The Wrangler Takes a Wife (Silver Creek Ranch #7)

Epilogue

Toddlers will hurt your feelings.

Amara learned this lesson from her three-year-old Ashleigh. She and her daughter were thick as thieves, as long as her daddy wasn’t around. When he was around, her mother was second fiddle.

Amara and Ashleigh were decorating cookies for the little one’s best friend's birthday. Her daughter was serious about her father. She took a cookie and earmarked it for her dad.

“I make this one for Daddy.” Her little tongue peeked out of her mouth as she concentrated on writing ‘Daddy’ with the icing pen. The very expensive pen her beloved daddy had bought for her. The piping bag was difficult for Ashleigh to use, so Chase found a solution.

“Are you making one for Mommy when you’re finished?” Amara asked.

“No.” She shook her head. “You can make you cookie.”

Damn.

The front door opened, and Ashleigh placed the pen down.

“Down, please Mommy.”

“Don’t you want to wait until?—”

“No please, I want to see Daddy.” You would think she hadn’t seen her father for days, but they just had breakfast this morning.

Amara lifted her daughter out of the tall chair. At least she was given a quick peck for her trouble. The moment her little feet hit the ground, she took off running to the door.

“Hey, Princess Ashleigh,” Chase greeted her. He scooped their daughter up in his arms. She tipped his hat off and smothered his face with smooches. Her chubby little hands rubbed his beard. “Hi Daddy. I miss you all day.”

“I missed you too. How was your day?”

Amara looked at the two of the most important people in her life and smiled. Ashleigh was a blend of the two of them. She had a head full of thick tight curls, the same ash brown colour as her father’s hair, and the biggest doe hazel-coloured eyes. They turned the same green as her dad's when her little temper was set off. Amara’s contributions were there as well. As her mother would say, “that child stole your whole face.” Ashleigh was only a couple of shades lighter than her mom.

“Good. Mommy made cookies and I helping painting dem.”

“Let’s go see Momma.” Chase walked to the kitchen with Ashleigh holding tight onto him.

“Hey, Sweet Darling,” he greeted her, then leaned over and gave her a kiss. Ashleigh giggled as her father put her back in her chair.

“I’ll go wash up,” Chase announced. He took two steps, then pivoted and came back to give Amara a proper kiss.

By the time he returned, the cookies were all done. Ashleigh was colouring at the table while Amara finished putting the kitchen back to rights. Dinner was already prepared. She got it out of the way earlier. It had taken them a while to perfect a schedule that worked for their family, but both Amara and Chase were happy with what they settled on.

Amara only spent three days at the diner, working from eight to four, and then she was out of there. Rolynda was happy to be promoted to manager. On the three days Amara was at the diner, Chase looked after Ashleigh. Neither of them liked the idea of someone else looking after their little girl. She was their one and only.

Ashleigh was it for them. They made that decision shortly after she was born. Chase had gotten snipped.

The decision was made easier because there were other children around her age. Rodney and Louisa’s twins were a few months older. Roddick and his partner had a baby a year after Ashleigh was born. Oh, and there was RJ, Ashleigh’s bestie. They were a few months apart. Not to mention the other children in town.

“I’m going to go pick up RJ,” Chase announced after his shower. “Who wants to come with me?”

“Me!! I do.” Ashleigh was already running towards the front door.

“I thought Ryan was going to drop RJ off.”

“He was, but they had a change of plans. RJ spent the night with Jo.”

“Why can’t he pick up his child himself?” Amara felt some kinda way about the entire Jo and Ryan situation. Mostly Amara liked Ryan, but Jo was her cousin.

“I don’t know Amara, but what I do know is we promised not to let their issues become ours.” Chase gave her a stern look.

He was right. She and Chase put in the work to have the relationship they wanted. Jo and Ryan had to decide if they wanted to do the same.

“Daddy! Ready!”

Chase walked over to their daughter. “Are you sure?” He said, looking down at her lime green cowboy boots. It was her favourite colour. The boots weren’t Chase’s doing. That was Amara’s father. Her little girl had all the men in the family wrapped around her little finger.

Ashleigh plopped onto the floor, tugged each boot off with a huff, and carefully switched her boots around, her little fingers fumbling, but her face lit with pride once she finally got the boots on the correct foot. While their daughter was hard at work, Chase pulled Amara into his arms. “Tomorrow night Ashleigh is having a sleepover at Rodney and Louisa’s.”

“I know. And?” she smirked.

“It’s been a while since we explored the pages of your books.”

“Oh, I think I can find something interesting for us to try.”

“That’s my Sweet Darling.” He gave her a kiss which made her toes curl. She had some research to do while her husband and daughter were out.

The end