Cowboy In The Crossfire(60)

"Sure thing," Blake said. "I think he picked you already."

"Then it's okay." He looked up at them. "Can we go home? I want to play with Leo."

Amanda smiled and folded her fingers into Blake's. "I thought fairy tales were for little girls, but you changed my mind, Blake Redmond. I've found my happily ever after."





Epilogue


"Blake Redmond!"

Amanda stood on the porch and stared at Ethan as he waved at her from atop the tractor, Leo running at his side. That dog was never two feet from her son.

"We agreed not until he's ten!" Amanda glared at her husband.

Blake grinned at her, that familiar mischievous glint of gold in his eyes. "He's a boy. He needs to stretch his wings."

She waddled out to him, her hand on her swollen belly. "You are not making your wife or our child happy."

Blake stroked her belly, and the baby kicked against her side. She winced a bit at their active child and sent a worried glance toward Ethan. He shouldn't be driving that thing.

Her husband slipped around her and wrapped her in his arms, pressing in close. She rested against the hard planes of his body and sighed as his lips nipped her ear. "Parris is walking right beside him," he said quietly. "They're hardly moving."

She turned in his arms and glared at him, her belly poking at him. "You did that just to get a rise out of me."

He kissed her nose. "Maybe."

"Now, none of that. That's how you two got in this predicament." Nancy Redmond's voice filtered out from the screen door, a wide smile on her face, and a brand-new gold band shining on her left hand.

Amanda sighed as Blake hugged his mother, his eyes closed tight. She knew every time he saw her he flashed back to those few days he'd believed he'd lost her.

To try to avoid the Austin police, Nancy and Parris had ended up stranded in his fishing cabin for several days, with no cell service and no way to communicate. When they'd finally made contact, it was the first time Amanda had seen her husband cry. The second was when she'd told him she was pregnant.

They'd been through so much. Everyone had. The blows kept coming. It hadn't taken long to realize Donna, the department dispatcher, had been killed in Nancy's house. Irving's greed had destroyed too many lives. But life did go on. And now, almost a year later, life was very, very good. She'd found the best man and best father a woman could ask for--if a bit bossy at times. Still, she had complete confidence he would fight for her and cherish her and their children. And if she occasionally had to take him down a peg or two...she touched her abdomen. Makeup sessions could be more than wonderful.

Blake hugged Amanda to him. She nestled close and gazed at the blue and pink clouds billowing on the horizon. Sugar stood in his pen, calm and serene, as if he, too, knew the murderers had paid and that healing had taken root for his family.

Blake kissed her temple. "Are we still happily ever after?"

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "More than ever."

*

Keep reading for an excerpt of Wrangled by B.J. Daniels!





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Chapter One


The knock at the door surprised Zane Chisholm. He'd just spent the warm summer day in the saddle rounding up cattle. All he wanted to do was kick off his boots and hit the hay early. The last thing he wanted was company.

But whoever was knocking didn't sound as if they were planning to go away anytime soon. Living at the end of a dirt road, he didn't get uninvited company--other than one of his five brothers. So that narrows it down, he thought as he went to the window and peered out through the curtains.

The car parked outside was a compact, lime-green with Montana State University plates. Definitely not one of his brothers, he thought with a grin. Chisholm men wouldn't be caught dead driving such a "girlie" car. Especially a lime-green one.

Even more odd was the young, willowy blonde pounding on his door. She must be lost and needing directions. Or she was selling something.

His curiosity piqued, he went to answer her persistent knock. As the door swung open, he saw that her eyes were blue and set wide in a classically gorgeous face. She wore a slinky red dress that fell over her body like water. The woman was a stunner.

She smiled warmly. "Hi."

"Hi." He waited, wondering what she wanted, and enjoying the view in the meantime.

Her smile slipped a little as she took in his worn jeans, his even more worn cowboy boots and the dirty Western shirt with a torn sleeve and a missing button.

"I wasn't expecting company," he said when he saw her apparent disappointment in his attire.

"Oh?" She looked confused now. "Did I get the night wrong? You're Zane Chisholm and this is Friday, right?"