Epilogue
Nine Months Later
Lauren
“Lauren, get off your phone. Let’s go,” Callie shouts from my front door.
“Just a second. I need to finish writing this down,” I call over my shoulder as I type out another note on my phone about tweaks we’re going to make next year to help the regenerative agriculture transition go even smoother.
Things have gone extremely well this year.
Costs have been lower, the cows have been thriving, and I have high hopes for our yields, but I know there’s still room for improvement.
Olivia sits on the porch steps with me, finishing up an Instagram reel she wanted to make for the rescue. As her fingers move furiously, her engagement ring glitters in the orange sun.
Callie barges down the steps, tugging my phone from my hands. “Get off your phone. If we don’t leave now, we’re going to miss the sunset.”
“Olivia’s on her phone too.” I thrust my hand in her direction. “Bug her.”
“I had to finish this reel while the idea was fresh, or it wouldn’t look as good when I make it later.” Olivia sets her phone down and holds up her hands. “I’m done now.”
“Well, I need to finish writing down these changes before I forget them.” I turn back to my phone, rereading what I’ve typed. “Crap. I don’t remember. It was something to do with paddock nine.”
Callie scoops her hands under my armpits and drags me off the step I’m sitting on. “Remember when I said it would be cool to go on a sunset horseback ride? It won’t exactly be a sunset ride if the sun has already set, will it?”
“I don’t get why you want to do this anyway. It feels like all three of us are going on a date.”
“Maybe I wanted a little romance in my life for once.” Callie fake sniffles.
“You’re being ridiculous.” I gently shove her as laughter breaks free from my chest.
“No, that outfit is ridiculous.” Callie gives me the elevator look, a frown painting her lips. “Go change. You can’t wear that.”
“What are you talking about? This is what I always wear to ride.”
“Not if you’re going on a date with me.” Callie surges past me, down the hall, and into my bedroom, heading straight for my closet. “We agreed we were going to finally get some cute pictures of the three of us. Let me help you pick something out.”
She pulls several tops off the hanger, laying them out on my bed along with a different pair of jeans. “These ones make your butt look good.”
“But they’re not as comfortable when I’m riding.”
She holds up a white top. “But they will look cute with this top, which looks so good on you when you have a tan.”
“What are you up to?” I look from her to Olivia, who is standing in the doorway with a suspicious smile on her face. “Olivia, tell me what you two are doing.”
“Nothing.” Her voice is two octaves too high, and her cheeks are flushed.
Ignoring her, Callie says, “I already told you. I want to take pictures at sunset. We have no pictures with the three of us. Come on. It’ll be cute.”
“Can’t we do them another time, so I don’t have to wear these jeans?”
She thrusts the white top and jeans into my arms. “Please just put them on. We don’t have time to argue about this. The sun is setting by the second.”
Sighing, I get changed and meet the two of them at the front door. Olivia is looking at me all misty-eyed.
“Why are you looking at me like you want to remember what I look like before I die? It’s creeping me out.”
Callie shoots a scary look at Olivia before she leads us out the door to the barn.
“What’s Jax doing tonight? Is he still working? It’s getting late.” Callie slides the door open and hands me the gear to tack up Maggie, the horse I learned how to ride on and the only horse Olivia trusts to get on.
“He came in from the fields, and we had dinner together before you got here. I think he’s hanging out with Rhett tonight, isn’t he?” I turn to Olivia.
“Oh, yeah, they are. It’s great they’re getting along.”
“I knew they would if we forced them together enough.” I grin.
“Rhett just takes time to come out of his shell, but he seems to really like Jax.”
I finish tacking up Lucky and help Callie with my mom’s horse so we can leave.
Callie takes the lead, heading out on the main trail behind the barn.
“So, since this is a date, do we have to ask each other awkward get-to-know-you questions?” I tease.
“Oh, come on! We’re well past a first date. This is like our one hundredth date,” Callie quips.
“What do you do on a one hundredth date then?”
“I don’t know. Y’all tell me. I’m the single one here.”
Not for long, I think. But I know better than to say that out loud. Callie just might bite my head off for a remark like that.
“I don’t think Rhett and I have made it to a one hundredth date,” Olivia says. “In a little over a year of being together, that would require us to go out almost every three and a half days. Do you think you and Jax have been on one hundred dates, Lo?”
“Practically? No. In my heart? It feels like we’ve been on a million. I know it’s silly, but it feels like we know each other on a soul-deep level.”
“Barf,” Callie mutters, but she’s smiling so wide.
We make a turn onto the trail that leads up to my spot. I didn’t think anyone else knew this trail was here besides Jax.
“Do you know where you’re going?”
“I’m just exploring,” Callie says over her shoulder. “I promise I won’t get us lost.”
Silence descends over us as we crest up the hill, taking in the sunset painting the horizon brilliant oranges and reds.
It looks like the sky goes on forever. I get so wrapped up in the painted cotton candy clouds to our right that I don’t even notice what’s happening in front of me until we stop, right where my spot is.
Instead of my usual fallen tree bench, there’s an actual bench in its spot, and Jax is waiting on it. I look to Callie and Olivia, and neither of them are any good at hiding their overflowing joy right now. My stomach does a million cartwheels as it hits me what is about to happen.
“Don’t leave him hanging. We’ll watch Lucky,” Callie says, her words barely above a whisper, like she’s afraid of ruining the moment.
I slip off Lucky and meet Jax at the bench. He immediately takes both my hands in his, his smile lighting up his face. “Hi, Freckles.”
“Hi.” My heart pounds like a million horses in my chest, and my stomach flutters as if a swarm of butterflies was released inside it.
When Jax gets down on one knee and says my name, all of those nerves melt away.
It’s just us, finally getting our happy ending.
We earned this. After fighting so hard to both be better, we grew and learned to accept ourselves.
We learned our past doesn’t define us, and we allowed love in. It’s all been so worth it.
Jax’s voice shakes as he looks up at me.
“From the moment you walked into my life, I knew you and I were meant to be. We connected on a level I couldn’t even comprehend at the time, but I still knew that whenever I was with you, I felt on top of the world.
I felt like a better version of myself, one who was strong, brave, and capable.
These past eleven months have been some of the most challenging yet most beautiful months of my life.
You have pushed me to be open and to face my demons.
You showed me I’m worthy of love, even when I’m a complete mess.
” He chuckles. “And you helped me learn the storms will come, but I don’t need to fear them.
I just need to find someone who will dance in the rain with me.
I’ve found that person in you, and I don’t want to let you go.
I know ten months together isn’t that long, but I’ve waited long enough to spend the rest of my life with you. I’m all in.”
He takes my hand. “I can’t guarantee I won’t make mistakes along the way, but I can promise you I’m going to do my best every day to continue to show up for you, to help you never carry too much weight on your own, to show you how beautiful you are inside and out, and to make you feel loved. I love you so damn much.”
He flicks open the velvet box in his hand to reveal a ring with a gold band and an elegant white diamond in the center.
“Will you please spend the rest of your life with me? Will you please have babies with me and take care of this ranch with me and keep creaming me at Uno, even when we’re old and gray? ”
My laughter is ragged as tears stream down my cheeks, and I nod. “Yes. Yes, I will. I want you by my side through it all.”
He slides the ring on my finger, stands up, and presses his hands to my cheeks as his lips meet mine. We both do a beautiful dance of taking and giving, trying to show each other how much this commitment means to us.
Rhett and Charlie come out from behind a tree, and Mom, Dad, Carol, and Aimee come from behind us.
I don’t know how I missed all of them, or the fact that six horses were missing from the barn earlier, but I don’t care because I’m surrounded by all the people I love for one of the most special moments of my life.
It’s crazy how a year ago, it felt like my life was over.
My fiancé left me. I was drowning in work and desperately trying to find a way to keep the ranch afloat on my own, but it turns out uprooting my whole life was exactly what I needed to grow and find my place in the world.
Because now I have all these wonderful people surrounding me.
I’ve learned how to love myself and fight for what I’m worth, and I’ve somehow managed to fall in love again.