I sigh. "I'm not the only woman on his website, Ace. There are loads of them."
"We'll shut the whole thing down, baby. I promise. Easy work for our guys."
My lip trembles. Easy as that. Just shut it down.
"So everything I did was useless?"
He shakes his head. "No, baby. You didn't know. The threat was real, and you did what you thought was best. It's done. He's dead, which is lucky for him because I would have skinned that motherfucker alive for this."
I take his hand and rest it on my stomach. "Stop swearing in front of our unborn baby."
He snaps his lips shut. "Shit. My bad."
My eyes go wide. "Ace Trent Sterling."
He bites his lip, looking at me with all the love he has in his eyes. "I love it when you call me by my government name," he mutters, taking my hand and placing it over him. Letting me feel him hardening.
"You know... we could pull over?" I bat my lashes.
He lets out a groan. "When we hit Arizona, yes. Fuck yes. So much yes."
Everything is starting to get prettier the closer we get to home. The desert stretches out on either side, red and gold in the late light. Cars pass on the other side of the road every now and then, but it's quiet. Just us and the road and the hum of the engine and the future unfolding ahead of us.
I settle back in my seat. Rest my head against the window. His hand stays on my thigh. My hand stays on the little goldA.
For the first time in months, I can breathe.
We're going home.
"I was thinking," Ace says, adjusting his hat. "If it's a girl and we name her April, her initials would be A.S. Same as mine."
I smile. "April Sterling."
"Sounds like a rodeo queen."
"Sounds like our daughter."
He glances at me. Those dark eyes. That grin. The man I fell in love with all those years ago is still here beside me.
“I'm going to be insufferable, Harper. Just want to prepare you. I'm going to be one of those dads. Matching outfits. Little cowboy boots. Teaching her to ride before she can walk."
"I'd expect nothing less."
"She's never dating, though. Not until she's forty."
"Ace."
"Thirty-five. Final offer."
I laugh, and it fills the car, and it's the best sound in the world because it's us. Just us. No Hudson. No Gianna. No secrets between us. Just a cowboy and a journalist and a baby who doesn't know yet how loved they already are.
The road bends ahead. A long, sweeping curve through a canyon cut where the rock walls rise on either side, and the asphalt narrows to two lanes. Ace takes it easy, one hand on the wheel, the other still on my leg.
I see the headlights first.
Coming around the bend. On our side of the road.
"Ace—"
