Rich Rancher's Redemption

“Jill,” he said, his gaze sweeping over her, up and down. “You look beautiful.”

“No, I don’t. I’m a mess.” So of course he’d show up now. She wore jeans and a T-shirt and she had white paint on her cheek and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail threaded through the opening in a baseball cap.

“What’re you doing here, Jesse?” Had Lucy talked to him? Had she made him see that sacrificing his own life as payment for something he thought was his fault was a waste? She wanted to hope but was too afraid to. She’d been hurt too many times.

He nodded, looked at the little girl in his arms, then back to Jillian. “Look, I understand that you might not be happy to see me right now, but I’ve got something I need to say to you. Then, if you want me to, I’ll go and I’ll stay away.”

“Oh, Jesse, I think we’ve said it all.”

“Not even close,” he told her and took a step toward her. “When you told me you loved me, there was something I couldn’t bring myself to say back to you. I want to do it now. I love you, Jillian. I love you so much it’s a wonder to me.”

She swayed in place as those three little words slammed home and took her breath away. “Jesse—”

“And I love Mac like she’s my own.”

“Jesse!” Mac hugged her horse, then laid her head on Jesse’s shoulder, patting his cheek with one tiny hand.

Jillian melted a little more. Her baby girl was happy. How could she not be?

“Without you, I can’t eat. Can’t sleep. My house is empty,” he said, “and my heart’s even emptier. Hell, Jill, until I met you, I was walking through life with my eyes closed. I swear, there was nothing but work and family.

“Then I met you and there was color and laughter and life, Jillian. There’s life where you are and I want that life.” He smoothed a strand of her hair back behind her ear. “I want it with you. And Mac. And however many more babies we can make together.”

“Babies?” she echoed.

“Babies!” Mac crowed and clapped her little hands.

Jesse grinned at the girl, then dipped one hand into his jeans pocket, coming up with a dark red velvet ring box.

Jillian gasped and felt tears fill her eyes until the box, Mac and Jesse were nothing more than blurs in front of her. Frantically, she blinked her eyes clear because she didn’t want to miss a moment of this. “You’ll have to open it for me, since I don’t want to put our girl down…”

Our girl. Those two words rippled through her mind and heart, and Jillian felt love rise up to wash over her like a warm blanket on a winter night. Hesitantly, she opened the ring box, took one look and gasped again.

“Oh, Jesse…”

“I wanted you to have something different,” he whispered. “Something as special as you are.”

She stared at the ring unblinkingly. A star sapphire, surrounded by diamonds, it winked in the sunlight and seemed to shine with a hundred different colors deep in its center stone. Finally, she looked up at Jesse and saw at last what she’d longed to see in his eyes.

Love.

“I uh, stopped at the jewelry store on my way here. Didn’t want to show up empty-handed. I love you, Jill,” he said simply. “I love Mac. I want to adopt her officially, if you’ll let me—”

“Jesse.” She slapped one hand across her mouth.

“My dad wanted to adopt me and Lucy, but Mom didn’t think it was fair to our biological father. So, if you want Mac to keep—”

“I think Mackenzie Navarro sounds perfect.”

He smiled even wider. “Me, too.” He kept talking then as if he were on a roll and reluctant to stop. “And I want you both to marry me and be with me forever. Help me build a life, Jillian. Let me help you build that future you’ve always dreamed of.”

Slowly, she took the ring from its velvet bed, then slid it onto her finger. Jesse looked deeply into her eyes and whispered, “I will never walk away, Jillian. I will be with you. Always.”

Tears stung her eyes again and her heart lifted so high in her chest it was a wonder her feet didn’t leave the ground.

Then he took her hand and kissed the ring as if sealing a promise between them.

“I love you, Jesse,” she said. “I think I always have. I know I always will.” She looked at her little girl, lying so trustingly in his arms, a pleased smile on her tiny face. “Mac loves you, too, and you are exactly the father she deserves.”

“So that’s a yes,” he said, more statement than question.

“Oh, absolutely it’s a yes,” Jillian told him, moving into the circle of his arms. “We will marry you, Jesse. And we will love you forever.”