“Marry you?”
“Yes. Be my wife. William’s mom and the mother to all of the babies I plan on putting in that beautiful belly of yours. Stay with me on the mountain. Forever.” He swallows hard, waiting for my answer. “Be our family, Sophie. What do you say?”
My heart races as I look from Griff to William who’s also waiting for my answer, back to Griff. I’ve spent my whole life doing what other people expected me to do. I’ve never even had the chance to figure out what I wanted for myself.
But in this moment, with this man and his son in front of me, I’ve never had more clarity in my entire life.
“Yes,” I say. “A million times, yes. There’s nothing I want more in this whole world.”
SIX MONTHS LATER…
Sophie
There’s a bite in the air. Winter’s coming whether we like it or not and while I am looking forward to experiencing my first winter in the mountains, I’m nervous. We need more time.
My hands go to my swelling belly that isn’t quite covered by the sweater I’d wrapped around my shoulders. With the way this baby is growing, I’m going to need bigger clothes. Again.
Not that I care.
In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. The feeling of having Griff’s baby growing safely in my womb, is truly the best thing I’ve ever experienced.
Well, maybe it was a tie for how amazing it feels to be loved so completely by Griff.
After we escaped the fire, neither of us wanted to wait before getting married and we would have said our vows that very same day if the town hadn’t been completely occupied with the emergency forest fire situation. Instead, we waited two weeks to tie the knot because Ma insisted on cooking enough food for the whole town and baking the cake, too.
I didn’t care about my step mom or my stupid step brother who, along with his friends had been charged and were awaiting trial for starting the fire, but my dad made the journey to attend to the ceremony.
For Griff and I, as long as we had each other and William, we were happy. But since he was the first of his brother’s to get married, Ma made it a big deal, and secretly I think Griff enjoyed every second of it.
Braving the cold, I make my way down from the porch using the railing to support myself. Now that I can’t see my toes, I have a very different centre of gravity.
Once we were given the all clear after the fire was put out, Griff and I went back up the mountain and were relieved to see the cabin and most of the forest around it had been spared by the blaze. The crews, including Griff and his brothers who were all part of the search and rescue and emergency response team in Rock Creek had worked around the clock and thanks to their efforts, the situation hadn’t been worse.
“Whoa.” William rounds the corner of the construction site before I can get there and straight into my legs. “Slow down, kiddo. Where are you going?”
“Dad said if I got a hammer out of the shed I could help.”
The happiness of being thought grown up enough to help with the expansion of our cabin radiates all over his face. “Wow. That’s a pretty big deal.”
“Right?” William is about to turn and run off to get his hammer but he pauses long enough to wrap his little arms around my belly and give his unborn sibling a kiss. “Love you, baby.” He looks up at me. “Love you, mom. Gotta go.”
My heart swells the way it always does when he calls me mom. It happened so quickly and naturally one day that I don’t think William even realized he’d said it until my eyes filled with tears.
“Love you, too,” I call after him.
A minute later, I find Griffin with two of his brothers, Maverick and Briggs, hard at work on the cabin expansion.
The moment Griff sees me he puts his tools down and rushes right over. “It’s freezing out here, Sweetheart.” He pulls me into his arms and kisses me deeply. A moan slips from my mouth and in a flash my panties are damp with a need for him that only grows stronger by the day.
With my pregnancy hormones raging in full force, I live in a perpetual state of arousal for my big, burly mountain man.
“Get a room would ya!?” Briggs calls out.
I giggle against Griff’s lips. “That’s what we’re trying to do here,” Griff replies with a laugh before turning his attention back to me. “He’ll understand when he finally meets his woman.”
All I can do is murmur my agreement. I never thought I’d feel so completely consumed by a man. Apparently all it took was the right one. I hope Griff’s brothers will experience the same kind of love one day, too.
“Come,” Griff says. “Let me show you what we’ve done. I made a little change to the original plan.”
