Page 74 of A Heart Falls Cowboy Christmas

“For stretching,” he deadpanned.

“Of course.” She slid her fingers up his chest before linking her hands behind his head. “We should work on our flexibility together.”

He kissed her. No distractions, no need to rush. Just them as a couple instead of dad and mom, ranch owners, stewards of the land.

Two people who had fallen in love in spite of their past baggage and worked hard to make what they shared together now so sweet.

They could make the future work as well.

After, they lay together in front of the fireplace, clothes scattered nearby and both of them still catching their breath. Caleb linked his fingers with hers and stared up at the ceiling, the heaviness inside him not gone, but shifted into something he could handle.

Tamara turned her head. “Better?”

“Much.”

“I meant your mood.”

“That too.”

She laughed quietly and squeezed his hand.

Caleb watched the firelight flicker across the room. “I figured out what’s bothering me.”

“Wondered if you had. Sasha?”

“Only partly. It’s the waiting.” He rubbed his thumb over the back of Tamara’s hand. “It’s harder waiting for her to decide than it ever was making decisions for myself.”

“I know. For me too.”

“I want her to choose what’s right.”

Tamara’s gaze was steady and true. “She will.”

His last confession was still humbling to share. “And I don’t know what I want her choice to be.”

“Good part?” Tamara eased closer until her shoulder pressed against his. “You don’t need to know.”

Outside, the wind pushed dry leaves across the porch, scraping them briefly against the steps before carrying them away.

Some changes were good.

Some would be hard.

Caleb lifted their joined hands. Whatever came, they’d get through it together.

Part III

To everything there is a season,

and a time to every purpose under the heavens.

Turn, turn, turn.

* * *

The Byrds

(& Ecclesiastes)