Page 48 of Hazel's Hope
As if walking onto a stage at just the right moment, Wade and Mr. Trenton—Isaac, as he’d insisted Hazel call him—appeared in the doorway from the kitchen.
“I’m afraid we need to be heading home,” Isaac said.
Maggie let her lower lip jut out. “I was hoping you two would become so involved in discussing the feeding habits of bulls that we ladies might have more time to visit.”
Hazel grinned. She’d been hoping the same, but even a short visit was better than none at all.
“Next time,” Isaac promised. “And it won’t be long before Anabel is big enough to sit a horse, and you can ride over yourselves.”
Hazel said goodbye to their friends and settled in on the settee with the baby. Wade waved to Isaac and Maggie before shutting the door. He sat down beside her and held out his arms for little Ada.
Hazel gratefully passed him their daughter, stretching her aching arms and back as soon as the baby was comfortably in her father’s arms.
“Have I told you that you are infinitely more handsome when you’re holding a baby?” she said. It was the honest truth. If she’d thought Wade was good looking before, it didn’t hold a candle to how he looked with their child in his arms.
Something about becoming a father had changed Wade for good, softening him and making him even more protective at the same time.
“Please feel free to say that as often as you like,” he replied with a grin.
Hazel laughed. “It was nice to see Maggie again. I’ve missed her. And little Anabel has grown so much!”
“We’re blessed to have such good neighbors.” Wade shifted Ada so that her little head laid comfortable in the crook of his elbow. He looked up at Hazel. “And I’m blessed to have you.”
Hazel leaned against him, letting her head drop to his shoulder. “Have you heard from Cole?”
“Not a word. But I’m not surprised.”
Hazel sighed, wishing Cole would at least respond to one of Wade’s letters, even it it were a cold and short reply. “Well, you’ve done all you can.”
“I suppose.”
She sat up and looked at him, this man who went out of his way to ensure the brother who wouldn’t have hesitated to kill him received the most lenient sentence possible. A man whose heart was so content now that he wrote his brother once a month, despite not receiving a single reply.
“I love you, Wade Pierce,” she said.
He smiled. “I love you, Hazel. Forever.”
She drew herself up on her knees and leaned forward, ever so carefully so as not to wake Ada, and pressed a kiss to his lips. He returned her kiss, and she finally had to pull away, lest they disturb the baby.
She settled back down, leaning against him, and thought there was no better life to be had than this one she’d found here in Colorado.
Wade and Ada were all of her hopes and dreams. And this ranch would be the place she would live out her days with her husband, growing a family, and surviving all the world threw at them.
They could survive anything with love.
*****
