“I want to marry, Grace because I love her like I’ve never loved anyone in my life. She makes me laugh and sometimes she gets me so frustrated. Her smile—” Closing my eyes, I grinned from ear to ear before opening my eyes and looking at the beautiful horse in front of me. “Grace was there for me during the darkest time of my life. The love she has for me pulled me out and saved me.” Shaking my head, I let out another soft chuckle. “God her smile makes my stomach flip and my knees weak just as much as they did the first time she looked at me. If I was lucky enough to wake up every morning to her beautiful face, I’d count myself the luckiest bastard in the world. If I had to live without her, it would be like living with no air.

Glancing away from the horse, I looked over to Jeff. He was sitting on a hay bale with a stunned look on his face. Finally, he frowned and said, “Did you fucking talk to Gunner before you talked to me?”

Letting out a nervous chuckle, I said, “Um, no, sir, I didn’t speak with Gunner first.”

Shaking his head, Jeff appeared to be deep in thought. Letting out a quick breath, he slapped his hands on his legs and stood up. “Damn boy, I gotta tell ya, that hit me right here.” Placing his hand over his heart, Jeff nodded. “Where in the hell were you when I asked Ari’s dad if I could marry her.”

Tilting my head, I gave Jeff an amused look. “Not even thought of yet, sir.”

“No, I guess you weren’t.” Jeff walked into the feed room and grabbed some oats and walked back out to give them to the horse I had been giving attention to.

“This is Jack. Jack is probably the meanest motherfucking horse we have on the ranch and son you walked right up to him and started touching him. Now, I let you do it because two things could have happened. One, he’d have bitten the shit out of you, or two, he’d let you touch him. He’s only let two other people touch him that I know of.”

Looking back at Jack, I smiled as he bopped his head up and down. “Who’s that?”

Jeff gave Jack the oats and then gave him a good hard pat on the neck before he turned around and said, “Me and Grace.”

Offering up a bemused smile, I said, “No kidding.”

Jeff smiled and said, “No kidding. You can thank Jack for the answer you’re about to get.”

My smile faded and was replaced by a look of confusion? “O-okay.”

Placing his hand on my shoulder, Jeff gave it a slight squeeze. “Yes, you have mine and Ari’s blessings to ask Grace to marry you.”

A feeling of relief washed over my body as I let out a sigh of relief. Reaching my hand out for Jeff’s, I said, “Thank you so much sir. I promise you, I’ll love her till the day I die.”

Jeff’s eyes appeared to glass over as he looked away and said, “You’ll never love her like I love her. Never.”

With that, Jeff started walking out of the barn. Jack started nickering as he bopped his head like he was also pleased with Jeff’s permission.

Wait. Did he really base his decision on if the damn horse liked me or not? Quickly turning, I jogged out of the barn and up to Jeff.

“Um, Mr. Johnson?”

“Call me Jeff, Noah. You’re going to be my son-in-law. We can be on first names.”

Agreeing with a quick nod, I asked, “Sir, did you really base your answer to me on whether or not Jack liked me?”

Jeff stopped walking and looked me straight in the eye. Then he busted out laughing and headed into the house as I stood there not really knowing what to do.

Looking all around, I glanced back and watched as Jeff disappeared into the house. “What in the fuck just happened?”

Grace was standing at the kitchen sink helping her mother wash dishes while Jeff and I played a card game with Matt. It threw me every time Matt called me an assmole.

“Noah, it’s your turn to go fish,” Matt said with a smile.

Returning the smile, I said, “Wow! My turn already?”

Matt rolled his eyes and laughed. “Noah, you’re an assmole.”

Ari called over her shoulder and said, “Matt, you know that’s not a nice word.”

Jeff cleared his throat and said, “Yeah, you also know that only Josh gets called assmole ‘cause he is one.”

Matt chuckled and agreed with Jeff. “Yes. Josh is an assmole. But he made me a cabinet for my paintings. I love, Josh.”

Oh gosh. Either I was truly turning into a pansy ass or I was falling hard for Matt. He may have been in his late thirties, but he still acted so young at heart. I knew it was from the Fragile X. His heart was so pure and good. He loved making people laugh too and he knew he did it by using the word assmole.