Beau
“God.” Jessie’s face tilted towards the sun, but my eyes only stayed on her for a second. Because just beyond her was Birdie, pulling a low hanging branch down to Juniper’s face. She tickled her cheek with a leaf, and both of my girls had bright, brilliant smiles on their faces.
“Are you even listening to me?” My sister crossed her arms as she sighed, looking over her shoulder. “Oh, never mind. No wonder you can’t pay attention to me.”
“Sorry. I was trying to figure out who the hell gave Birdie a cowboy hat to wear. I know our brother wouldn’t be that stupid…”
“Our brother, the mega-flirt? Mr. ‘Firefighting is the Sexiest Occupation’? That brother? Because I think we both know he would.”
“Tell me what you were saying.” I tried not to grind my teeth, but the fact that I couldn’t find my own hat this morning was pissing me off, and now my brother thought it was his place to—
“I was saying we’re lucky that we had a sudden summer this weekend. I thought it might be a washout with how cold the breeze has been this week, but man, mother nature really turned out for us today. All this sunshine made for the perfect day to celebrate Juniper.”
“Yeah, we’re lucky,” I answered, my heart beating overtime as Birdie caught my eye and winked. My own personal sunshine, the woman who filled my chest with warmth and hope of better days to come, was across the yard.
And I couldn’t fucking take the distance any longer.
“And now I know we’re not talking about the weather. God. Go over there, Beau. Make her give Hayes back his hat. You’re drooling, and it’s annoying me.”
I set my hand on the top of her head and ruffled her hair up, just like I used to do when she was six. Got the same reaction, too. Jessie turned redder than a beet, her hands swatting at me when I was already halfway to Birdie.
“Asshole!”
“Kiss your kid with that mouth?” I yelled back, my shoulders shaking with laughter. Jessie was always on my ass about not swearing around Beckett. Fair, honestly, because he was a parrot and ratted me out a time or two when I slipped up before. Still, it was fun to tease her.
“I’m about to kill my brother,” I whispered as I slipped my arms around Birdie’s waist.
“What? Which one? And why?”
My finger tapped the brim of the hat on her head. “You should know the rule, Chickadee.”
“Please.” Her eyes rolled as she pushed away from me, adjusting Juniper on her hip. “Hayes saw my face getting red from the sun, and offered me his hat to make sure I didn’t burn. He was just being nice.”
“Well, my mistake. But if I could find my damn hat…” My hand slid around the back of her neck, and I moved the two of us closer together.
Juniper looked up at me with the same wide-eyed expression as Birdie.
I pressed a kiss to my daughter’s forehead before using my free hand to pluck the hat off Birdie’s head, soothing the insult with another kiss.
“Beau.”
“Vi, back me up here?” I asked my sister-in-law. “It’s a rule for a reason.”
“He is kinda right, Birdie. It’s an adorable tradition.”
“Adorable?” I scoffed. “Never mind, Vi. I’ve got this covered.”
My finger traced over the redness on Birdie’s cheeks. “You’re mine. M-I-N-E. He wants to protect someone from the sun, he should find his own girl.”
“This is truly so childish,” she giggled. “Juniper, don’t be like me. Don’t fall in love with a cowboy.”
My heart rate tripled. “Fall in love, huh?”
Birdie’s mouth dropped open, her cheeks turning even more red as her bottom lip got captured between her teeth.
“Your cover’s blown, Chickadee.” I scooped Juniper out of Birdie’s hand, and ran towards my sister.
Jessie didn’t even stop her conversation with Hawk as I plopped my daughter into her arms. I ran back to Birdie, who was leaning against the tree I’d left her under with a confused look on her face.
“Don’t. Move,” I growled as I winked, scooping my brother’s ugly ass hat off the ground. I stormed inside, finding Hayes and Lachlan leaning over a laptop. I tossed the hat right back in Hayes’s face.
“Don’t think about offering your hat to my girl again.”
“Take care of your girl and I won’t have to offer her jack shit,” Hayes teased.
“Get your ass outside. I’ve got something else to say. Lach, stand by the fucking door if you can’t come out.”
I turned, stomping back out of the house without shutting the door. Hayes and Lach were the only family members inside, but I still wanted them to hear what I had to say.
I marched straight up to my girl, who was still standing under the tree, a sweet little confused smile growing across her face. I didn’t slow down as I got closer. No. If anything, my body was speeding up, trying to keep pace with my racing heart.
When we were finally standing nose to nose, I scooped her up in my arms and marched her back towards where my family had all stopped their own conversations, and zoned in to my shenanigans.
“Listen up, Ford Family members! Bernadette June Calloway just said SHE LOVES ME!” I shouted, spinning around in a circle while Birdie laughed, tightening her hold on my neck.
“And…I want every single person here, but especially the incredible woman in my arms to know that…” My head tipped back, the sun searing my face. “I LOVE HER TOO!!”
I set Birdie back down on her feet while hoots and hollers and a few whistles sounded around us, my hands instantly on her face as I pressed my lips to hers.
I was fucking gone for this woman. My best friend.
My beginning and my end. Forever. “I love you,” I gasped as soon as the kiss ended.
“Today, tomorrow, when the cows leave and when they come home. I. Love. You.”
A throat cleared over my shoulder. “Alright, alright, lovebirds. I heard you loud and clear about the damn hat I put on her head. Figured I should probably give you yours back.” Hayes smiled as he moved his hands from around his back. That asshole was holding my hat!
“What the hell? Did you come into my house and steal it?”
“Nope. I didn't need to steal it. Had an accomplice. A real pretty one, in fact.” He winked…but it wasn’t at me. I looked at the woman I loved, a not-so-innocent Birdie smiling back at me.
“Why in the world would you help him take my hat?”
She shrugged. “Look inside.”
I reached out and pulled the hat out of my brother's grasp. I rolled the hat over my calloused palms, flipping the brim so the inside of the hat was facing me.
The hat was just as I’d left it. No fake snake inside ready to jump out at me. No pink bows clipped on it to tease me about being a girl-dad…But what was in there made my throat instantly ache.
My brother had done the same thing to my hat that we’d done to Colt’s when Vi came back to town.
“We know you didn’t see fatherhood coming.” Colt’s hand landed on my shoulder. I’d been so wrapped up in looking at my damn hat, I hadn’t seen my brother walking towards me. “But you were made for it, Beau.”
I swallowed and let my fingers run across the branded word inside my hat that now sat next to my name.
DAD.
“Well, now I feel silly for being pissed at you for making me look all over for it.”
“I’ll take the heat for that,” Birdie laughed as she took the hat out of my hands. “Come on, Daddy. What do you say? Can I put it back where it belongs?”
She plucked the hat from my hands, and I used the new freedom to pull her in close to me. “Careful, Chickadee. You need to be very specific with what you’re talking about, seeing as how my family is here. Wouldn’t want to get our signals crossed.”
Her freckles faded into her strawberry blush as she plopped the hat back on top of my head. She turned, taking Juniper back from Jessie.
“I fell in love with a cowboy, berry girl. And I think it might be the best thing that ever happened to me.”