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She’s my perfect match. She tames the wild part of me and brings me so much joy and love that I can’t stand to be apart from her.
And now she’s brought me a daughter that I hope looks like just like her when she grows up.
Even if I have to kill every man who comes calling.
“I love you, angel. So much.” Her eyes glow with love and the mussed hair and sweat don’t mean a damn thing to me.
“I love you too, Rory. You’re gonna be a helluva daddy.”
With her as our little one’s mama, I can’t be anything less.
“What are we going to call her? We only picked out a boy’s name.”
I study her and it comes to me almost immediately. “Faith. Faith Dawn.”
“For the start of a day and the never-ending faith that you have in me.”
Her eyes glisten with tears. She nods and clears her throat. “That’s perfect.”
The nurse hands our Faith to Callie and I sit next to her on the bed, watching my girls get to know each other. And I know in this moment, nothing will ever change the way I feel right this second.
Because right here is my whole damn world. I might have more children with Callie one day but our love will stretch and strengthen, taking in each one of our children and shielding them with our hope for their future and our faith in what the future will bring us.
We will always have each other. Always have hope and love. And faith that our love is enough to get us through whatever comes our way.
That our family is the world to us. And that’s as it should be.
Epilogue Two: Callie
“Did you see this letter from Iron H Ranch?” I ask my husband as he drinks his coffee.
“Nope. What’s up?”
“They’re closing the ranch and before they do, they’re having a dance for everyone that worked there over the years.”
“Wonder why they’re closing.”
“Says that Cody and Heather are retiring and traveling.”
He nods his graying head. “They deserve it with all the good they’ve done over the years. All the horses they’ve saved and all the couples they’ve brought together.”
I turn and stare at the photo of Donut with our oldest daughter, Faith, on her ebony back. Both of them look proud as punch. Faith took up barrel racing and her first pony was Donut. That horse loved her until the day she passed away. Faith cried for days but we both knew she lived a good, long life and the two of them made each other’s lives richer. That she had the life she should have. She had a job that she loved with the person she loved most in the world. I don’t think she was ever unhappy with our Faith.
And it all started with that ranch and the auction that never happened for my husband. Faking it turned into the real thing for us.
“You want to go?”
“Absolutely. I can’t wait to see Cody and Heather again. And the rest of the hands that found true love over the years thanks to that ranch.”
Iron H Ranch brought hope, faith and love to so many animals and people. I reach out a hand and Rory brings it to his lips, caressing my knuckles with his whiskers, making me giggle like a young girl. Like the young girl who found her home and her future on that hallowed ground with a grumpy cowboy running from his own demons.
And straight into love.
