Single Dads Collection. Lynne Marshall
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time together. They’d done picnics, horseback riding, dinners, movie nights, days at the park. There had been so many memories made already, Noah was ready to move their relationship to the next level and he’d already set the ball in motion.
As he stepped into the barn, he spotted Lucy at the other end guiding Hawkeye in. Emma ran up to her and gave her legs a hug.
“You guys are just in time,” Lucy said, patting Emma’s back. “I need you two to get Gunner out.”
“Are we riding today?” Emma asked.
Lucy’s wide smile seemed to light up her whole face. Noah figured he’d never get used to that anxious, giddy feeling each time he was with her. He hoped he didn’t. Lucy was refreshing, she was loving, caring, she was the breath of air he needed in his life at just the right time.
“We may ride in a bit,” Lucy said. “Why don’t you go ahead and get him out and we’ll take him out back. You can braid his mane.”
Noah slid the stall door open and gripped Gunner’s reins. As he pulled him out, he realized something was on the side of the horse. He looked closer, then gasped, his eyes darting back to Lucy.
“What does it say?” Emma asked.
Lucy stepped closer, pulling Hawkeye behind her.
Noah looked back to the horse, who had been painted in bright yellow letters: Will You Marry Me?
Swallowing the lump of emotions, Noah laughed as he turned to look at Lucy. “You’re asking me?”
She shrugged. “I’m asking both of you.”
“What does it say?” Emma cried, jumping up and down.
Noah focused on Emma. “Lucy wants to know if we’ll marry her and be one family.”
Emma’s bright blue eyes widened. “Really?”
Lucy held out paint markers to Noah. “You can write your reply on Hawkeye.”
Noah eyed the markers in her hand. The fact that Lucy bit down on her lip as if she were nervous was the most adorable thing he’d ever seen. Well, aside from this proposal.
He took the yellow marker and handed the pink one to Emma. They stepped to the other side of Hawkeye. Noah pulled the lid off and started writing. Emma was doing the same just below him.
Once they were done, Noah stepped back as hope flooded him.
Lucy moved around to the other side of Gunner and glanced down at his side. Noah had written a huge YES and Emma had made a large smiley face.
“This is the best day ever,” Emma said as she looked up to Lucy.
Noah wasn’t sure who was going to cry first, him or Lucy.
“You know, I was going to ask you this weekend,” he told her as he reached out to take her hand. “I had Gray in on it and we had a whole romantic evening set up for us.”
“With Gray?”
Noah shook his head. “Well, he was helping, but he wouldn’t have been there for the main event.”
Lucy’s smile widened as her eyes sparkled with unshed tears. “You can still plan a surprise romantic evening.”
“I plan on surprising you for the rest of my life,” he told her. “Emma and I are the luckiest people right now.”
Lucy bent down and picked up Emma, who still held on to her marker. “I’d say I’m the lucky one,” Lucy stated as she kissed Emma’s cheek.
“Does this mean I can get a new horse?” she asked her dad. “Daisy number two can have the stall on the end.”
Noah laughed. “We can definitely look into getting you another Daisy.”
“And we can save that stall just for her,” Lucy added, giving the girl a smile.
“I love you, Lucy,” Emma said as she threw her arms around Lucy’s neck.
Lucy met Noah’s eyes over his daughter’s head. Nothing in the world was worth more than this moment. And no amount of fear or worry over the unknown would steal their happiness again. He’d make sure their lives were full of happily-ever-after.
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For Maggie, who is everything a sister should be.
Thank you!
NICOLA craned to take in as much of the view as she could from the Cessna’s window as they landed on an airstrip that was nothing more than red dirt, bordered here and there with spiky grass and mulga scrub. When the pilot cut the engine the sudden silence engulfed her.
He turned to her. ‘Here we are then.’
‘Right.’ She swallowed and gave a curt nod. Here was the Waminda Downs cattle station in the far west of Queensland—the Outback, the Never-Never, beyond the Black Stump—and about as far from civilisation as a body could get. She glanced out of the window again and something in her chest started to lift. This place was the polar opposite to her native Melbourne. The total polar opposite.
‘May I get out now?’
‘Well, as this is your destination, love, I believe that’s the plan.’
He let the steps down, she stuck her head outside and the first thing to hit her was the heat—hard, enveloping and intense. The second, when her feet found firm ground again, was the scent—hot, dry earth and sun-baked grasses. The lonely desolation thrust itself upon her consciousness with an insistence that refused to be ignored, greater than the heat that beat down on her uncovered head and greater than the alien sights and scents. A person could get lost out here and never be found.
She surveyed the endless expanse of pale brown grass, interspersed here and there with mulga scrub and saltbush, and at all the red dirt beneath it, and for the first time in three months she felt like her heart started to beat at the right pace again. Out here she wouldn’t encounter acquaintances who would glance at her and then just as quickly glance away again to whisper behind their hands. Or friends who would rush up to grip her hands and ask her how she was doing. Or those people who just plain enjoyed others’ misfortunes and would smirk at her.
She closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sky. ‘This is perfect.’
‘Perfect for what?’
That voice didn’t belong to Jerry the pilot.
Her