Page 58 of The Cowboy's Miracle Baby

“I’m staying,” he said, though he’d already truly decided that days ago. And once he said it aloud, he wondered what had taken him so long. “Tell them no.”

“What?Gus…”

“I’ve met someone here and I want to… make things work.”

“Another agent? Gus, if you’re not happy with me as your—”

“No, Clarissa. A woman. I… might be… I’m in love with her. She’s important to me. And I want to make things work with her. I can’t do that from Denver.”

“I see. You’re turning this down for a possible relationship that might or might not work?”

“That’s right. For her and for Ella, who loves it here and needs some roots. For the puppy I got Ella for Christmas, who’ll be happy as a clam to have beautiful places to run. For myself, too. Because as Luke has so astutely pointed out, I can’t go on like this forever. It’s time to stop.”

A waiter passed with a tray of appetizers and Gus snagged a stuffed mushroom, popping it in his mouth. He was suddenly hungry. Starving.

Clarissa sighed again. “Well, I’d like to say I’m disappointed, you being a great client and all, but honestly? Gus, I am happy for you. And surprised. I try not to get emotionally invested in my clients, because… you know. This happens eventually. But I’d all but given up on you putting things behind you and moving on. If you’re happy, then I am. Minus, of course, my future commissions.”

Relief tumbled through him that she wasn’t furious with him. “I think this place can really be home for us. I don’t need Denver or LA or any elite practices to build my resume. This is really it. It’s time.”

“Okay. I’ll tell the practice in Denver your final answer. Let me know how it goes there. If there’s anything I can do… I hope everything works out the way you want.”

“Thanks, Clarissa. I mean it.”

He hung up, scanning the room again for Cami. He’d thought about telling her tonight, but decided to wait until he firmed up his deal with Alden. He wanted all his ducks in a row before he said anything.

The guests began getting seated and he found Ella but not Luke, who seemed to have vanished into thin air. He and Ella sat on Will’s side of the aisle. Across the way, Izzy’s parents—apparently big deals in Texas politics—sat beside Izzy’s favorite grandmother and a bunch of Izzy’s friends from Dallas who’d flown out for the wedding. Will’s business partner in the limo company, Isaiah, a giant of a man dressed in a tux ran a hand over his bald head and grinned as he walked out to join the minister and Will walked out behind him to wait for Izzy.

Behind them, someone on the piano began playing a perfect John Legend song, and when the singer began the lyrics, Gus spun around to find Luke sitting behind the piano, singing.

“Daddy! It’s Uncle Luke singing,” Ella whispered.

What the—?Luke hadn’t said a thing about this. He sounded really good. Not that he didn’t know his brother could sing, but how had he ended up singing at Will and Izzy’s wedding? And he’d kept it a secret from both of them.

But Gus hardly had time to take that in before spotting Cami and the other bridesmaids coming down the stairs. Dressed in icy, silvery blue, and looking as pretty as he’d ever seen her, Cami came down first, followed by two others escorted by a couple of Will’s friends. He caught her eye as she descended, and a quick smile flicked at her mouth, but she was focused on her task.

Then, Izzy began descending the stairway. This time, not on her father’s arm, but alone, a shy smile on her lips, her long reddish hair tied up in a messy, but elegant bun and dotted with white rosebuds. She was a picture in that white gown, as simple as it was elegant.

Over the past six months, he’d gotten to know her and Will a bit through his visits to the ranch and he envied them the ease of not only their friendship, but obvious love for each other. Their love story had been unique, having spun off a complete wedding fail of Izzy’s back in Dallas to a man who clearly didn’t deserve her.

Now, she beamed at Will who stood waiting for her beneath the arch of flowers, and he only had eyes for her.

Gus swallowed thickly. Weddings.Man.They always got to him.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” Ella whispered.

But now Gus was looking at Cami. “Yeah. She sure is, love.”

At the makeshift altar, Izzy and Will joined hands and whispered something to each other that no one else could hear.

An old friend of Will’s was serving as the minister. “Welcome, friends, to this joyous occasion, and thank you all for coming to share this day with Will and Isabella and their families… If anyone had told me a year and a half ago, I’d be standing up here to preside over the marriage of one of my best friends, this friend in particular, I would have told you absolutely not. Not Will. But that’s only because Will hadn’t met Isabella—Izzy, for short—yet. And that meeting changed everything.”

Gus stared at Cami as the ceremony went on, thinking how life could turn on a dime and change plans. Meeting her, finding Lolly together, feeling at home in this small town had not been part of his plan. But like Will and Izzy, whose meeting had been random and unplanned almost a year and a half ago, at a low point in their lives, had put a strange spin on both their paths—happily so—and here they were, saying their I dos. When he’d married Lissa, he’d never once imagined he’d be a single dad, raising their child alone or that he’d ever be unlocking his heart once again, enough to find a woman like Cami.

He found himself wishing Izzy and Will a long, happy life together without the drama or pain of unexpected U-turns.

“That day in Dallas,” Will was saying, holding her hands, “the day you kidnapped me and my limo for a drive to the West Coast”—Izzy laughed—“I never saw it coming. My life changed for the better in every single way. Izzy, you are my heart, my life, and my everything. And I promise to love you, protect you, support you, and drive you wherever you want to go… in my limo. As long as I’m by your side.”

Then it was her turn. “Will, I believe if you asked my parents, it wasyouwho kidnappedmethat day in Dallas. But the truth is, we rescued each other that day. We took each other on an adventure that changed us. Revealed and healed us. You showed me what home could really mean and what it means to be truly loved. I’m so lucky to have you in my life, as my husband and, yes, open that limo door and I’ll go anywhere with you. But,” she said, taking in the family surrounding them, “we should probably stay right here for a while.”

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