Hitched to the Gunslinger by Michelle McLean
Epilogue
Gray forced a smile and waved goodbye to yet another neighbor who’d dropped by to ooh and ahh over the town’s newest resident and leave a food offering with her exhausted parents.
He peeked under the napkin covering the basket and sniffed.
“Who was that?” Mercy asked, walking with a slight bounce as she cradled their newborn.
Gray glanced up, his breath catching at the sight of his girls. He cleared his throat. “Frank and his wife. It looks like…” He took another sniff. “Meatloaf. And potatoes and biscuits and corn and…there might be a pie in there.” He frowned and Mercy laughed.
“What?” she asked.
“We’ve had people coming by day and night for two weeks. How much do they think a man can eat?”
Mercy snorted. “Never thought I’d see the day you would complain about having too much food to eat.”
Gray raised an eyebrow and swallowed the piece of biscuit he’d just crammed in his mouth. “I wasn’t complainin’. Just curious.”
“Um-hmm. They are only trying to help out. Lord knows I don’t want to be cooking right now. Maybe if this little lady would let me sleep for more than two hours a night,” she said, giving their daughter a smile so full of love and sweetness that Gray had to clear his throat to get rid of the sudden lump.
“Yes, well, if I see one more apple pie, I’m going to cram it down their—”
“Gray!” Mercy said, laughing.
He shrugged and went to put the food in the kitchen. He came back holding some sort of wooden contraption that looked like a two-pronged fork with a ball stuck between the tines.
“And what is this thing?” he asked, handing it to Mercy.
She grinned and took it from him, shaking it in front of the baby’s face. “It’s a rattle, silly. Haven’t you ever seen baby toys?”
He shrugged again. “Never really spent much time around babies.”
“Hmm well, we’re definitely going to change that. Here,” she said, handing him his daughter. “You take her for a while.”
Gray opened his mouth but didn’t object, though that was always his first instinct. She was just so…small. And soft. He was afraid he’d squeeze her too tight or drop her if she squirmed. But she settled back into his arms with a contented coo, blinking her big blue eyes a few times before settling back into sleep.
Mercy draped her arm around his waist, resting her chin against his shoulder. “We still need to come up with a name for her,” she said. “Can’t keep calling her Baby her whole life.”
“We aren’t calling her Apple,” he grumbled, still ready to smack Jason for the mere suggestion.
Mercy laughed. “What about Mela? It means apple in Italian, according to Mrs. DuVere.”
He actually didn’t hate that but would still object just on principle. He drew a finger down her down-soft cheek. “What about Daisy?” he said quietly.
“Daisy?”
“It was my mother’s name,” he said, holding his daughter a little closer.
Mercy turned and pressed a kiss to his shoulder. “I think that’s a beautiful name.” She took their daughter’s finger as she started to fuss. “Daisy.” She kissed her forehead. “It’s perfect.”
She smiled up at him, and he leaned down to press a kiss to her lips, releasing her only when Daisy began to fuss in earnest.
He shifted, frowning. “Did I squish her?”
Mercy shook her head. “No, she’s fine.”
“Hmm. Well, maybe all she wanted was someplace nice and quiet to sleep but no one will leave her alone. Someone seems to drop by every time I’m…I mean she…is getting ready to nap.”
Mercy laughed and lightly pushed him toward the door and his rocking chair on the porch. “Go on. You two rock on the porch a while. I think you could both use a nap. You’re both cranky. I’ve got a few things to do.”
She waved, grabbed a basket and her shotgun, and headed toward the orchard.
Gray settled into his chair and began to rock, hoping Mercy didn’t get into too much trouble when she was off shooting targets or causing some other mischief in town.
“Your mother is a real handful,” Gray said to Daisy.
She belched softly and settled back into sleep.
He nodded. “My sentiments exactly.” He kissed her gently on her forehead and then pulled his hat over his eyes with a sigh, snuggling down in his chair on the porch with his little Daisy for a nice nap.
This retirement thing wasn’t so bad after all.
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