Epilogue #2
Levi pouted. “Fine.” He leaned over the center console, sliding a hand in my hair. “Love you, babygirl,” he murmured against my lips before kissing the breath out of my lungs.
“I love you, too. Meet you at the ranch?”
He nodded, licking his lips while staring at mine. “Send me a picture of your nails.”
I giggled more. “Okay.”
Anna was already inside when I walked in. She smirked. “Pregnancy hormones, huh?”
I blushed and sat down beside her while the basin filled with water for my toes. “Claire isn’t here?”
“Weston texted that she’s on the way. He had to make her leave.”
I snorted. “Of course.”
I checked our group text that had all of us besides Claire. “Savvy and Delilah are setting up already.”
“I know, I can’t wait to see it. Claire is going to freak out.”
“Freak out about what?” Claire said, walking towards us.
Anna froze. My heart dropped. “How many colors there are to pick from!” I said too loudly, shoving the color swatches in her hands. “Look at them all. Soooo pretty.”
Claire arched a brow and sat beside me. “You’re being weird. Everyone is being weird today. First, Beau, for making this appointment. Then, Brittany was fussing over my hair for ages.”
I couldn’t believe she hadn’t caught on yet. I was so convinced she would’ve figured it out the second Beau told her about the appointments.
“That’s crazy,” Anna said, avoiding eye contact. “Your hair looks gorgeous, though.” It did. The dark auburn hair we shared had been styled in her tight curls she shared with Emmett with not one stray hair out of place.
“It does,” I agreed. Beau was going to love it.
She gave us a coy smile. “Thanks. How was your ultrasound?” Claire asked.
“Good.” I ran a hand over my belly. “Everything is perfect.”
“Did you find out the gender?”
I wanted to tell her so bad, but today was supposed to be about her. “No, we’re waiting.”
“That’s fun,” Anna said. “If Jo and I have another, we’re gonna do that.”
I wanted a whole horde of babies with Levi. He’d been so perfect through all of this. A poor opposite of how Jeremy had been during my pregnancy with Luke. It just made me all the more grateful for him and this little life we were building—one I never thought I’d get to have.
Delilah
“Do you think Claire has any idea?” I asked Savannah as I spread out a blanket next to the creek.
She was wrapping twinkle lights around the tree nearby. “Don’t think so. Tess said she just got to the nail salon and had no idea.”
I took my phone out of my pocket and tracked Emmett. He was driving up I-75 from Dallas. “I hope Emmett makes it on time. He’ll be crushed if he misses it.”
Savannah frowned. “I know. I don’t want him to miss it.”
“Did he tell you he knew the entire time? Beau asked him for permission like four months ago.”
She gasped. “No! That’s so cute!”
Emmett was like a vault, but that didn’t surprise me. I was just nosy enough that I wanted to be in the vault with him. “I know.” I laid down some pillows, and Savannah set down the picnic basket full of Claire’s favorite things.
“I wonder how Emmett will propose to you,” Savannah said, and I froze.
“If he’ll propose.” We’d only been together for two months, so I wasn’t expecting anything any time soon. I’d waited twenty years for him to even look at me; I was not getting a proposal after two months.
Savannah scoffed. “He’s going to. I’ve never seen him so obsessed with anything the way he is with you. Maybe not soon, but it’ll happen. I just know it.” I opened my mouth. “And no, he hasn’t said anything, and even if he had, I wouldn’t tell you.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Then how do I know you aren’t lying right now?” We started sticking solar lights along the trail back to the ranch.
She smirked over her shoulder. “You don’t.”
“Savannah,” I groaned. “Don’t be a tease. You have to tell me!”
“I sure don’t.”
“I hate you.”
She laughed. “No, you don’t.”
“Whatever.” We put our trash in the back of the golf cart, which we had already decked out in twinkle lights.
And on the drive back to the house, I couldn’t help but smile over the fact that I was even having a conversation about Emmett proposing while setting up for one of my best friend’s proposals.
I never thought the day would come that I’d have this—the life I’d always dreamed of.
And having the man of my dreams was only made better by having the job of my dreams.
Emmett
My fingers drummed on the wheel as I weaved through traffic.
“Get out of my way,” I groaned. My body was buzzing with adrenaline, racing against the clock to get back home.
I refused to miss Beau proposing. I even got permission to leave class thirty minutes early, but that wouldn’t matter if these cars didn’t start fucking moving.
My phone rang. “I’m driving as fast as I can,” I answered before Delilah could say anything.
“You have time. Anna convinced Claire to get a mani, too.”
I was relieved but confused. “What the hell is a mani?”
“When you get your fingernails done. I’ve done a terrible job of educating you,” she whined. “I’m putting myself in girlfriend jail.”
I chuckled. “We’ve been a little busy, sugar. I wouldn’t beat yourself up about it.” Between my classes at the Police Academy and Freedom Reins, we hardly saw each other beyond sleeping. But I’d rather be ships in the night with Delilah than not have her at all.
“You get everything done you needed to?”
“Yep. Savvy and I are just waiting at Beau’s now. He’s a wreck.”
“I am not,” Beau shouted.
“I just heard you crying in the bathroom, you big man baby!” I chuckled. Beau looked like a tough guy, but he was really a softie.
“Whatever. I’m goin’ to Anna’s. I’ll be back.”
“I’ll let you go, so you can focus on driving. Love you.”
“In love with you, sugar.” She giggled and hung up.
Beau
I crept into Anna’s house. “Dad?”
His deep voice carried down the hall. “Back here.” I found him in Joseph’s old study that they’d converted into his room since he couldn’t take the stairs easily after his hip surgery.
He put his newspaper down when I filled the doorway, looking genuinely pleased to see me. It’d been a new development that I’d not gotten used to yet. “Hey there, boy.”
I sat in the chair beside him. “Hey.” I glanced around the room, not really knowing how to start. Things were much less tense between us compared to when he moved out six months ago, but we were still figuring things out.
“What brings you by?”
I cleared my throat. “I got somethin’ to show you.”
His nose scrunched. “Don’t tell me it’s one of them new fancy gadgets for the ranch. You know I don’t know how that shit works, Beaumont.”
I chuckled. “No.” I reached into my pocket. “It’s this.” I handed him the small, black velvet box.
His forehead wrinkled, brows raising when he opened it.
I’d agonized over the ring for weeks. Claire was a simple woman; she worked with her hands like I did.
She didn’t need flashy things, so I knew rings like her sisters wouldn’t fit her, as pretty as they were.
So I got her a gold band with five diamonds nestled in it.
It was more like a wedding band than an engagement ring, but I wanted something practical that she’d actually wear.
“Oh wow.” His throat moved with a swallow. “You askin’ Claire to marry you?”
I ran a hand over my jaw. “After I leave here.”
He nodded, staring at the ring. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. He handed me the box. “This won’t do, son.”
My heart broke a little. I’d thought we had moved past this, that he supported us being together. “Dad—” He held a hand up and got up from his chair.
He came back and slapped a box in my hand. “Open it.”
The box was old, creaking as I opened it.
All the air left my lungs when I saw what was inside.
My mother’s engagement ring. I hadn’t seen this ring since I was a boy.
I thought she had gotten buried with it.
My throat ached as I swallowed. “Dad, I can’t-I can’t take this,” I rasped, voice on the verge of breaking.
“You’re gonna ask your girl to marry you with your mama’s ring,” he insisted, sounding just as emotional. “It’s what she would want. It’s what I want—even if she is a damn Hayes.”
I laughed. “At least she’s not a Hollis.”
“I’d drop dead if you did that to me.” After our laughter faded, he shifted towards me. “You really love her? She makes you happy?”
“Yeah, Dad. She’s the love of my life. Keeps me in shape. Makes me want to be better. Couldn’t ask for anything more.”
“That’s all I’ve ever wanted for you,” he said. “I know I wasn’t the best father to you. Was too hard on you. Didn’t tell you I was proud when I should’ve. But I am”—he rested his hand on the nape of my neck, eyes rimmed with tears—“so damn proud of you.”
My brows furrowed, my throat aching with holding back tears. “Dad…”
Tears ran down his weathered cheeks, his chin quivering. “And if your mama were here, she’d just be beside herself at the man you’ve become. You’re the best parts of us, Beaumont, and I-I love you more than anythin’.”
I dropped to my knees in front of his chair, hugging him tightly. I’d waited years to hear him say these things—decades. “I love you, too.”
He held me just as tightly, and I felt like a boy again who just wanted to make his dad, his hero, proud. And to hear that I had, today of all days, meant more to me than he’d ever know.
“You wanna come with me back to the house? We’re all gonna celebrate after I ask, Claire.”
He laughed, his eyes crinkling. “You’re sure as hell confident she’ll say yes.”
I shrugged a shoulder. “She’s a smart woman.”
He clapped my stubbled cheek. “Ah, there’s that arrogance I gave ya.” I stood while he got up from his chair. “Now, let’s go get you a wife.”
Claire
I leaned over the steering wheel as I pulled into the ranch. There wasn’t a soul here. “What the hell?”