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“I can’t imagine raising kids is much different than taming horses.” I laughed. “Though, none of my horses have talked back to me.”
“True. If that’s not something—”
I kissed his head. “It is. Maybe not next week, but it absolutely is something that I can see myself doing with you. I’d give you the world, Perry, whatever you ask for.”
Perry chuckled. “You’ll find that I’m a pretty simple guy. I’ll be pretty content with you.”
“Good. We ought to get you through vet school first. Don’t you think?”
Perry nodded. “Yeah, I suppose that’s why I picked up this textbook. If you really are serious about me continuing with school sooner rather than later, I might as well prepare for it now. I have a spot at the university if I want it, I just need to make the tuition payment.”
“I do want you to go to school very soon.”
“Then I might as well start thinking about classes. Signing up, doing all the things.”
I kissed his cheek. “I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks. I’m… I’ve never been this happy, Reese. I love you.”
I shifted as much as I could without jostling him too much and I captured his lips with mine. “I love you,” I said.
Epilogue
Reese
Five Years Later
“Let’s go! Let’s go! We’re going to be late,” I shouted up the stairs, something I really didn’t enjoy doing.
My brother got up from the kitchen table, downed his last bit of coffee, and rolled his eyes. “We are not going to be late. There are at least two hours before the ceremony starts and you know these things never start on time.”
Pete patted his shoulder. “Being early is never a bad thing. I think it’s cute how worried your brother is.” He shot me a wink.
I was getting so irritated, I was sure smoke was going to come out of my ears. This was not an event I was prepared to be late for.
Finally, my mom came out of the bathroom and came down the stairs. “I just needed to fix my hair. It got messed up on the drive over.”
“Mom. I love you dearly, but no one cares about your hair. We’re going to be late if we don’t get there—”
“We have plenty of time,” she said. “Why did Perry have to be so early anyway? Was there something he needed to do there?”
Perry had left the house an hour earlier. Something about getting pictures and being lined up. “I don’t know. He just did.” I wished now that I had just gone with him when he left so that I didn’t miss this very important moment. It wasn’t every day that I got to attend my amazing husband’s graduation from vet school, and I’d be damned if we were going to be late for it.
“Let’s go, let’s go.”
“Don’t forget the most important thing,” Rory said.
I shot my brother a glare. “Of course not,” I said. I looked down at the car seat that was waiting patiently by the door where I had sat it just a moment ago. As soon as I buckled in little Bailey, she had fallen right to sleep like she usually did when going on car rides. We had taken more than one midnight drive to calm her down in the past six months that she’d been with us.
Adopting had been our plan after we had gotten married. We just assumed it would be after Perry had graduated from vet school. But then he started researching, and then researching turned into applying, and then applying turned into actively working with a social worker to get a placement. Then we’d gotten a call in the middle of the night that a six week old baby had been surrendered and could we take her. Even though that week was the final week of a semester and Perry had exams and I had shows, we made it work. It hadn’t been easy, but damn had it been worth it.
Bailey was the light of our world.
“Come on, princess. We have to go see your daddy get a very special piece of paper.”
Rory chuckled. “A very expensive piece of paper.”
We settled Bailey into the back of the truck. My mom and Pete sat back there with her to ooh and ah over her the entire drive.
