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And Haley stayed with me through it all. I still wonder why. I’m not that great. But she loved me for some reason, and I loved her.
“It was worth it,” she says, turning over and groaning. “I thought the morning sickness was supposed to go away at the end of the first trimester. I’m halfway through the pregnancy. It’s been long enough.”
“Someday we can tell our daughter how tough her mommy is.”
Haley nods and wraps her arms around me. She takes a deep breath then sits up and slowly drinks the Sprite. “I’m feeling a lot better now, really.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes. If I take an anti-nausea pill, I can get through the night without puking on whoever I’m sitting next to. I can’t promise I won’t fall asleep,” she adds with a smile.
“I can’t make that promise either,” I laugh. “This thing is really long.” I help her up and smooth her dress, assuring her she still looks beautiful.
“So we’ll go home in two days?” she asks as we go into the hall.
“Yes. Well, assuming I don’t have to go through call-backs. We’ll see.”
“That’s fine,” she says as she puts her hand on her belly. We’re in a hotel suite in L.A. I sold my mansion a few months after we got engaged, not needing it anymore. Home is in Montana, on a horse farm overlooking the Beartooth Mountains. It’s rough, being separated during filming. Depending on the extent of care a rescue requires, Haley sometimes leaves and comes to set to be with me. She owns and operates her own rescue now, and has employees to look after the horses when she goes away.
“Can we stop for food on the way there? I really want a taco,” Haley asks as I open the door.
I laugh. “You know there is food there, right?”
She makes a face. “But I’ll have to wait while you get your picture taken and get asked the same questions over and over.”
I loop my arm through hers. “I can’t argue there. And of course we can.”
We get into the limo a few minutes later. Haley takes my hand. “Are you nervous?”
“A little,” I admit. I put my arm around Haley and rest my hand on the baby bump, feeling our daughter kick and move around inside Haley’s belly. “But no matter what happens, I’ve already won.”
Acknowledgements
This book was written in a whirlwind of emotion. The story had been in my head for months, but I hesitated on writing it because I wasn’t sure how people would like a book like this. So I put this off and wrote something else. A month before edits were due to the editor, I knew I couldn’t put this off any longer, and I wrote the entire book in twenty-seven days. While newly pregnant and chasing my toddler around. I did most of my writing at night, after the kid went to bed.
The book is emotional with the issues it deals with, but the topic of rescuing horses is near and dear to my heart. Haley’s horse Shakespeare is based off of my real life horse, Mystery, who I rescued when I was sixteen years old. He’s a registered Arabian who had been someone’s show horse for years until the owner decided she didn’t want him anymore. He was leaving for the slaughter auction the day before I got him. It was a pure luck, one of those a friend of a friend of a friend knew about this horse kind of things, and they knew I was in the market for a new 4H horse.
Over ten years later, and I remember going to see him perfectly clear. He was covered in mud and cantered in circles in the pasture. I couldn’t get him to stop, so I pretended like I wanted him to run around like a crazy horse. Anything to make him mine. There was just something about him that was special.
And he is special. That horse has taught me so much, from patience to perseverance, to knowing that sometimes the loudest message is the one where we don’t say anything at all.
I hope this book impacts you like it did me. To show you that kindness matters, that doing the right thing isn’t always easy, but is what you should do no matter what, and that life can change in an instant and you should never take anything for granted.
Now, for how short of a time this was written, I have a few people to thank. Lori and Erin, thank you for reading it super fast and helping me tweak it into perfection. Thank you Murphy for putting the finishing touches on everything and making it the best it can be. Thank you to Julie, my agent, for believing in this book as much as I do, and thank you to Claire Riley for helping me with Aiden’t British charm.
Thank you to my husband, mother in law, grandmother and mom for watching the tot during the day so I could get some work done during normal waking hours.
Thank you to my beta readers for getting super fast feedback to me, and for loving the story as much as I did.
And thank you for reading the book all the way through. I hope the story makes you feel.
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About the Author
Emily Goodwin is the author of the twice ba
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Epilogue
Acknowledgements