Page 67 of Rancher's Return

Like a knight in shining armor.

A hero.

Light and color and everything she’d been missing, in his black Henley and his blue jeans, his cowboy hat on his head.

No. He ruined this, remember?

But she didn’t care. Because she wanted him.

And because everything they’d talked about, everything they’d been working through these past few months, was all about the fact that you had to be able to move on from bad choices.

That the end wasn’t final, if you didn’t let it be.

“I need to talk to you,” he said.

Her first instinct was to protect herself. “Why? Haven’t you said everything there is to say?”

“No. Because last time we talked I left off something really crucial.”

“What’s that?”

“I love you. I loved you even when I was telling you no. You’re right, I never said I didn’t love you. I loved you that whole time. But I couldn’t figure out how to keep myself safe and how to love you. That’s what it comes down to. I told myself all kinds of things. That I didn’t deserve love because of the way that I had abandoned my family. That I couldn’t be trusted. But I spent twenty years disconnected from everyone and everything. On purpose. Until those boys came into my life, I had forgotten how to really love. I knew how to atone. I knew how to do good things because guilt motivated me. But those boys changed me. Yet with you, I tried to do the old things. I tried to revert to type. But having my boys look at me and ask if I only adopted them because I felt guilty... Hell no. Of course not. And that’s another thing. I’m trying to be a role model here. I’m doing a bad job at it. Because what I’m showing is that if you make a mistake you have to make yourself pay for it for the rest of your life.”

“You didn’t make a mistake. You didn’t cause that accident.”

“I don’t mean the accident. I mean leaving. I mean not staying. But I was too hurt. I was too messed up. I told myself that everybody would be better off without me. I believed it. Because I... I just hurt so damned bad. So much of this, is just actually being afraid of hurt. And not knowing how to share myself. Because what I know how to do is run away. I reverted to type. And I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”

“Why don’t you let me decide what I deserve?”

“But I want to take care of you. I want to be better for you. I want—I’m an idiot. Because the reason you came to my door that day had nothing to do with business. Or atonement. Or even sex. It was love. That was it. That was everything. From the first moment. The first moment I saw you. I just knew that I couldn’t let you walk away from me.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“I want it all,” he said. “I want to get married. I want to move in together, I want to share space. But I do understand if you can’t do that before Lily goes college.”

She nodded slowly. “I’ll have to talk to her. It is her last few months at home.”

“Of course.”

Because loving each other meant loving all of it. Loving him meant loving all his baggage, all the boys. And loving her was the same. And they both understood it. Because they understood each other.

She had thought for a long time that she was healed. In some ways, she had been. Healed enough to do right by her daughter, healed enough to be a good mom. But she was finally healed enough to be herself.

And that was an incredible gift.

Epilogue

Welcome to Lone Rock...

The day Buck moved Marigold into his house they passed that familiar sign.

All of Marigold’s belongings were in the back of the truck, and they were ready to start their new life together. They would be living in sin before the wedding. And Lily had said she didn’t mind moving out to the ranch before graduation, which meant they were going to be one big happy family before she and Colton left for college. Reggie and Marcus especially had completely latched on to Marigold as their mother, and she was giving them absolutely everything.

He had never felt more in awe of how beautiful life could be. He had spent way too long thinking about how cruel it could be.

“You look happy,” Marigold said.

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