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“Okay.” Hannah did, peering inside. A single red rose sat there, and she sucked in a tight breath. “Luke.” She reached for it and let her eyes drift closed as she inhaled the scent of the rose. “It’s beautiful.”
She glanced over at him, and he now held up a little black box, already open, with a glinting diamond nearly blinding her.
“I love you, Hannah Otto,” he said. “I’d be down on both knees right now if we weren’t in the truck, and I had this whole thing planned where I’d propose to you up on the roof of the stable we’ve worked on together, but then all this rain happened.”
Tears stung her eyes, but they were such good tears, Hannah didn’t mind them. She was already beyond wet as it was. What was a little more water?
“Will you make me the happiest man in the world and become my wife?”
Hannah let her tears fall down her face as she nodded. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I love you and I’ll marry you.”
He grinned from ear to ear as he took the ring out of the box and slid it on her finger. They both admired it, and then Luke lifted his eyes to hers. He kissed her, and Hannah had never been kissed by her fiancé before.
She sure did like it.
* * *
One year later:
“Over here?” she called to Jill. Hannah’s best friend turned from the bales of straw she and Emma were stacking into the throne where Cowboy Claus would sit once the Howdy Holiday Festival began.
“No,” Jill said. “Mom, will you help her?” Her nine-month-old baby sat in a stroller, carefully picking up Cheerios while her mother worked.
Sabrina Kyle turned from where she and her husband were setting up a fifteen-foot Christmas tree. She left him hanging the cowboy boots and saddle-shaped ornaments to come help Hannah with the location of her sweet shop for this year.
The landscape of the festival changed every year, as Jill wanted every event to be different from the one before. This year, Hannah was getting her very own sweet shop, where she’d be teaching free classes for people as part of their entrance ticket to the festival, and special, paid classes that required an extra fee.
She’d been perfecting her sugar cookie recipe for weeks now, and she let Sabrina take the padded stool and move it where it should go. “I think she wants it over here,” she said, beaming at Hannah. “There’s going to be a tent here for you. I know that’s coming this afternoon, because I heard Jill talking to the party supply store this morning.”
“Okay,” Hannah said. “Thanks.”
“How are you feeling, dear?” Sabrina reached out and brushed Hannah’s hair off her face. “How long until the baby comes?”
“Oh, he’s due on Christmas Eve,” Hannah said with a tired smile. “I’m going to make it.”
“Of course you are.” Sabrina stepped into her and hugged her, Hannah’s big belly between them. “You and Luke are going to be great parents.”
Hannah basked in the love and comfort of Sabrina’s arms. Since she and Luke had bought a wig for Sabrina, they’d had a special relationship. Jill had even brought back the most delicious triple fudge brownies when Hannah had been pining over Luke last fall.
Nothing beat the butter pecan ice cream for a broken heart, but Sabrina’s brownies had come close.
“I’m scared,” Hannah admitted, her voice pitching up.
“Of what?” Sabrina pulled back and bent to help Hannah extend the legs on the first table.
“Of just everything,” Hannah said. “I’ve always wanted to be a mother, but what if it’s harder than I thought it would be?” She shook her head, her thoughts jumbling with the motion. “I mean, Ginger makes it look so easy. She’s carried Ward around with her throughout every season. If she has to do something, he just comes along.”
She glanced around as if Ginger and Ward would be right there. She knew they weren’t, as Ginger had taken him home to put him down for a nap about twenty minutes ago. The boy was almost two years old now, and he could say a few words. Hannah loved him to death, as did everyone around the ranch, but she didn’t know how to train him the way Ginger and Nate had.
Emma was much more relaxed in her parenting, but Frannie was the picture of perfection everywhere they went. Emma always had her hair done right, and Frannie could sit and play with anything—literally, Hannah had walked into Emma’s office once and found her baby playing with an empty cereal box—for hours.
“What if my baby is a monster and won’t take naps?” Hannah asked. “What if he doesn’t want to be strapped to me while I go around and feed goats and chickens? What if he’s high-maintenance, and I can’t get any work done?”
Sabrina smiled in a knowing way, but that only made Hannah’s nerves fire with frustration instead of fear. Neither were very comforting, and she just wanted someone to reassure her that her baby would be an angel, and she’d be fine.
Jess and Dallas brought their boy to the ranch every day too, and more often than not, the four little children would end up in the West Wing together, napping while one of their mothers worked in an office nearby.
Hannah had been looking forward to adding her and Luke’s baby to the mix for eight months now. But her pregnancy hormones felt out of control from time to time, and since she hadn’t slept much last night, her worries had surged to the front of her mind.
