She looked out into the bright sunshine outside the kitchen window. It was a gorgeous August day…as long as she stayed inside the house. It was too hot outside, even up in the mountains, but inside…she got to admire the sunshine without having to be baked in it.
She heard a hiss, a low woof, and then a yowl as Jasmine and Maggie Mae took off up the stairs. She could hear them tearing around the second story, a bump, and then a crash. With a half laugh, half cry, Abby dried her hands and headed up the stairs herself. If these two didn’t kill each other soon, she might do it for them.
Ever since she’d moved into Wyatt’s place – her childhood home – a month ago, they’d been doing their best to assassinate the other, often sneaking up on each other when one or the other was daring to actually take a nap. She figured they’d learn to like each other…right about the time the last lamp in the house was broken.
She went into the office and found Jasmine perched on top of her desk, hissing at Maggie, her back arched and her tail as big around as a Christmas ham. Maggie was pacing back and forth below her, trying to figure out how to get to the hissing cat without actually getting up on the furniture.
“Maggie Mae!” Abby bellowed and the dog instantly crouched, looking forlorn. “Go downstairs right now!” Maggie turned and trotted out of the room, her tail tucked between her legs.
“And you, young lady!” Abby turned to glare at her non-repentant cat who decided that since her arch enemy was gone from the room, it was petting time. Jasmine looked up at her, her big baby blues looking so mournful as she held a white paw up in the air.
“You have got to stop antagonizing Maggie Mae, pretty girl,” Abby said, instantly softening towards her baby as Jasmine continued to look pitifully adorable. “We only have so much room in the lamp budget, you know.”
She picked her up in her arms, cradling her against her chest, when she heard Wyatt’s deep voice behind her. “Were they going at each other again?” he asked softly, leaning forward to nibble her neck.
“Ohhh,” she said in a breathy voice, immediately forgetting all about the fights that had been tearing up the house. “What are you…” She sucked in her breath as he sucked her skin into his mouth.
And promptly forgot what she was about to ask him. She couldn’t think at all when his mouth was doing that. Or that…
He gently pulled away and turned her in his arms, picking up Jasmine and setting her back down on the desk. He took her hand but instead of leading her to the bedroom, he led her down the stairs and out the front door.
“Where are we going?” she asked, confused. The lust had cleared away just enough for her to know that whatever he was doing, it wasn’t normal. She’d expected him to be gone all day; they were getting into harvest season, and he should be out riding a tractor in straight rows, or planning their strategy with Jorge, or working with Declan and Stetson to get the tractors and trucks to the right place at the right time, or…
He pulled her up to the top of a small hill that overlooked a ravine stretching into the distance. This was one of her favorite places to go as a child, and even now, the view took her breath away. They stopped under an old mulberry tree, the red fruit beginning to ripen in the summer heat. They paused for a minute, just looking at the view, and then he turned to her, a look she couldn’t read on his face. He took a deep breath
“Abigail Gwen Connelly,” he said, dropping to one knee in the cheat grass and dirt, “will you marry me?” He opened up a jewelry box to reveal a simple silver band in it – no stone, no glitter. He must’ve asked her father what jewelry could be worn while on duty.
It was…perfect.
“Oh Wyatt, yes!” she said, launching herself at him, and they rolled around in the cheat grass and dirt, laughing and kissing and she was getting poky shit in places she wouldn’t want to mention but she didn’t care because yes, she would marry Wyatt.
Suddenly, she stopped and pulled back and stared at him. “Are you sure?” she asked. “Really sure? You know I can’t have kids and I don’t…don’t want you to resent me.” Ever since that day that she’d been sent over to talk to him by her father, the topic of kids had lain between them, an unspoken topic of pain that she hadn’t wanted to breach. He’d said that he was fine without them, but she saw how he was out at Adam’s place. He was a natural with children. He deserved to be able to have them.
He deserved someone who wasn’t broken like her.
“There you go, ruining the other half of my surprise,” he said teasingly, giving her a peck on the cheek and scrambling to his feet and helping her up. “Here, look at these plans.” He picked up a long roll of white paper that’d been leaning against the mulberry tree trunk. She couldn’t believe she’d missed it; so much for her police training and paying attention to her surroundings. If it’d been a snake, it would’ve bit her.
He unrolled the plans and held them out for her to look at. She peered at them over his shoulder, trying to read them. It looked like a house. A really big house. “Do you want to build this house?” she asked, confused. It looked big enough to hold an army. Sure, their current house was a little on the cramped side, but they were making it work. They didn’t need something that—
“Yes,” he said, happiness lighting up his whole face as he turned and kissed her soundly on the cheek. “After you and I run off to Vegas and get hitched—”
“What?!” she yelped. “I don’t want to get married in Vegas!”
“—then we can work on our certification to become foster parents,” he finished, ignoring her protestations. She immediately forgot all about Vegas and just stared at him, mouth round with surprise.
“Foster parents?” she echoed.
“Working with the kids out at Adam’s place…there’s so many who need someone to love ‘em,” he said simply, shrugging. “But we need a bigger house if we’re going to do it right.”
“What are you going to do with the homestead?” she asked. Sure, the house they lived in was a little small, but it’d been in the Connelly family for generations. She didn’t want to lose that history.
“Jorge. He and his family are stuffed into that double-wide. I figure that his kids or grandkids can move into the homestead. Or hell, him. I’m going to have the lawyer draw up the papers; Jorge can buy the house and the acre it’s sitting on over the next five years. No interest. He deserves it, after keeping this place running while I wasn’t here. For someone who hates to be dependent on others, that stint in jail taught me that without my family and Jorge, I would’ve been screwed.”
He pulled her against him, stroking her hair as she nuzzled closer into his chest. It was hot as hell and she wouldn’t be able to snuggle against him for much longer for fear of spontaneously combusting into flames, but for the moment, she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
“Without you…I don’t know where I’d be, or who I’d be. You are all I want or need, Abby. Although, once we get our certification to be foster parents, what do you think about Juan?”
Abby pulled back and stared up at his handsome face, the slight darkening from whiskers covering his jaw, his stormy blue eyes staring intently down at her. “You two really hit it off,” she said softly. “I think he could really benefit from having someone like you in his life all the time, not just the occasional afternoons that you can make it out there.”
She stroked her hand over his stubbled jaw and he turned to plant a kiss into the palm of it. “That’s what I thought too. I haven’t been able to go out there as much as I would’ve wanted since spring hit, but every time I do go out there…there’s something about him, Abby. Make him a little taller and a little whiter, and he’d be me. A chip on his shoulder the size of Texas, but wanting to learn. Wanting to trust someone. I could make a difference with him, I know I could.”
She felt tears spring to her eyes, and she leaned up and pecked him on the lips. “Darlin’, I’ve never heard sexier words in all my life,” she said softly.
“Sexy?” Wyatt said, laughing.
“Yeah. Damn sexy. In fact, I have an idea in mind.” She took his hand and began tugging him back towards the house. He slipped the ring box back into his pocket, and she grinned to herself. He could slip it onto her finger later. They had more important things to do just then.
Much more important.
You’re invited to Wyatt and Abby’s wedding, where more than two people begin their lifelong journey together…