Epilogue
December
Liz pushed the door closed on the stable and did up the top of her zipper on her canvas barn coat. The flurries were just starting, and it looked as if they might be snowed in by tomorrow morning, if the radar had any truth to it.
Thank god Jake had flown in yesterday. He’d gone back to New York to finally tie up loose ends there, then flown back through Ottawa where he could submit his application to “reactivate” his Canadian citizenship in person. It had been a mountain of forms and fees for that, and for the ranch.
By September, the entire place had come under joint ownership between Jake, Tanner, and Brady.
The sign had been repainted to say west brothers instead of west and sons, the paint shiny and new.
They’d done a little unveiling, Peony planting early fall mums underneath in the flower box to replace the withered geraniums and petunias.
Jake bought an expensive champagne to toast, that Tanner had, of course, hated, much to everyone else’s amusement.
Liz had missed him when he’d flown back to New York. He’d offered to take her with him, but she’d declined. She could barely handle Calgary; the idea of being in such a big city made her hair stand on end. Maybe someday, but for now, she left that to him.
They had talked to each other every day.
He’d bought her a new laptop before he’d left, and she’d learned how to use Zoom.
She’d met Gordon and some of Jake’s other friends via video, and they’d all been really happy for him, which made Liz feel better.
She still worried he would regret his move when he went back, reminders of his life in New York more attractive than the Alberta foothills and a small town with only one coffee shop.
Jake had shown her some sights as he video-called her on his phone, giving her a tour of Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn.
It had also made for some interesting conversations late at night.
Liz discovered she enjoyed phone sex, as did Jake.
The way he grew a bit bolder each time when he realized she was comfortable and wanted him to talk dirty made for several really intense and hot phone calls.
Her cheeks flushed thinking about it, and she kept walking up to the house along the forest pathway.
The lights from the main house haloed in the falling snow, a beacon through the wintery forest, and she stopped for a moment to admire it.
Every year, the first real snowfall made her think of Christmas, which was less than a month away.
Her first Christmas with Jake.
She was fretting about what to get him, unsure of what a man who had the best of everything would want. She still hadn’t figured it out. Riding gear? Something more personal? It wasn’t easy to decide.
“Hey, slowpoke!”
Brady jogged up beside her, Tanner just behind him, and she smiled as both of them stopped, looking in the same direction she was.
“We’ll be plowing this by tomorrow morning,” Tanner grumbled. “You got the salt buckets out at the stable?”
“Yeah. I sent one over to the machine shop, too, Brady,” she replied, and Brady nodded silently.
Brady had changed in the past few months.
He was less happy, more withdrawn, but put on a brave face whenever they asked him what was going on, hiding behind jokes and his affable nature.
Ever since his paternity test had come back, he had spent more time in the stable, ridden more, but never once talked about it with either Tanner or Jake.
No one pressed him, and Liz wasn’t sure that was the best idea. She’d tried several times to bring it up, but he’d shut her down and changed the subject. Her mother finally told her to leave it, because it wasn’t an easy conversation for Brady right now. “Give him grace, he’s hurting,” she’d said.
“Dinner on?” Brady asked as they continued walking.
“Should be. I’m starving!” Liz said. “Must be the cold weather because lately I’ve been eating a lot more.”
Tanner raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. Brady just chuckled and slapped her arm. “Has nothin’ to do with the weather, sis. I think it’s all the sex. Burns calories better than ridin’ I hear.”
“Brady! Seriously?” she shouted, and he dodged out of her way as she went to smack him. She turned to Tanner who was trying, and failing, to hold in his own laughter, and shoved him as he clasped his hands to his chest in mock shock. “Don’t blame me, he said it!” he said through his laughter.
“Screw you both.” She giggled and chased them, scooping up some fresh snow and attempting to stuff it down Brady’s collar, throwing the rest at Tanner. By the time they got to the house, they were all out of breath, covered in snow, and laughing like hyenas.
They clambered up the steps into the back mud porch, and as they filed into the kitchen, the aroma of beef wafted out at them. Liz’s stomach rumbled on cue, and as she looked up she could see Jake was expertly sharpening a knife, his sleeves rolled up, shoulders moving in perfect unison.
She stopped, drinking him in, and he looked up, saw her, and smiled.
Life was perfect.
* * *
“We’re all done,” she said as she closed the dishwasher door. Jake threw the dishcloth into the sink and pulled her over to him by her hand, swinging her onto the counter and stepping between her legs.
“We are?” he drawled, raising an eyebrow and leaning in to kiss her neck. “I’m thinkin’ I’d like to get started.”
She laughed as he tickled her neck and put her arms around his, blocking his access. “Stop it, Jake.”
“Never. You are too delicious,” he countered, and tried to worm his way in. She blocked him again and laughed as he growled and burrowed in through her hair.
Leaning back, he caught her eye, all traces of play gone, his eyes studying hers. She tilted her head and looked back. “What?”
“You are so fucking beautiful when you laugh,” he murmured.
“Um, thanks?” she replied, taking him in. He was thinking. “I know that look, Jake. What is going through that gorgeous head of yours?”
“Ah, fuck it,” he muttered, and pulled her down from the counter.
“Fuck it? What—” she said, almost tripping to keep up with him as he towed her through the house.
The giant Christmas tree was twinkling in the darkened living room, the scent of the enormous fir tree sharp and pleasant as they entered.
Her mother had insisted on a big tree this year, and had decorated it herself, much to Liz’s surprise, because normally that would have been too much up and down on the ladder stool for her joints.
Jake pulled her over by the tree and held her close to him, the multicolored bulbs casting festive oval blobs of light over the entire room.
“Listen, I know it isn’t Christmas yet, but I want to give you something now.”
“I don’t have your present yet, Jake, I mean—” He stopped her with a kiss, and she let him, the feel of his lips on hers always the best way to make her lose her train of thought or stop her argument cold.
It was also really nice, loosening her stomach, his big body close to hers, suggesting something else entirely.
She wondered if it would be prudent to steal in later and make love under the tree, or if that would be a bit too much for Tanner and Brady to handle, because she had a very hard time being quiet when she and Jake made love.
It would be almost worth it to do it anyway, after Brady’s earlier teasing.
“Give me a sec,” Jake said.
He reached into the tree and pulled out a box, wrapped in fire-red paper, with a fluffy white bow on top. He held it between them, and she looked down at it, then back up at him.
It was small, balanced on the palm of his hand, and Liz stopped being able to breathe.
That was a jewelry box.
Her heart racing, she picked it up out of his hand and looked back at him, eyes searching his, hoping he would give away what was inside.
“Open it.”
She slid the bow off, then pried the ends of the wrapping paper open. A black velvet box with a domed top slid out. She stared down, her brain taking a moment to catch up with what she knew she was holding.
This was it; he was going to ask her to marry him.
She wanted to both run away and dive into his arms at the same time, the contents of that box and what he was about to say exciting and scary in the same breath.
She’d been completely blindsided by Darren when he’d proposed to her very publicly at a hockey game in Calgary.
This felt ten times more profound, and personal.
What should she do, or say? Was she ready for this? She carefully flipped the lid, holding it between them. A set of silver bands winked at her. There was no diamond on the thinner one, no jewels. It was faceted, and brilliantly polished. Simple. Elegant.
Exactly something she would wear. She wasn’t into fancy jewelry, because wearing a big ring on the job was asking for an accident. She’d never worn the solitaire Darren had given her. This would be perfect.
“What is—” she managed before he got down on one knee, holding a hand out to her.
“Liz, the day I met you, you jostled my world. I don’t think I could have stayed away from you if I tried. This entire wild roller-coaster ride has not only given me a family, but a life I never imagined,” he said, his voice wavering slightly, his hand shaking.
“Jake—” She froze, dumbfounded, the ring box and rings clenched in her hand.
“Not done,” he interrupted. He gestured to her to hand him the box. She did, and he wiggled the smaller ring out of the holder.
“I know it’s fast. I know you’ve done this part before, so have I. I don’t want to wait any more, and life is too short to worry about making sure everything is in place. I want to break the rules.”
“Me too,” she murmured.
“I want to be yours,” he said, and cleared his throat, his own nervousness showing. She put her hand to her mouth as he grabbed her left hand and looked up at her. “Let me love you, Liz. Forever.”
Tears burst from her eyes as she nodded, unable to say anything in the torrent of feelings that his proposal had pulled from her. He loved her, she knew that, and she loved him just as much. More than she could have ever thought possible to love another person.
It was an easy thing to say yes to this man. She’d been saying yes to him since the day they had kissed in her office. He stood up and slid the ring on her left ring finger. It fit perfectly.
“I had it sized for you. It’s—” He stopped, swallowing, obviously emotional.
“It’s what?” she asked, holding it up to the light and then touching his chest. “Tell me.”
“When we searched Brett’s study I found cigar boxes full of buckles and jewelry in the safe.
Inside one of them was this band set. This one and that thicker one, sized for a man.
The stamp on the bottom of the ring box was a local jeweler in Brightside, so I went in with it, to find out more.
The old jeweler was still alive and in the store, if you can believe it.
He’s got to be about a hundred years old now.
When he saw it, he knew exactly who it was for, remembering Brett and the fuss he made about it being exactly to his specifications.
The jeweler made several rings for him over the years, the last one your mother’s.
But this one, and the one I will put on—”
She looked at it again and gasped, interrupting him. “No . . . for your—”
“Yeah. This set was for him and my mother, apparently. In my letter, he said he’d never gotten around to asking her, and then apparently he cheated on her.”
“Maybe he did ask, and she said no?” Liz offered, looking at her hand, the facets winking in the light from the tree. It was perfect, so much more valuable to her than one he would have bought from the store. It had history, a tie to this place, even if the story was sad.
“It doesn’t matter, in the end. I decided it was too significant to be sold. Their story was cut short, but ours is just beginning. I knew what I wanted to use these for the moment the jeweler showed me my father’s name on the copy of the bill of sale. To give them a better ending.”
She reached and took the box out of his hand, yanking the larger band out of the folds, and grabbed his left hand, sliding it on carefully. It fit perfectly, like it was meant for him.
“There. Done,” she murmured. “Like you said, why wait?”
“Was that a full-on yes, now?” he asked, flexing his hand, looking down at it. He smiled at her while he took the empty box back and tossed it under the tree, weaving his fingers between hers, pulling her closer to him.
Liz looked up at him, awestruck that this man would be hers, officially forever, and giddiness replaced the heavy emotion. That he would be willing to let the painful history of his mother and father go, to replace it with good memories, with her, melted her heart completely.
It also gave her ideas of how she could reciprocate such a romantic gesture. She quirked an eyebrow, pushing him back to the couch beside the Christmas tree, and they fell onto it together.
“What are you doing?” he murmured, his arms sliding around her, pulling her into him. “You aren’t thinking—”
“Damn straight, Mr. West,” she drawled, and kissed him.