Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 114263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
“Oh.” My face burns as I look back at the screen. “Oh my God, how stupid of me—”
“It’s perfect.”
I look up at the decisive rumble of Cash’s voice.
He’s getting up.
He’s rounding the table.
“Y’all aren’t up on your horseshoe shit.” His gaze is locked on mine as he approaches. “That kind of horseshoe can mean you’re letting luck out. It can also mean you’re letting luck rain down on anyone who passes underneath it.”
Sawyer clicks his tongue. “Dang, that actually makes sense.”
“It’s perfect,” Cash repeats. “My answer’s yes, honey.”
Then he takes my face in his hands and crushes his mouth against mine.
The room erupts in hoots and hollers. I try to break the kiss, pull away, but Cash holds me steady, giving me a long, deep kiss that’s definitely inappropriate to share in front of others.
Cash, of course, doesn’t care about that. Instead, he licks into my mouth and says, “On one condition.”
“Name it.”
His kiss deepens. Sucking on my bottom lip, he nicks it with his teeth, then pulls back. “Marry me.”
My heart explodes. A starry, happy rush fills my skin, like my pulse has dissolved into a million tiny pinpricks of light.
Is this really happening?
How in the world did I get this lucky?
I can’t believe this is actually happening. Not only have I met the love of my life. Now I get to marry him.
I smile, eyes welling with tears. “You proposing to me, cowboy?”
“Only because you proposed to me, cowgirl.”
“It’s a hell yes for me.”
He grins. “It’s a hell yes for me too.”
The cowboys bang their boots on the floor. Sally hog-whistles. John B starts to weep. And Cash just keeps on kissing me.
“One other thing,” he says when he finally allows me to come up for air. “I think I like the sound of Lucky River Ranch better. You added a letter to your name—Luck became Lucky—so let’s take one away from mine. Evens it out. Since we’re equals and all.”
Like I could say no to that.
“Yes,” I breathe, going up on my toes to wrap my arms around his neck. “Yes. Yes. Yes, Cash.”
We kiss. Then people are pulling us in for hugs. Patsy is crying. Wheeler is crying.
I’m crying.
But I know I’ll be all right, because I’m home.
I end up in Cash’s arms again, his lips finding mine for another searing kiss.
“Get a room,” Wyatt says with a smile.
Sally shakes her head. “Champagne toast first. Then the room.”
“I like the sound of that.” I wipe my eyes.
Cash grins. “Cheers, y’all.”
Epilogue
CASH
Wear the Hat
It’s the kind of fall day I live for.
Blue skies, lots of sun. A breeze that’s cool but not cold, refreshing in the best way.
Mollie’s arm hangs out the pickup’s passenger-side window. She’s singing along to the Rascal Flatts song playing on the stereo, bopping her head to the beat. Her hair catches in the wind and blows around her face in a coppery-brown halo.
Tucking it behind her ear, she catches me looking at her and grins. “Eyes on the road, cowboy.”
“Easier said than done when you’re riding shotgun.”
“Did I not take care of you already this morning? Twice?”
My body pulses at the memory of Mollie on her back in my bed and then on her knees in the shower.
“What can I say?” I lift my hand off her thigh. “I make the most of my days off.”
Her lips twitch as she scoots across the bench to sit closer. “I could’ve slept in a little later.”
“You were awake.”
She’d rustled the sheets and sighed at half past six, so I did what any man waking up next to a beautiful woman would do. I kissed her neck and slipped a hand between her legs.
She’d laughed. I rolled on top of her, catching her leg with my arm so I could press her knee to her chest. Then I’d slipped inside her, the room quiet save for Mollie’s moans.
I love how she wakes up wet. Always ready.
Always hungry.
“I was,” she admits with a smile and puts a hand on my knee. “But I could’ve easily gone back to sleep.”
“How about a nap later?”
“I’d love that.”
Her eyes catch on mine. My stomach flips at the clear, liquid gleam in them. She’s happy. Incandescently so.
It’s the kind of happiness that fills my chest to bursting. I never thought I could feel this much, risk this much, and not stumble somehow. Not be let down or devastated.
But here we are, Mollie and me, taking a drive over to Rivers Ranch together after a glorious morning of sex and food and sun, contentment filling me from head to toe.
Here I am, indulging in hope and the promise of rest.
“You know, you’ve come so far, Cash,” Mollie says, reading my thoughts. “Remember how I had to beg you to take a day off? Now you’re taking whole weekends off, and you’re napping.”
“You didn’t have to beg me.”