Epilogue
Heather
“ I ’m telling you. You should’ve seen my girl up there on that horse. She didn’t look like a city girl anymore. Then I had her driving my truck around the farm. And she did real good too. Didn’t crash into anything even though it is three times as big as her toy car.”
I rolled my eyes as David regaled his best friend with tall tales of my visit to Texas.
Six months since we’d started dating seriously and I finally took the time off from work and made the trip to El Paso.
“I told you. I’m not a city girl. I was born and raised in Iowa. I only live in a city now because of my job.”
Drew shot me a glance. “All the work you’ve done for Strickland, seems to me working for David should be your job. Don’t you think?”
“Already tried that.” David shook his head. “She’s tied to that damn production company.”
“Well, actually, I’m kind of happy about that. She did some great stuff for me. Got my show picked up by a network. Even gave it the perfect name.” Drew grinned.
David let out a laugh. “ Mother Cluckers . Yup. That is the perfect name for your show.”
A blur of red feathers caught my attention as Rowdy whizzed by, chasing one of Drew’s chickens.
“Hey, mister!” I called after him. “I came to visit you and you’re ignoring me.”
Drew lifted a brow. “Oh, I see how it is. You came to visit Rowdy. I just happen to live here.”
“I’m sorry.” I hung my head in shame.
“It’s okay, Heather. I know I rank behind David and Rowdy. Possibly not in that order.”
David laughed. “Sometimes I wonder.”
“You know exactly where you rank in my life,” I said to David.
“Yup. I do. I rank number two, right after your job. Sometimes number three if there’s a fundraiser at the shelter you’re involved in.” He cocked a brow high, as if daring me to contradict him.
I screwed up my mouth, wanting to fight but knowing it was probably true.
His lips twitched with a smile as he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Speechless? Come on, darlin’. I know you have something to say.”
His warm breath against my ear sent a shiver through me. Even all these months later the man still affected me. Maybe it was the fact he spent half his time in Texas.
When he came back to California, everything was as new and exciting as the first time. And I felt as needy as if he’d been gone for months rather than a week or two.
I turned my head to capture his lips. That was all it took for David to cup my chin in his palm and pull me tighter against him with a groan.
“Ugh. Jesus. Can you two wait to do that until you’re back at your place, please?” Drew asked.
Our place. Since David stayed with me when he was in town it did feel like our place—especially when he complained we should start looking for a bigger one.
I usually just told him to get over it. That everything was bigger in Texas except for the sky-high rents. Burbank had El Paso beat in that department. Hands down.
“Sorry, buddy. Can’t help myself when it comes to her.”
“Yeah, I know. What else is new?” Drew shook his head but the good-natured smile said he wasn’t all that annoyed with David or me.
The crunch of tires on the gravel had all of us turning toward the driveway.
“Oh, look. Our guests are here,” David said.
“Guests?” I frowned until I saw Charlie behind the wheel and a smiling Anna in the passenger seat.
Behind her, if I wasn’t mistaken, was Trixie next to CJ in his car seat. I realized what was happening immediately and my heart got a little more squishy.
I leveled a gaze on David. “You little devil. You secretly set up a play date for Rowdy and Trixie.”
Lips pressed together, David nodded. “Mmm, hmm. That’s what I did. Play date for Rowdy.”
Drew let out a snort. I could only guess he was making fun of his best friend from college for indulging my feather baby Rowdy and Anna’s fur baby Trixie.
Drew could mock all he wanted, but every time David did something like this I fell a little deeper in love—just when I thought it wasn’t possible to love him any more than I already did.
The Barker family slowly unloaded out of the car. Rowdy of course jumped on Trixie’s back the moment the goat got near him.
It was then that I noticed Trixie had a new accessory. A pillow strapped on her back.
“What did you do? Get him a saddle for Rowdy to ride on?” I laughed, then looked closer at this saddle .
It was small, made of burlap, with a wide white ribbon tied into a beautiful bow on top.
Something glittered, catching my eye. Catching Rowdy’s gaze too, as he started pecking at it.
Next to me, David dropped to one knee and took my hand in his, and I sucked in a sharp intake of air as realization took hold.
“Oh,” I said on a breath.
“Yeah. I figure it’s about time I did this. Because there’s no question in my mind, I want to live and die loving you and only you. Heather, will you marry me, darlin’?” David asked.
I somehow managed to nod, then got out a strangled yes as my eyes brimmed with tears.
There were cheers from the onlookers but I didn’t see them. Between the tears and the bear hug David enclosed me in, all I could do was cling to him and try not to bawl with happy but no doubt ugly tears.
“Phew. Glad that part is over. I was starting to get a little nervous.” David let out a short laugh.
I pulled back enough I could breathe and wipe my eyes. “You didn’t seem nervous.”
He lifted one shoulder. “I was sure about my part. I just wasn’t sure about your buying in to the whole thing.”
I frowned. How could he not be? There was no question I loved this man and wanted to spend the rest of my life doing so.
But there was one question I had. “What are we going to do about the living situation. And my job?”
He shook his head, emphatically. “I would never ask you to quit your job and relocate for me.”
“So what do we do? Have a commuter marriage the way we’ve been doing?”
I guess we could do that. For a little while anyway. Actually, a lot of the stars were doing that now. There was even a name for it. Something like living together apart ?
All I knew was that I hated being apart from David for even short amounts of time.
I guess I could move. I hadn’t hated Texas. It was nice. His family was nice. His mom would probably appreciate our help with his father’s steady but very slow recovery.
The weather there was hot as heck, but I’d get used to it eventually, I supposed . . .
“I see your brain spinning.” David tapped my forehead with his forefinger before he leaned in and pressed his forehead against mine. “Stop.”
“It’s fine. I’m good. I’m just thinking.”
“Yeah, I know. And I’m asking you to pause that computer-brain of yours and listen to me for a minute. You can continue thinking after you have all the information.”
“What information?” I asked.
“About something I’ve been working on.” He leaned back and grabbed my hand, leading me to the picnic table under the tree.
As we walked I became aware of the commotion happening around us. Everyone was chasing Trixie. Apparently the goat had taken off running with the pillow and the ring and my rooster still on his back.
Rowdy was hunkered down holding on tight like a jockey at the Derby. And Trixie was giving the humans chasing her a run for their money.
Finally someone must have gotten the idea to scare the fainting goat into submission. I watched Drew run to his fishing boat. He jumped on board and grabbed the air horn.
One blast of the insanely loud sound and Trixie was startled into a faint and immobile on the ground, causing Rowdy to half leap-half fly for safety as his mount keeled over.
A moment later Charlie stood over the goat and held his hand high. “Got it. Got the ring off the little bugger. It’s safe.”
The mind-boggling scene had to take a backseat to David, who had straddled the bench next to me and had grabbed my hands. “Remember our talk, months ago, about vegan dog food?” he asked.
From one surreal moment to the next. I focused on my new fiancé. “Uh. Yeah?”
“Well, I’m told this doesn’t technically qualify as vegan since insects are considered animals, or meat, or something like that, but I think it’s pretty close. I created a line of dog and cat food that uses protein derived from insects instead of animal meat.”
My eyes widened. “You did that? For me?”
“Yeah. I listen when you talk. Sometimes you even change my mind about things.” He grinned.
My heart swelled a little more with love for this man. “I know.”
Well, at least I was slowly learning and accepting that he did.
The first clue was when he bought a lightweight, small and fuel-efficient pick-up just to drive the distance between Texas and California. He still had the big gas guzzling, good old boy truck in Texas on the farm, but he didn’t travel far with it.
“So I was thinking the perfect place for a satellite office for this new line of Strickland Feed would be California. You know, since all you earthy crunchy tree huggers live around here. I’d still have to travel occasionally but I could be based here. With you.”
I realized the point of this discussion. Not just that he’d taken into consideration my feelings about using chickens and other animals for pet food, but also that I didn’t want to live apart from him, but didn’t want either of us to have to sacrifice our jobs.
“Oh, and I of course want you to weigh in on the public relations aspect for the launch, but my marketing department has been working on the packaging and branding.” His lips twitched with a smile. “We were thinking of using Rowdy in the promo. Kind of as the spokesperson for the new chicken-free Strickland Feed.”
I laughed. “That’s absolutely perfect.”
“I thought so. Especially now since Rowdy is going to be a reality show star on Mother Cluckers . Do you know Drew even started Rowdy his own Instachat account?”
A surprised burst of air escaped me. I didn’t know what boggled my mind more—David talking about Instachat or Drew turning out to be such a natural at social media.
David’s world and mine had started out by colliding, but now they’d meshed together nicely and I absolutely loved it. As much as I loved him.
“I adore you,” I said, pivoting on the bench to face him.
Cupping his cheeks in my palms I leaned in and pressed a quick short kiss to his mouth.
“And I absolutely adore you.” He smiled, palming the back of my head and delivering a kiss to me that ramped up the G-rated peck I’d given him to something bordering on PG-17 and rapidly moving toward an R-rating.
“Aw, jeez. There they go again,” Drew said as I heard the crunch of his footsteps getting closer.
“Better give her the ring, mate. Make it official and get it on her finger before your rooster decides it would be good to eat,” Charlie commented.
David pulled back and accepted the ring Charlie handed him.
As Anna wiped at her eyes with one hand while supporting CJ on her hip. Drew and Charlie, along with Rowdy on top of the recovered Trixie, all stood by and watched as David slipped the ring on my finger and made it official.
I was his and he was mine—although, I think that had been true even way back on that first day we’d met.
We just hadn’t realized it yet.
The Navy SEALs Heather met at McP’s Pub in Coronado have their own stories! You can read Clay and Tasha’s story in HOT SEAL, DIRTY MARTINI , Zach and Gabby’s story in HOT SEAL, TIJUANA NIGHTS and Nick & Dani’s story in HOT SEAL, RUNAWAY brIDE .