Page 125 of Training the Heart

The crowd gets a little more animated as the horses and their jockeys start to load into the starting gates. Ivy comes to me where I’m holding Billi in the quietest area in our suite as the horses load. All the work we’ve gone through over the last year and a half to train Angel is coming to a head, and it’s so surreal that this is all happening.

I look down at my beautiful girls and smile, pulling Ivy into me closer. I can feel my dad’s pride from wherever he is in the universe now. Ivy takes Billi from me, and we wait not so patiently for the horses to be ready. I kiss both of them in the final seconds before the bell. Every single thing that Ivy and I have gone through, the people who’ve betrayed us, the people who let us down, the people we’ve lost and every choice we’ve made, have all brought us to this moment. To the kind of love I never would’ve dared to hope for before Ivy.

I tip my head down to her and whisper, “It doesn’t matterwhat happens today. It isn’t about the finish line, it’s about the journey, and fuck, we’re nailing the journey, Trouble.”

She smiles up at me and kisses me.

“We sure are, Chief.”

As the bell rings and the horses fly out of the gates, I’m not even thinking about winning a race because I’ve already won.

Ivy Spencer is mine, and I’m the luckiest man alive because she landed on my doorstep.

And you know what?

Finders keepers.

EPILOGUE

Ivy

Nine years later

“And don’t be afraid to straighten Scarlett up on the approach. You’re the boss, Bean, and make sure your helmet is tight. Have Mama check it.”

“I know, Dad. I’ve got this,” Billi says as I finish braiding her long bronze-colored hair down her back.

“You know the course, don’t be nervous,” he tells her, sounding a little nervous himself.

I smile and suppress a little giggle. Wade’s probably told her this at least ten times today alone, but she keeps letting him tell her like it’s the first because she’s a complete daddy’s girl, and his only girl at that.

“What are you laughing at over there, Trouble?” he asks as I secure Billi’s hair with a band.

“Go get your helmet so Daddy can watch us check it,” I tell Billi. “And grab a couple diapers on your way down.”

I stand before him and wrap my arms up around his shoulders, letting my fingers rest at the nape of his neck.

“I’m just sayin’ is all, anyone ever tell you you’re bossy, Wade Ashby?”

“I can think of a few times I’ve been told I’m bossy.” He leans forward. “And a few times you haven’t minded.”

The heat of the blush he gives me even after ten years and three kids creeps up my cheeks. He kisses my forehead, then bends down to grab our eleven-month-old son River out of his high chair.

“Stop talking like that, Mr. Ashby, we can’t be late today. A girl’s first jumping competition is important.”

Wade grunts. “Wish she’d chosen something a little less dangerous.”

I laugh as I pack up River’s diaper bag and toss some toys and snacks in for our five-year-old son, Wyatt. Lord knows it takes a lot to keep that boy entertained. He doesn’t sit still for more than thirty seconds most days, which makes chasing him around the ranch Wade’s full-time job.

Twenty minutes later, we’re rushing because when are you not when you have three kids?

“Let’s go, y’all, we’re already running late to pick up Grammie from her cabin,” I tell them as I usher them to the door to get their shoes on.

My mother has been sober ten years this fall and still lives on the ranch. She even met a nice man who owns the hardware store in town, and she started crocheting again, selling custom blankets as a little side business.

Getting my mother back has been the most incredible gift. She and Mama Jo are the best grandmothers we could ever ask to have for our babies, and they have become the closest of friends.

We head out the door of the home we built the summer Billi turned four. Finding out we were pregnant with Wyatt meant Bluegrass cabin would no longer do the trick, so we carved out an acre near the river and built a modest four-bedroom house on it, then we finally got married in front of all the people we love at the river when Wyatt was two. The other end of the river onSilver Pine’s property now houses the guest cabins that Wade added five years ago, to allow for retreats and team-building camps. I don’t know how we’ve managed to do it and stay sane half the time.

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