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I pressed my lips lightly against hers. “From now on, we sleep together, in my bed—our bed—every night.”
“I’d love nothing more.” She closed her eyes and let out a sigh.
One of the bouquets of roses that Marj had brought home from town yesterday sat on my night table. I grabbed a red one, and slowly I trailed the soft petals across her cheeks, her lips.
“Mmm”—Jade opened her eyes—“that feels nice. I love roses. Even when you threw me out of the house that night, I knew I’d be back someday. I knew you felt something for me. Because of the
rose you left on my pillow.”
I jerked, dropping the rose onto the bed next to Jade. My pulse raced. “What?”
She sat up. “What’s wrong?”
“What are you talking about, blue eyes?”
“The next morning, after you asked me to leave the house. You left a rose on my pillow.”
I swallowed, my heart thundering. “Baby, I love you. But I didn’t leave a rose on your bed that morning.”
Epilogue
Jonah
I hadn’t seen Bryce Simpson in a couple of years, so when I got a phone call, I was surprised. He’d run off to Las Vegas and married some woman he’d only known a couple of weeks. He was my age, thirty-eight, and like me had been a bachelor most of his life. Now he was coming home to Snow Creek to visit his parents—the mayor and his wife. Not only that, but he had a new baby boy, nine months old.
I was sitting in Rita’s café, drinking a cup of coffee, when he came in to meet me, toting his new son.
I stood. “Bryce, man, so good to see you.” I gave him a man-hug. “Quite a little guy you’ve got there.”
The little boy was adorable, with light-blond hair and blue eyes. Bryce’s blond hair had turned a silvery gray.
“So where’s the missus?”
“We split up.”
“Oh? I’m sorry to hear that.” Though I was not surprised. I’d always thought Bryce more level-headed than to run off to Vegas with somebody he didn’t know very well.
“Yeah, it was a mistake. But I got Henry here out of it. She didn’t want custody. In fact, she hardly ever requests visitation.”
“Doing the single-dad thing?”
“It was never my plan. In fact, I never thought I’d have kids. But now that this little guy is here, I don’t know how I ever got along without him. You ever think of settling down?”
A loaded question if ever there was one. For the longest time, I had never wanted to saddle anyone with my life, as filled with guilt as it was. But now my brother Talon was moving on after twenty-five years from the abduction that had occurred when he was ten, the event that had affected both me and our younger brother, Ryan, as well.
Talon had a girl now, and they’d probably be tying the knot soon. If he could move forward, have a relationship, have a family, maybe it was time I did too. As I looked at Bryce and his little son, I felt a yearning that was new to me.
“Honestly, I haven’t. Not for a long time anyway. But you never know. Maybe I’ll meet a nice woman who wants an old rancher like me.”
“A rancher who’s richer than God? I’d say there are a lot of them out there.” Bryce let out a laugh.
I didn’t want someone who was after my money. Enough of them had come around during my life. But if I could find something like what Talon had with Jade, I sure wouldn’t turn my back on it.
“Do you think he’d let me hold him?” I asked Bryce, nodding to Henry.
“Sure. He’s a really good-natured little guy.” He handed the baby to me.
Henry gurgled, and I set him on the table facing me, holding on to him so he wouldn’t fall. He gave me a big toothless grin. He was a healthy-looking boy, looked a lot like his dad. As I held his little hands, I noticed a birthmark on his arm.
