EPILOGUE
Colt
Two months later
“You sure are hungry today,” I say.
“Well, this barbecue is just so tasty,” Carol says.
“Nobody q’s better than Volt,” I say putting my hand on his shoulder.
It took some time, and we’re doing our best to keep the public displays of affection out of his face, but Volt had come around sooner or later. Once I proposed he realized this really was something real.
We had a good heart to heart about it a week after she accepted my marriage proposal. I apologized about not asking for his permission explaining how it all just happened so quickly.
He understood, but it took some time until he actually accepted it. It’s still an ongoing process although I think he’s ninety percent of the way there.
It doesn’t hurt that every time we go fishing I anchor the boat in a position where he can cast right into the best fishing holes. Or when I make sure to leave the best barbecue for him. Or bring him over some fresh cheeses and smoked salmon. Or just about anything these days. I save the best for my best friend, but he gave me more than I could ever give back. He gave the world the best woman ever to set foot on this earth, and I made her mine. He trusts me to treat his daughter like the princess she is…until she soon becomes my queen.
But that’s the great thing about Volt. You can’t buy his trust, you have to earn it. I spent years doing just that, only to temporarily throw it all away one day like a knucklehead. I guess that’s what happens when you fall in love. You lose your darn mind in the best way possible, except for that one tiny detail. If I had approached him from the outset maybe things would have been different. But that’s the thing…there was no outset. I went to Chicago to find out what was happening with my ranch only to find love.
“As long as y’all keep eatin’ ‘em, I’ll keep grillin’ ‘em,” he says.
“Well I hope you got a lot of meat because there’s no way I’m planning on stopping anytime soon, and it looks like Carol’s thinking the same.”
“That’s a lot for one young woman your size to eat,” Volt says.
Carol puts down her paper plate and reaches for a wet wipe. She wipes off her hands and looks at her dad and then at me. She’s up to something.
“You’re right dad. It is a lot for one young woman my size…but it’s not so much when you factor in it’s going to feed two mouths and not one.”
“Two?” Volt says.
“Wait a minute!” I say. “You mean to tell me?”
She nods. “Yes!” She holds out her arms and I set down my plate as quickly as I can, wrapping her up in a hug. Somehow I manage to keep my hands balled up in fists to not cover her shirt in barbecue sauce.
“Now I know why you cleaned off your hands,” I say.
“Yep,” she laughs, just before a tear starts streaming down her cheek.
“So this is really happening. It’s starting. We’re gonna populate this planet with a whole bunch of McCoys.”
“A whole, whole bunch,” she says.
“We just might have an excuse to play poker and smoke cigars soon,” Volt says. “Or at least the cigar smoking part. Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”
“I think we should wait,” Carol says.
“I agree. Everything has happened so fast, let’s let this enjoyment play itself out a little. Let’s savor this one.”
“Like a glass of whiskey,” Volt says.
He runs inside and comes out with four shots. He hands me two and keeps the other two for himself.
“Thank you,” Carol says. “Everything is for two now.”
“For two,” Volt says as he raises two glasses. I meet his glasses with mine and Carol brings in her two pinky fingers for our toast.
We clink glasses and she taps the back of each twice with her fingernail.
I down the shots and give my woman a big ol’ hug, but not too big…she’s got my first born in there.
She turned my ranch into our home and now she’s going to change us both into parents.
Whether a boy or a girl that child will mean everything to me because it’ll be one of my own, just like she is mine and I am hers.
And it will stay that way with each and every child we have from the first to the fifth and beyond.
You can see pretty far across some parts of this land where I live and the view has always taught me to prepare for the future.
But nothing can prepare me for the future joy she’s going to give me as we ride off into the sunset together.
“I’ll get the horses,” I say. “Time for these cowboys and this cowgirl to ride!”
“Cowgirl up!” she says. “Your cowgirl now and forever.”
I give her a big kiss. “And your cowboy now, forever, and always.”