The Cowboy Guarantee

EPILOGUE: 2 Years Later.....

TODD

It's been two years since everything happened and we have still remained here in town, just like Annie and I decided to.

We weren't living in fear and both felt like the first time in our lives, we were free and able to start over.

Several months ago, my Uncle helped me financially start up my own business of construction. And THAT soon lead me to start building my first full size house with my crew, located not too far away from Maureen's home where my Uncle Barron ended up staying after they rekindled their relationship.

Looking at the both of them makes me think of the future with Annie. I hope we can grow old and still look into each other's eyes like they do. It's beautiful.

Life has never looked so good and so bright or hopeful and I am going to do whatever it takes in making sure it stays that way for all of us.

Annie got an online job where she can earn money while also doing online schooling. Things are going great!

Tonight was going to be a very special night though. Tonight I had a couple of big surprises for Annie and one of them was to show her the finishing touch on our house. Which she has been thinking this whole time, was just another project.

I had made reservations at our favorite steakhouse not too far outside of town. Then after we had finished and danced a little, we got into the car and began heading towards the house.

"Tonight has been so great baby." She smiles at me.

I then raise her hand up to my lips and smile back at her.

"It's not over yet baby." I wink at her.

She smiles real big and as we get to the end of the road, I stop and tie a blindfold over her eyes before continuing slowly down the road.

Once pulling up, I get out of the car and help her out then stand her several feet from the front of the house before removing the blindfold.

She gasps so loudly and looks at it with amazement.

"Oh my god." She says.

"What do you think?" I ask.

"It's beautiful. Is this what you've been working on for the past several months?" She asks.

"Yeah." I replied.

I took hold of her hand and began leading her into the house to give her the grand tour.

The moment we stepped foot inside, I heard her make even a louder gasp than she did outside. Her smile got even bigger now.

"Wow! This place is....magazine worthy. Babe, you are so talented." She says.

"Thanks baby." I kiss her on her cheek. "Come on and I will show you around."

The last place I show her of the house was out onto the back patio where there is a beautiful sunset and overlooks the lake.

"Oh my god. This place is amazing. You are going to make whoever buys this a VERY happy person." She smiles at me.

"I hope so." I replied suddenly beginning to feel nervous and remove my hand slowly to keep from her feeling my palms becoming sweaty.

This was it. I needed to make sure this was perfect and that I don't mess it up. So I take in a deep breath and then let it out before I begin by starting to bend down on one knee and take hold of her hand.

She gets ready to start to tell me something but stops the moment she looks down at me and see's what's going on.

"Annie. I know there are a lot of things I can't guarantee about the future or even now. One of them is not being good at this." I chuckle as does she before I continue. "But I can guarantee you happiness, security, and love. You have owned my heart since the first time I ever saw you. Because of you, I believed in love again. There's nothing more I would want than to have you as my wife and the mother of our unborn children and the one I drink tea with on the back porch while watching our grandkids run around. You mean so much to me. So much in fact that I could watch you for a single minute and find a thousand things I love about you. There's not a day that goes by that I don't wake up and see your face and realize just how lucky I am.  So, Annie, will you marry me?" I finally finish nearly stumbling over my words and shaking a little while opening up the box with the ring in it.

Her eyes were filled with tears and I had no idea what she was going to say. I was hoping for a yes, but maybe there's too much going on at the moment in our lives that it's too soon.

Then she smiled and wiped away tears before giving me the answer.

"Yes." She nods. "Yes I will marry you." She nods.

I felt relieved and placed the ring on her finger before standing up and we wrapped one another up in each other's arms and kissed.

Then I looked into her eyes again and our eyes locked.

"I do have one more surprise." I tell her.

"There's more?" She asks.

"Yes. This house....." I say and pull out the key from my pocket and place into the palm of her hand. "It's ours."

She was speechless again and began tearing up with tears of joy and threw her arms around me and I did the same while we kissed each other.

Never thought it would happen but everything turned out to be perfect.

And that everybody is the Cowboy Guarantee.