“Tessa…” Wow, he was tongue tied. For a man who wrote love songs, he found it difficult to come up with the words to express to this woman exactly how he felt about her. Then he thought about the first time he laid eyes on her and the words began tumbling out of his mouth.

“Since the very moment I saw you, when your eyes met mine from across the room, I felt something. A connection that I had never felt before. At that moment in time, I never would’ve imagined that I had just looked into the eyes of the woman I would soon fall in love with.

“And from the first time you fell right into my arms,” Cooper smiled, the memory so vivid, he could practically smell the scent of beer and sawdust, “I knew you’d be the biggest challenge I’ve ever come up against.”

The group behind them chuckled, but Cooper continued. “I knew that walking away from Nashville was going to change my life, but had I known just how much… I would’ve come to Texas a lot faster than I did.”

“Nobody’s perfect,” Jack muttered, and everyone laughed.

“Hey, he got here didn’t he?” Izzy retorted. “Not everyone can be lucky enough to be born here, you know.”

Cooper’s gaze never strayed from Tessa’s face. He could see a shimmer of tears in her eyes, and he forged ahead. “I admit when I came here, I was chasing a dream, but little did I know that what I had set out for wasn’t what I thought it was. Building this,” he glanced around and then back to her face, “it’s what got me here, but you, Tessa, are the one that kept me here. It all comes down to you. You’re my dream, Tessa. You’re everything I’ve wanted, everything I’ve prayed for.”

A tear leaked down Tessa’s cheek, and he paused.

“Get on with it, cowboy,” Tessa whispered, making him laugh.

“We’re two souls after the same thing. We’re dream chasers, and I think it’s high time we stop chasing those dreams and realize we’ve found what we’re looking for,” he said, his throat tightening. Taking one step back, Cooper lowered himself to one knee.

Releasing Tessa’s hands, he retrieved the ring that had been burning a hole in his front pocket. “I love you, Tessa Donovan. More than I ever thought I could love anyone. You’re my heart, my soul… my everything. I want to spend the rest of my days making you happy.” Cooper had to swallow hard. “Will you marry me, Tessa?”

Cooper held his breath as he stared up at Tessa, his heart stuttering in his chest as he waited for her answer. Her tears flowed steadily now, and he couldn’t stop the fear from clogging his throat. He wanted her to be his wife, to spend the rest of her days beside him, loving him. And letting him love her.

“Yes,” she whispered. “I’ll marry you, cowboy. Yes.”

Cooper barely heard the words, but his heart didn’t have any problem understanding what she said. Now his hands were shaking but he managed to slide the engagement ring over Tessa’s finger, his eyes never leaving hers. Pushing up to his full height, he couldn’t stop the tear that escaped, nor did he try to.

“I love you, Tessa.”

“I’ll never get tired of hearing you say that, cowboy.”

When Tessa flung herself into his arms, Cooper grabbed her up and held her close, his mouth finding hers. The group that was gathered behind them started to clap, several piercing whistles got the dogs excited, and then a booming “Yeehaw!” sounded, causing Cooper to look over at Dalton.

The man was holding the For Sale sign that Tessa had put up at The Rusty Nail. He grinned and then spun the sign around. On the other side was a handmade sign that read:

Dream Chasers

Equestrian Center

“It’s perfect,” Tessa said on a sob. “Absolutely perfect.”

“Yes, you are,” Cooper told her, squeezing her tightly. “You certainly are.”

Epilogue

Tessa was a bundle of nerves and Izzy’s excitement wasn’t helping much. Her best friend was all but bouncing around the tiny room, a grin on her face as she continued to work on Tessa’s hair. Getting all “prettied up”, as Izzy referred to it, was proving to be a time consuming ordeal.

“Are you almost finished?” Tessa asked.

“Yes!” Izzy squealed. “There! All done.”

Tessa turned her head back and forth, studying the woman in the mirror, admiring the up-do that Izzy had spent the last forty-five minutes working on. Had Izzy not been so jittery, it would’ve probably only taken twenty.

“It’s beautiful, Izzy,” she said admiringly.

“No, you are,” her best friend said on a sigh. “God, Tessa. I’m so excited for you.”

Tessa could tell. If she hadn’t been a nervous wreck, she would’ve been jumping up and down with her friend.

After all, she was getting married.

Today.

In fact, the church was quickly filling up, and Tessa knew they didn’t have much longer before the ceremony started. As much as she wanted to hide out in the bridal suite for another, oh, say, two days, she knew she needed to get this over with.

Not the wedding per se. She was beside herself with joy at marrying Cooper. It’d been six months since he proposed and they had been counting down to this day together. They’d kept the wedding simple and made a list of everything that had to be taken care of. With Izzy as her Matron of Honor and Dalton as Cooper’s Best Man, everything had taken shape without much effort on their part.

In fact, getting to this point had been relatively easy. Not much stress involved when they spent most of their time enjoying one another. They’d had the opportunity to talk things through and decided exactly how they saw their future. The one thing they agreed on… whatever they did, they wanted it to be together. Just the two of them.

Which meant Tessa had to let go of some of the ghosts from her past. So, last week, Cooper had taken her to visit Richie’s grave, which had been harder than she thought it would be. Thankfully, Cooper had held her tightly both at the gravesite and then later that night when she fell apart again. He had offered a comforting shoulder and let her say what needed to be said. She hadn’t been to Richie’s grave since the funeral, and she hated herself for that, but now that she had, she felt as though they both might be at peace. As much as they could be anyway.