My Cowboy Night Bonus Scene
Melody
Jonas and I are getting ready to take our family to an amateur racing event that Lucky River put on to raise money to help Butterfly Buck with home improvements. He was a key player in bringing the two of us together.
I will always be grateful to the elderly man for that. Because of him, I found the love of my life. My cowboy for a night that became my cowboy forever.
I trace my fingertips across the mantel that holds an assortment of family photos we’ve taken over the years. There’s one of us smiling at our wedding nearly ten years ago. Several photos of our son and two daughters taken when they were babies.
Some of the pictures in frames are of them taking their first steps. Then there are ones of the first day they each started school. I press the palm of my hand to the center of my chest as nostalgia washes over me. How did they reach their current age so quickly?
Another photo is all of us on a camping trip. The mosquitoes were awful. The food charred. The memories precious. Then there’s a picture of us at our daughter’s first riding contest. Jonas and I are in the stands, holding hands, our focus fixed on her and Raven had snapped the shot.
Christmas pictures stand on one end of the mantel. First, it was just me and Jonas. Then taken in the same pose in front of the tree, our family expanded. Sam. Bri. Suelynn.
While I’m standing there with a lump in my throat, Jonas comes up behind me and wraps his arms around me. “What’s on my sexy wife’s mind?”
“I was thinking about when you and I were caring for Marshall and Raven’s kids. I saw all those family pictures they had, and I remember wishing so much that I could have those kinds of love-filled moments as well.”
“I know,” he says quietly. “I wanted that, too.”
He turns me toward him and tips my chin up. “But when I imagined my future after that day, the only face that ever came to mind was yours. And I knew I was in for trouble.”
He laughs softly when I poke my finger in his chest.
Our son Sam runs into the living room clutching the collar of the Great Dane puppy he’d begged us to let him have six months ago. The dog is already almost as big as he is and at that stage where he’s into everything.
“He’s not going,” I tell him. “He’ll scare the smaller kids.”
“I know, Mom,” Sam says. “I’m going to put him in the pen.”
“Did you tell Suelynn and Bri to get ready?” Jonas asks.
Sam nods and I can’t help but smile. Our son is almost a carbon copy of his father. And I remember the first time Jonas had held him when he was born. He’d whispered, “No one will ever hurt you. I’ll die protecting you, my baby boy.”
He’d made the same promise when our daughters were born.
I blink back tears. Because of what he went through, Jonas is fiercely protective. He’s full of love and laughter. Promises made and kept.
“I’m ready!” Six-year-old Bri twirls into the living room and sticks out her leg to show off new cowboy boots.
“They look good, honey. Do they fit okay?” I ask.
“Yes.” She frowns. “Suelynn? Where is that child?”
Jonas and I laugh in unison.
“She sounds just like you,” he says.
“In my defense, if any of our kids are up to something, it’s usually Suelynn.”
“That’s what my folks say, too.”
Frances and Gavin are the best grandparents any kid could ever have. They’re always buying something they think the children will like. Or they’re making their favorite meals. And because they regularly watch the kids for us, Jonas and I have time together to go on dates to have dinner out or watch a movie or whatever.
I grin when I think about what our whatevers have been like lately.
“What are you thinking about now?” Jonas asks.
“Your parents watching the kids last time and how we spent that evening while they were away.”
Jonas’s eyes darken. “You like to bring things up when you know there’s nothing I can do about it at the moment, don’t you?”
“Waiting is good for the soul,” I tease.
“I’ll tell you what waiting isn’t good for.” He glances at his belt buckle and raises his brows.
I put my hand on his chest. “If my handsome cowboy is a good boy, then maybe he’ll get a little treat tonight.”
“A good boy? I’ll be a freaking angel.”
I laugh. “But I don’t want you to wear a halo. I like my cowboy to be a dirty good boy.”
He pulls me tight against his body. “What if I take turns? I’ll be good, then dirty? Hmm?”
“You’ve been tired lately. I doubt you’d be able to stay awake.”
He shakes his head. “Are you forgetting what I told you when I came to the flower shop to talk to you before we watched Marshall and Raven’s kids?”
“You said not to challenge a cowboy.”
“And what else?”
I lower my voice in case the kids are within listening distance. “You said, “Strong thighs. All night rides.”
“My thighs are even stronger now,” he says, brushing his lips against mine.
We’ve been together almost a decade and yet I want this man just as much now as I did the first time. “Maybe we should just send a donation and skip the racing event,” I murmur against his lips.
He pulls back. “Waiting is good for the soul.”
I laugh. “You don’t ever let anything slide, do you?”
“Wrong, honey. I do let one thing slide.”
“Shh…” I say as Suelynn walks into the living room yawning.
Jonas sweeps her up into his arms. I take Bri’s hand with one of mine and Jonas holds my other hand.
Sam barrels into the house. “I’m done.” He reaches for his Stetson and then the five us walk out to the truck. One big happy family. Just like I always dreamed of.
