“That is the most romantic thing a guy has ever said to me.” Liz’s eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t let them flow. Even if all the universe planned to give her was a house with no wheels and a cowboy for just one Christmas, she would have her miracle, but oh, how she wanted to grow old with Raylen O’Donnell.

Gemma knocked on the window and pointed toward the café.

“Maybe we should’ve kept our relationship a secret a lot longer,” Liz said with a long sigh.

“Didn’t have a choice. We got caught,” Raylen said.

Liz unbuckled her seat belt. Raylen slid out of his truck to jog around the back and open the door for her.

He held her hand all the way to the door, then stopped abruptly and gave her a long, passionate kiss. When it ended, he said, “You landed in your new house during holiday season. I keep hoping and praying when the excitement of this is over that you don’t get bored with life in our community. We party hard, but we also work hard, and that can get monotonous.”

“After the holidays and after Jasmine’s new waitress gets here, I will probably drive out to west Texas to spent a few days with my folks and see my Poppa,” Liz said, “but I can already feel roots going down right here in Ringgold, and I love the feeling.”

“You will come home, though, won’t you?” Raylen asked.

“Yes, darlin’. I never knew how much I really wanted permanent friends and roots until now,” she assured him.

“And a boyfriend?” Raylen asked.

“That more than anything.” She raised up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek.

Gemma slung the door open and said, “Y’all can’t live on love forever, and the burgers are already on the grill.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Raylen said.

“Me, either,” Liz added, and realized that neither of them had said those three magic words—I love you—yet.

When Raylen and Liz reached the kitchen, Ace was complaining about starving and Dewar was busy pulling the last of six chairs down from a table in the dining area.

“You’re like a little boy, Ace,” Jasmine said.

“That’s what makes me so lovable,” he told her.

Liz filled six glasses with ice and set them beside the drink machine and thought about all her new friends. Just one Sunday afternoon at the O’Donnell ranch and look at what I’ve got. How deep will the roots have gone by this time next year?

Would Gemma really find love, and would Jasmine ever settle down with Ace? She glanced over at Raylen who was filling drink orders and carrying the glasses to the table. Would her Aunt Tressa’s last reading for her come true? Would she spend her life sitting on a fence, wanting roots and wings both? She thought about the way she’d felt back when she was ten years old and walked on the fence. With her outstretched arms, and the heady feeling of watching Raylen right ahead of her, she’d felt like she was flying. Then a few years later, when she hung onto that same rail fence with her feet on the ground, she’d wanted what he had.