the week. He set his end down gently and pulled the blanket back just enough for Johnny to see.
Johnny stared at it for a long moment, taking in the porch, the window boxes, the tiny furnished rooms.
“That’s the most thoughtful thing I’ve ever seen a man do,” he said quietly.
Ethan covered it back up and straightened. “Not a word to anyone except Serena.”
“Serena already knows?”
“She’s who told me about it.” He locked the tack room and pocketed the key. “Make sure Naomi stays out of here if she comes looking for anything. She shouldn’t since it’s Christmas Eve, but you never know.”
“Consider it done.” Johnny fell into step beside him as they walked back toward the barn door. He was quiet for a moment. “She’s going to say yes, you know.”
Ethan looked at him sideways.
Johnny held up both hands. “Just saying.”
Ethan headed for the house without answering.
But he was smiling when he got inside.
****
The first thing Naomi noticed when she woke was the quiet.
No wind, no sound from outside, just the deep stillness that meant snow. She lay there for a moment in the warm dark, Ethan’s arm around her, and listened to nothing.
Then she remembered what day it was.
She slipped out from under his arm, padded to the window, and looked out. The ranch was buried in white, the barn roof thick with it, the fence posts wearing little caps of snow, the whole world gone soft, clean, and still.
She stood there smiling at it until she heard him moving behind her.
“Merry Christmas,” he said, his voice rough with sleep.
She turned. He was sitting up in bed looking at her with his hair going every direction and his eyes soft.
“Merry Christmas.” She crossed to him and kissed him. “It snowed.”
“It did.” He reached for her hand. “Coffee first.”
In the kitchen he poured them both a cup and she stood at the window and looked out at the snow-covered ranch and thought about every Christmas she’d spent alone or close enough to it, just her and her grandmother in that old house in Kalispell, making the best of what they had.
She thought her grandmother would have loved it here.
“Hey.” Ethan’s hand came to her shoulder. “Where’d you go?”
“Nowhere.” She leaned back against him. “Just thinking.”
“Come on.” He took her hand. “I have something to show you.”
He led her to the living room where the tree was lit, and the fire was going and a sheet-covered shape sat in the corner that hadn’t been there when she’d gone to bed.
She looked at it, then at him.
“What is that?”
“Go look.”
She crossed to it slowly and lifted the sheet and the breath went out of her completely.
A dollhouse painted white with blue shutters, a covered front porch with a little wooden swing, flower boxes under every window.
Inside each room was furnished with the kind of care that made her throat tighten.
A parlor with a settee and a fireplace with a tiny painting above the mantle.
A dining room with a chandelier she could have balanced on her fingertip.
Wallpaper in every room, patterned and perfect, the kind of detail that could only come from someone who loved what they were making.
Her hand came up to her mouth.
“Ethan.” She turned to look at him, her eyes full. “How did you know?”
“Serena.” The corner of his mouth lifted. “I told her I didn’t know what to get you for Christmas. She told me about the dollhouses at Vanna’s shop and how you’d nearly cried over them. Vanna handled the rest.”
She looked back at the dollhouse, running her finger along the edge of the little porch railing.
“I always wanted one,” she whispered. “My grandmother—” She stopped.
“I know.” He crossed to her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Now you have one.”
She wiped her eyes and laughed softly at herself. “I promised myself I wasn’t going to cry today.”
“How’s that working out?”
“Terribly.” She laughed again and turned to put her arms around him. “Thank you. It’s the most beautiful thing anyone has ever given me.”
He held her for a moment, then pulled back and took her hand.
“Come on,” he said. “We’re not done. We need to get dressed. I have something in the barn for you.”
She looked at him. “Ethan, you don’t need to—”
“Come on.”
They dressed in warm clothes, pulled on their coats and boots, then stepped onto the porch. The cold taking their breath. He took her hand and led her out into the snow.
The ranch was hushed and white around them, their breath clouding in the cold air, their boots breaking through the fresh crust with every step.
She held his hand and looked up at the sky, heavy and gray and full of more snow to come and thought that she’d never seen anything more beautiful in her life.
Inside the barn it was warm and smelled of hay and horses. She followed him down the aisle to Vader’s stall.
The gelding’s ears came up the moment he saw her.
Ethan stopped and turned to face her.
“I had planned to sell him after he was trained and competed,” he said. “That was always the plan.”
She looked at Vader, then back at Ethan. Something was building in her chest that she couldn’t name yet.
“But you love this horse,” Ethan said simply. “and he loves you. So, he’s yours. Merry Christmas, Naomi.”
She put both hands over her mouth.
Vader stretched his nose through the bars to nudge her arm impatiently. She laughed through her tears. She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his.
“Hey, boy,” she managed. “You’re mine. You hear that? You’re mine.”
She stood there with her forehead against the gelding’s for a long moment, her shoulders shaking, and felt Ethan’s hand come to wrap around the nape of her neck.
She turned and looked at him, not even trying to stop the tears now.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything.” He reached into his jacket pocket. “But I do have one more thing.”
She watched him pull out a small velvet box and her heart stopped completely.
He looked at her with those moss green eyes, steady and certain, and dropped to one knee in the barn aisle with the horses watching and the snow falling softly outside.
“I loved you before I knew what hit me,” he said quietly. “And I don’t want to spend another day of my life that isn’t headed toward forever with you.” He opened the box. “Marry me, Naomi.”
She looked at the ring. Simple and perfect and exactly right.
Then she looked at him, this steady, careful, impossible man who had driven eight hours to rescue a horse, a man who brought her wildflowers, a man who bought her a dollhouse and loved her without conditions or apology.
“Yes,” she said. “Ethan, yes.”
He slid the ring onto her finger, stood, and she threw her arms around his neck.
He lifted her off her feet. He held her there in the barn aisle while Vader watched them both with his ears forward, the snow coming down outside and somewhere in the distance a rooster crowed like it had something important to announce.
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you too.” He set her down and looked at her, the ring on her finger, the tears on her face, the barn around them. “Merry Christmas, darlin’.”
She looked up at him and smiled.
“Best one I ever had,” she said.
“The first of many,” he whispered as he lowered his lips to hers.
* * * The End * * *