“I tried to talk myself out of this for a solid week and I couldn’t,” Aaron admitted as he drove them across the ranch a week later.

“I have no idea what is in that huge box but I’m so freaking excited.” Natalie laughed as the truck bounced over the cattle guards. “Why are you so nervous?”

“It’s your birthday. What if you hate this gift?”

“I won’t. It’s from you.”

“Yeah, but my girl’s kinda picky.” He winked at her.

“Well, I picked you so I think I have good taste. Are we going to my field?” Bliss, once again, danced in her belly. This was exactly how life was supposed to be.

“Yep, we are. You know, I considered taking you skydiving for your birthday.”

“Oh, my gosh, please tell me there is not a parachute in that box.”

“I was a little worried all of my memories of the last jump I made might make me have another flashback. That would not bode well for our safety, so I went a different way. This was actually what I wanted to do. The sky diving was me trying to talk myself out of this, like I said.”

“You definitely made the right choice. I like my boots being on the ground more and more lately.”

“Oh yeah? I thought you loved to fly.”

“I prefer the kind of flying you make me do in bed with you.”

“Mmm, baby, we’ll get to all of that after our picnic redo.”

“It’s sweet you wanted us to do this tonight.”

“I want you to have better birthday memories. I’m going to do my damnedest to give you those.”

“Is it that you’re finally going to agree to move in with me since the city is seizing Rasmussen’s house and property because he’s going to rot in jail?”

“We’ve only been dating a few weeks, babe.”

“I don’t care. We Camdens know who we’re gonna spend the rest of our life with, right off.”

“That so?”

“Yes, it is. Ask Daddy to tell you about it sometime. He loves to tell that story.”

“I’ll have to do that.”

“So, you’ll move in with me then?”

“How about this? I will only move in with you if you end up liking this birthday present. And remember our deal, no lying even if you hate it.”

Natalie’s brow furrowed. What on earth was in that box?

Aaron slowed the truck as the terrain got rougher. A few minutes later, they’d bounced their way into her field.

Natalie bailed out of the truck before he had it in park. “Anxious, sweetheart?” He asked as he pulled a blanket and picnic basket from the back.

“Yes. I love presents.”

He took his time perfectly arranging the blanket and basket. Pouring them glasses of wine and opening the containers of Spaghetti O’s she’d prepared for them.

“We should eat first don’t you think?”

“I think you just like making me wait for the things I want the most.”

“You comparing your birthday present to all of the orgasms I give you?” He waggled his eyebrows.

“Yes. I should get to open my presents first.”

“But Katy baked us a cake.”

“And we’ll eat that after.”

“All right, I guess I’ll let you but only because you’re adorable bouncing up and down like that.”

“Yay!”

“You’re going to need to sit down for this.”

“Okay.” She sank to the ground and he placed the box in her lap.

“Go for it, sweetheart.”

Ripping open the paper, she paused to wad it into a ball so it wouldn’t fly away in the wind. Getting up on her knees, she pulled open the flaps on the plain brown shipping box. Reaching inside, she removed a bottle of beer.

“Uh, thanks…”

“There’s more in there, Nat. That’s just my way of telling you I turned in my notice at Saddleback’s.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you.” She threw her arms around him. “That is a fantastic birthday present and I love it so you can move in with me.”

“No, that’s not how it works. You have to love everything in the box that much.”

“That’s really all you had to get me.”

“I like spoiling you. Keep going.”

She pulled out a plastic grocery sack next. Untying the handles, she discovered Red Vines, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Airheads, Nerds, jelly beans, and a six pack of Dr. Pepper. Laughing, she kissed his cheek. “You got me all my favorite junk food. I love it.”

“But you have to wait to eat it.”

“Okay, wait until when?”

“Get the next thing out of the box.”

“It’s a map.” She unfolded it and grinned. “It’s of Gentry. Show me where the farm is.”

She spread it out on the blanket beside her.

“I’d like to show you the real thing. I called my foster parents a few nights ago and apologized for not coming to see them. I needed to ask if it would be okay if I didn’t send them my whole paycheck this month. They insisted that I not send any more money and told me all the wanted was to see me and to meet you. I was hoping you’d go on a road trip with me next weekend. Ed’s making me work every shift for the next two weeks but I talked him into giving me next weekend off. We can leave Friday.”

“I would love to go with you. I’m so happy you called them. Seriously, best birthday gift ever.”

“There are a bunch of one more thing in there. Keep going.”

“I cannot believe you did all of this.” She reached inside one more time to pull out another box. Opening it she revealed dozens upon dozens of lottery scratch-offs. “Aaron, this is amazing,” she gasped.

“There’s always a chance, right?” His voice quivered.

When she lifted her head from the tickets, he was down on one knee holding an open ring box. The lottery tickets spilled all over the blanket when the box slipped out of her hand. “Oh, my gosh.”

“I know it’s fast and that we still have a lot of stuff to work on, but I just wanted you to know that I’m in this, Nat. I’m in this forever. And for the forever after that and for as many forevers as God will give us. I don’t want one second of one forever that doesn’t have you in it. I spent most of my life pretending to be people I was never meant to be. Until the first time I took you to bed, I wouldn’t have even recognized myself. And you… you loved me enough to show me exactly who I was meant to be, the man who loves you and adores you and protects you forever. I love you so much and you may have to keep teaching me exactly how to love you the right ways, but I’ll learn. I want to be there for every single thing you do. So, will you marry me?”

“Yes. Yes. Yes. A thousand, million, quadrillion times, yes!”

Every time she looked at the rather large diamond he’d procured with an entire month’s paycheck on her left land, he grinned.

After they’d practiced feeding each other cake, they’d lain out on the blanket to watch the sunset.

“You know, for the longest time I didn’t think I would ever get a happy ending,” she admitted.

“Baby.” He was at a loss for any other words beyond that.

“I didn’t. Then I saw you shaking Ed Olsen’s hand in Saddleback’s that day you accepted the job and something deep inside of me thought if I was ever going to have a happy ending I wanted it to be with you. It just took me a little while to work up the courage to ask you for it.”

“You deserve every happy ending in the world, Nat.”

“So do you.” Her vow was fervent. She turned to stare him in the eye.

“You said yes so whether or not I deserved it I got it.”

“I want you to believe you deserved it.”

“I’m working on that. Need a little more time. Kind of hoping seeing the Campbells next weekend will help me get there.”

“I’ll take that for now. I can’t wait to meet them.”

“I can’t wait for them to meet you.”

An ocean full of memories threatened to pull him under as Aaron drove them down the tiny two-lane road that made up most of Gentry, Missouri.

“I’m nervous,” Natalie admitted. She threw another Cheeto in her mouth.

“They’ll love you.”

“I hope so.”

“Is it awful that I hope they’ve changed Josh’s room?” He’d been wanting to ask for the last two hours.

“No. That isn’t awful at all. It’s a real thing, just like you tell me when I feel guilty.”

“Okay, then I hope they have.”

“I’ve never been to a town smaller than Pleasant Glen.”

“It’s barely even a town. It’s more like a few streets off of this street. And…” he turned down his foster parents’ long gravel driveway, “…this farm.”

“You okay?” She squeezed his hand.

“Not sure.”

“Deep breaths.”

“Yeah. Doing that.”

His foster mother opened the driver’s side door before he’d even shut down this truck. “Aaron,” she hugged and laughed and cried all at the same time. He didn’t know which thing to respond to so he hugged her back as best as he was able. “I’m so glad you’re finally back.”

After he’d extracted himself from the truck, he opened Natalie’s door. She received an equally voracious hug. “You must be Natalie.”

“Yes, ma’am. It’s so nice to meet you. Uh, my mama sent you jam and my sister-in-law sent pies.” She held up the basket she’d barely managed to save from the onslaught of the hug.

“Well, come on in. Gary can’t wait to see you.”

Measuring his breaths and timing his own heartbeats, Aaron wondered if this had been a terrible idea. The first breath of the kitchen that had at one time been the only home he’d ever thought of as his, brought back every memory he’d tried to forget.

There were pictures of him and Josh all over the farm from their youth. “Aaron, I can’t get out of this chair to hug you the way I want to but come here, son.” Mr. Campbell held up his hands.

The hug cemented him in the world once again. They didn’t hate him. They didn’t blame him for Josh’s death. They still loved him.

“I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to get to see you again. The day before you called us I’d decided we were going to drive to that town in Nebraska and find you. Don’t you ever stay away this long again.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I promise. I’ll bring him back.” Natalie’s grin expanded the width of her face.

“Uh, Mr. Campbell, sir, this is my fiancée, Natalie Camden.”

“It’s so lovely to meet you, sweetheart. You let me know if he ever gives you any trouble.”

She giggled. “He won’t, but I will.”

“Sit down, sit down,” Mrs. Campbell directed. “Natalie brought pie and I want to hear how you two met.”

Aaron sincerely doubted his foster mother wanted to hear about Natalie asking him to sleep with her so he decided to tell their original truth. “Honest to God, it was love at first sight, just took me a little while to convince myself I was good enough of a guy for her to date.”

“Then it took me a little while after that to work up the courage to ask him to go out with me again,” she concluded.

“Well, sometimes the best things in life take time and the time you spend building the life you want is always worth it.” Mrs. Campbell squeezed Aaron’s hand. “I’m just so glad you have you here. I swore I wouldn’t cry, but I am.”

“I’m sorry I stayed away so long. I never meant to hurt you.”

“Honey, I knew you blamed yourself for Josh. We all needed time to work through that. But now I want to celebrate life with my living children. I’ll see him again someday and then I’ll spend every moment I can with him.”

“Mrs. Campbell we’d really love for you to come out to the Glen and come to the wedding. I’d like to do it before the first snowfall. We’ve put off happiness for so long I don’t want to wait anymore.” Natalie seemed to know the perfect things to say. Aaron wasn’t even surprised. She was perfection.

“We’d love to come. Were you thinking of having a big service, Natalie? Aaron says your family has quite the ranch.”

“We do have a big ranch but I don’t want a big wedding. Just family and of course the Sevens.”

“Of course,” Mrs. Campbell chuckled. “I know it’s silly but I used to imagine that Josh and Aaron would both have their weddings here. Your parents are probably beside themselves with excitement.”

“Actually, all but one of my brothers and my sister got married in the Glen. Mama and Daddy are probably sick of having them by now. Why don’t we do it here?”

“Are you serious?” Aaron loved the idea but wanted their wedding to be whatever she wanted.

“I’m completely serious.”

Tears sprang back to his foster mother’s eyes. “Oh, honey, I never meant to make you think you should do that for me. I was just dreaming out loud.”

“Mrs. Campbell, ma’am, you loved Aaron and took care of him when no one else had ever done that for him before. I want him to get married here. It’s the way it should be. It’s perfect actually.”

“When would you like to have the ceremony? I can take care of anything you want.” The ladies sprang into action. Mr. Campbell and Aaron just smiled.

“What if we did it Sunday?”

“Like in the day after tomorrow, Sunday?” Aaron wondered if all of the sugar she had in the car was making her a little nuts.

“Why not? You both just said you’d put off happiness for too long. You think you can get your family out here tomorrow?” Mrs. Campbell asked.

“Of course, and I’ll get my sister to bring her gown.”

“Nat, we’ve only been engaged one week. I don’t have you a ring yet.” The thought of being married to her in two days’ time was just too good. He couldn’t possibly have it. “I haven’t even had time to save up for our rings yet.”

“I have plenty of money for rings, Aaron. Surely there’s some kind of jewelry store we can get to from here.”

“Kansas City is only an hour and a half away.”

“There you go. Please.” She turned the full power of those gorgeous hazel eyes on him.

“Like I would say no. I just want you to be sure.”

“Just like every other time you’ve asked me if I was sure of something, I am very sure.”

“Speaking of you needing to save up for things, Judy, hand me that paperwork.” Mr. Campbell pointed to a stack of papers on the kitchen counter. “Even though I told you not to, you kept sending us all of that money. I got tired of trying to get you to stop so I had my financial advisor invest it for you. Should be a nice little nest egg for you and your lovely Natalie. We don’t need your money, son. We just need to see the two of you a little more often.”

“You saved all of this.” Aaron stared down at the rather large amount of money in the balance column of a high interest savings account.

Ms. Campbell nodded. “Every penny. It was never your job to take care of us, Aaron. It was our job to take care of you. I worry we didn’t do all we should’ve. We should’ve figured out how to come see you when you got back to the States. I just didn’t know if I could handle seeing you wounded after everything with Josh. Then Gary had his fall and that took some adjustment, but never, not for one moment, were we not thinking of you and wishing we were with you. I kept telling myself you’d come see us and we could give you the money. I hope you’ve had enough to live on. I worried myself sick over that.”

“I was fine, Mrs. Campbell. Thank you for this. I just wanted to do something for you. You did so much for me.”

“That’s the thing about family, son, you don’t have to repay people for loving you. You are a fine man who has done things far and above the call of duty. We could never be more proud of you and for you,” Mr. Campbell vowed.

“Thank you, sir.”

“See, I told you we both deserve a happy ending,” Natalie reminded him.

“You were right. We do.”