by Emmy Eugene
Emotion choked her, because she simply couldn’t believe she might get her very own cowboy happily ever after at Chestnut Ranch.
“Millie, this place is magical,” Mrs. Johnson said, stepping over to Millie and hugging her. “I do like this new tradition.” She beamed at her and continued looking around while Russ helped his father over to the couch.
“We’re here,” Rex called as he and Griffin came in the back door too, and Seth and Jenna followed soon after, bringing the three dogs with them. Winner barked and barked, going up to every person as if to say hello personally.
Millie laughed as she scratched the dog behind the ears in greeting, still wondering where Travis was. Everyone kept telling her how great everything looked, and she caught Griffin trying to peek under the aluminum foil covering the trays.
The doorbell rang, and Jenna said, “That’ll be Isaac and Luisa,” and she went to get it. But she came back with more than Isaac Wright and his girlfriend, but Janelle and her two daughters as well.
“Hey, baby,” Russ said, giving Janelle a quick kiss, and Millie thought they were so cute together. Utterly adorable. Probably perfect for each other, the way she and Travis were.
But still no Travis.
“Who are we missing?” Mrs. Johnson asked, her place in the kitchen cemented. Millie didn’t mind. She’d got to plan the party, decorate the homestead, and prep everything. If Travis’s momma wanted to run the show after that, Millie was fine with that.
And the brothers would clean up, so Millie couldn’t imagine a better scenario than the one currently playing out in front of her.
If only her boyfriend were there.
“Travis,” Seth said, finding Millie’s eyes in the crowd. He’d already hugged her hello, as if she were a real part of the family now.
“I’ll call him,” she said. “He went to pick up my momma.” She couldn’t help the worry worming its way through her. She moved over to a quieter corner of the house and dialed. But Travis didn’t pick up her call, which only made her feel like Momma was having a meltdown somewhere, and Travis was trying to calm her down.
A moment later, she heard him say, “We’re here.”
Millie turned, relief filling her. She paused, watching Travis hug all of his brothers and hold onto his mother tight. She said something to him that made him laugh, and Millie fell a little deeper in love with him simply from watching him interact with his family.
He went over to his father, who had all three dogs trying to sit on his lap, and helped him to his feet. Then Travis looked at her, and whatever stress Millie had felt at making sure this family party went perfectly disappeared.
It didn’t matter if the party went well or not. The food could be cold or disgusting. Rex could be too loud, or someone could give a terrible gift. None of it mattered, because they were there as a family, and Millie could feel the love radiating from every person in the house.
Travis came over to her and slipped one arm around her. “This is amazing, Millie,” he said. “It looks and feels like a home now.”
“Thank you,” she murmured at the same time his mom said, “Okay, everyone. Let’s do introductions, as there are some of us that might not know everyone.” She smiled around at everyone, and Millie went with Travis to join the group gathered around the island in the kitchen.
Millie took her mom’s hand in hers and squeezed. “Love you, Momma.” She might have some ups and downs with her mother, but the truth was, her mother had stayed when things got hard. She’d stuck with the kids through everything. She’d taught Millie how to face hard things head-on and how to love fiercely.
“Love you too, baby,” Momma said, and Millie wiped quickly at the tear that had escaped her eye.
“You okay?” Travis murmured, and Millie nodded.
“Yes,” she said, smiling as Janelle introduced herself and her two daughters. Then it was Millie’s turn, and she said, “I’m Millie Hepworth, Travis’s girlfriend. And this is my momma, Shirley.”
Once the introductions were over, Travis’s mom said, “Okay, time for compliments. Here’s how it works…”
Millie listened, as she’d never done this before. It seemed complicated, but she soon got the hang of it. Travis’s mom had started, and she’d given a compliment to her husband—and nothing “light,” which meant she couldn’t say she liked someone’s hair or dress.
Then it had become her husband’s turn, and he had to compliment someone else, and it had to be someone who hadn’t gotten one yet.
He’d told Seth he sure did like how responsible his son was, and Seth now looked around the circle of people. His eyes landed on Millie, and she smiled at him.
“Millie, I sure do like how you’ve made this the most festive Christmas party we’ve ever had here.”
“It’s the first one we’ve had here,” Rex said, rolling his eyes.
“Rex,” Mrs. Johnson said, and he promptly shut up. So that was how that was done, and Millie almost started laughing. “Your turn, Millie.”
Her natural instinct was to compliment Travis, but she said, “Kelly, I love how you’ve embraced the Christmas spirit with that dress.”
Kelly beamed like she’d been told she was a beautiful angel, and she turned to her mom. “Momma, I think you’re a really great baker, and I love that you’ve taught me how.”
The game continued until everyone had a compliment, and then Mrs. Johnson said, “All right, Millie. Tell us about this food.”
She did, and people moved to the table to find their place cards and pick up their plates. Travis kept his arms around Millie and said, “I think you’re the most beautiful woman in the world.”
Millie melted into his embrace and reached up and touched his cowboy hat. “And you’re the kindest, most dedicated, and handsomest cowboy I’ve ever met.”
“Merry Christmas,” he whispered before kissing her.
“Stop it,” Griffin said. “Momma, they’re kissing.”
Millie pulled away from Travis, giggling as Travis told Griffin to grow up. It was simply the best Christmas she’d ever had, and she couldn’t wait for many more with the Johnson family.
Chapter Twenty-Five
A timid knock sounded on the door to Travis’s wood shop, and he practically jumped out of his chair. No one ever came in here except him—and today, Millie.
“Hey,” he said after opening the door.
“Hey, yourself, cowboy.” She sauntered into the shop, which was lit up. Darkness had already fallen, and Millie had brought bags of burgers with her from town after her shift at the furniture store.
The family Christmas party had been a huge success, and Millie had hosted a second party at her mother’s house on Christmas Eve, with two of her three brothers and their families there. Travis had met them both, and they were kind and accepting. Chris had even said, “Wow, Millie, how’d you get him to fall for you so fast?”
Millie had scoffed and swatted at her brother, and Travis had stayed silent. As usual. But really, he had fallen for Millie quite fast. He didn’t care. He knew what he wanted, and that was that.
He thought about the diamond he’d bought that morning, during the jewelry store’s after-Christmas blow-out sale. He wasn’t sure when he’d use it, but he wanted to be prepared. Start making a plan. All of that.
They’d spent Christmas Day together too, first at her house with a fun brunch she’d made herself. Then they’d come out to the ranch and walked down the river and over the bridges while they talked about anything and everything.
And tonight, he’d invited her to his wood shop so they could look at the blueprints he’d started for the house.
“Did you build this desk too?” she asked, and Travis focused on the present moment. He had a tendency to get carried away with fantasies about the future, especially when Millie was with him.
“Yes,” he said. “Everything in here. The shelves, all of it.”
“And this is where you build everything too.”
“Yep.” He glanced a
round. “I thought I’d move this shop over behind the house, but Seth and I think it should probably stay here.”
“How would you move a building this big?” she asked.
He loved her so much. “You don’t,” he said, grinning. “I’d have to build a new one and move the machinery and stuff.”
“Okay,” she said, swatting at his chest. “You don’t have to laugh at me.”
“I’m not,” he said, though he did start laughing. “But it just means we won’t have a wood shop in the backyard. You can still have an office in the house, though.” He indicated the huge, square papers on his desk. “Let’s look at the blueprints. I need your help, because I don’t really know what a woman wants where.” He pulled out the chair for her, and she sat. He stayed standing at her side, peering down at the plans.
“So the kitchen is here,” he said. “Back of the house. I thought it would be good back there, because no one wants their front door to open to the kitchen.”
“Smart,” she said. “I love the open concept.” She put one finger on the plans. “Kitchen table here, I like that. Big family room, I like that.” She touched each spot on the paper. “Office up front. So I have to keep that clean.”
She looked up at him, and Travis saw the glint of mischief in her eyes. “Please,” he said. “You don’t even know how to leave a desk messy.”
“I can try,” she said.
“Sure,” he deadpanned. “Through that door is the master suite. Bedroom, sitting room, bathroom. Big closet—Jenna told me that.”
“Jenna is the best,” Millie said. “What’s this?” She touched the bunk room, which was hard to depict on a flat drawing.
“Bunk room,” he said. “For kids. Or a nursery, until we have more than one.”
“With main-floor laundry too,” she said. “Impressive. And this is not a small farmhouse, Trav.”
“Sure it is,” he said. “It’s way smaller than this place.”
“Is it?”
“You haven’t been upstairs here,” he said. “It legit has four wings and everything.”
“So what’s the second floor for this house?”
He pulled the paper out from under the one they’d been looking at. “It’s much smaller. A small loft area, and then a bathroom with three bedrooms.”
“That’s still a ton of bedrooms,” she said.
“You said you wanted a lot of kids,” he said. “I didn’t put anything over the garage though. Or the outdoor living space, which I’m still conceptualizing. Jenna has this great outdoor patio, and she said we could come look at it.”
“Oh, wow.”
“Yeah, and if you do that, then you can put rooms over the outdoor space, like a roof or whatever. I just didn’t know how big of a family we were talking.”
“This house has five bedrooms,” she said. “That would fit eight kids, Trav.” She looked at him, only seriousness in her face now. “Do you want eight children?”
“I don’t want to say no if you do,” he said.
Millie reached up and cradled his face, hers softening. “Travis, you get opinions about this. About everything.”
Another dose of love moved through him. “Then, no, Mills. I don’t want eight kids.”
“How many?”
“I have no idea,” he said. “But not eight.”
“Four or five,” Millie said. “That’s what I want. And this house is plenty big for that.”
“Okay,” he said. “But you didn’t say where you wanted things.” He put the main floor back on top, because the second floor was just open rooms. “I’m talking kitchen island. Dishwasher. Stove. Fireplace. We can put it wherever makes the most sense to you.”
The house was basically two halves, with the office controlling everything at the front. Behind that, the kitchen and family area spread out, and on the other side of the house, the master suite and bunk room took up the space. He knew they’d spend the most time in the family area, and he had the ability to make it exactly how Millie wanted it.
“So tell me,” he said. “Not everyone gets to design their house exactly how they want it.”
She took a deep breath. “Okay, I want a big porch on this thing.”
“Okay.” He picked up a pencil and made a note on a scrap of paper.
“And I think it makes the most sense to have the kitchen all along the back of the house here.” She pointed to the back half of the house. “With doors to a patio here. We can eat out there.”
“True.” He sketched the doors right onto the blueprint and roughed out the patio. “So dining room here. I mean, it’s not a room, but the table and chairs.”
“Yes,” she said. “And that flows into the living area. So the fireplace down at the end. We can put a TV above that. Couches facing that way. That would sort of separate the areas, though it’s all one room.”
“The patio could wrap around, and we could have doors up there too.” He pointed where he currently had a window.
“Yeah, but then you can’t put anything on that wall.”
“Right.” Travis left the window. “And I need help with the mother-in-law apartment.”
“The what?”
Travis liked that she was surprised. He pulled out the bottom sheet. “It’ll be an attached unit,” he said. “This is what we’re going to put in the backyard instead of the wood shop.” He smoothed down the paper and looked at Millie. “I mean, if you want. I know you wanted a separate place from your momma, but I think she liked the ranch, and she does still need help.” He shrugged, though he’d been thinking about her mother for several days now. “And out here, even when you’re at work, there will always be someone to help.”
Millie stood up and put both hands on his chest. “You’re amazing. And I want her out here. But you know getting her to leave that house is going to take an act of God, right?”
Travis chuckled and rested his hands on Millie’s waist, holding her close to him. “I know that. You know you don’t have to work at the furniture store anymore, right?”
“I know that,” she said.
Travis smiled at her.
“How long will it take you to build a house like this?” she asked.
“With the mother-in-law apartment?” He glanced down at the incomplete plans. “Three months.”
“And are you planning on living there yourself?”
Travis’s attention shot back to Millie, his heart throbbing in the back of his throat. “No. Wasn’t that obvious?”
“So we’ll get married in three months then.”
“Is that a proposal? Because that is not how this works.”
Millie’s eyes gleamed at him, and he realized she was teasing him. “It’s not?”
“No,” he said. “No way. You can’t ask me.”
“Ouch,” she said. “I’ve never been told no when I’ve proposed before.” She tipped her head back and shook out her hair. When she leveled her gaze at him again, Travis’s mouth went dry.
“How many men have you proposed to?” he asked.
“You’d be the first.”
“No wonder it didn’t go well,” he said. “Because that was a really bad proposal.” He kicked a grin at her and glanced toward his tool box, which had dozens of drawers holding the nails, screws, and other items he needed.
Including a diamond ring.
“I don’t hear you proposing,” she said.
“Maybe I have a plan for that,” he said. “And you’re ruining it.”
Her eyebrows went up, and Travis remembered he had no plan. Nothing to ruin. He stepped back and released her, suddenly so nervous. He moved over to the toolbox and pulled open the top drawer.
The black box sat there, and he took a long, deep breath before turning to face her. “Okay, so there’s no plan. But I happen to have this diamond I bought this morning, and I am in love with you, so…” He dropped to both knees and cracked open the lid on the box. “Millie, will you marry me?”
She sucked in a shaky breath a
nd covered her mouth with both hands. Her gorgeous blue eyes watered, and she nodded. “This is what you do when there’s no plan?” she asked, lowering her hands.
“Hey, you put me on the spot.” Travis stood up, because the floor of his shop was cement and not comfortable.
Millie immediately cradled his face in her hands. “That was perfect. A surprise ring in the toolbox.” She smiled, her eyes still watery. “I love you. Of course I want to marry you.”
Travis grinned, ducked his head, and slid the ring on her finger. He kissed her, enjoying the way her fingernails scraped along the back of his neck and up into his hair. The kiss turned passionate quickly, and Travis didn’t mind at all.
Millie pulled away soon after that though and sighed as she gazed down at her ring. “So, are you looking at a date in March?”
“You’re a real slave-driver, aren’t you?” he teased her. “But I suppose I can get the excavator rented to get the foundation dug. And yeah, with only chickens to feed, I can probably get this done by the end of March.”
Millie looked down at the plans too. “Okay. Let’s go over the mother-in-law apartment.” In the next moment, she burst out laughing. “Who am I kidding? We’re engaged! Let’s go tell everyone we know.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Millie felt like frolicking through a meadow, bursting into a room where all of her friends were, and announcing, “I’m engaged to Travis Johnson!”
But as it was, her mother would probably barely smile, and the only other friend she really wanted to know was Ang. She texted her before she left the wood shop, and at the homestead, only Russ sat at the bar.
And he was not in a good way.
“Hey, Russ, we have—” Travis cut off as Millie practically squeezed his hand off. “What?”
Russ hadn’t even looked up from his phone, and Millie nodded toward him, hoping she could say everything she needed to with her eyes.
“Russ?” Travis asked, and his brother finally looked up. If Millie thought cowboys could cry, Russ probably had been.
“Yeah?”
“Uh…what’s goin’ on?” Travis asked, gripping Millie’s hand tightly too.