Page 71 of Trails of Temptation

“Well, this is quite a treat.” I laughed, tightening my hold on George’s waist as we rode Daisy down to the lower pasture. It was a warm spring day, the first real warmth we’d had since the snow had begun to melt away and the grass started sprouting. I sucked in a surprised breath as the lower pasture came into view. The pale green grasses were covered in blue, white, and yellow wildflowers that had just begun to open, the entire area rippling and swaying in a warm breeze. “Wow!” I exclaimed, smiling wildly.

“Pretty, right?” George chuckled, continuing down into the pasture. I looked around, following the creek up to where several picnic blankets were laid out. I could see Grant and Moira’s horse, King, grazing in the distance, as well as Chancy, the new horse Day had been riding all winter. Chancy was a soft cream color and according to George, a “mutt.” He was an odd-looking horse with a short mane and large hooves dappled with orange spots, but he was amiable and safe for Day to ride.

Grant came into view, giving us a short wave in greeting as we approached. Daisy nickered excitedly as she trotted up to King, barely giving us any time to get off her back.

“Alright, girl,” George murmured to her, grunting as he steadied her and climbed off her back, his hand extended to me to help me down.

“So, this is what the picnic basket was for.” I grinned, waving excitedly at Moira. Eight-month-old Holly was crawling around on their blanket, her curly red hair pulled into two fine pigtails as she picked at the grass on the edge of the blanket.

“Would’ve been a waste of a warm day to sit inside.” George smiled as he pulled the blanket and basket I’d packed off Daisy. We walked over to Grant and Moira, setting our blanket down a few yards away from theirs. I got to work setting up our picnic while Moira poured us each a glass of the strawberry rhubarb wine I’d made in the fall and left to brew in the cellar of their house for the winter.

“Hello, munchkin,” I cooed as I hoisted Holly into my lap and gave her several kisses on her plump, rosy cheeks. She gave me a big smile in return, showing off her single tooth. “She’s crawling like crazy!” I mused, setting her down. She crawled across our blanket and back over the grassy space toward Moira, who made a funny face at her daughter.

“And pulling herself up on everything,” Moira quipped with a sigh as Holly climbed into her lap. “None of the baby-proofing we’ve done has done a damn thing.”

I chuckled as conversation erupted around me. I looked around the group, taking in how happy everyone was after a long, hard winter. Day was splashing in the creek with Jennie, and I perked up a bit as I watched Pete walk into view beside the boy, leaning in to show him a rock, or something.

“Pete? What’re you doing here?” I laughed, surprised to see him. He usually worked at the bar on Saturdays. In the past eight months of living in Hot Springs at the ranch, I couldn’t remember a single Saturday where he’d taken even a half day off.

“I was invited,” he replied, smirking at me.

I gave him an arched look and turned my attention to George, who was chatting excitedly with Grant while Holly made her way back over to us, her focus fixed on the bowl of watermelon I’d just pulled out of the basket.

Holly had been born the same night George gave me his mother’s pearl necklace. She was born healthy and full term, and Moira had been nothing but relieved to be done being pregnant. I’d stayed on with Grant and Moira for a few more weeks, helping with Holly and Day while Moira healed.

When August rolled around, at the urging of both the Hallstons and George, I applied for the open position at the nearby elementary school and landed a job as one of the second-grade teachers. The past few months had just been… heaven, honestly. I moved into George’s house on Grant’s property and everything had felt so right and so easy. We spent a good deal of time on the weekends working on the Edgewater house, which was almost ready to move in to. George had an auction coming up where he planned on buying some cattle to start stocking up his own herd.

Grant and Moira were sad, of course, that we were leaving. But George was going to continue working for Grant for a few more years, at least. Then Randy would take over as head rancher, eventually. Plus, we’d all been practically living together for the past year. We were a family now. A slightly mismatched family, but family still.

“When are you going to have one of these, Keely?” Grant asked playfully as he mercilessly tickled his daughter.

“Whenever George puts a ring on my finger,” I teased, glancing at George, who was pink in the cheeks.

“Give me one of those sandwiches,” Pete said to me, and I arched my brow at him. “Please.”

“Where’s your picnic?” George laughed as Pete plopped down on the edge of Grant and Moira’s blanket and unwrapped the turkey sandwich I’d given him.

“Who packs a picnic just for themselves?” he said between bites. “I have to watch my figure, anyway. There’s a rodeo coming up and I want to look pretty.”

“You’re the most annoying person I know,” I chided, giving him a teasing look as I settled back with my lunch and fended off little Molly, who was sticky and covered in watermelon juice and pieces of grass as she crawled between the two blankets. For the next half hour or so we all chatted and ate, passing around the Rhubarb wine until the bottle was empty and we were pleasantly full. Molly was asleep in Moira’s lap and Day was riding around on Chancy when I started to pack up our dishes into the basket. “George?” I said, my eyes focused on the basket as I neatly stacked our leftovers. “Are we still having a barbeque tomorrow night at our place? I want to invite some of the other teachers.”

An odd feeling swept over me, like I was suddenly being watched intently. I froze, blinking as I looked out over the wide, open pasture. Our friends had fallen silent behind me. It was so quiet I could hear nothing but the breeze drifting through the wildflowers and the gentle hum of the creek running nearby.

I turned around and saw…

“George—”

“Keely Greenway,” he began, slowly lowering himself onto one knee. The world stopped spinning on its axis as my heart began to race. “You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. The moment you walked into my life, well, I couldn’t think about anything else. I love you so much. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to wake up with you every morning and go to bed with you every night. I want to grow old and gray together.”

I opened my mouth but no words formed on the tip of my tongue as he reached up and took off his hat, placing it over his chest. The first inklings of the sunset set his brown curls alight with whispers of auburn and gold as the sun dusted over his freckled, tanned skin.

“I want to be your husband, if you’ll let me,” he continued, reaching into his pocket, and pulling out a ring box. “Will you do me the honor of being my wife?”

“It’s ‘Will you marry me?’, George, we practiced this,” Pete quipped in the background.

“Pete?” George said, his eyes still locked on mine.

“What?”

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