Page 110 of Roaring Fork Wrangler

“I’d like that.”

He cupped my cheek with his palm. “I meant what I said about not living here, Juniper. Sometimes, especially in the last few hours, I wonder if I even could again.”

I shook my head. “I cannot imagine anywhere more perfect.”

Cord’s head cocked. “Not East Aurora?”

“Not even close.”

He released me, and I walked closer to the truck, then turned around to look behind me. “Could you build anything up here?”

His eyes scrunched. “Like what?”

“A house or maybe a cabin?”

He studied me but didn’t speak.

“That wasn’t a rhetorical question, Cord.”

“Yeah, I know. I gotta tell you, though. I’m a little speechless. This right here”—he motioned to the clearing—“is where I always dreamed I’d live someday. I just never figured anyone else would want to.”

I took his hands and looked into his eyes, remembering how I felt the day he lay in the hospital bed and I saw them for the first time in a way I hadn’t before. I knew then I loved him. “I want to.”

“Come here.” He pulled me over to the boulder next to where he’d parked. “It’s getting cold, so I gotta do this quick.” He knelt down on one knee, took something from his pocket, then reached for my left hand. My eyes filled with tears when his did.

“I love you more than anything. More than this view or this plot of land, more than wranglin’, or anything else I’ve ever done or anyone I’ve ever known in my life. Will you marry me, Juniper Rose?”

“Yes, I’ll marry you, Cord.”

He slid the ring on my finger. “If you want something different?—”

I looked down at the simple gold band etched with flowers. “It’s perfect.”

“That’s what Sam said.”

I cocked my head.

“She gave it to me while I was still in the hospital. Right before I got out, actually. She said she found it in a box in Miss Cena’s closet. There was a note with it that said it belonged to her mother, Irene.” He shook his head and smiled. “She told me something else.”

“What’s that?” I asked, smiling through my tears.

“That if I didn’t give this to you when I asked you to marry me, she’d disown me as her cousin.”

“She didn’t!” I gasped.

Cord nodded. “Those were her exact words.”

I studied the ring on my finger. “I couldn’t love it, or you, more.” I wrapped my arms around him, and we kissed before getting back in the truck when the sun went behind a cloud and the temperature seemed to drop several degrees.

“Looks like there’s a storm rolling in.”

The sky that had been mostly blue and cloudless when we arrived at the ranch was now gray and getting darker.

Cord put the truck in gear, and by the time we reached the three cabins we’d passed earlier, it was snowing hard.

“Wait for me here,” Cord said, pulling up to one. He got out, walked up the porch steps, looked in the window, then reached above the door. He must’ve found a key because, seconds later, it opened.

I was about to climb out when he raced over to me.

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