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“Oh, Graham. Yes!”

He tugged out the princess-cut diamond with its platinum band. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Smaller than Paul’s ring she’d worn for over a year, but ever so much more exquisite. “It’s beautiful.”

“You’re far more beautiful.” His trembling fingers managed to transfer the ring from the box to her finger. Then he kissed her knuckles before looking back at her. “I love you so much, Cadence. I can’t begin to tell you. But I’ve got the rest of our lives to show you, every single day, exactly what you mean to me.”

Then he gathered her into his arms and kissed her.

“I love you, Graham. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

A whisper of sound caught her attention, and she glanced up to see her parents tiptoeing out of the room, arm in arm.

Epilogue

If Weston hadn’t been dying of curiosity — and if his mother hadn’t made him — he’d have skipped the party at Tate and Stephanie’s new house. They’d moved in mere days before their baby boy, Simon Peter Sullivan, had made his entrance.

Weston wasn’t into babies, though Jamie was cute enough, he supposed. But everyone else was gaga over the whimpering infant. Especially Mom.

She turned to him with the baby cradled in her arms. “Want to hold him?”

He backed up. “No, thanks. That’s okay. Let someone else.” Someone who wants to. But he didn’t dare tell her that.

“He’s so precious.” Mom smooched Simon’s face about a dozen times. Poor kid yawned and squirmed as though bored of the whole thing.

Had Mom kissed him or Jude like that when they were newborns? Jude, maybe. Weston’s little brother had always been the more adorable of the two.

“Is it my turn yet?” Cadence sidled up beside Mom, who turned and placed Simon in her arms. “Oh, look, Graham. Can you imagine anything so tiny, so perfect?”

Seriously? Weston managed not to roll his eyes… outwardly, at least. Why did people talk like that? She was holding the baby. He was tiny. No imagination needed.

She and Graham were planning a September wedding here at the ranch. Was there any way Weston could be somewhere else right then? Because weddings were as bad as babies. Possibly worse. Neither was something that would ever happen to him.

Jude came up beside him and poked him with an elbow. “Hey.”

His brother spoke his language. “Hey to you, too.”

“Nice house, huh?” Jude looked appreciatively around the great room with its tall ceiling and stone fireplace.

“Sure.” Twice as nice as the ranch house where they’d grown up. Five times as nice as anything he’d lived in since. But according to the Sullivans, it was quite a comedown from what they were used to. Tate’s father — Weston couldn’t think of the man as his own uncle — kept saying things like, “are you sure it’s big enough?” and, “it’s not bad for a cottage.”

It might be a full year now since Weston had met his maternal grandfather and agreed to work for him and see how the other half lived. The rich half.

Whoever would have guessed that the family Weston had never known was practically made of gold coins? It was intriguing. Attractive. And also, off-putting.

Because he knew he’d never truly fit in. He didn’t have the education, the social skills, the… everything the Sullivan cousins had been raised with.

“Soon the ranch will be buzzing again.” Jude rocked back on his heels and grinned.

Paisley Teele would be back in mere weeks. Hers was the only name Weston had been watching for in recent staff meetings.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about her return. She had been so determined to get through his shell that he’d had to constantly rebuild the barricade to keep her out. What had made her decide to take him on as a project?

He resented it.

But she intrigued him, too. What if he let himself actually feel?

Nope. Far too risky. What if she found out the things he’d kept hidden from everyone, including Mom and Jude? She’d run, for sure.

Might be worth telling her, in that case.

Because Weston Kline might not be better off without her, but Paisley Teele was definitely better off without him.

She just didn’t know it yet.

* * *