Cowgirl Up Three ✔️

Chapter Forty One

Blayze

My heart was nearly exploding inside my chest as I waited for Her to process what was sitting in front of her.
She was the only one dressed up, wearing a white dress that I'd never seen before.
I'd merely showered and changed out of the clothes I'd worked in all day.
We were just sitting at Home, enjoying a quiet meal together.
But it felt right.
The ring seemed to have been burning a hole in my pocket for ages!
To Me, She'd have been just as beautiful if She'd been sitting there in a t-shirt and pair of track pants She'd borrowed from Me!
I was usually pretty good at waiting.
But this wait?
I wasn't sure I was going to cope.
Bailey sat, staring at the dessert bowl in front of Her.
Grace's cooking lessons from way back when, was the only reason I knew how to cooking style drawing, but I wasn't at all confident I'd done a decent enough job of it.
The Girl sitting in front of Me quite literally meant everything to Me.
The only ones that could equal Her, were Tameron and our own unborn Child.
But there Bailey sat, staring at the dessert in front of Her as though She didn't even know where to begin.
She was always a bright Girl, so surely She was what was sitting in front of Her?
"Bail's?"
I prompted Her, my heart literally hammering against my ribs, trying to make it's way into my throat.
She listed her gaze from the Dessert plate and looked over at Me.
Her blue eyes widened to nearly double their normal size.
Suddenly She squealed, like I'd seen her do when a fist sized, fluffy Huntsman crawled across Her hand.
She was ten year's old when I'd first seen that reaction out of Her over a Spider.
I'd had to laugh my arse off.
That same Bailey would get pitched off her Pony and growl about it when She sat on the seat of Her jeans in the dust.
She'd also stick her hands into a green slime filled trough without even grimacing.
But a spider shuffling its way across any piece of her skin?
Hell hath no fury like Bailey Grace Harley in that instance!
Before I could even think to reach forward to catch the flying dessert plate, it had landed on our lounge room floor.
Well... that kind of wasn't how I'd wanted that to go.
The sound of the Dog's licking at something made both of us look off to the side.
"Hey!"
Bailey cried, launching off the lounge to push Zeus and Zuke away from the Dessert plate.
"No!"
She scolded.
My whole body was literally burning.
She hasn't fucking answered!
Does that mean She's not ready to do this?
She always seemed like She was...
"Bail's?"
My voice came out as something strangled and unfamiliar.
I was completely and utterly fucking tied up in knot's here.
I already knew without a doubt that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, maybe even needed to.
But as a Couple, could we come back from this if She wasn't ready for us to get Engaged?
Wiping at her face, Bailey turned back towards Me.
Feeling like my entire body was shaking, I eased myself down onto the wooden floor as well.
My hand that held the ring was definitely shaking.
Bailey managed to mostly pull herself together, though her blue eyes definitely were still glittered with tear's.
Well I'm glad one of us could pull their shit together.
I'd never felt so fucking nervous.
Not even climbing on board a Bull in the chute at a Rodeo.
Not even when Bailey had told Me She was pregnant.
"Ask Me."
She insisted, just the hint of a wobble in her voice.
Ask her?
What the hell was She on about?
"I already-what?"
I asked, more than confused.
I asked the damn question plain and simple on that Dessert plate!
She studied it for what felt like six months!
She shuffled forward on the floor so that her bare knee's brushed against my denim clad ones.
"If you want this, then ask Me."
She insisted, her face and tone completely serious.
I was pretty positive I might just lose my Dinner.
For most of my life I'd never thought I'd be doing this.
Fine.
If She wants to be asked...
I dropped my gaze to the shining ring that I held clutched between my thumb and pointer finger.
There'd been hundreds of rings in the 'Engagement' section.
This was the fourth one I'd seen and I'd known it was the one, even though I'd humoured the sales lady by looking through nearly fifty more.
I sucked in a deep breath, like the kind I take before any event at a Rodeo and lifted my gaze to once again meet Bailey.
"Bailey Grace Harley... will you marry Me?"
The silence that ensued between us made Me want to crawl into a fucking hole and die.
Just when I was about to throw myself to my feet and run, Bailey shifted up onto her knee's and reached to hold my face, tear's streaming down her cheeks.
"Yes."
She croaked, her voice thick with emotion.
She leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine.
My whole world seemed to tip on its axis for a moment.
I felt light headed, trying to keep up with what was going on.
Did She just-?
She pulled back, staring at my face while her eyes shone with glistening tear's.
"Heck yes!"
She declared.
Thank fuck!
This time when She kissed Me, I lifted my hands and gently cupped them around the back of her head, my heart exploding in my chest like New Years Eve fireworks.
I snapped my eyes open, my heart pounding inside my chest as I woke up, taking in the scene of the Hospital room around Me.
Slowly easing myself up into a semi sorting position, I breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly.
Bailey Grace Harley.
The love of my life and my god damn Fiancé.
Resting back against the headboard and pillows, I closed my eyes, giving myself a minute.
Like magic, memories flooded my brain, images of the last twelve year's flowing through, playing against the back's of my eyelids like a slideshow.
Quinton being abused by his first owner.
Pig Hunting for the first time with Isaiah and Lukas.
Azlan's tiny, neglected Puppy form fighting to stay alive in a hessian sack on the roadside.
Decking Bailey's arsehole Father, whom I'd once looked up to in the Rodeo world.
Moving into the two bedroom cottage at Harley Crest.
Buying Jackaroo.
Buying Zeus.
Buying Rowan.
Finding out about Tameron being my Kid.
My world shifting when I kissed Bailey for the first time.
Buying Aviator.
My world literally changing when Bailey and I made love for the first time.
Bailey telling Me we'd fucked up and She was pregnant.
Reconnecting with my Mother.
Isaiah's heart attack, which rocked the dynamics of the Farm for quite some time.
Bailey and I becoming official.
Losing Quinton.
Running into my Father at Deni.
Bailey and I getting Engaged.
Bailey Graduating High School.
Luka being born at Home on our lounge room floor.
Joining the Rodeo Hall Of Fame in Warwick.
Bailey telling Me She was pregnant again.
Us finding out this time it was Twin's.
Our Engagement Party and Emma showing up.
Bailey's accident at the bridge.
Brodie and Dale's Birth.
My Teenaged Nephew showing up out of nowhere.
Learning Madison was in fact not dead.
I slowly opened my eyes.
While I felt like I was missing something important, there was one thing on my mind first and foremost.
I have to find Bailey.
I sat up properly, tossed the knitted blanket off my legs and swung my legs over the side of the bed and pushed myself off the stupid, uncomfortable bed.
I had no idea where my t-shirt was, but thankfully I was already wearing jeans, so didn't have to worry about getting dressed.
Without giving the bed a glance, I made for the door.