That path led them to a ten-acre parcel Gramm gifted them as an over-the-top wedding present. At first Seth couldn’t accept it, but once Gramm convinced him she had always planned to leave the ranch to him—something a hundred times greater in size—he conceded.
“Would you just let this little, old lady do something nice for you? Consider it repayment for all of those cookies you’ve baked me over the years, dear.”
Seth countered that he could bake her cookies until his dying day and it would never match her generosity.
“It’s just what grandmas do. We take care of the ones we love.”
Josie was now on the receiving end of that love and she was grateful for it each and every day. Maybe not all of Seth’s family welcomed her with open, outstretched arms, but the ones who truly counted did and that was all that mattered.
The timer chiming on the stove made Josie’s spine straighten and tugged her from her wistful daydreaming. She slipped out from Seth’s hold and rushed to turn it off.
“Are you cooking?” Seth followed her.
“Baking, actually.” Josie opened the drawer and took out two oven mitts, then slipped them onto her hands. “Stand back.”
Bending over, she pulled on the oven handle and withdrew a cookie sheet. Her heart was in her throat, her pulse a rapid trill that almost made her dizzy.
Thankfully, the cookies turned out great. The edges were a crisp, golden brown, and the cutout letters and numbers held their shape, making them completely legible. She turned around and held the cookie sheet out for Seth to view.
“You made cookies, Josie? I love that.” He haphazardly reached out to snag the closest one from the bottom row and had it almost to his lips when Josie yelled at him.
“Did you even read it?”
“Read what?”
“The cookies, Seth.” She smacked him with a mitt. “Put that one back where you found it and read it out loud.”
“July nineteenth,” he spoke slowly. “What’s July nineteenth?”
“It’s a date, Seth.”
“Our anniversary?” He made an unsure face.
“No, Seth. Our anniversary is May tenth.”
“Right.” He nodded. “Yes. I knew that.”
“Sure, you did.” Josie settled the cookie sheet onto the counter. “Try again.”
“Our first date?”
“Nope.”
His nose wrinkled in a frown. “Your birthday?”
“Not mine.”
“Mine?”
Josie’s hands flew into the air. “Are you serious?”
“I don’t know. You’re making me nervous.”
Josie grabbed a handful of cookies and chucked them at his stomach. “It’s our due date, Seth.”
“Due date...?” he repeated, then a dawn of understanding hit him like a ton of bricks. “Due date! We’re pregnant?”
“We are.”
Seth bounded across the kitchen and immediately smothered Josie’s small bump with his palm. “We’re having a baby?” Tears collected in his eyes and his voice trembled with emotion.
“We’re having a baby!”
They held each other in the kitchen, a mess of tearful celebration that ebbed and flowed from doubt to sheer joy.
“Is this why you haven’t been riding Bruiser lately?” Seth had yet to remove his hand from Josie’s stomach, his warm touch a sweet confirmation of his excitement.
“Yes. The doctor says it’s okay to ride for a few more months, but I thought I should take it easy. Bruiser hasn’t been under saddle all that long yet. I don’t want to take any chances.”
The fact that the mustang found his way back to Seth and Josie was nothing short of a miracle. The day the sale of the ranch closed, they had been at Seth’s house packing up the last of his things when Josie saw a figure in the distance, galloping across the foothills.
They saddled up Scout and Sally and trekked out to investigate, neither one believing their eyes. Somehow, Bruiser had returned. The once-wild mustang came home. It was only fitting that they bring him with them to their new home, too.
“Josie, I’m going to be a dad. You’re going to be a mom.” Seth held her tightly. “Is this even real life?”
“I ask myself that everyday.” She pressed her cheek to his chest and squeezed. “Sometimes I wonder what I ever did to deserve this. To finally be happy like this, with you.”
“You deserve it all, Josie. I’ve always said that. All of this and more,” Seth affirmed.
“I think this little one is the ‘more’ part of that equation,” Josie said, patting her belly. “I don’t know about you, but I’m sort of terrified.”
“A one-thousand pound, rank animal doesn’t intimidate you, but a teeny, tiny little bundle of joy does?”
Josie’s eyes went wide. “Absolutely. Babies are scary, Seth. Plus, I don’t have any practice with them. It’s totally reasonable to fear the unknown. Babies are a big unknown.”
“They might be, but we’ll get the hang of it. We make a good team, you and me. Always have,” Seth said. “From fake marriages to real, true and lasting love, there’s no one I’d rather have by my side, Josie. You have my heart.”
“You’ve got mine, too, Seth.”
Josie held her husband close, the joy of their news wrapping around them. She rested in the arms of the only man she’d ever loved, knowing he kept her safe, protected, and secure in the truth that she deserved every bit of this happiness life afforded her.
All of it and infinitely more.
The End
If you haven’t already, get to know Maren Friar in Take the Fall,
the first book in the A Cowboy’s Promise series. Start Reading Today!
He’s pretending not to love her. She’s pretending not to care.
Growing up, they shared a fence line, first kisses, and a romance that had the whole town talking. But Maren Friar traded her barbed-wire life for city lights and gave up on her childhood dream of marrying the cowboy next door. He’d made it clear that had been nothing more than playing house.
Rodeo pickup man Grady Cutter works hard, loves harder, and when he gives his word, it’s his bond. But agreeing to stay away from Maren hurts worse than being bucked off a wild bronco.
Now Maren’s returned home to her ranch and Grady is done pretending. With her father no longer standing in their way, they’re finally learning what the grown-up version of their love can look like. But the pretty blonde constantly at Grady’s side makes Maren second guess everything. And she can’t stomach the fact that Grady seems to be the only man in Riverburn to know the real truth behind her father’s mysterious death.
Will digging up past secrets ruin their chance at a future forever? Or will they discover that the best love stories are often a lifetime in the making?
About the Author
Growing up with only a lizard for a pet, Megan Squires now makes up for it by caring for the nearly forty animals on her twelve-acre flower farm in Northern California. A UC Davis graduate, Megan worked in the political non-profit realm prior to becoming a stay-at-home mom. She then spent nearly ten years as an award winning photographer, with her work published in magazines such as Professional Photographer and Click.