Epilogue
“Lola! How’s my pretty girl?” Cece crooned as her arms wrapped around the mare’s neck. She was all too aware of the amusement emanating from both her fiancé and Chet to her back. It had been a lifetime since she’d met the cowboy and his horse, and yet it had been yesterday at the same time.
She rubbed the horse’s nose before nuzzling into her neck. “If I could get a horse, it’d be one just like you.”
“That’s why we’re here, actually,” Jason murmured.
Cece startled at the murmur right behind her ear. Then she whirled to face Jason with wide eyes.
So much had happened over the last six months.
They’d opened her business, taking advantage of the office space in town.
Most of her clients were from the West Coast, Washington, Oregon, and California.
But there were also several agencies that represented rodeo cowboys closer to home.
Bar fights were no joke when a few of the ruffians took their disagreements a little too far.
She’d managed to purchase a small piece of property closer to the lodge than town which allowed her to continue with her morning runs.
It was the perfect location to build a new home, one they were in the process of designing.
Until then, she was staying in the apartment over what was now her office.
Jason had proposed to her before she had the chance to do it herself. They’d made a game out of it, teasing each other and dragging it out until Jason apparently couldn’t take it any longer.
Her father would probably never admit that he liked Jason, but it was fairly clear Jason had earned his trust. In her father’s book that was the same thing as the highest approval around.
They’d spent the holidays together in the city, and Jason had been able to show the side of himself to her father that he usually saved for Cece or his immediate family.
Cece knew that her father wasn’t done trying to get a plot of land out in Rocky Ridge, but he had warmed up to the fact that she wouldn’t be returning to the city.
Thankfully, he still wanted to be her client and for the first several months, he was the one keeping her lights on.
“What do you mean, that’s why we’re here?” Cece held onto the lead rope at Lola’s chin. “Are you getting me a horse?” She grimaced when it came out an octave high.
Jason chuckled, pulling her toward him with his hands on her hips. “I’m getting you a horse, Cece. And we’ll get a few more, too. The barn is pretty empty out there, don’t you think?”
Her eyes flared. “It’s done? I thought—”
“Chet here pulled some strings and they were able to get the last of it finished.”
“To be fair, I had ulterior motives,” Chet jumped in.
Cece turned to Jason’s friend, then back to her fiancé, curious.
Jason grinned at her. “We’re going into business together. Chet has a lot of experience with training horses, which was why he’d gotten into the rodeo. But he’s wanting to settle down.”
Grinning, Cece turned to Chet and teased, “Finally want a woman to make an honest man out of you?”
He shrugged. “It’s on the bucket list.”
She snickered. “Oh, sure.”
“Anyway,” Jason murmured, pressing his forehead to hers. “Lola needed a place to stay while Chet wraps up a few things. She’s getting ready for retirement anyway and he’s got a couple other horses in his care. We might take on one more.”
“Really?” she whispered.
“Really.”
Cece reached up and grabbed ahold of his shirt, yanking him closer so she could capture his mouth with her own. She kissed him deeply, reveling in how his hands trailed down her back as he deepened their connection.
Jason practically leaned her backward, his hold on her the only thing keeping her from falling into the dirt at his feet. She moaned into his mouth until someone cleared their throat behind them.
A distinctly feminine mutter followed. “Get a room.”
Cece broke the kiss with a smile and peered past Jason at Lydia. “Hey, girl.”
Lydia huffed, though she wasn’t capable of fighting her amusement. She waved her phone in the air at her brother. “Tate and Rylee are on the phone. And they have Wren added as a three-way call. Guess it’s important.”
Cece shot a worried look in Jason’s direction, but he wasn’t at all bothered. He righted her, and his hand remained at the small of her back as he led her toward his sister.
“He there?” Tate asked through the speaker.
“Yeah, we’re all here. Cece, too,” Jason murmured, his thumb tracing circles just under the hem of her shirt. His touch sent tingles up her spine and she leaned into his side and smiled at him.
Never in a million years did she think she’d get something like this. It was more than a place to call home. Right here at Jason’s side, she belonged. And she couldn’t wait for the future they’d share together.
“Cece’s there? Perfect!” Rylee interjected.
There was a pause.
Then, as one, Tate and Rylee announced, “We’re having a baby.”
Squeals of delight rang through the phone from Wren. Jason’s grin lit up his entire face. Lydia was smiling, too, but there was a little sadness in her gaze.
“Congratulations, we’re happy for you,” Cece gushed. “I can’t believe I’m going to be an aunt!”
Jason nuzzled closer to her. “You know, the sooner we get hitched, the sooner we can give their little one a cousin.”
“Ugh! You guys are so cute it’s disgusting,” Lydia shot in their direction before storming off.
Cece followed her with her eyes, but Jason paid no mind. His sister spoke into the phone, fainter with each step she took.
“Lydia doesn’t really date seriously, does she?”
Jason shrugged, tossing his sister a cursory glance. “She used to. Not so much anymore.”
“Why not?”
He snickered. “Do you really think Lydia would open up to me about her love life? I’m not exactly the chatty type.”
She pushed at his chest playfully. “Well, now that you’ve gotten more practice, you can do something about that.” Cece frowned, her thoughts taking on a mind of their own when she caught sight of Chet and Lydia chatting.
“Oh, no you don’t.”
Her eyes snapped to Jason’s innocently. “What?”
“You’re not setting up my little sister with my new business partner.”
Cece flashed him a mischievous grin. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Join Lydia and Chet on their journey to love.
He was the cowboy who always rode into town and rode right back out. She learned the hard way that trusting a man to not break your heart was a foolish game.
Lydia talks to everybody, and everybody talks to her.
She runs the town art fair, fills every silence at family dinner, and gives her brother's business partner grief every chance she gets.
What she doesn't do anymore is fall in love. She tried that once with a cowboy who was only passing through, and she won’t do that again.
Chet spent years on the rodeo circuit with no permanent address.
The training barn in Rocky Ridge is the first thing he's ever built that he can't pack up and take with him.
The nosy, big-hearted woman who shows up there every day is the best part of it.
He's also smart enough to know that sharing his feelings for her could cost him the only home he's ever had.
So he accepts the friendship she offers.
Maybe the hardest part of loving a cowboy isn't wondering when he'll leave. It's finding out who he was before he came.