Sarsaparilla Showdown (River's End Ranch Book 14)

by Caroline Lee

  She couldn’t stop smiling, and lifted her free hand to run her fingers through his short beard. “You are to me. And I’m going to have a lot of fun proving it to you.” She’d take all the time she could to prove to him he wasn’t a failure. A lifetime, if it was possible.

  “Heroes don’t…”

  When he trailed off, she knew he was thinking about his guilt—the guilt she hadn’t quite convinced him to let go—but she was determined to tear it down, bit by bit.

  “That’s okay,” she whispered. “They’re the ones who get the girl, aren’t they?”

  And when, after a pause, he smiled crookedly back at her, she knew that he would let her help him forgive himself.

  “And this time, I get the hottie!”

  He was chuckling when he kissed her, and the feeling was almost as good as his love.

  EPILOUGE

  “You three have a nice evening!”

  Sadie looked up from where she was helping Violet with her jacket to see Kelsi smiling at them. The other woman was trying to button her winter coat over her growing belly, but she waved away help from her husband—the local sheriff—to wink at Sadie.

  “I bet you have a lot to be thankful for this year, huh?”

  Sadie glanced up at Shawn, who was smiling down at her. “We do, indeed.” His voice sent shivers down her spine, as always, but it was the love in his expression that made her smile.

  “Well, happy Thanksgiving, then.”

  Sadie stood up and turned her smile to the other couple. “And happy Thanksgiving to you, too! It’s always so nice of your family to let us celebrate with you like this.”

  Kelsi was one of the two youngest Westons, and had spear-headed the annual Weston tradition of opening the restaurant to all employees and guests of River’s End Ranch for a Thanksgiving feast.

  “I loved having the chance to catch up with everyone.” Sadie waved to Wes Weston and his new wife, Amber, as they wandered by.

  “Oh, it’s tradition! We have to do it.” Kelsi was as cheerful as her twin was stoic, and it was impossible not to feel happy with her around. “But I’d better waddle myself out to the truck before Shane here expires of boredom.”

  She patted her husband’s arm, and the two walked out, with him muttering “I wasn’t bored, just tired,” as they left.

  Sadie chuckled and linked her arm through Shawn’s. “Ready to head home?”

  “Home, huh?” He held the door for her and Violet, and the cold air outside made them all curl into their coats a little more. “I like the sound of that, but the RV isn’t exactly home.”

  Not yet, but maybe one day. She didn’t say it, but snuggled a little closer to Shawn. “It’s your home, so that’s good enough for me.”

  He grunted, but she couldn’t tell if it was a happy-grunt or a sad-grunt. It had been a full day for all of them. She’d driven Shawn and Violet to Spokane to take her father out to lunch for the holiday, since the home he was living in didn’t offer Thanksgiving dinner. It was their third visit with Dad, and it went just as well as the other lunches. Her father and Violet were thick as thieves already, and Dad and Shawn had spent some time talking while Sadie and Violet had gone for a walk. It had been really nice, but that trip—plus the evening with friends and coworkers—meant they were both physically and mentally exhausted.

  So she switched her attention to Violet. “I noticed you and Vivian had your heads together most of the evening. What were you planning?”

  “Oh my gosh!” The little girl was skipping ahead of them, proving that seven year-olds had more energy than both adults combined. “She’s like, my favorite person ever!”

  “What? Ever ever?” Shawn pretended to be hurt.

  “Hmmm, you’re right.” Violet’s gap-tooth grin flashed in the darkness. “I love Sadie a lot more.”

  As Sadie laughed at the little girl’s teasing, Shawn pulled her closer.

  “Mmmm, me too,” he murmured against her hair, sending her heart souring once more.

  He was distracted though, and she couldn’t help worrying about him, as the three of them made their way across the ranch back to the RV Park, listening to Violet regale them with stories about her adventures with Vivian. What was he thinking about? Had something about today made him melancholy? She wracked her brain, trying to think of anything that might’ve pushed him back to that place in his head, from before.

  In the last weeks since finding out they’d won the contest and admitting his love for her, he’d become more open and teasing. She knew he hadn’t completely forgiven himself, but he was making progress. Sometimes, when they were together, he’d get really happy but then guilt would flash in his eyes, and she knew he was still thinking that he didn’t deserve happiness. But that happened less and less these days, and she thought he was getting better about seeing himself the way she saw him.

  As honorable and worthy of love.

  Still, tonight he seemed more like his old self, and she was worried. When they reached his RV, she by-passed her car parked out front, and followed her loves inside.

  Shawn sent a small crooked-tooth smile her way, but said to Violet, “Alright, bedtime. Go take your vitamins, brush your teeth, get changed.”

  “Then can I come back out for kisses and a story?”

  Sadie pretended to scowl. “You’d better. I don’t want to have to come back there for my kisses. I’d trip over all your stuff.”

  The little girl giggled. “It’s not that messy in my room!”

  “It’s totally that messy!”

  Violet stuck her tongue out, then squealed and dashed for the bathroom when Sadie lunged for her. After the girl was gone, Sadie collapsed, giggling, on the loveseat beside Shawn. “Ugh, I am so full.”

  “Yeah, that was the best Thanksgiving we’ve had in…” Shawn closed his eyes and dropped his head against the cushion behind him. “A long time.”

  She twined her fingers through his, where they rested on his knee. “What’s wrong?”

  “What?” He opened one eye to peer at her. “Nothing’s wrong.”

  “Come on.” She nudged him with her shoulder, then pressed her cheek to that spot. “I can tell you’re thinking about something.”

  He unlaced his fingers from hers, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, snuggling her close to his side. “Yeah, maybe I was.”

  “And?”

  “Well…” He picked up her other hand, and started to trace her palm. “Today was nice. I felt like…like we were a family.”

  Sadie smiled and snuggled a little closer. “I did too.”

  “And I was thinking that this RV isn’t a great place for a family.”

  She didn’t agree aloud, but it was a little cramped for three people. “You could always move into my apartment.” And then she caught her breath, when she realized what she’d just offered. Shawn hadn’t said anything to make her think he was thinking long-term.

  Had he?

  “Yeah…” Was he going to say something about her offer? “And I was thinking about the contest.” Evidently not.

  “The contest? Oh, the Chamber of Commerce thing?” She smiled again, relaxing. “I’m so glad we teamed up. I don’t know if we would’ve won otherwise.” Sadie had already contracted with a construction company to build the carousel pavilion, and Shawn had drafted a bunch of PR releases. He already had over two hundred kids enrolled in next summer’s camps.

  “We make a good team.” He was silent for another few moments, but he kept tracing the lines on her palm. Then, “With all the kids who are enrolled, and the press we’re getting, and the fact that Wade has had me start advertising for staff…I know the summer camp is going to happen next year.”

  Sadie knew the camps had been far from guaranteed, which is why he’d worked so hard on them. And why his suggesting he back out of the contest, and thus sabotage the camps’ chance of success, had upset her so much.

  “So you and Violet are planning on sticking around, huh?” She said it in a casual
tone, but felt far from nonchalant. They hadn’t talked about the future, because until the enrollments had started, they weren’t sure they had one. They’d just been enjoying each other’s company, and hoping for the best.

  “Yeah.” He began to trace a circle around her fourth finger. “And since we are sticking around, I was thinking…” He shrugged. “About maybe making something more permanent.”

  Her heart began to pound. “’Something’?”

  “A home.” He met her eyes then, and her stomach flip-flopped. “A family.” He tightened his hold on her hand. “A wife.”

  Her eyes widened. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? “Shawn?” she whispered, half afraid this was a joke.

  “I love you, Sadie.” His eyes were serious. “I like having you in my life, and I want to keep you in my life. I know that I’m carrying around a lot of suitcases, as Jaclyn says” —they both smiled at that reminder— “but the way I feel about you…? It’s different than how I ever felt about Tammi. I know that what you and I have is the real thing.”

  Sadie swallowed, and wrapped her other hand around their joined ones. Her pulse was pounding in her ears, and she strained to focus on his words. If this was the moment she’d been praying for, she wanted to remember everything that he said.

  “The thing is though, Sadie, that…” He trailed off, and looked down at their hands. Was he losing his resolve?

  “Yes?” Please, please, please say what I think you’re saying.

  “The thing is…” He took a deep breath. “That it’s not just me and you. That’s what I was thinking, earlier. If it was just me and you, I would’ve carried you off to a Justice of the Peace weeks ago. But it’s not just the two of us. There’s… Well, with Violet, it wouldn’t just be husband and wife, Sadie.”

  He looked up, and she fell into his perfect green eyes. His perfect crooked smile. He was the most perfectly flawed man she knew, and she loved him for it.

  “We’d be a family. You’d be…” His tongue flicked out over his bottom lip. “You’d be a mother.”

  Sadie’s throat went dry. Mother? Being someone’s mother was a huge step, a huge responsibility.

  But with Violet, it didn’t feel that way. Being in Violet’s life felt right. Felt natural. Sadie felt like she belonged.

  “I love you, Shawn, and I love Violet. I don’t want to rush into anything, but when I’m with the two of you, I feel like I’m right where I need to be. Forever.” It wouldn’t be responsible to make a hasty decision that would affect Violet, but it felt wrong to exclude the girl too. “Maybe… I dunno, maybe we could ask her opinion, or something?”

  As if she’d been waiting her cue, Violet’s head poked around the corner of her bedroom. “Daddy? Is it time?”

  Shawn took a deep breath, squeezed Sadie’s hands so tightly she wondered why he was nervous, and turned to his daughter. The look the two of them exchanged was long, serious, and full of way more meaning than Sadie would’ve guessed. Wasn’t Violet just asking about her bedtime story?

  “Please, Daddy?” Violet stepped into the main room, already dressed in her Cinderella PJs, with her hands clasped behind her back.

  “Are you sure, Sprout?” When the little girl hesitated, Shawn pushed on. “You know how I feel, but I want this to be your decision. I want you to be comfortable with it.”

  What was he talking about?

  The little girl took another step into the room, and then straightened her shoulders, and nodded. Some of the tension seemed to drain out of Shawn, but he didn’t look away from his daughter, or let go of Sadie’s hand.

  “I love you, Daddy.”

  “And I love you too, Sprout. I’m proud of you.”

  Maybe that’s what the girl was waiting to hear, or maybe it was some kind of signal. Either way, Violet nodded again, and smiled. She approached the two adults, sitting together on the loveseat, and halted close enough that Sadie had to lean back a bit to stare up at the girl’s grin.

  Shawn’s grip on her hand tightened, and Sadie’s heart began to pound again. Something important was about to happen.

  Violet’s gap-tooth smile was just as endearing as her father’s. “I love you too, Miss Sadie.”

  “That’s good, Violet.” She had to force the words past the emotion—worry, hope, love—that tried to close her throat. “Because I love you very much.”

  “Daddy said that I had to be sure this is what I want. But I thought about it, and thought about it, and thought about it, and I am. Sure, I mean. Surer than I’ve ever been about anything in my life.”

  Sadie flicked a glance between Shawn—his eyes shining with love as he watched them—and his daughter. “About what, Violet?”

  The little girl took a deep breath, and thrust out her hand. Clenched between her two fingers was…was…Sadie sat forward suddenly. Was that her mother’s engagement ring?

  “Miss Sadie, will you be my mommy?”

  Mommy.

  “Oh my gosh,” Sadie breathed, barely daring to hope. Her fingers itched to snatch up the ring, but she met Shawn’s eyes instead. “What…?”

  Shawn took a deep breath. “Your father’s been saving it for you. I talked to him about it today, but I let Violet choose when to ask.”

  The little girl bounced in place a little, and wiggled the ring. “I thought tonight was pretty perfect.”

  At the words, unconscious echoes of what Shawn had said all those weeks ago, right before they’d shared their first duet and their first kiss, Sadie’s gaze snapped back to Violet. The little girl’s confidence was slipping, the longer Sadie stared.

  “I mean, maybe it wasn’t right. I’m sorry.” Her small fingers curled around the ring. “You don’t have to answer right now, if you don’t want to.”

  Sadie’s eyes filled with tears, and she exchanged a glance with Shawn once more. His expression was guarded, but she was sure she saw hope in his eyes. How could she love these two any more than she did right now?

  Finally giving in to her impulse, she detangled one hand from Shawn’s, and raised it to wrap around Violet’s. The girl’s hopeful look returned in an instant, and she forced her fingers open, so that Sadie’s caressed the ring. Her mother’s ring.

  “Violet,” she said, choking on her tears, “I would be honored to be your mommy.”

  “Are you sure?” the little girl asked.

  And Sadie smiled, repeating her words back to her. “Surer than I’ve ever been about anything in my life.”

  “Oh, thank God.” Shawn’s growled declaration snapped her attention away from Violet in the moment before he dropped her hand and grabbed her cheeks, pulling her close for a kiss as full of joy and longing as that first kiss they’d shared on the Estey’s bench.

  And Sadie kissed him back, just as joyfully.

  It wasn’t until they heard Violet’s giggle that they pulled away, but Shawn just let his forehead drop to hers. “I was so afraid that you would say no, Sadie,” he whispered.

  When he pulled back, Sadie saw tear tracks on his cheeks too, and knew that this man loved her perfectly, completely. “How could I say no to the two loves of my life?”

  “That’s us, Daddy,” Violet interjected. “Even though she says that books and ice cream are her two loves, I think she likes us more.”

  Shawn nodded solemnly, still not letting her go. “Don’t forget scented glitter markers and stickers.”

  Violet edged even closer, giggling. “And unicorns and rainbows!”

  Sadie couldn’t contain her joy any longer; it burst out of her as laughter. “You two are ganging up on me already?” She pulled her mother’s ring out of Violet’s hand and slid it on her fourth finger.

  It fit perfectly.

  Violet threw herself into their laps, and Shawn reached across his daughter to take Sadie’s hand. His fingers traced the golden band, and Sadie shivered at the sensation.

  “We love you, Sadie Mayfield. We’re glad you’re going to be part of our family, but…” Shawn pau
sed when Violet dropped her cheek to his shoulder. “But we don’t have to rush, if that suits you better. We can take our time, let all of us get used to it. Plan for the future.”

  As much as Sadie wanted to marry Shawn that very moment, she nodded. Giving them all—Violet especially—time to get used to the idea of being a family would be the smart thing to do. The responsible, parental thing to do.

  She laughed again, pulling her new family closer. She was going to be a parent!

  “I love you two so much!”

  Shawn had just opened his mouth to say something when Violet interrupted.

  “You know what mommies do that’s really important?”

  She already had ideas, did she? “No, what?” Sadie smiled.

  “They tell bedtime stories.”

  Sadie’s eyes filled with tears once more. “Of course,” she whispered. How could she not want to spend forever with this family? Shawn was her best friend, and the man she loved more than she could’ve imagined.

  She wrapped her arms around her soon-to-be family, and smiled. She had the love of a good, honorable man, the adoration of a little girl who reminded her of herself, and the promise of a future with both of them.

  What more could she ask for?

  “Once upon a time, there was a girl who owned a coffee shop. And there was this guy—a really handsome hero—who came in every week. And this girl, she didn’t even know his name, but she knew that he was the one for her…”

  Shawn leaned down and whispered conspiratorially to his daughter, “I’ll bet this is better than any of your books, huh, Sprout?”

  Violet grinned back. “It’s my favorite story ever.”

  And Sadie had to agree.

  Keep reading for a sneak peek at the next River’s End Ranch book!

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