Epilogue: Unforgettable

Epilogue

Ryder

UNFORGETTABLE

Performed by Darlinghurst

One Year Later

How was it I was backin this same damn situation? Shooting at crows and hoping like hell I didn’t clip one. Mila would never forgive me after the promise I’d made to never hurt another creature. Those black beasts were cackling laughter through those caws. I just knew it.

I aimed to the left and high above the trees, hoping the sound would be enough to scare them and cursing Willy for taking off on a damn honeymoon while my sound machine needed repairs.

Even after I’d let two shots ring through the icy air, the birds just sat there, feasting on Mama’s crabapples and making faces at me.

“Let’s try something else,” Gia’s voice rang out behind me.

I turned to find her and Addy stomping over the snow-crusted field, both of them covered in so many layers of clothes that nothing but their rosy cheeks peeked out.

“What are you doing out here? You’ll freeze to death,” I groused. It was too cold for my girls. The temperature had plummeted to an unusual two degrees this morning. It never got quite this cold in Willow Creek.

Gia waved a black box she was carrying. As she got closer, I realized it was an old-school boom box—an antique she’d found in the attic of Phil’s house when my family had gotten together to go through it all.

When they reached me, I tugged gently on one of Addy’s braids hanging out from beneath her beanie. “Aren’t you supposed to be in school, sweetheart?”

“Snow day!” she all but screamed. Her volume sounded more like Mila”s than her normal quiet self, and it did crazy things to my heart. I loved that she was coming out of her shell and finding a way to feel safe and secure.

I leaned in and kissed Gia. I couldn’t help myself. Every time we were apart and came back together, my instincts took over, my body demanding to be reunited, even if we’d only been apart minutes. In this case, we’d been apart for several hours. I’d left her when our room was still dark to drive over to the box store a town over and then headed back to the ranch to handle Mama’s pesky crows.

“Business first,” Gia said, pulling back with a smile that tugged her cheeks up and her color-changing eyes flashing.

She marched away from me, closer to the crows that took a moment to go silent, as if they too were in awe of the beautiful figure she made, crunching over the frozen earth in a bright-red jacket and matching snow boots. Addy twirled along behind her, and I brought up the rear.

Gia set the boom box down, clicked a few buttons, turned a few knobs, and a classic-rock song burst into the air at a volume that made me want to cover my ears.

The birds squawked in objection before taking flight.

I watched in awe as black wings filled the air, heading out over the trees and up into the mountains.

Addy grabbed my hand with her mittened one and started dancing. My girl was an amazing dancer. It had taken months of line dancing with Sadie for us to figure that out. Now, Addy was enrolled in a class that she only freaked out at attending once in a while. No performances for her. She couldn’t handle the audience and probably never would, but she could participate. She could do something that brought her as much joy as the video games and coding she did with Gia.

Gia rejoined us, and the three of us twisted and twirled, leaving a path of wild footprints in the snow. A year ago, I’d been in this field, pinky-promising my niece, my chest filled with an ache for something I’d lost and never thought I’d have again―a wife and a child. And now, through life’s twists and turns and wild adventures, I’d ended up with both.

Thank God, Gia had wanted a simple ceremony here at the ranch that we’d been able to pull off within months of me proposing. I hadn’t wanted to wait to make sure the world knew we belonged to each other.

It was a gift I’d never take for granted. I’d never treat these moments with them with anything but the precious respect they deserved.

When the song ended and a slower one started, Addy pulled away, picking up a pail she’d set down by the boom box. “I’m going to collect some crabapples for Nana.”

My heart always leaped with pleasure when she called Mama that.

Gia and I watched as Addy started picking up fruit from the ground, reaching up to the low-hanging branches for more. Then, Gia pulled me to her, hands going around my neck, tucking our hips close together—or as close as they could be with her in layers of clothes and me in my thick work jacket and jeans.

She swayed us to the beat of the music. Slow and sultry.

“You danced with me to this song before proposing,” she said with a soft smile.

“Damn good song.”

Her smile grew. “Do you remember what we talked about?”

I furrowed my brow, trying to remember.

“Mom had been harassing me about grandkids. We were negotiating how many we were going to have.”

The conversation fell into place. The one when she’d said she wanted two kids and I’d said I wanted a whole bushel of them. Enough to fill up those empty rooms downstairs. “I remember,” I said quietly.

“I think we should get to work on that.”

My feet ground to a halt, hope and joy flooding my veins. “What?”

She laughed, and it tinkled through the air lighter and more beautiful than any snowflake.

“Let’s make a baby, cowboy.”

My hands slid down to the hem of her jacket, trying to sneak under it, trying to find the smooth expanse of her flat stomach. Just the thought of it going round and full because our child was growing inside her made me hard, made me uncomfortably aware of Addy singing and dancing as she collected fruit behind us.

“You’re wearing too many clothes, darlin’. We’re in the middle of a damn frozen field. Addy’s with us, and you tell me that now? That’s cruel and unusual punishment.”

Gia brushed her lips against mine. They were cold and yet hot at the same time, and my body flooded with desire. If Addy wasn’t with us, I would have taken her down to the cold hard earth and seen just how we could melt the ice around us.

“You can take your revenge when we get home,” she whispered.

“Addy, Gia and I have to go. Grab the pail, and you can help Nana bake some pies,” I hollered.

Gia laughed, but I swung her up in my arms and started marching across the field.

“Put me down. You can’t carry me all the way back to the house.”

“Watch me.”

“Addy, get the boom box!” Gia called out over my shoulder.

“Leave the damn box! When it runs out of batteries, I’ll send Ramon out to replace them,” I shouted back.

I was halfway across the field before Addy caught up to us. She looked up at Gia with a concerned look in her eye. “Is Gia okay?”

Damn. I hated that I’d worried her. I let Gia slide down my body and steadied her while she found her footing. “She’s fine. I was just in a hurry. We have some business I forgot to take care of.”

When she still didn’t look sure, I tweaked her braid. “Promise, sweetheart. Everything here is really good. Better than any dream I could ever imagine. You. Gia. This family we’ve made. My heart is so full every damn day I can’t believe my luck.”

Addy’s face broke into a huge smile I was proud to say looked a hell of a lot like the one I saw each morning in the mirror. “You owe a dollar for the curse jar, Papa!”

Then, she took off, running toward the farmhouse where Mama would tuck her up next to her in an apron and have her stir and pat and bake. As soon as our daughter’s feet hit the steps, I twirled Gia back into my arms and slanted my mouth over hers. I devoured those pretty pink lips like I had every day for more than a year. Like I would every day for another hundred years.

She’d always be mine. I’d always be hers. There was nothing that would come between us.

…Except too damn many clothes.

Thank you for reading Ryder and Gia’s happily ever after.