The True Cowboy of Sunset Ridge (Gold Valley #14)(92)
“I know,” he said. “Believe me I know.” She started to strip his clothes off of him, leaving herself fully clothed.
“Since I’m always naked first,” she said.
“Yeah, but my heart was naked first,” he said, pulling her up against him, letting her feel how much he wanted her.
“I know.” She stepped back, stripped her clothes off, and when she joined her body with his, she said she loved him. Said it over and over again. And this time, when they were finished, he didn’t leave that motel room. He just kept on holding her.
“I want you to marry me,” he said. “Be my wife. Be everything.”
“Lily’s mother too?”
“Yes.”
“I want that,” she said, her words hushed, her voice thick with tears. “I want to be your wife. And her mother. I want it so much that it scares me. I fell into that... I thought it was a fantasy, Colt. I didn’t think you could ever love me.”
“Mallory, I could never love anybody else. Believe me. If I was going to, I would have at some point in the last thirty years, but it didn’t happen.”
“I’m still afraid,” she said. “It’s why I hid in that relationship for so long. It’s why I never talked to my parents. Nothing has felt secure or safe or okay. I never felt like I had proven myself worthy enough to drop that sort of disappointment on them.”
“I know. But we’re here. And we get to choose.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “We get to make the choice, and we can’t ever know for sure what will happen down the road, but we can keep on choosing each other. Every day. I love you.”
She sobbed. “Please love me. I am needy, and I love you so much that it makes me hurt. Please don’t ever leave me. Please...”
He cut her words off with a kiss. “I do,” he said. “I will. Forever.”
“Me too.”
Colt had spent his life wondering what his purpose was. And lying here with Mallory Chance in his arms, he knew it. As deep as he knew anything. Right the way down to his bones.
To love. To be loved.
By her.
Forever.
EPILOGUE
IT WAS HIM. The man. The fantasy man. Colt Daniels, standing there at the head of the altar in a black suit, black cowboy hat on his head, his blue eyes looking electric. Her parents were here, her mother holding Lily in her lap, the level of frill on Lily’s dress completely out of control.
Today they were getting married. Today they were also signing Lily’s adoption papers before the judge. It had been a little bit of a long road to get here, but after all the temporary guardianship and paperwork and relinquishing of parental rights, they were here. Here for the final day. Where they would become part of each other’s lives on paper. The sealing of what was already meant to be, woven into the fabric of time.
She felt like family already.
Colt was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen in her entire life. From the first moment she felt like he was a cowboy god. But it was more than that. Deeper than that. She took his hands, and looked into his eyes. He was that missing part of her. And he made it not so scary to open herself up to love. Because she could trust him. He made her feel like she could trust herself.
And when they were done with their vows, and they kissed, he bent down and took Lily from her mother’s arms and held her up between them.
“Well, I didn’t think when you showed up in Gold Valley nine months ago that this is where we would be now.”
“No I didn’t. But you know, there’s just some things you can’t even know to hope for. And you’re one of them. You were too good for me to imagine.”
“Have I told you today that you’re beautiful?”
“You have,” she said. “But I’m happy to hear it again.”
“And I love you.”
“I love you too,” she said. “Big and brave and forever.”
And that was the kind of love they were both determined to teach Lily. Because even though she suffered some loss, there was plenty of love. And it might be imperfect, but it was real. And it was more powerful than any other force on earth. More than shame. More than fear. More than grief.
And they grabbed it with both hands.
The Cowboy She Loves to Hate
This one is dedicated to my childhood favorites: Jimmy Spoon; Caddie Woodlawn; and Sarah,
Plain and Tall. They’re part of what shaped my love for Westerns. Books make all the difference.
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER ONE
SHE WAS AT his front door. And damn if her hair wasn’t in pigtails.
Nelly Foster was standing there, arms crossed over her chest, her expression bright and determined. “It’s my birthday,” she said.
But he was fixated on the pigtails.
When Taggart McCloud was thirteen years old, the one thing he’d wanted most in the world was to pull Nelly Foster’s pigtails. Okay, maybe not most in the world, but the thing he’d wanted most while sitting slack-jawed and bored out of his mind in the one-room schoolhouse that he and all the other ranch kids attended on the sprawling property that contained Garrett’s Watch, McCloud’s Landing, Sullivan’s Point and King’s Crest and collectively made up the Four Corners Ranch.