Choosing Her Own Destiny – Extended Epilogue

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Two and a half years later

The Colorado sunshine shone down from above, warming the back of Edwin’s neck as he stretched the barbed wire from one fence post to the other, his teeth gritted in concentration. The pasture in front of him was thankfully empty, no horses or foals running about threatening to break out of the fence he’d been trying to mend. 

“You sure you don’t want that help, Edwin?” Mr. Rogers asked, his voice concerned from off to the side. 

Edwin snorted, shaking his head. “No sir,” he answered. “Ain’t nothing to help with. I shoulda taken care of this yesterday when you first pointed it out.” 

“You know I’m not an invalid, Edwin,” Mr. Rogers harumphed, leaning back against the gate he was standing at. “Haven’t even had a cold in so many months. All this worrying is nonsense.” 

Edwin laughed, despite the seriousness of the older man’s tone, looking over at his father-in-law with a fond smile. “The sky was pink this morning,” he said by way of explanation, shrugging as he finally pulled the wire into place and secured it fully around the post he had been spinning it about. 

Mr. Foster sighed heavily, shaking his head. “Minnie,” he muttered, exhaling heavily again. “That girl and her superstitions…” 

“That girl is my wife,” Edwin chuckled. “My wife, who worries real hard on days like today. I don’t mind taking a little extra care and easing some of that worry. I woulda brought Liam out with us to fix this fence otherwise, but you know she’s hovering over him like a mama bear on a tear.”

Edwin couldn’t help but let his grin grow at the mention of his son. Liam was just a little over a year old now and Edwin hadn’t known that he could love anyone half as much as he did his wife. Meeting his son for the first time had changed his whole perspective, the moment that squalling little baby had been put into his arms.

“I reckon now that she’s carrying another baby it must be worse,” Mr. Rogers said after a moment, smiling bemusedly himself as he shook his head. “I’m still perfectly capable of helping around the ranch though. If she doesn’t go recognizing that here soon enough I might have to go and ask your uncle for a job on his.” 

Those words were still so strange to Edwin, realizing that he had his own ranch now. The money that his Uncle Ray had given him as a wedding present had been all that he needed in order to buy the land next to his uncle’s. They were only just next door and Edwin’s ranch was much smaller, both in size and capability, than his uncle’s, but it was still a ranch. 

“I understand that itch to get back to working,” Edwin acknowledged with a wry smile. “I reckon I’d feel the same, especially if I’d recovered like you had.” Mr. Rogers had taken some time to show a difference having moved from Colorado to New York the year before. He’d gotten sick right after moving, growing ill and worrying his daughter near to pieces, but he’d quickly recovered and he hadn’t been sick, at least not in any real sense of the word, since then. His sick spells were much more manageable than Minnie or he had painted them to be than before. 

“Don’t know what she thinks is going to happen when the three of you head back off to New York in a few weeks,” Mr. Rogers muttered. “Who does she think is going to look after the ranch?” 

“Listen here,” Edwin interrupted with a slight chuckle. “You have every right to have that argument with your daughter, no matter what it is. All I’m asking is that you not have me get in the middle of it. You were right, her carrying another baby has her worrying something fierce, about everything.”

Mr. Rogers nodded, shaking his head. “Well, I reckon I can’t ask that of you, but still…” 

“I don’t reckon we’ll need a lot of work on the ranch done while we’re gone,” Edwin continued, straightening and putting the tools he’d been using away with a sigh. “The horses will need taking care of, the new foal might need to be checked up on, but other than that I think I have everything set up. I know Minnie wants me to ask my uncle to look in on the place and take care of it all, but I reckon you can handle it with him just stopping in occasionally, if you’re up for it?” 

The look of relief on Mr. Rogers features was almost worth the small disagreement he knew his wife would have with him for it, the older man’s eyes shining with an appreciation that couldn’t be faked. 

Before he could say anything about it though a high-pitched squeal interrupted them. 

From across the pasture they could see the source of the noise, a small boy with a mop of messy brown hair tumbling down over his forehead running through the grass with his arms held high. 

Behind him Minnie walked carefully, one hand on her lower belly that was just starting to protrude from her skirts, and the other held out as if to balance herself as she came. 

All thoughts of Mr. Foster and his wanting to work were lost as Edwin grinned, stepping away from the recently repaired fence and striding towards the two bodies rushing towards them. He held his arms open wide, falling to his knees and waiting for the little body to make the rest of its way to him. 

“Da, Da, Da, Da, Da, DA!” Liam called out, his voice raised as high as his hands as he crashed into Edwin’s chest. 

Edwin closed his arms about him, lifting him up into his chest as he stood back up with a laugh. “Liam, Liam, Liam,” he repeated, kissing the side of his face and switching his son over to his hip as Minnie made her way more carefully over. 

Her forest-colored eyes swept the recently repaired fence line, resting momentarily on her father as if to make sure he hadn’t been allowed to exert himself overmuch, and swung back to Edwin and Liam with a warm smile. “I wanted to come see how the progress on the fence went,” she greeted, taking Edwin’s hand as he held it out to her. 

“It would have gone faster if your husband had allowed me to help him any,” Mr. Rogers pointed out, glancing seriously between his daughter and Edwin as if to make a point. 

Minnie smiled, shaking her head slightly. No matter how hard she tried to hide it thought it was obvious that the news pleased her. “Liam wanted to come and see his daddy anyway. I reckon I was going stir crazy up in the house as well.” 

“Well we can’t have that now can we,” Edwin said dryly, ignoring the little hands pulling his hair this way and that with sleepy giggles. “Your father and I were just talking about our upcoming trip to New York too.” 

Minnie smiled, a contented expression on her face as she looked over at her father. Their last trip to New York had been before Liam had been born. Thankfully there had been none of the same sort of events that had plagued them on their trip to Colorado, but they had stopped in to see Annette, Jebediah, and Ouray and his people. 

They’d taken their time, a honeymoon of sorts, as they traveled to break the news to Minnie’s father and also for Edwin to try and mend the problems between him and his. 

“Your grandmother is going to be so excited to meet you,” Minnie crooned, reaching out to smooth Liam’s mussed hair back from his face. “She’s been writing about you and asking for pictures every time.” 

The words warmed Edwin’s heart, thinking of just how excited his mother really was going to be. She’d just about exploded from all of her happiness when he’d shown up a little over two years ago with Minnie in tow and a ring on her finger. 

His father, of course, hadn’t been. At least not at first. But they’d had time to talk, and it turned out that Ray hadn’t been too far off of his mark on coining the majority of the issue being the Foster family stubbornness. While they still didn’t see eye to eye on many subjects, they’d come to understand one another a little bit more, and both agreed to just agree to disagree, so to speak. 

“I still say good luck in making it out of this town without your uncle and Miss Sally in tow,” Mr. Rogers commented dryly as he walked over too. 

He’d no sooner come to stand next to Edwin than Liam was wiggling in Edwin’s arms, holding his hands out to be handed over to his grandfather. 

The two of them, much to Minnie’s great delight, had formed an insurmountable bond from almost the minute Liam had been born. Mr. Rogers doted on his grandson, all too eager to step in and take the place of multiple grandparents being the one that was closest. 

“They’re staying to take care of the ranches,” Minnie disagreed almost immediately, her brows furrowing in worry as she glanced up at the sky and then over at her father. 

Edwin knew that she was worrying about the color of the dawn again. It was a lesser superstition, honestly, than it had once been. She now believed more that it carried with it the warning of big news, not always necessarily bad… a change in opinion she’d made once it was that they had spoken of it and he’d pointed out that it had been a pink dawn on her finding out about their meeting as well and her trip to Colorado. 

“You know Minnie, I’m perfectly capable—” Mr. Rogers started, only to stop as Edwin laughed suddenly. He turned with a frown, cutting off as Edwin nodded over towards the field Minnie had just trekked through where another two figures were picking their way among the grass. 

“You speak of the devil and the devil shall appear,” Edwin teased, lifting one arm to wave at his uncle and Sally as he handed Liam over to his father-in-law. 

Minnie slapped his shoulder despite the chuckle she bit back. “I’m going to tell your uncle you said that,” she teased, lifting her own hand to wave as well. 

“Who says I wasn’t talking about Sally?” Edwin joked back, laughing as Mr. Rogers snorted. 

“Now, I’ll tell her you said that if you were,” Mr. Rogers chuffed, cutting off as Liam tried to shove his whole fist in the man’s mouth. 

No one said anything of the sort as the pair walked up hand in hand though, smiling from ear to ear and looking between the three of them standing there with an obvious air of excitement. 

“How lucky for us y’all are all outside,” Ray greeted, reaching out to ruffle Liam’s hair even as the toddler twisted and turned about in his grandfather’s arms to try to look at everyone all at once. “I reckoned we were going to have to go traipsing about for a while and find y’all in turns, but look at this instead!” 

“I was just fixing this old fence line,” Edwin said, gesturing behind him. “Liam and Minnie just made it out here. We weren’t expecting y’all to drop by today, what’s the occasion?” 

Sally blushed almost as soon as Edwin asked, making him pause when he had been meaning to tease the two of them. They had taken their time, rekindling their romance, especially in light of his and Minnie’s marriage. 

Sally hadn’t been too eager to rush into anything, citing their past mistakes as a reason to take it slow, and Uncle Ray had been only too happy to oblige her. They’d spent months after Minnie and Edwin’s marriage just getting to know one another again, having dinner and leisurely courting one another amongst their busy work schedules. 

It had only been since Liam had been born, really, that Sally had been coming around more and more frequently. She was like an older aunt to the boy already, but still Sally and Ray had taken their time. The whole town had placed bets on how long it would take for them to finally realize that they really were perfectly matched for one another. 

Minnie’s squeal almost made Edwin jump, his eyebrows raising as he turned concernedly towards her. 

“You didn’t!” she exclaimed, her face lighting up as she clapped her hands together under her chin. “Oh! You did!” she murmured, not bothering to fill a confused Edwin in at all as she practically bounced with happiness. 

“Didn’t what?” Edwin questioned, looking between the people gathered around him with mounting worry. 

“About time,” Mr. Rogers harumphed, though he smiled even as he pretended to grouse. 

“About time for what?” Edwin repeated again, turning back to his uncle with furrowed brows. “What am I missing?” 

Uncle Ray laughed, a full, hearty sound as he lifted his and Sally’s joined hands.

Edwin didn’t see the big deal. They’d been courting for so long, seeing them hand in hand was nothing new, really. Why, he reckoned— 

Oh. 

It was only as the sunlight caught it, forcing the jewel to glitter, that Edwin noticed the ring on her left hand. 

“Oh,” he repeated aloud, almost shell-shocked as he looked between the pair in front of him in his extremely delayed reaction. “Oh!” His face broke into a grin, one that only grew seeing the pride and pleasure near radiating from his uncle. “You asked her to marry you!” 

“I did,” Uncle Ray declared proudly, pulling Sally into his side and beaming at the family gathered around him. “I’d been waiting for the right time. I was going to ask months ago, but things kept happening…” 

“And he kept chickening out,” Sally supplied, grinning despite her words. “He was acting so weird these last few weeks! He kept starting conversations only to change the subject, canceling and rearranging our plans! Why, I thought that he was trying to find a way to call off the entire relationship,” she confided, seeming to miss the bright red that Uncle Ray’s ears burned as soon as she said as much. 

“Well, I wanted the timing to be perfect,” he muttered, looking to Edwin as if looking for backup. 

Edwin could only hold his hands up in defeat though, shaking his head. He’d long been telling his uncle that there was no such thing as perfect timing. If there were, things would have gone very differently between him and Minnie. There was only the perfect person and a need to make sure you got to keep that person by your side. 

“The perfect moment,” Sally laughed, turning to Ray with her face lifted and a pleased smile on her face. “Do you think that when you did ask me was the perfect moment, Mr. Ray Foster?” 

“Well…no,” Ray stumbled over his words, frowning. “But you didn’t leave me much of a choice either! You told me that you were thinking about going away again and—” 

“Of course I did! I thought that you had changed your mind on what you wanted!” Sally exclaimed. “I was only offering to go with Minnie and Edwin to New York, anyways, to help with Liam and give you the time you needed to think!” 

“Woman! I didn’t need to think!” Ray answered back, his grin breaking through their argument. “I’ve wanted to marry you since I was twenty-three. Do you know how many years that is? I just needed—” 

“A kick in the pants to get you moving,” Mr. Rogers supplied, interrupting and forcing everyone to laugh. “Like I said. It’s about time. If you had waited any longer Mickey would have won the bet and I’d’ve owed him ten dollars. As it is, now he owes me.” 

“You bet on their engagement?” Minnie exclaimed, sounding torn between being scandalized and amused. 

Edwin was watching Sally and his uncle though, their bodies drifting towards one another almost as if pulled so that he could wrap his arm around her shoulders, their smiles contagious.  

“Wasn’t anything to bet on,” Ray dismissed distractedly. “There was no way I could let her get away again.” 

The words were heartfelt, honest and raw, and Edwin felt himself reaching for his wife without even thinking about it. He remembered all too well the pain at the thought of losing the woman he loved, and he remembered all the strife they had been through to get to where they were now. 

Looking around him, at his uncle and Sally, his father-in-law and son, and his wife at his side, he didn’t think he’d trade a single second of any of it for anything in the world though. It had been a hard road indeed, but it was worth it, this happiness that they had built for themselves. This family that they had created. 

With his arm around Minnie’s shoulder he looked down, only to find her looking up at him, smiling so warmly he just knew that she had had the same thought he had. 

Lovingly, he put a hand over the swell of her stomach, leaning into kiss her sweetly even as she raised to her toes to allow him to do so. 

They were healthy, they were happy, and they were right. Even if the road to get there had taken them across the country and through multiple tragedies to get there… 

It was worth it. Minnie was worth it. She was his happily ever after, and she always would be. 

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