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I held my laughter as I slipped into the front seat, wondering how I’d gone from running six hours earlier to somehow feeling like that puzzle piece fit. Like maybe I’d just been looking at it all wrong. Trying to mash the wrong prong into the incorrect space.
Or maybe I’d just realized that the shape didn’t matter. There were no perfect matches. There was just love and understanding and getting someone for who they were.
And God, was there love. So much love that I wasn’t quite sure how I was supposed to sit still in it when I kept feeling like I was going to float toward the sky and get lost in the clouds.
“Well, I guess we’d better hurry, then, shouldn’t we?” Ezra said.
“Go so fast, Daddy!” Owen made a zooming sound as he shot his hand forward like a rocket.
“But not so fast that you get a ticket,” Olivia said, so pragmatic.
Ezra was chuckling as he slipped into the driver’s seat, his gaze sweeping to me. Soft and adoring and content. “Well, I sure hope the town Sheriff doesn’t get pulled over and get a ticket. Now that would be embarrassing.”
He winked.
God, did Hot Cop look so good in the afternoon sun.
Another swell of love came bursting free. Rising up from the depths where this type of feeling wasn’t supposed to exist. Now that I’d let it go, there was no stopping it.
I was all in.
Ezra reached over and squeezed my hand, like he was reiterating the exact same thing.
All in.
It was terrifying and beautiful and the most wonderful thing that I’d felt in probably my entire life because I’d never, ever known anything quite like this.
I’d already agreed to go out to Hutchins Ranch today to celebrate Paisley’s grandfather’s 90th birthday. I hadn’t even tried to turn down the invite when she’d come into the café crazy excited about it, demanding that I be there since I was now a part of this extended group, even though I’d yet to meet the man.
Dakota was shutting down the café early so all the employees could attend, but she’d still insisted on not scheduling me for the early shift, teasing me that she wasn’t going to be the reason I had an excuse not to show.
Apparently, they’d all thought I was a runner. A hider.
I peered over at Ezra as he glanced over his shoulder to pull out of the garage.
Not anymore.
He grinned.
So damned burly and sexy that my knees quaked.
He put the truck into drive and took the few turns it took to get us out onto the main street before he made a left onto a two-lane road that led out of town and toward the mountains that were even more pronounced in the distance as we headed that direction.
Nonstop chatter and questions and laughing came from the backseat, loud and raucous and wild, and I realized I’d never felt so at peace.
Ezra held my hand as he drove. I had to stop myself from reaching out to rake my fingertips along that masculine jaw. To keep from touching his lips. His thumb kept brushing over the back of my hand like he was reminding me of the same thing.
He wanted me.
He needed me.
He was thankful I was there.
We slowed and made a right onto a dirt road, driving under a big wooden sign that claimed Hutchins Ranch. There was another newer sign hanging from underneath that boasted Our Favorite Day Equestrian Care Center, the horse training facility that Paisley ran, a special place that had been born of the love that she’d found here with Caleb and Evelyn.
I’d gotten to know Paisley a little more in the times that she’d come into the café. And I liked her. So much. The same way as I couldn’t seem but to like everyone I’d met here.
In this place that had come to feel like the home that I thought I would never have.
And I hoped…with Ezra’s help…that maybe we could uncover something about Jessica. With everything that had happened this morning, I hadn’t gotten the chance to show him the journal before it’d been time for us to leave for the ranch. Faith lifted in my soul, the kind I’d squelched and subdued for so long. Sitting there next to Ezra, I prayed that too much time hadn’t passed. Prayed that somehow she was really here. That it wasn’t a fluke or maybe some kind of twisted joke that I’d received that journal.
Above us, the blue sky went on forever, and horses and cattle grazed in the pastures that we passed as we traveled the single-lane, dirt road. Dust flying behind us, we crested a hill, and my breath hitched at the sight.
The ranch was nestled in the valley below. The mountains hugged it at the far side, and there was a river running through. Ezra and I had just been up on that mountain last night, overlooking the glorious view below. I could almost see the spot where he’d held me.
