Page 65 of Worth the Trouble

They let go. Her father looked at his watch, which he did when he needed somewhere to look, and then at his daughter.

“You’ll keep seeing him.”

“Dad.”

“I’m asking. I’d like to hear it.”

Cecelia stood up. She put her hand in Jason’s, and he closed his fingers around hers. She looked at her father across a hotel suite that had been home for long enough for her to become attached to the place and the people.

“I’m going to do more than that,” she said. “One day, I’m going to marry him.”

Her father’s eyebrows went up a fraction. He looked at Jason.

“He hasn’t asked.”

“He will.”

Jason didn’t take his eyes off her. “I will.”

EPILOGUE

“Lola! How’s my pretty girl?” Cece crooned as her arms wrapped around the mare’s neck. She was all too aware of the amusement emanating from both her fiancé and Chet to her back. It had been a lifetime since she’d met the cowboy and his horse, and yet it had been yesterday at the same time.

She rubbed the horse’s nose before nuzzling into her neck. “If I could get a horse, it’d be one just like you.”

“That’s why we’re here, actually,” Jason murmured.

Cece startled at the murmur right behind her ear. Then she whirled to face Jason with wide eyes.

So much had happened over the last six months. They’d opened her business, taking advantage of the office space in town. Most of her clients were from the West Coast, Washington, Oregon, and California. But there were also several agencies that represented rodeo cowboys closer to home. Bar fights were no joke when a few of the ruffians took their disagreements a little too far.

She’d managed to purchase a small piece of property closer to the lodge than town which allowed her to continue with her morning runs. It was the perfect location to build a new home, one they were in the process of designing. Until then, she was staying in the apartment over what was now her office.

Jason had proposed to her before she had the chance to do it herself. They’d made a game out of it, teasing each other and dragging it out until Jason apparently couldn’t take it any longer.

Her father would probably never admit that he liked Jason, but it was fairly clear Jason had earned his trust. In her father’s book that was the same thing as the highest approval around.

They’d spent the holidays together in the city, and Jason had been able to show the side of himself to her father that he usually saved for Cece or his immediate family. Cece knew that her father wasn’t done trying to get a plot of land out in Rocky Ridge, but he had warmed up to the fact that she wouldn’t be returning to the city. Thankfully, he still wanted to be her client and for the first several months, he was the one keeping her lights on.

“What do you mean, that’s why we’re here?” Cece held onto the lead rope at Lola’s chin. “Are you getting me a horse?” She grimaced when it came out an octave high.

Jason chuckled, pulling her toward him with his hands on her hips. “I’m getting you a horse, Cece. And we’ll get a few more, too. The barn is pretty empty out there, don’t you think?”

Her eyes flared. “It’s done? I thought⁠—”

“Chet here pulled some strings and they were able to get the last of it finished.”

“To be fair, I had ulterior motives,” Chet jumped in.

Cece turned to Jason’s friend, then back to her fiancé, curious.

Jason grinned at her. “We’re going into business together. Chet has a lot of experience with training horses, which was why he’d gotten into the rodeo. But he’s wanting to settle down.”

Grinning, Cece turned to Chet and teased, “Finally want a woman to make an honest man out of you?”

He shrugged. “It’s on the bucket list.”

She snickered. “Oh, sure.”