“You got my saddle! It’s the one I’ve been wanting forever.” She threw her arms around Cord’s neck and kissed him, knocking both of their hats to the stable floor. “How did you know?”
“I told you, Shadow tells me all sorts of things.” In his stall, Shadow whinnied his agreement, and Cord chuckled. “And I might’ve gotten a little help from Laurel. I called her to ask what to get you for graduation.”
“Thank you so much.” She pressed close and hugged him tight, breathing his clean scent. “I can’t believe it’s only been a year since you strutted into the kitchen and pretended you knew who I was. My whole life, before that day, seems dull and monotone. I call it B.C.—before Cord.”
His lips pressed against the top of her head as his hands stroked her back, rippling pleasure up her spine. “When I’m with you, all my senses are more acute. I can see better, hear better, feel better, taste better.”
“Can you smell better? Because that’s not necessarily a good thing when you’re mucking a stall.”
His chuckle rumbled in her ear. “Are you sure you like your saddle?”
“I love it,” she said, without bothering to look at it again. She’d stared at pictures for hours at a time, so she had every inch of it memorized. “And I love the guy who gave it to me.”
“But I want you to check it closely before we use it. I want to make sure it’s perfect.”
Reluctantly, she pulled away from the warmth of his embrace. “I’m sure it’s perfect, but I’ll check it over.”
Her fingers traced the intricate stitching on the edge of the seat jockey and fender. Every part of the saddle had a hand-tooled pattern, including the seat and the pommel. Then she noticed the saddle horn. It had a beautiful, engraved cap with her initials. At first, she only noticed the first and last letters, J and P. But then she noticed the middle initial, larger than the other two… an ornate D.
Her breath caught in her throat. She turned around to find Cord on one knee, with a small black velvet box in his outstretched hand. She pressed her hand against her chest, trying to stop her heart from bursting out.
“Jessica Jolene Powell, I love you. More than life. More than anything. I love you so much my chest aches. If you’ll let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life showing you how much I love you. So, what do you say? Will you marry me and make me the happiest man in the world?”
The rare glistening of his sapphire eyes told her the depth of his feelings. A sting in her eyes announced her tears before they pooled and tumbled down her cheeks. Frozen, she stared as he flipped the box open and slid the sparkling diamond ring onto her trembling finger.
At last, as he stood and wrapped his strong arms around her and she huddled in the security of his embrace, she gave him the answer he sought.
“Yes.”
And he kissed her in a wordless promise of forever.
Thank you so much for reading Wrangled by the Watchful Cowboy. I hope you’ll consider leaving a review. Ready for another Sage Valley Romance? Grab the next book in the series, Charmed by the Daring Cowboy by Melanie D. Snitker.
She's a landscaper on a deadline. He's a cowboy assigned to help. Will their growing attraction get in the way, or blossom into true love?