Page 113 of One Last Rodeo

Her eyes widen. Then she smiles. “Yeah. Yeah. Oh God—is that crazy? Tennessee?”

I kiss her again. “Tennessee’s a bit bigger than Whitewood Creek, but we can do it for as long as you want. Figure out what you like while we play cards and sip sweet tea with grandma when you're not out saving the world. And if someday you want to be closer to your sisters, we’ll move to Whitewood Creek.”

Her eyes fill with emotion. “You’d do that?”

“I’d go anywhere with you,” I say. “Do anything. I just want to be with you, Kitty.”

She pulls me back into her, our kiss heating again, urgency building until she stops us, her face more serious.

“Jensen. I love you.”

I smile. “I love you too, Pulse.”

She smiles at me. “Then make love to me, Jensen.”

I unzip my pants, stroke myself once, then drag my cock through her slick heat before sinking inside her. It feels like coming home. I take my time in that office, making love to her just like she asked, whispering everything I’ve been holding back on saying: plans, dreams, Tennessee and beyond.

She tells me she wants it all with me. A new city. A new job. A new us. She even says she wants a family someday. A little baby that looks like her and talks like me.

And when she comes apart beneath me, my name on her lips, I know—no eight-second thrill could ever compare to the eighty years that I plan on spending with her.

Chapter 35 - Epilogue- Catalina

Six years later…

***

“Look, it’s Mommy,” Jensen says softly, his voice pitched low as he holds our daughter out to me.

I scoop her from his arms without hesitation, kissing all over her chubby cheeks, her nose, her forehead, breathing her sweet baby smell like I’ve been gone for weeks instead of hours.

My hands slide through her dark brown curls, already thick just like mine, with a softer edge to them that only kids can have.I bury my face there and breathe before examining what he dressed her in. An adorable pair of burgundy-colored overalls and a matching red shirt with a bow.

He loves putting her in my favorite color. It's just one of the many ways that he tells me he's thinking about me without saying it.

“Hi, Pepper,” I murmur. “How are you?”

She babbles something completely incoherent, the kind of confident nonsense only a nine-month-old can deliver like they're telling you a compelling story. I laugh, kissing her again, just as Jensen pulls me into his side and kisses me.

His is a messy kiss in a different way, reminding me of what he did between my legs this morning before I left for the hospital.

“How was your surgery?” he asks.

“Good. Great,” I say honestly reflecting on what I just walked out of.

A simple heart defect, nothing like the one I performed on Olivia years ago, but no less important. The child had come down from Charlotte to Whitewood Creek to have the procedure performed by me.

He smiles. “Good.” He’s always had steady, unwavering confidence in me, and he’s never doubted me. He's the reason that I've been able to take on the world these past few years. To soar out of my comfort zone and find somewhere worth landing.

“I had interviews, too,” I add. “We’re looking to hire a couple new surgical techs since we're expanding the surgery center. Jordan was one of the candidates.”

His brow lifts. “Your old tech from San Jose?”

I nod. “She said she needs a change. She just turned thirty-eight and she’s lived her whole life working in California. I can’t think of anyone better to help run things here.”

He leans in and kisses me again. “The hospital would be lucky to have her,” he says quietly. “Just like they’re lucky to have you.”

They are. I know that now.