Sam groaned and nudged Mindy. “Just so you know, no one can gossip like a bunch of cowboys.”
“Yeah. Don’t tell them anything you don’t want repeated to a thousand people.” I’d learned that lesson many times over. Crystal, of course, was the exception, but even she would sometimes spill the beans to her father.
“Good to know.” Mindy laughed, sounding a bit nervous.
I reassured her that they were good people. “And if they don’t behave, tell me and I’ll fire them.” I held up a fist in mock anger. “I run a tight ship around here.”
Sam barked a laugh at the thought. “Oh, please. You’re such a softie. You wouldn’t fire someone if they piled manure on your bed.”
It wasn’t a bad reputation to have. Like Dad, I wanted our employees to trust that we’d treat them with kindness whenever we could. When people made mistakes or acted out, we always tried to see the other side. As much as my father had caused me pain, he also taught me some important things about being a leader. “You know what? You’re probably right.”
Much to my chagrin, I wasn’t really any better off at branding day than I was the previous year, at least in terms of having a hangover. I’d stayed out too late at the bunkhouse, the cowboys refusing to let me leave at a decent hour.
Between finding Crystal and patching some of the long-leaking holes in the management of the ranch, I’d earned my place among them. There were still a few cowboys who disliked working for a woman, but as a whole, I wasn’t the odd one out anymore. Funny what a year could do.
I’d also made it a priority to diversify the staff. Instead of just hiring ranchers, I brought in people from other backgrounds and sponsored an internship program with the local college. I didn’t want anyone else to face the same uphill slog that I had. There were some clashes in the beginning with new cowboys falling off horses and messing up the feeding schedule, but we worked it out.
A few of them were even at branding day, though we kept the greenest of the hires in support roles. The last thing we needed was someone getting burned or an animal getting injured because of inexperience. Crystal had approved of the decision. “It’s a good call. Some of these kids can’t even remember to tighten their girths before they get in the saddle.”
Since I was overseeing the entire day, I didn’t get too involved in the hands-on portion. I roped a calf or two just to prove to myself that I could, but I needed to keep a bird’s eye view of the operation. That, and there was an endless stream of paperwork that I hadn’t needed to worry about in past years.
Dad and Beth stopped by for a bit to watch and show support. It was refreshing to have everyone together again without any of the former tension. Branding day had become a landmark in my mind, a measuring stick of sorts. Next year, I could reflect again to see what I’d done to improve myself.
In New York, Maggie had always been about self-care and letting loose every once in a while. I’d never subscribed to the idea that I needed pampering, but I was starting to grow attached to the idea of being more proactive about what I needed to enjoy my life. It wasn’t always something huge. It could be as simple as calling for a break when I was too hot and it looked like everyone else was, too.
Just as my father had done to announce I was taking over, I had Stan and Meg cater an early outdoor dinner. It was a reward for all of the hard work the cowboys had put in to make my first branding day as boss a success. There was music and dancing and enough booze for all of us to feel absolutely horrible in the morning.
I watched my friends from a distance, picking at a plate of comfort food and drinking a hard cider. I’d come a long way, but that didn’t mean the journey was finished. Because even with so many of my loved ones around, I couldn’t help but feel that someone was missing. “I think I’m going to head out,” I told Crystal.
Her eyes widened. “You are? But… you can’t. You’re the boss!” she giggled. “You have to stay!”
“We’re done working. You’ve got my number if anything comes up.”
She held onto my sleeve. “But you’re my buddy. Don’t leave.”
I hadn’t seen her this jittery in quite a while. “Are you okay?” I might have felt guilty about leaving her alone, but she had Stan and Sam right there if she didn’t feel like hanging out with the others.
Crystal sighed. “Yeah. I’m just drunk, I guess.”
“Maybe you should have some water.” I got her a bottle and set it on the table.
“Such a party pooper,” she chastised. “Going to bed at 8 o’clock.”
“I’m not going to bed.”
“Where are you going, then?”
“I was going to head out to the lake for a bit.” Before she could ask to join me, I added, “I just need some alone time. Thinking time.”
“Okay. Have fun.” She pointed to a nearby bottle of bug spray with the toe of her boot. “Don’t get eaten alive.”
Once I’d made the rounds to tell the managers I was leaving, I borrowed the keys to one of the ranch trucks and drove out to the lake. It was always so tranquil that I questioned why no one else came here. I knew that the cowboys preferred the larger swimming hole to the south of the ranch, but this was far more beautiful.
I pulled off my boots and socks at the end of the old pier and dipped my feet into the cool water. Thinking of my history here, I rubbed my palm on the smooth wood where Will had once sat beside me. As a teenager, whenever I’d imagined our wedding, it had always been in this spot for some reason. I knew that it didn’t make sense, marrying on a narrow strip of wood barely three feet wide, but it had always been that way in my mind.
I traced the tattoo on my wrist as I watched the ripples across the water. How many tiny decisions had led to this moment? If I’d altered one insignificant thing, worn blue instead of pink, eaten a cheeseburger instead of a chicken sandwich, would it have changed all of this as well?
I jumped as my phone buzzed in my pocket. I wasn’t surprised; someone always needed something. I opened the text and almost dropped my phone in the water. After all this time, it was Will. You never told me the rest of the story. What happened next?
I scrolled up to my last message. I’d sent it a month after he left. My picture from the library was there along with my goodbye. I replayed all that had happened since. I didn’t think you wanted to hear it. It wasn’t anything exciting. I’ve just spent all of this time learning how to run the ranch.
He wrote back seconds later. Do you want to know about my story?
Sure.
With picture after picture, he told me the story of arriving in Wyoming. Bella missed the closeness of the city, but the landscape was breathtaking. Will was training to run the ranch during his year-long probation period. I’m coming up on my one-year anniversary now, he wrote. After that, I’ll officially be able to buy the place.
I congratulated him. Sure, a rural ranch in Wyoming wasn’t the billion-dollar affair of Wild Brook, but simple suited him.
My phone pinged again. But there was one thing that kept me from saying yes right away.
And what was that? I asked, realizing in that moment that I was holding my breath.
When the next picture came through, I screamed. It was me, sitting on the dock, taken from the opposite shore. The caption read: You.
And when I looked up, there he was.
Will Blythe.
I don’t remember standing or starting to run. I don’t remember blinking or breathing. I flew around the curve of the pond, my bare feet sinking into the mud. Tears flowed from my eyes unchecked.
Will ran to meet me, and we crashed together on the bank, his arms enveloping me as he swung me off my feet. I threaded my fingers in his hair and kissed him, my tears splashing onto his cheeks. “How?”
“I thought I wanted to stay in Wyoming, but once the choice was in front of me, I couldn’t.” He set me down and kissed me again. “I had to know for sure whether we were over for good.”
I was too overwhelmed to speak. I ge
stured to the lake and the pier. “How?” I repeated.
“Oh.” He chuckled. “I told Crystal I was coming when I left Wyoming yesterday. I was all ready to surprise you at the party, but then she told me you came out here.” Nuzzling my ear, he whispered, “I like this better anyway.”
“That’s why she was being so weird.” I shook my head, so grateful to be blessed with incredible friends and this wonderful, frustrating man. I ran my hands over his body, feeling every muscle and bone and curve. “You’re here. You’re really here.”
“I’m here,” he said, smiling against my lips. “And if you’ll have me, Skyler Wentworth, I’ll stay this time. For good.”
Epilogue
As I’d predicted, branding day became a special landmark in my life. I used it as a reminder to celebrate my successes and study my failures. After reuniting with Will, it also represented the start of a new era for us.
On the first branding day, I’d been scared of making a mistake and fighting to prove myself to my father. On the second, Will returned to me, and we wed shortly after. By the third, we had our son.
Parenting had brought an avalanche of expectations and setting boundaries with my father, but the groundwork we’d laid in learning to listen to each other continued to pay dividends. Beth seemed content to follow our lead, though I did have to tell her to stop giving Billy so much sugar. She claimed it was revenge for reminding Dad of how much he loved pancakes when he was supposed to be eating healthy.
With the last name Blythe and a Wentworth for a mother, I knew that I couldn’t shield Billy from the gossip forever. But for now, when he was too young to understand that his paternal grandfather hated us and his great-grandfather had once killed his great-great-uncle, we could pretend that we were an ordinary family without such a convoluted history.
“You know,” I said to Will as we watched the post-branding party kick off, “maybe we could skip a year on the big events.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, swinging Billy by the arms and making airplane noises during the breaks in our conversation. I loved how doting he was, even though he’d initially panicked at the announcement of my pregnancy.
To Will, being a father was a duty unlike any other. He knew what a father was capable of—of all the pain a parent could cause. Will was terrified of being anything like his own father, even by accident. But more than anything, he was scared our son might not be happy.
Thankfully, with nine months to get him acclimated to the idea, he’d realized that it was an opportunity to bring our families together and break the cycle of the feud. We would be the last generation of Wentworths and Blythes to hold the grudge.
I counted off each branding day. “And now, again, another big change.” The special event of year four was obvious: My belly was so enormous with our daughter that I could barely move, never mind catch a calf.
“Um, that might have been the first year your father said more than three words to me,” Will suggested. “That’s pretty important.”
We both laughed. For a while, Dad’s ability to tolerate Will had plateaued at a level of begrudging ambivalence. But he knew that if he wanted to see Billy and be a part of my life, Will was part of the package deal. And as Billy went from infant to toddler, Dad finally accepted that Will was family.
“You’re going to hurt him!” Dad fussed, waving at Will to stop swinging Billy. “His shoulders are still developing.”
Beth rolled her eyes at my father’s newest habit—worrying. As cold as he’d been as a parent, watching him with Billy was a revelation. I could hardly recognize the goofy, guffawing man before me.
“Someone’s a little overprotective,” Sam teased as he brought me another lemonade.
“No kidding. You should hear him losing his mind about my birthing plan.” In a whisper, I mimicked Dad interrogating me about every detail. “He’s more stressed about delivering the baby than I am.”
Maybe my father viewed it as a way of making amends. Instead of attempting to wrest control away, it was obvious that all of his fretting came from a place of love. He’d never been quite as involved with Zane’s children, so having Billy right here—next door, in fact, in my childhood home—was an entirely new experience.
“I might actually have some news of my own.”
I clapped both hands over my mouth. “Are you finally proposing?” I’d been badgering him about it endlessly. There was such a thing as a long engagement, but Sam was taking it to the next level. “Come on. Mindy is wonderful.”
“No, no, not yet,” he said, his tone drifting towards moroseness. .
“Is everything okay with you two?” I didn’t want to pry, but I also wanted Sam to know that our past didn’t mean that we couldn’t talk about his relationship.
“Oh. We’re great. Yeah.” He hesitated. “I just wanted to let you know that we’re planning on staying for a month or two this time, if you’ll have us. I would have asked before we flew out here, but Mindy wasn’t sure she could get away from work.”
I screamed so loudly that I had to wave off a few concerned looks. “I’d love for you to stay! Oh, Billy will be so excited.” I pulled Sam in for a hug and almost melted at the thought of him having more time to spend with us. “You know how much he loves you!”
He’d even been dubbed an honorary uncle, which I was positive Sam regretted. With a name like Uncle Sam, there was no shortage of tax jokes at the dinner table. Sam ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve just been burning the candle at both ends lately. I thought a trip home would help me sort things out.”
I looked at Will, almost choking up at the love and the joy that he brought to my life. All of my dreams, even the most fantastical, had come true. Despite the challenges along the way, I finally had my happily ever after. “It certainly worked for me.”
The Cowboy's Promise: Love Triangle Billionaire Romance (The Wentworth Cowboy Billionaire Series) Page 24
