Epilogue
ELLA
ONE YEAR LATER
“Mama.”
“Yes, Rose.”
“Cake?”
I sigh, looking down at my daughter’s cherubic face, her large brown eyes staring up at me with so much hope. Hope for sugar. “No, baby. Not yet.”
Lips turning into a frown, she harrumphs. “No. Cake now.”
I fight to hide my smile as she crosses her arms in obvious frustration. “We have to wait for Oliver to get home from school before we can have cake. It is his birthday cake, after all.”
“Cake?” Violet asks hopefully, skipping into the kitchen.
At three and a half, Violet is the spitting image of her mother.
It gives me peace to know that, while Ember is no longer here, I get to watch the very best parts of her grow up every day.
Even now, as Violet gives me an innocent smile, I see my sister shining back.
“Not yet. Daddy will be home with Oliver soon, and then we can have cake.”
It’s Oliver’s seventh birthday. My sweet nephew only asked for two things for his birthday.
He wants to have his best friend Carson over for a sleepover, and he wants cake right after school.
I know there will be years where birthday requests are much more involved than this, or when extracurriculars take so much time that we’ll barely see Oliver.
He’s already showing amazing prowess in the peewee hockey program Leo and Luca got him into, and he loves the elementary STEM and Pokémon clubs that meet each week after school.
Honestly, Oliver has a better social life than I do.
“Ladybug?” Leo calls from the door. Brody, the surprise mic-drop baby that we didn’t anticipate, squeals in happiness, his arms and legs flailing against me.
I can already tell this boy is Leo’s mini-me.
Brody isn’t happy unless he can survey his surroundings.
He’s an observant one, content to watch the world around him.
“Cake!” Rose says gleefully, clapping her tiny hands together, then looks up to Violet. “Oli cake!”
As Leo and Oliver walk into the kitchen, the girls surround Oliver excitedly. Violet shouts, “Happy birthday, brother!”
“Bird-day cake!” Rose adds, her voice growly and intense. “Cake now, Oli.”
Leo approaches me and kisses my cheek. “There’s a familiar looking woman in the driveway who yelled that she’s still mad at me for almost running over one of her mini highland cows twenty years ago. Any idea who that may be?”
I gasp. “Ally is here? No way!”
He gives me a big smile. “She’ll never let me forget about that, will she?”
Squealing, I run outside to find my favorite cousin, Allyson Sterling, smiling widely at me.
Wearing worn jeans, boots, a faded blue tank top, and a cowboy hat, Ally looks exactly as she always has.
A little sliver of my childhood in Silver Mist Falls.
At three years my junior, Ally was always my favorite cousin to pal around with on her family’s ranch, Sterling Falls Ranch.
It was always me, Ally, and Ember. The three musketeers.
We knew from early on she was destined to take over running the ranch.
Not only is it in her blood, but the ranch, and the town of Silver Mist Falls, are in her soul.
“What are you doing here?” I gush, sweeping her into a big hug. Ally laughs as she returns the hug tightly.
“I can’t come to celebrate my favorite cousin’s birthday?” she answers.
Pulling back, I raise an eyebrow. “I thought I was your favorite cousin.”
Ally shrugs, then gives Brody a big grin. “Cute kids trump childhood friendships, El. You should know that. But seeing this little one means I should probably specify that it’s my favorite seven-year-old cousin’s birthday, because aren’t you just the cutest thing in the whole wide world?”
I laugh. “That’s fair. They are pretty cute. Especially this one.”
I hear Ally’s intake of breath as she looks over my shoulder. “God, she’s a little Ember.”
I feel a tug on my heart as I watch Violet confidently walk up to Ally. “I ‘member you.”
“Oh yeah?” Ally asks with a chuckle.
“Uh-huh. You have all the little cows.”
“I do. I have quite a few animals,” Ally says.
“What else?” Violet asks, as Oliver ambles up, swinging his arm around his sister.
“Well, I have quite a few horses, some normal size dairy cows, a herd of chickens —” Ally stops when Rose claps wildly.
“Chickens!” she bellows.
Ally looks to me, biting her lip to keep from laughing. “I have chickens. Do you like chickens?”
“Yes,” Rose answers. “Cute and yummy.”
“Well, that’s an interesting take,” Ally replies.
Leo laughs as he sidles up beside me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders. “There may be a slightly violent tendency in this one. We’re working on it.”
“Unless you’re bringing me one of the animals,” Oliver blurts out, “I would like to have my birthday cake now.”
“Cake!” Rose screams, throwing a fist into the air.
“Any chance the cake is sugar-free?” Leo murmurs against my ear, making me shiver. “I don’t think this one needs more ammunition.”
As Rose follows Oliver back into the house, by jumping every step, I shake my head. “It’s going to be a long night.”
Seven hours later, after what could possibly have been the longest bedtime ever, all four kids are asleep in their rooms. Oliver still sleeps in the boys room, and he loves having Carson over for sleepovers.
Thankfully, the sleepover is tomorrow night, as tonight is a school night.
While we initially thought about allowing Violet and Rose to share the girls room, we decided against it.
Violet still has difficulty falling asleep, and we wanted her to have her own space.
Violet took over the girls room, and we renovated another bedroom for Rose.
If the girls choose to share a room down the line, we’ll deal with it then.
Brody occupies the last bedroom, but Oliver has made it very clear he expects to share a room with his little brother at some point.
I’d feared having a six year age gap between the oldest and youngest would be difficult, but Oliver has surprised me at every milestone.
He’s all too engaged with his siblings, and loves every moment.
“Whew,” Leo says with a loud exhale as he hands me a longneck beer beside our fire pit. Sitting beside me in a rocking chair, he clinks his beer to mine before taking a long swig. “Took Violet forever to fall asleep tonight.”
“Too much excitement,” I murmur, closing my eyes as I rest my head back. “Rose had trouble too. Oli’s birthday, too much sugar, and Ally surprising us. Their little brains can’t process it all.”
“Shit, I’m sorry,” Ally says as she walks out to join us. “I should have let you know I was coming.”
I shake my head. “It’s not a big deal. They would have been overstimulated even if you weren’t here. In case you missed it, the girls are big fans of cake.”
“You don’t say,” Ally says with a giggle. “They’re a hoot. I wish we lived closer so I could see them more often.”
Silver Mist Falls sits just about due west of Eternity Springs, but because of the mountainous terrain, it takes two hours to get there.
It’s a quaint city located just south of bustling Interstate 70, thrown in the midst of all the well-known skiing and winter sports locations.
With no major ski resort in town, Silver Mist Falls manages to maintain its small-town charm, while pulling in tons of tourism to keep the businesses going.
“How’s ranch life?” Leo asks easily, stretching over to pull my chair closer to his.
Wrapping an arm around my shoulders, he mindlessly twirls a lock of hair around his fingers.
I lean into his hand, finding peace in the feeling of his metal wedding band hitting my warm skin.
We were quietly married in this backyard with only our kids, Travis and Gianna, and Leo’s parents in attendance.
I’d invited my brother, but he never answered me, and I haven’t spoken to him since.
I won’t force someone to be family for me.
I married into the best family, and the rest of the people I’ve chosen to surround myself with make up for everyone else.
“Ranch life was going well,” Ally spits out, her gaze darkening. “We were doing just fine, until Dipshit McGee rolled into town and started making a fuss about things.”
“Dipshit McGee?” Leo asks dryly. “Please tell me that isn’t someone’s actual name.”
“No,” she mutters. “Although I think it sounds better than his actual name.”
“Oh, a man is causing problems,” I tease.
Her eyes are full of annoyance as she glares at me. “Of course it’s a man. Whenever someone causes drama in my life, it’s always a fucking man.”
“Alright. Who is causing drama this time?” I ask.
Ally blows out a breath, the breeze forcing hair out of her eyes.
Resting a boot against the edge of the fire pit, she audibly growls.
“This rich asshat rolled into town a couple of months ago. Drove a Benz right onto my ranch and had the absolute audacity to tell me he wants to buy it. Then the asshole had the nerve to be offended when I told him to get the fuck off the property!”
“Woah,” Leo murmurs. “Why did he want to buy it?”
Irritation wafts off Ally in waves. “Does that really matter? Why does any entitled prick want to do anything? Because he can. Because it’ll satisfy some innate need to take something from a woman. And probably because he also propositioned me the night before, and then he was butthurt about it.”
“Wait,” I interrupt. “He propositioned you? Did he take advantage of you?”
“No, nothing like that. We were both at the Timberline Tavern. I didn’t know who he was.
Just that he cleaned up nice. When he whipped out his black Amex, I knew he was above my pay grade, and I got out of there.
Then he shows up at the ranch the following day, dressed to the nines in a bespoke suit, and told me he was buying the ranch out from under me. ”