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“I belong here,” he said simply. “And if you’ll have me, I’d love to stay.”
“I’d love for you to stay,” she said. “And Nate, we should probably talk about you know, what we said earlier.”
“Which part?”
“Oh, come on.” Ginger rolled her eyes by the light of the moon, and Nate’s heart softened toward her again.
“You mean the part where I said I was in love with you?”
“Yeah,” she said. “That part.”
“You think I was lying?”
“No,” she said. “I’m just wondering what you think the next stepfor usis.”
Nate had been thinking about Ginger nonstop since he’d been pushed to the ground and re-arrested in front of her. For weeks now. Weeks.
“Well, I think most people get married,” he said, watching her closely.
She nodded, and he didn’t detect any apprehension in her. “And that’s something you want to do?”
Nate let a smile spread across his face. “With you, Ginger, it’s exactly what I want to do.” He leaned down and kissed her, feeling her melt right into him, and for once, his reality was much better than what he’d imagined from the inside of his prison cell.
* * *
The days,weeks, and then a few months passed. Nate enjoyed working around the ranch as much now as he had the very first time he’d entered the stables.
Connor turned five one week and started kindergarten the next. Nate, still in the reentry program, couldn’t go pick him up alone, so he and Ginger made the drive together. They talked about everything, from Ginger’s favorite horse on the ranch to whether she wanted children or not.
Both she and Nate did, but he hadn’t asked her to marry him yet. He didn’t want to get married as an inmate, and he still had two months left of his six-month sentence in the Residential Reentry Program. But he couldn’t go ring shopping by himself, and he didn’t want Ginger along for that ride.
Spencer had offered to go with him, and Nick had actually taken him to the mall and said, “Let’s get her a ring today,” one day near Thanksgiving. But Nate wasn’t in the right mental state, and for some reason, he wanted to take Connor and have the two of them pick out the ring for Ginger together.
He still got the mail most days for the ranch, that walk out to the mailbox one of his favorites.
Just after Thanksgiving, he opened the mailbox and pulled out a very large, white envelope. His heart fell to his boot tips and rebounded back to its rightful place in his chest. He flipped the envelope over and saw the seal from Lawrence’s law firm.
All the other mail forgotten, Nate focused only on the envelope. It had his name on it, and he ripped it open, his mouth beyond dry. He pulled out the sheaf of paperwork and started reading the cover letter, which had been printed on ultra-soft paper that almost reminded Nate of cotton.
Congratulations Nate and Connor!the letter began.
Tears burned behind his eyes as he continued to read that his adoption of Connor had been approved by the state of Texas, and they had a hearing to attend in two and a half weeks, just before Christmas.
He hurried to put everything back in the envelope, his excitement multiplying exponentially as his fingers shook. He left the rest of the mail, and he didn’t even know if he’d closed the mailbox as he jogged back to the homestead.
Ginger wasn’t there, and Nate pulled out his phone and called her. “Hey,” he said when she answered. “So I’m going to need Tuesday, December twentieth off.”
“What?” Ginger asked.
“You’ll need to clear your calendar too,” he said.
“Nate, is that your release date?”
“No,” he said, and he couldn’t imagine what that kind of relief and joy would feel like. Right now, he felt like he was flying on clouds, and he chuckled as he said. “It’s the hearing date Connor and I have to finalize the adoption.”
“You’re kidding,” Ginger said, the words mostly air.
“I’m not,” Nate said, letting his laughter out. “And I want you there. Connor will want you there.”
