He dropped the bales of hay and scooped me up in his arms, holding me tight.
“I’m sorry,” I said, because I was so tired of crying over this same thing. So tired of being a burden on Jake, because I couldn’t just accept that I was never going to be a mom.
“It’s all right to feel this way, Dylan.”
I looked up at him, teary-eyed, and saw the sadness reflected in his eyes, too.
“I’m thirty-nine. Ever since we got back together, I always kinda knew kids probably weren’t going to happen, but it still seems so unfair. We don’t get the same kind of happy ending as everyone else, do we?” I sniffled.
“Hey! We get a better one. We have a life full of horses, and we have each other, and who cares if we can’t have babies? Everyone else is doing that.”
I nodded. But there was a deep empty space in my heart, waiting to be filled by something that would never come.
“Every month, my period comes, and every month I feel like a failure,” I confessed.
“Now, no more of that or I’ll have to put you over my knee. You ain’t no failure. Could happen to anyone. They have dog and cat rescues, don’t they?”
I nodded. “But I have a cat already.”
“They have kid rescues, too. Are they still called orphanages? Who knows. But we can go there at the weekend, and you can pick out a nice kid, and we’ll get it a bowl and some toys, and...”
I was laughing too hard to hear the rest of what he said. Jake had an incredible way of cheering me up, even in my saddest moments.
He tipped my chin upwards and kissed my tears away. Only, he actually kind of spread them around my face more. It was just like him.
“Dylan, I want to spend forever with you,” he told me gently. “We’ve taken things real slow. But I want to prove just how serious I am about you.”
“You’re getting a new sofa?”
“Shh!”
I giggled at the mock-stern expression on his face. “Sorry.”
“Dylan, will you marry me?”
He pulled out a box and opened it. A sparkling sapphire was set in a silver ring.
“Just like your eyes,” I breathed, looking at the color.
He smiled. “Thought you’d like it. I was saving it for that fancy dinner, tonight, but you came in just now looking so sad and then everything just seemed so right...”
“Don’t you want my answer?” I pointed out.
“Oh, yeah. So, what’s it gonna be?”
“Yes. I’ll marry you. Of course I will, silly.”
He kissed me, filling my body with warmth as his hands slid the ring onto my finger. I looked at it with admiration.
“Now every time you’re in a different room, I get to remember what your eyes look like,” I murmured.
“It’s only fair.” He shrugged. “I get to see yours every time I look at the sky.”
He kissed me again, more deeply this time, and I knew we would love each other, no matter what we did or what we couldn’t do. It didn’t matter how many times we messed up or broke stuff. We were going to go the distance, this time.
And maybe we could adopt a child. There were enough babies and toddlers around the ranch—with more on the way—that we would be drowning in them soon. Adopting kids who hadn’t had a chance at getting a family of their own kinda made sense. After all, we’d adopted and adored so many horses, I wasn’t sure we needed to grow our own baby to love and care for them.
“If I marry you,” I said softly, “It’s gonna be forever. None of this getting divorced in three years’ time crap.”
“It better be forever,” Jake replied. “Because that’s not nearly long enough for me to spend with you.”
He kissed me once more and I melted, all my troubles forgotten as I lost myself in this perfect moment.
The End
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Have you read the first three books in the Arizona Heat series? They’re all standalone HEA stories, and all FREE with KU!
Tie Me Down
Maybe it’s just pregnancy hormones but I really want to lick him.
I've ended up in a huge mess... my ex-boyfriend Jimbo wasn’t the dark soul with a heart of gold I thought he was. He knocked me up and then knocked me about. And when he tells me that I can’t keep the baby, it’s time to get out of Seattle.
A fainting episode in a gas station in the Arizona desert leads me to Lawson. A real life cowboy who runs his own ranch, Lawson is easy on the eyes. Muscles... everywhere. Huge package. Those little diagonal indentations that make a big arrow straight to his... toolbox.
But I'm not safe... it seems that Jimbo is still looking for me. Is Lawson the one who can protect me? And more importantly, can he convince me that he’s the man to tie me down?
Make Me Stay
I thought he was abducting me for dark pleasures. Instead, he cooked me breakfast.
Harper:
I don't get tangled up with men. I love them and leave them. Always have. I'm a drifter, traveling without any real destination in mind. Until my van gets stuck and a stern, strong cowboy literally puts me over his shoulder.
Settling down is starting to look like a good option. But I don't know how to stop running from my past.
Barrett:
Harper's like a wild rabbit; running, always running, and I want to catch her and show her she doesn't need to run no more.
I thought I could change her.
Only, now she's gone.
Can a wild thing ever stop and settle down?
Make Me Stay is the second book in the Arizona Heat series. It can be read as a standalone. If you are looking for a steamy contemporary cowboy romance featuring a little rope work and spanking, this 30,000-word novella is for you.
Take Me Hard
I won’t let any man get between me and my dreams. Not even a drool-worthy one like Clay.
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When I meet Clay Dale, he just makes me so mad. Telling me what to do. Making me stay at his place just because he accidentally hit me with his truck. Who does that?
His dominance does strange things to my body, and when he brings out the rope... all I want him to do is take me, hard. But I can’t betray my dreams of making it in Hollywood. I’m so torn, I’m almost at breaking point, and not just because I got pounded by his enormous... truck.
Take Me Hard is the third book in the bestselling Arizona Heat series, which features stacked cowboys, steam, a little discipline and a whole lot of action. If you like mild drama and detailed naughty scenes, this novella is for you.
You may also like the following contemporary erotic romance stories from Katie Douglas:
Lissy’s Daddy (Coast Side Daddies book 1)
An Old-Fashioned Homestead (standalone)
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Leave Me Breathless: A second chance romance Page 10