I loved him more than I knew was possible. And if having a son had taught me anything, it was that I would only grow to love him more and more.
Sure, there would be hard days. There would be days I didn’t think I loved him. Days I wanted nothing to do with him. Days that would make me question my sanity. But the good would always outweigh the bad. And I couldn’t have thought of a better dad for my son than this man right here.
We would always have to face the questions about Max’s real dad and how Levi was both uncle and step-dad. And it might be weird to a lot of people. But to us it made sense. And that was all that mattered.
We were meant to be together. Our family was meant to happen this way. It might be strange, but it was us.
“Hey, Ruby,” Levi murmured before I’d totally fallen asleep.
“Yeah?”
“I forgot to ask,” he rumbled in his sleep-deepened voice. “But you’re on birth control, right?”
Popping up in bed, I suddenly wasn’t tired anymore. “Oh, shit.”
He rolled to his back and threw his hand over his eyes, laughing so hard the bed shook. “Are you serious?”
I looked down at him. “Are you seriously laughing right now?”
“If you’re pregnant,” he warned, “I’m blaming Logan.”
“Oh, my gosh!”
“You should have learned your lesson the first time.”
“Why are you laughing so hard?” I asked when he hadn’t settled down.
He looked at me, his eyes twinkling. “Because only you could manage to get knocked up on the first time with two different Cole brothers.”
“We don’t know that I’m pregnant,” I reminded him, panic dumping cold water on our happy moment.
He just shrugged. “It’ll be okay if you are.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, falling deeper in love with him right then, right there.
“Forever means forever, Ruby. Might as well get started on it right now.”
Then he pounced, not caring that for the third time in one night, we forgot to use protection.
Epilogue
HEA Beginnings
“Where are we going?” I asked for the hundredth time.
“Mommy, I told you, it’s a surprise!” Max had my hand and was dragging me after him over rough, uneven ground.
He’d taken me for a nature walk. He said it was more homework, but since it was the middle of June, I was starting to think he had something up his sleeve.
That and after twenty minutes of walking in one direction, he’d made me close my eyes and blindly follow him to the middle of nowhere.
If he wasn’t my son, I’d assume he was bringing me out here to murder me. But I had faith that Max was going to do more with his life than murder. He was going places.
I realized, ironically, I had the same kind of hope for Max that my mom had for me. Mine was to keep Max from murdering me. Mom’s was to keep me off a stripper pole. So… putting it like that, we were on equal playing fields as far as momming went.
I snorted to myself. Hardly.
“Max,” I demanded. “What are we doing? If I walk through a giant spider web on accident, I will never forgive you.”
