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* * *
He didn’t say “her,” like he would have if he was talking about the puppy.
He was talking about their son.
“I never got your messages,” he went on. “That old phone of mine broke on the way north and I didn’t bother replacing it for a few months. And they tried to load all my old stuff onto the new phone, but coverage up here wasn’t all that great back then. Neither were the phones. It’s no excuse, I know, but I don’t want you to think I’d have ever ignored you. I’d have come, Lizzie. If I’d known. I’m just real sorry it all came down that way.”
She took a deep breath and faced him, at long last ready to talk. “I am, too. My heart broke that day because there was absolutely nothing I could do, Heath. And I’d have done anything to save him.”
A tear trickled down her left cheek. Then her right one. He reached out and caught the tears with his hand in a touch so sweet and gentle it made her want to cry more. Not less. But the time for tears was over. She took a deep breath and said what she needed to say. “I’m sorry it got all messed up. Sorry about all the lies and secrets. I hate that kind of thing. I think that’s why I jumped at this opportunity so quickly. To get out of the offices and into a barn. Horses don’t lie. They don’t cheat. They don’t steal. To run an operation like we’ve got here is such a total blessing after being surrounded by my father’s crimes. So Uncle Sean’s timing was perfect. In so many ways.”
She’d tipped her gaze down to the dog, but now she locked eyes with Heath.
* * *
He moved closer to her. So close she could smell the remnants of hospital soap on his hands and sweet creamed coffee on his breath. “I want to make a home here, Heath. On this ranch. In this town. Maybe I’ll buy one of those little bungalows in town and fix it up, sweet and simple. And I can be the eccentric spinster lady who writes a little paper once a week. Just enough to bring folks together.”
“I like the staying part.” He sat down next to her as Betsy cared for her four busy babies. “But not the house in town.”
“No?” She turned and met his gaze, and he was pretty sure her eyes twinkled into his. “Do you have a better idea, cowboy?”
He raised one hand up to caress her hair, her neck, her cheek. “I believe I do. And it involves a ring and a promise and a little boy who loves you already. But not nearly as much as I do, Liz.” He took her mouth and kissed her lightly, then not so lightly. When he finally drew back, he left his forehead touching hers. “It’s about us. And that’s how I want it to stay. If you’ll give me another chance, that is. I’d like to have the chance to court you properly.”
“And quickly?” she wondered, smiling.
He laughed and kissed her again. “Quick works for me.”
He pulled her into his arms for an awkward but beautiful hug, a hug she’d been missing for so long. Too long. “It sounds perfect to me, Liz.”
She met his smile with one of her own, then leaned her head against his broad, strong shoulder as the sated puppies dozed off, one by one. “It certainly does.”
EPILOGUE
Lizzie finished tacking tiny twinkle lights around the second front window while Heath and Zeke hung a festive ornament in each pane.
“I’ve never seen anything so pretty in all my life, my Lizzie!” Zeke started to launch himself into her lap, but Heath caught him.
“Gentle with Mom, remember? There’s a baby growing inside her.”
“And it’s so tiny right now,” Zeke acknowledged because they’d been talking about this for weeks. “But in the spring it will be big enough to get born and be my brother or sister!”
“Which is exactly why we’re all gathering out here tonight,” announced Lizzie as the rest of the family and friends began to gather in the great room. “Zeke is going to tell us if this baby’s a boy or a girl by eating a cupcake. If the filling is pink, then the baby’s a girl. If it’s blue…”
“Then it’s a brother!” Zeke ran in a circle, because that was the kind of thing brothers did. And when the entire family and a host of friends had gathered with glasses of punch to toast the newest Caufield, Zeke took a bite of the cupcake.
He stared at it, then held it up for everyone to see. “I’m gonna have a sister, just like Jo-Jo!”
“A girl!”
“Oh, Lizzie.” Corrie didn’t wait for others to have a turn. She grabbed Lizzie into a hug and held on tight. “I am so happy for you, my precious girl.”
“I know.” Lizzie hugged her back as Heath tucked an arm around her waist.
