Page 39 of Maverick (The Bull Riders #3)

Stella

Whoever wins this event is almost certain to qualify for the United States Olympic dressage team.

I was there with Maverick when he won the championship, the beginning of our lives together.

He’s not doing the rodeo anymore. He doesn’t need to, he says. Also, it frees him up to come to all of my events. Mine and Frank’s.

A tribute to my life with Maverick, and to Sadie, who I feel a deep well of love for now.

Because she was part of his journey. And every step on that journey was integral to making him the man he is now.

To bringing him to me. She started a healing in him that I don’t think I could’ve ever finished all on my own.

Life is just too complicated for that. And it remains complicated. My parents are mad at me. Mad because this year I outpaced Harmony in all of our shared events. Mad because I talked her into canceling her wedding – they claim. I feel like she didn’t love that guy, so who cares?

They were angrier still when she started dating a guy who has absolutely nothing to do with dressage. A former biker turned chef at an up-and-coming restaurant at the waterfront in Oakland. They are appalled.

And of course, Maverick and I still go to holiday meals. Harmony and I have never been closer.

And I personally love her boyfriend, who has taught me even more advanced cooking skills.

I don’t see Colt or Dallas as much as I would like. Though we have a group text that Maverick still isn’t in. Because they still have side eye for him. Which, at this point, I think is just a bit.

Dallas and Sarah are expecting their first baby, which I think is wild at our age. I asked him how he felt about being a twenty-seven-year-old teenage father. All he did was send me back a middle finger emoji.

It’s right for them. They waited for each other for a long time. Colt and Allison are getting married soon, and now they might have to plan it around the Olympics. Provided that I make it.

I really need to make it.

I’m hoping that Harmony does too. It’s possible she will. Really, we just both need to place.

I have Maverick to one side of me, waiting. And Harmony on my other.

Her boyfriend is on the other side of her. Our parents are somewhere in the stands. Angry, I think, that we simply don’t have the rivalry they wish we did.

When the final standings are put up, I’m first, Harmony is third. And that means we both have a shot at being considered for the team.

I scream and hug her, and she hugs me back.

And my heart is full, not just because I realized this dream, but because so many dreams have been realized here. I let go of Harmony and turn toward Maverick. I pull him in for a hug. “Congratulations,” I whisper. “Frank did it. Which means you did it. And Sadie.”

He nods, and I can see the emotion in his eyes. “I’ll always be grateful to that horse. Because he was part of bringing us together.”

“Yes, he was.”

“Do you have plans after this?” he asks me, his expression suddenly serious.

“No. Why?”

“Because I have a question to ask you, but I figured I might take you out first.”

My heart feels full to bursting. That’s the real prize. We talked about it. About our future. About rings. I already know that I’m going to say yes.

It’s so funny. I used to not have any faith that if I started something, I would be able to finish it. But now I know what it feels like to actually find yourself. Find your place.

Define your forever.

Maverick is mine. We might change a hundred different things about ourselves along the way. I might learn a hundred new hobbies.

But we’ll always have each other.

Who could have ever imagined that in order to find myself, I had to lose myself in a poker game first?

Not me. But it was the best impetuous, hot-headed mistake I’ve ever made.

And I’d make it all over again.