Not Our First Rodeo: A Marriage in Trouble, Accidental Pregnancy Cowboy Romance (Lucky Stars Ranch is Calling Book 1)

by Madison Wright

“I’ll give you all the space you want, Elsie, but if anyone is taking you home tonight, or any night, it’s me.”

“Elsie, I know you need time, and I’m fighting myself every day to give it to you, but I want you to know that no matter how long you take, I’ll be waiting for you at the end of it. I know what I want, and no amount of time is going to change that.”

I don’t know how to love someone who won’t let me love them back, and I hate that most of all.

Her shoulders slump, and a tired sigh escapes her. But her eyes still hold mine, a fire behind them that I haven’t seen in so long. One that was doused months ago. “I’m pregnant.”

“But just so you know, I don’t think you failed at any of those things. The dance floor, the canvas, and especially our baby, were lucky just to be touched by you, for however long you had them. Not all endings are failings. Some are just chances for us to start over.”

“I’m going to thank her,” he says earnestly. “Because she changed my life that day. She made one small decision that turned my entire world upside down, and I’ll get on my knees to thank her for it every day for the rest of my life if I need to. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Elsie Jennings,” he says, voice dripping with a sincerity I can feel. His eyes bore into mine, like he needs me to understand this one truth. “You have to know that.”

I tell him the only thing I can right now, the only piece of truth I have time for. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me too.”

This isn’t our first rodeo, and one way or another, we’re going to find our way back to each other.

Today is the last day I hurt others because I’m hurting. I’m done breaking the people I love because I’m broken.

“But then I realized I don’t want to be them again. I love who we are now, who we’ve become through all of this. It hurt, but we’re better for it, Els. You have to see that. We may have broken, but when we put ourselves back together, we made something more beautiful than what we were before.”

She nods, that determined look I’ve seen on her face a thousand times filling her expression. She’s done so many hard things. She’s danced on blistered feet and sprained ankles. She’s woken up at the crack of dawn and stayed at a studio until well after dark, her muscles quivering and lungs burning. She’s watched all her hard work come crumbling down after a devastating injury and picked herself back up again. She’s lost a baby and held herself together through the fear of losing another. She’s found her way back to herself and to me. She’s done so many hard things, and I know she can do this. I tell her that too.

My eyes lift to Beau, still rocking our daughter, humming a tune I would recognize anywhere. It’s the song we danced to at our wedding. There’s something poetic about him humming it now. A new beginning for us. “Beau?” I ask. He looks up at me, still swaying. His eyes are tired but bright, so full of love I think my chest might crack open. He looks like every dream I’ve ever had come true. “What about Nova? It means new.”