Epilogue 2
JULIA
One year later
“What do you think?” Jake asked me as we stood in front of my barn and paddock. One of Jake’s ranch hands liked to do pyrography for fun and he’d made me a sign on a flat cut of cedar, which we’d mounted to the fence. It read “Poplar Springs Large Animal Clinic.”
“I think it looks good.” Charlotte, who was fast asleep against my chest, nestled in a Moby wrap, made a murmuring noise in her sleep like she agreed.
Today was a soft opening for us. We’d sent out notices inviting our clients to stop by to visit and see what we were up to. Brian brought over his grill and we were planning to serve up hot dogs and burgers along with some side salads and chips.
Declan strode out of the barn with Shannon and I grinned when I saw her blush.
Those two had gotten married six months ago and they were still just as much in the newlyweds phase as Jake and I were.
But where Declan and Shannon had opted for the large wedding and even larger reception, Jake and I had gone small, with just our family and closest friends in attendance.
Turned out that Eli Carter was an ordained minister with some church I’d never heard of.
He’d filled out a form and paid the fee and apparently that was all it took for him to be able to marry folks.
Jake suspected that he did it partly to piss his father off.
The Reverend Samuel Carter liked to think he was the only one in town who could perform weddings, which he took a bit too seriously, if you asked me.
I didn’t care who married us so long as we were married.
“Everything looks great in the barn,” Declan said.
With Charlotte born two weeks early, I’d worried that Declan wouldn’t be able to handle both our clients while I was out on maternity leave. But he’d stepped up and then some. Once I’d been given the all clear to return to work, I’d found it hard to leave my baby to go out on calls.
So, Declan had approached me with a proposition—combine our two practices into one.
We would use his clinic to see smaller domestic pets and for those larger animals that needed round-the-clock care, we’d set my barn and paddock up as a secondary clinic.
The plan was that if we had any livestock patients, someone from the clinic would stay in the house to be close to any patients while they were under our care.
We also had plans to bring on another vet who was interested in the large animal side of the business.
She’d been working at Family Vet Care, but she hadn’t been happy with their price gouging and fear mongering.
Some of our patients who’d tried the corporate chain and decided to return to us had talked up our vet care and the newer vet sought us out.
There was also a vet tech and a surgical nurse interested in coming to work for us.
What had started off as two solo practitioners struggling to compete was rapidly turning into a full practice with the ability to service many of the ranches as far west as Beaumont and east to Eastville.
We were no longer worried about the corporate chain.
If anything, they needed to be worried about us.
Twister had a list of interested breeders eager for his stud services.
Jake had relented on his desire for exclusive rights to Twister when he saw how much money I could earn.
I’d already made enough to fund the repairs and modifications we needed to make to my place and I was able to purchase some much needed equipment for the practice.
“Hey, what’s a person got to do to get some service around here?” someone shouted and I turned to see Josh, Eli, and Fiona headed our way. Zoe was working on something for Amy and the two of them planned on joining us later, assuming Amy was up for it.
Amy was pregnant with her and Cal’s first child.
Henry was over the moon to have a new sibling in addition to his new cousins, and I knew he was hoping for a baby brother.
Amy was also Poplar Springs’s official new mayor.
Two others ran against her—Eli’s dad and Bob Jackson.
The election had been a landslide in Amy’s favor, not that anyone was surprised.
“Sorry, man, we don’t work on humans,” Declan said, clapping Josh on the arm.
The rest of the morning and early into the afternoon was spent greeting folks and showing them around.
We heard a buzzing above us and looked up to see a drone headed our way.
It circled around the property before heading up the road where I could see a car parked.
I figured that was Zoe—finally arrived—catching some aerial footage for our social media accounts.
Zoe was an amazing photographer. She’d taken Charlotte’s christening photos and also took all our wedding photos. I couldn’t believe how fantastic they’d all come out.
By three p.m., it looked as if we’d seen our last visitor.
We’d had a similar reopening at the clinic, but we’d offered free vaccines and set up discounted spays and neuters as a way to draw in more clients.
The line had stretched for half a block, leading us to decide to plan a similar event quarterly.
We planned to be here for a long time and knew we needed to keep our clients happy and our patients healthy.
Laura offered to take Charlotte home with her while we finished cleaning up and getting everything put away. Shannon was ready to drop where she stood, so I told Declan to take her home while Jake and I finished up.
My offer was purely selfish. I liked having Jake to myself and I knew Laura wouldn’t expect us home for hours.
“Looks like we’re done here. Ready to go home?” Jake asked.
I knew if we went back to the ranch, Jake would get caught up in work and I would end up chatting with Laura, so I shook my head.
“Not quite.” I backed up toward the house, slowly pulling my polo from my waistband. Jake’s eyes darkened when he figured out what I was thinking.
“Was there something else you wanted to do, Dr. Thorne?” Jake had taken to calling me that, claiming that it was both naughty and sexy to do so. I didn’t disagree, but then again, he could call me whatever he wanted when he looked at me like that.
“Oh yes, Mr. Thorne, I can think of a few things.” I pulled my shirt over my head and raced for the house. While we were alone, I didn’t want to risk anyone popping in on us. Jake ran after me and caught me part way up the stairs.
He gripped my hips, urging me to go faster. We practically tumbled into my old bedroom and barely made it to the bed as we struggled to get our clothes off.
Quick as we could, we were both naked and kissing. This was the man I’d fallen in love with. The one who could be annoyingly bossy one moment and generous and giving the next. He was intoxicating and frustrating and I loved going to bed and waking up next to him every single day.
When I’d returned to Poplar Springs, this wasn’t the life I’d ever expected to have. Sure, I’d dreamed about finding a loving partner to help me raise our family and having a thriving practice, but my reality far outshone my dreams and I couldn’t be happier.
“I love you, Mr. Thorne.”
“And I love you, Mrs. Thorne.” Okay, I liked it when he called me that, too.
“So, how about we start practicing to make another baby?” I suggested. Jake didn’t answer me. He didn’t need to. His next actions spoke louder than his words ever could. Yep, I was definitely deeply in love with my cowboy and couldn’t imagine a better life than the one we’d created for ourselves.