Page 17 of Lucky Haven

I lean against the fence next to Dax. “I won’t interrupt that, then.”

Zane twirls the rope he’s holding over his head as he looks at the three of us. “I’m glad you’re here,” he says, grinning, “because I’ve got some news.”

“What’s that?”

He flicks his wrist, sending the lasso high into the sky before it whistles down around Hope, who gasps and shakes her head at him, but her eyes are warm and her smile is so private it makes my chest hurt.

“I asked Hope to marry me,” Zane says, a bit of emotional gravel in his voice as he pulls her in close. She tugs off her gloves before she wraps her arms around his neck, and sure enough, there’s a fancy ring on her hand. “She said yes. And we’re having a baby.”

“Holy shit,” Dax says.

Ridge just grunts.

And I can’t say I’m surprised, given all that these two have been through already, but I’m…jealous. A few months ago, we were all bachelors, and that felt right. Our father was a monster. We’re a feral bunch. Somehow, we survived a stormy, chaotic youth and settled here on the ranch.

It felt like gift enough that we managed to establish Kincaid’s Refuge. Asking for anything more would be gluttonous.

Of course, Zane didn’t ask for Hope to appear on our doorstep.

But the ease with which my brother shifted from bachelor to family man...

I wish it could be that easy for all of us.

I swallow around the rough brick in my throat. “Mom knows?”

Zane’s grin is ridiculous. “Yeah, she knew before I took Hope out to Lover’s Canyon.”

Jesus Christ. He asked her in our family spot, too?

Fucking blessed.

“Well, I’m real happy for you,” I say, and it’s true. But it’s the kind of happy that makes me want things I can’t have.

From the other side of the barn, a high-pitched giggle carries on the breeze. Followed by a squawk, and then tears.

“Oh, no…” Hope says, immediately letting go of Zane and starting for the fence, only to be stopped by the lasso still around her waist.

Laughing, Zane frees her, then hands her the coil of rope. “I’ll get Bellamy, you keep practicing.”

He launches himself over the railing and strides away.

Hope gathers up the rope, but instead of tossing it at the roping dummy again, she just squeezes it in her bare hand, that engagement ring glinting in the golden light. “I hope you know that I love your brother very much.”

“Sure,” Dax says.

Ridge just grunts again, but he adds a nod, too.

“We do,” I promise.

“And we don’t want to make any of you feel like this isn’t your home anymore, even though we have taken over more of the house.”

When we first bought the ranch, Zane took the lower level, Ridge built himself a small cabin set back from the main house, and Dax and I took the second floor. Luna has a studio on the third floor, which includes a bedroom and bathroom all her own.

Hope and Bellamy arrived after I moved to town six months ago, so they took my old room, across from Dax’s—and after Hope’s ex stalked her here and Zane confronted him, the upstairs had to be renovated anyway, so he took that opportunity to move Dax to the basement. Now Hope and Zane share his old room, across from Bellamy, and…

I don’t have a room here anymore.

I could stay with Ridge, of course. I still own a quarter of the ranch. I could build my own cabin, too.