Epilogue
THREE MONTHS LATER
“I ’m going in, Charlie,” Ruby tells me as she dances in the surf. She wiggles her eyebrows. “Naked.”
“Don’t you dare,” I growl. I walk across the beach and come to a stop, my boots at the edge of the ocean. The November sun drops in the sky, a golden glow rising out of the waves. “Baby, that water’s cold as hell.”
“Too late, Cowboy,” she teases playfully, a gorgeous smile overtaking her face. And then she splashes into the water, squealing and laughing.
“Look at me!” she shouts, arms to the pink sky. “I’m alive!”
“Look at you,” I marvel, softly. “Alive.”
Alive. She’s alive.
The thought rocks me to my very core.
My chant. My refrain.
My miracle of a wife.
Every reason I am fucking alive right now is standing in that ocean.
“C’mon, Cowboy!” Ruby shouts, peeling off her sundress.
I catch sight of her breasts before she disappears into another wave.
Thank Christ the beach is private.
I go to tug off my boots but freeze as the chime of my phone fills the air.
“Goddamn it,” I groan, seeing Davis’s name on my caller ID. The last thing I want to do is answer, but I need to talk to him. He’s been avoiding my call for the last three days.
“How’s California?” Davis says when I pick up. “Avocados change your world?
I roll my eyes. “Dickhead,” I mutter.
Every one of my brothers ragged on me relentlessly for setting foot in California, but they understand I have to do this.
Wherever Ruby goes, I go.
Davis chuckles. “I bet beach Charlie is a vibe.”
“Won’t get me outta my boots for long.”
“Congratulations, by the way.” Davis goes on. “Mama is talkin’ about it like it’s the end times. You elopin’ and all.”
“Thanks.” I glance down at the band of gold on my left hand. Last week, Ruby and I were married in a small ceremony at the Resurrection courthouse. Wyatt was my best man. We had a small reception at the Neon Grizzly, and the next day, we hopped in my truck and took off for California.
Didn’t want to waste another minute.
Sunflower days for the rest of our lives and we take them all.
We’re spending our honeymoon at a small beach house on the California coast. In two weeks, Ruby will undergo a clinical trial at Stanford.
It keeps us in California until Christmas, puts us back at the ranch early next year, but if there’s anything that can make her heart get stronger, I’ll make it happen.
“Listen,” I tell my brother in a low voice. “I gotta make this fast. I’m on the beach with Ruby and she’s about to bounce into the Pacific.” I keep my eyes on Ruby’s slender silhouette, daring the waves to take her away from me. “Valiante. Where is he, Davis?”
A long silence. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talkin’ about.”
“Bullshit,” I growl.
He released the photo months ago, creating a shitstorm for Valiante. His campaign, his marriage, his career over. But last week, Valiante never came home from an out-of-town business trip.
Missing, the news proclaimed.
I spear my fingers through my hair. “What’s the fucking rule? If you’re in it, I’m in it. No matter what.”
“Not this time,” Davis says evenly. “You don’t need to know, brother. Start your life with Ruby. Forget about it. I got you.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, processing what he’s telling me.
“Enjoy your vacation, Charlie,” Davis says before the rock in my throat can dislodge. “Then get your ass back here. Last year’s gonna be hard to top. But we’re damn sure about to try.”
I laugh lightly. “Yeah.”
We end the call.
I cast a glance at the water, catching sight of my wife’s bare ass as she trips in the waves and then sputters, standing, arms tossed to the sky.
And then I’m stripping off my boots, my jeans, my shirt and tossing them onto the sand beside our things.
I go in after her.
Like I always fucking will.
She’s smiling, her mouth open in laughter as she spots me coming.
“Fucking cold,” I rasp.
Ruby bounces into me, and I grab her around the waist. “Had to get you in somehow,” she says, her blue eyes glittering with mischief.
My lips meet her soft ones, inhaling her saltwater and strawberry scent, those soft gasps I goddamn adore. Then my hand skims her jaw, letting my fingers gauge the pulse in her throat.
My bad habit.
My addiction.
Her heartbeat.
I know its pulse as well as my own.
Because it beats for me as much as it does for her.
On the ranch, I’ve always known you can’t tame the wild. And I now know I can’t tame Ruby’s heart. All I can do is love it.
“C’mon, Sunflower,” I tell her, staring into her bright blue eyes. “We’re gonna miss the sunset.”
She tilts her head. “You came all this way to tell me that?”
“I came to kiss you. Now I’m comin’ to get you out before you fuckin’ freeze.”
I carry her onto the beach, naked and dripping wet. I grab the towel from the sand and drape it over her shoulders, my eyes trailing over her slender throat, her tan breasts. Beautiful beyond words.
“How was it?” I ask.
“C-cold,” she says, wringing out her wet hair, her breath heavy in her chest.
I make sure she’s warm, dry off and dress myself, and then we settle onto our blanket right in time for the sunset. She sits in my lap, leaning back against my chest,
I kiss her temple. “This is it. Last thing to check off on your list.”
We caught the sunrise in Tahoe right after we were married.
A radiant smile overtakes her face. “Yep.” She gestures toward the horizon. “It’s my California sunset. And we have the very best seats in the world.”
“A show just for you, darlin’.”
For a long few minutes, Ruby’s silent. Then she gasps. “It’s beautiful.”
“It is,” I say, but I’m looking at her.
The sun disappears below the horizon in a brilliant burst of purples and oranges and pinks that only she can rival.
Her smile vanishes, her gaze faraway, on the setting sun.
I frown, stroking a hand over her silky hair. “What’s wrong?” She told me last night she was nervous about the clinical trial. Even though it’s not major surgery, I’m terrified. But I refuse to worry or entertain grief. I did enough of that in my last life.
Ruby shuts her eyes and takes a steadying breath.
“I feel like everything is over, Charlie.” Her eyes open at my growl.
“But not in a bad way. I feel like I know who I am now. I came to do what I wanted to do and did it.” She palms my cheek and I catch a flash of the yellow diamond on her hand.
I went overboard, but I couldn’t help it.
It’s as bright and as bold as Ruby herself.
“I came, and I found you.” She smiles, tears glittering in her eyes. “My cowboy who yells.”
I bust out in a rumble of a laugh. Then I clear the rock from my throat and kiss her roughly. She makes a small whimper, twisting in my arms. Her lips are hot, sweet, soft.
When we part, I gather my wife against me, so tight I can feel her heart beat against mine, and I bury my face in her hair. “Christ, I love you,” I breathe into her neck. “I love you, Sunflower.”
I can never tell her enough. The words don’t mean enough. What this wild, gorgeous woman brought to my world, every heartbroken piece of me she put back together with her sunshine glow and her laughter. I’m the grateful fucking man who has Ruby in my life. And I’m never letting her go.
My sunflower that I will always keep blooming.
“I love you too.” Beautiful blue eyes glassy with tears, she rests her forehead against mine. “Let’s start a new list, Charlie. Our list. For our new beginning. For our life and our ranch.”
My eyes close briefly. Goddamn.
There is not a day that passes where I stand in amazement at the power of my wife.
“I want everything,” I tell her. I run a rough hand down her arm, relishing her pulse beneath my fingertips. She’s mine and she’s alive . “Every reason I love you will be on that list. And we’ll do it together, baby. We’ll fill it and cross it off and add to it until the end of our goddamn days.”
“Yes,” she says breathily. She nods and nods and nods. Her smile brightens everything around us. “Yes.”