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“You don’t like it?”
“You look twelve,” she said, laughing afterward.
Luke rolled his eyes and said, “I need a minute with Santa.” He grinned as he walked toward Slate, and he leaned against the bale of straw they used for a table while Slate continued to lounge in the straw throne.
Jill finished taking down her equipment and took it into the stable. Jess came around the corner as Jill closed the closet, and she said, “Thank you, Jess. This was so amazing, and I couldn’t have done any of it without you.”
“It was fun,” Jess said. “I’m just so tired lately. I haven’t been sleeping well.” She scraped her bangs off her forehead. “Dallas is leaving the kids here with Nate and Ginger tonight, so hopefully, I can sleep as late as I want.”
Jill grew concerned as she took in Jess’s drawn face. She hadn’t noticed her being overly tired during the demo. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Jess said. “I think I’m fighting a bug or something.” She gave Jill a smile and a hug. “Merry Christmas. I’ll see you at our place for lunch, right?”
“Yes,” she said. “Slate and I will be there.”
Jess nodded and left the stable. Jill watched her go, glad Jess and Dallas were hosting a Christmas Day luncheon at their house. It would be nice to get off the ranch, and it would be a new holiday memory—and a possible new tradition—for both her and Slate.
They were then going to her parents’ for the afternoon, where her mother would serve a “light dinner.” Jill knew that meant a regular dinner, with pie afterward, and she’d warned Slate accordingly. After that, they were going to his grandparents’ to say hello and spend an hour with them on Christmas too.
Jill suddenly wanted a day where she could sleep as late as she wanted too.
Instead, she turned and went back outside. Hannah had finished her fudge-making class long ago, and Spencer and Nick were currently loading the tables onto a trailer to put away. “Thank you,” she called to them.
“Anytime,” Spencer said, and Jill waved to them. Everything was cleaned up except the picture area, and she and Slate would do it tomorrow. Or the next day. Or next year. She actually wanted to keep it mostly intact, so they didn’t have to reassemble everything every year. At the same time, she wanted the Howdy Holiday Festival to be different every year, and that meant they certainly couldn’t use the same set they had this year. The straw could rot anyway.
Someone had taken Scalloped Potato back to her stall long ago, and Jill went over to the throne, where Slate still sat. She climbed into the seat with him and draped her legs over his. “Thank you, Slate,” she said.
“Sure thing, sweetheart.” He smiled at her and closed his eyes. “It was a lot of work, though. We should start looking for a new Cowboy Claus right now so I don’t have to do it next year.”
“You’re so good at theyeehaw-haw-haw!though.”
They laughed together, and Slate lifted his arm so Jill could curl into his side. “I love you,” Jill said. “Those were some pretty great new memories made, right?”
“Yeah,” he said, sighing. “I hope those kids get all the things they want for Christmas.”
“No one gets everything they want for Christmas,” she said.
“I have.” He tracked his fingers up her arm and back down.
“Is that right? And what does Cowboy Claus want for Christmas?”
“Hm,” he said. “I think he just has one thing on his list.”
“Has he been naughty or nice?”
“Cowboy Claus is nothing but nice,” Slate said, sliding to the edge of the straw seat. “Come on. I’ll show you what I want.” He extended his hand toward her, and she put hers in his.
“Is it far? Because I’m tired and can barely walk in these shoes.”
“It’s not far,” he said. “It’s right over here.” He took the few steps to the rustic cabinet in the corner of the fake country room where Cowboy Claus lived. He opened the drawer, and Jill had just started to peer around his back to see what he held when he turned and dropped to one knee.
“Jill Kyle,” he said, and Jill squealed. She clapped one hand over her mouth, and her eyes could not get wider. She could not drink in Slate down on that one knee, holding that dark blue jewelry box, and wearing a ridiculous cowboy Santa suit any faster.
She wanted to freeze time and live in this moment forever.
He grinned at her. “I’m in love with you. I want Christmastime to be a source of joy and happiness for us, and I couldn’t think of anything better to do to make that happen than to ask you to be my wife.”
He opened the box and a blindingly white diamond sat there, nestled in dark, silky fabric.
