Rancher’s Christmas Storm by Maisey Yates
Epilogue
Their whole family was practically a town gathering. Between the Daltons, the Maxfields and the Coopers, Cowboy Wines was absolutely full tonight for Christmas. They had decided in the end to rotate around the Christmas festivities, because it allowed everybody to have the kind of Christmas they loved the most. And no, they didn’t do it once a year, they had three Christmases. And everyone was invited.
And when the Daltons hosted, the festivities included the Dodges, Luke and Olivia Hollister, and hell, they might as well just have invited the whole town.
If there was one thing Honey had learned, really learned in the last few years, it was that love grew to accommodate. To expand around all your joy, all your sorrow. And she was sure that their joy was only going to expand more as they added to their family. She hadn’t told Jericho yet.
But she would. Christmas morning.
She smiled thinking of the onesie wrapped beneath the tree.
And she felt tears sting her eyes. Just for a moment.
As she thought of the ones they wouldn’t have with them for the birth of their first child.
And then she realized, with absolute certainty. But they did have them. In their hearts. Always. Because all the people they’d lost, whether it was her and Jericho or even the members of the Dalton family... Their losses had brought them to this place. Of loving with fierce abandon. Of loving as if it was the most important thing on earth. The only thing on earth.
Because it was.
She looked over at her husband, and she smiled.
She was quite certain that their love was the biggest and brightest of all.
And the next morning when he took that small box from beneath the tree and unwrapped it, it was a moment shared just between the two of them.
“You’re kidding me,” he said, his eyes filled with wonder. Joy. And she realized that all those years before, she had never seen him look quite like that.
“I’m very serious. And very happy. I hope you are too.”
“I didn’t have a father growing up,” he said, his voice sounding strangled. “And I never imagined I’d be one. I didn’t think that I would ever get to be so damned blessed.”
“We both are. We both are.”
And he kissed her. In that way that she had grown to love so very much. That way that meant forever. That way that always reminded her of Christmas and field guides to birds and love.
Always and forever love.
In Gold Valley, Oregon, lasting love is only a happily-ever-after away. Don’t miss any of Maisey Yates’s Gold Valley tales, available now!
Gold Valley Vineyards
Rancher’s Wild Secret
Claiming the Rancher’s Heir
The Rancher’s Wager
Rancher’s Christmas Storm
Gold Valley
Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch
The Hero of Hope Springs
The Last Christmas Cowboy
The Heartbreaker of Echo Pass
Rodeo Christmas at Evergreen Ranch
Keep reading for an excerpt from Christmas in Rose Bend by Naima Simone.
