Page 123 of Cowboy SEAL Homecoming

Epilogue

Summer stretched out, a mountain of work and sun. While Becca and Monica worked on Becca’s therapeutic horsemanship hours and the foundation programs, Alex and Gabe focused on the bunkhouse, Jack on the cattle with Hick.

Things weren’t perfect, but they were clicking. Alex wouldn’t say any of the guys were quite comfortable around Monica yet, but it had only been a few weeks. Her kid, Colin, was a riot, and all three of the guys got a kick out of teaching him about things around the ranch.

They’d all decided by way of unanimous vote to put off bringing men in. They still had a lot of work to do, not just with the ranch, but with themselves. They had decided to give themselves time, and with time, all of the foundation’s goals seemed infinitely possible.

“Are you going to get out of bed anytime soon?” Becca demanded, finishing braiding her hair by fastening a bright-yellow band around the end.

He had no idea why, but it never failed to arouse him, the deft way she spiraled her hair together. Not that much about her failed to arouse him.

“I like watching you get ready in the morning,” he replied from where he was still sprawled out on her bed. “Now come here.”

She rolled her eyes. “I am not falling for that. I have work to do, and you have your appointment to get to.”

He grimaced, because though the therapy sessions with Monica were…well, helpful, he didn’t particularly enjoy them.

“You’ve been doing better,” Becca said gently, smoothing over that annoying observation by scooting onto the edge of the bed next to him.

Which was true. He still had nightmares far more than he was comfortable with, but he felt himself regaining his footing. It was hard, like learning a new skill, to try to not control everything, but he could actually feel the progress he’d made, in his bones.

That progress had some to do with therapy, but it also had some to do with the beautiful woman sitting next to him. “Maybe it’s just all the sex,” he replied, tugging the band out of her hair to her shriek of outrage.

“Damn it, Maguire.”

But her mouth was curved, and when he rolled her under him, she did nothing but ineffectively give him a little push…that quickly turned into her arms around his neck.

“You know the bunkhouse is mostly done. The guys can move out whenever we want to kick them out.”

She cocked her head at that, studying him in that way he was learning to appreciate rather than fear.

“The guys as in…you won’t be going with them?”

“I’ve been thinking.”

She smiled, ruffling his hair with her hands, toying with that lock that never would stay all the way down. “You’ve been thinking, huh?”

“I don’t know what point there is to me moving out there when I’m planning to spend every night in your bed.”

Her smile softened, and she brushed a kiss against his jaw. “I like that line of thinking.”

“Good.”

“That’s probably something I’m going to have to break to my mother at dinner tonight.”

“You sure you want me there for that?”

“Oh, you’ll be there,” she returned, trying to squirm free of him. “Now let me get to work.”

“Hold on a sec.”

“We do not have time for sex!”

“I bet I could change your mind,” he returned with a grin, nuzzling into her neck in a way that made her go boneless. “But that’s not why I was asking you to hold on.”

“Then why?” she asked on a sigh, melting into him.

He considered it, the timing, the way it would ruin the whole plan he’d been making, but then he figured that was kind of symbolic. Tossing out a plan in lieu of a better opportunity, one that would make her happy.