Page 32 of Jack of All Trades
Before I can respond, Maya calls out from across the yard, "Cake time, everyone!"
We gather around as Rex pretends to be embarrassed by the attention, the candles casting a warm glow on his face as everyone sings. When the singing stops, he closes his eyes for a moment, then blows out all thirty candles in one breath.
"What did you wish for?" Maya asks, handing him the knife to make the first cut.
Rex's eyes flick to her, then to me, then back to his sister.
"Nothing," he says with a genuine smile. "I've got everything I need right here."
As the cake is distributed and the party continues around us, I slip my arm around Maya's waist, pulling her close to my side. In the soft glow of the string lights, with the people I care about most gathered in the yard of the home I've fought to maintain, I feel a sense of rightness, of completeness, that I've never experienced before.
"What are you thinking about?" Maya asks, looking up at me with those green eyes that seem to see straight through me.
"The future," I tell her honestly. "Our future."
She smiles, rising up on her toes to press a kiss to my lips. "I like the sound of that."
And as the night unfolds around us, filled with laughter and music and the warmth of connection, I know with absolute certainty that whatever challenges lie ahead—distance, career decisions, the opinions of others—they're all worth facing for the chance to build something real with Maya.
For the first time in my life, I'm not just riding out my eight seconds of glory before moving on to the next thrill. I'm in this for the long haul, ready to find my balance in something far more important than staying on a bull.
I'm ready to build a life with the woman who somehow appeared in Pine Haven and changed everything.
Epilogue - Maya
Four years later
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"
I adjust my hold on our daughter as she bounces excitedly on my hip, her little cowboy hat threatening to fall off with each enthusiastic jump. At two years old, Lily Morrison is already her father's biggest fan and today is no exception.
"Yes, sweetie, Daddy's coming up soon," I tell her, brushing back a strand of dark hair that has escaped from under her hat. Hair she inherited from me, along with my green eyes. Everything else about her is pure Jack, from her fearless personality to the dimple in her left cheek that appears when she smiles.
"How's my favorite niece doing?" Rex asks, reaching over to tickle Lily's stomach. She giggles and squirms in my arms, reaching for her uncle.
"Uncle Wex!" she squeals, her inability to pronounce his name correctly only making it more endearing.
Rex takes her from me, settling her on his shoulders where she can see over the crowd. His girlfriend rubs her swollen belly beside him, smiling at their interaction. At seven months pregnant for the second time, she's glowing with that special radiance that only expectant mothers seem to possess.
Their son is with one of the Outlaw Order’s couples. They’re Rex’s family too and he trusts them with his life. Especially when he was crazy enough to date their president’s daughter.
"Nervous?" Rex asks me, nodding toward the arena where preparations for the final round are underway.
"Always," I admit. "But he's got this. He's been training for months."
Four years ago, if someone had told me I'd be standing here—married to Jack Morrison, mother to his daughter, another baby on the way, and owner of Pine Haven's most successful daycare center—I would have laughed in their face. But life has a funny way of surprising you when you least expect it.
After Rex's birthday party, things moved quickly between Jack and me. I extended my "visit" in Pine Haven by another month, then officially moved to town two months after that. Jack helped me secure the old Watson building for my daycare, and with some investment from Michael Morrison (who insisted it was just "good business sense" to support local entrepreneurs), Pine Haven Little Explorers opened six months after I first set foot in town.
Jack proposed on the one-year anniversary of the day we met, getting down on one knee in the middle of the rodeo arena after winning a competition. It was so publicly dramatic, so quintessentially Jack, that I couldn't help but say yes through tears of laughter and joy.
We were married three months later in the backyard of the Morrison family home, under the same oak tree where we'd first really talked. Lily came along nine months after that, turning our world upside down in the best possible way.
Through it all, Jack has continued competing in rodeo, though he's scaled back to regional competitions that don't take him too far from home for too long. The promise he made to Rex that day, to give up rodeo if he ever hurt me, has become something of a family legend, though one that's never been close to being enacted.
Today's competition is special, though. The Montana State Championship, held right here in Pine Haven for the first time. Jack has made it to the final round, currently sitting in secondplace by just two points. One good ride on the infamous bull they call Midnight Destroyer, and the championship is his.
"Announcer says Jack's up in ten minutes," Rex tells me, checking the program. "You want Lily back?"
