Page 113 of Falling for Her

“Yeah,” he replies, “not sure what salary you are looking for.”

“I would pay you,” I tell him, and it makes him laugh. “I’m not kidding.” I turn back to look at the beautiful horses and hold out my hand toward them. “I have everything anyone could possibly wish for.” One of the bays saunters my way. “I mean, I have everything material that can be bought, but I used to be just empty, you know? But this.” The horse is close enough for me to stroke his velvet nose. He nudges me. “You can’t buy this kind of happiness. You think you can, but then you try, and it’s just . . . something else.” I shrug. “I had it all and didn’t know all I wanted was something I couldn’t buy. And now I have it. Sorry, I don’t know if any of that made sense. I’m just . . . happy.”

“I hear you. So does that mean you’ll do it?”

I smile big. “It means I’ll do it,” I confirm. “Oh, but I have Asa every other week, and I want to be there when he gets home.”

“We can work out something,” he assures and holds out his hand for me to shake. “Welcome to the team, Finley.”

I shake his hand. “It’s good to be part of the team,” I tell him honestly. My phone rings, and I pull it out. “Shit, I forgot to call him.” It’s Lincoln, of course.

“I would get that then,” Charlie advises, walking away from me.

“Hey,” I answer, putting the phone to my ear, “I’m here.”

“No shit. Got a notification on my phone that you got there about ten minutes ago.”

“So then why do I have to call you?”

“Finley . . .” His voice is tight.

“Ugh.” I roll my eyes. “Fine, I’m here, I’m safe, and guess what?” I feel like I want to jump up and down like Asa does when he gets excited. “I got a job. Never thought I would say those words out loud. And yet this is the second time this year I’ve said them. And this job I can actually do, unlike the last job I was hired for.”

“What is it?” he asks me, and I fill him in. “So you’re going to take it?”

“I get to ride horses and be paid?” I scoff at him. “You bet your ass I’m taking it.”

“Good, we’ll celebrate tonight.”

“That we will,” I tell him, looking at the horses. “I love you, Lincoln,” I say softly. “More than you will ever know.”

EPILOGUE ONE

LINCOLN

THREE MONTHS LATER

“Explain to me why we need a real Christmas tree?” I look over at Finley, who is in the passenger seat wearing a red knit sweater with snowflakes on it and a black puffy vest.

“It’s the right thing to do. It’s like a sin if we get a fake one.”

“But you already bought seven little fake trees for the house.”

“Those are decorative trees, Lincoln.” She folds her arms over her chest. “Asa said he never had his own tree in his room.” Her eyes go big. “So I bought him a little one, and then a small one for the bathroom downstairs and upstairs. Don’t tell me you don’t like the tree I bought for our room because after you saw it, you attacked me and fucked me under that tree.”

“Baby”—I reach over to grab her hand—“I will use any excuse to fuck you.” I kiss her fingers, my heart speeding up with nerves. “We don’t need a tree.”

She rolls her eyes at me. “I bent over today to tie my boots, and you reached between my legs to touch me.”

“You bent over and put your ass in my face. What did you think was going to happen?” I ask as we pull into the parking lot. “Then you wiggled it side to side.”

“I moved from one foot to the other.”

I put the truck in park and turn to her, grabbing her face in my hands. “Love you, Finley.” She just smiles at me. It is worth all the money in the world to see her smiling at me.

“Love you more,” she replies before giggling and squealing as she claps her hands together. “It’s tree day!”

“It’s tree day,” I mumble, watching her grab the door handle and open her door.