“My sweet girl,” I murmur.
This woman is my whole life. My only purpose. Nothing else matters except putting a ring on her finger and getting to call her my wife. I’ll take care of her, worship her body every day, put a baby in her belly. We’ll start a family and make this cabin our home.
The fantasy unspools in my mind like a gushing waterfall, and I can’t help smiling. Before Savannah, all of this sounded like a nightmare: love, marriage, babies. I thought it was a trap, a one-way trip to heartbreak and misery, and I felt so damn clever for avoiding it all—so much smarter than all the suckers out there who give their hearts away like it’s nothing.
But I was wrong.
I didn’t know what I was missing until I laid eyes on this perfect angel. Now, I could never go back to life without her. Meeting her is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I know our story is only just beginning.
“Want to know something, sugar?” I say, my voice hoarse with emotion.
Savannah lifts her head, eyes twinkling at me. “What?”
“I’m so fucking happy you hit me with your car.”
EPILOGUE
SAVANNAH
It’sFriday afternoon at Midnight Tales, the clock on the wall ticking closer to five. I keep shooting glances at it, my heart buzzing with anticipation. As much as I love working at the bookstore, the best part of my day is when my husband picks me up.
Clay insists on taking me to work and back every day, even though I’m perfectly capable of driving myself. His excuse used to be that he didn’t trust Henry Honda to make the journey up and down the mountain, but I sold the hatchback last year when Clay surprised me with a truck of my own, and hestillinsists on driving me everywhere.
My husband has always been fiercely protective, but now that I’m pregnant, it’s like he’s gone into overdrive—and I kind of love it. I’m only two months along, and my bump is barely visible yet, but we just found out that I’m having twins. It’s doubled our excitement and seems to have tripled Clay’s protectiveness.
I finish stacking the final shelf when the door to the bookstore opens and Clay steps inside—right on time. He fills the room, towering over everything, looking sexier than ever. There are more silver streaks in his beard, more tattoos on his arms, his body bigger and brawnier. Those intense blueeyes pierce mine from across the aisle, roaming my body and lingering on my belly, like he’s imagining our twins curled up inside me.
“Hey, beautiful,” he murmurs, closing the space between us and wrapping his arm around me.
“Hi.” I rise on my tiptoes to give him a kiss and let him guide me out of the store, waving to my boss on the way out.
“Did you have a good day?” Clay asks, opening the door to his truck and lifting me into my seat.
“Yeah, it was great. I wrote some more of that story during my lunch break.”
He leans over to kiss my forehead as he climbs into the driver’s seat. “Can’t wait to read it, sugar.”
I still love writing romance books. My husband converted one of the cabin’s bedrooms into a little home office for me to write in, and I have a blast crafting my stories in there. It’s still just a hobby—and I want to keep it that way. My books are for my husband’s eyes only, and I love to share them with him, especially now that I’ve started writing steamy scenes. Clay sure knows how to give me lots of inspiration.
“What about you? How was your day?” I ask as we drive out of Cherry Hollow, heading for the mountain path.
“Fine. Cut up some lumber for the sawmill—they paid a decent amount for it.” His gaze slides to me. “Missed you like hell, sugar. Hope you know I’m not leaving your side all weekend.”
“Sounds good to me.” I grin at him. “I missed you too, Clay.”
I mean it, even if we only saw each other a couple of hours ago. My husband makes a point of coming to the bookstore every chance he gets, pretending to browse the aisles while actually just staring at me. It’s incredibly distracting, but I love it. Luckily, my boss’s husband does the same thing to her, so she doesn’t mind.
“I started building the other crib today,” Clay says as we wind through the darkening forest. “Should be ready by next week.”
As soon as he found out I was pregnant, my husband set about creating a nursery, building a crib and filling the room with everything a baby could need. Now that he knows there are two babies on the way, he’s started working twice as hard.
“I can’t wait to see it,” I tell him, reaching over to squeeze his thigh.
My heart fills up at the thought of our babies sleeping in cribs my husband built for them. I still can’t believe I’m going to be a mom—let alone a mom of twins. It’s a dream come true, and I’m overwhelmed with excitement every time I think of them growing inside me, safe and sound together.
We reach our cabin, my husband helping me down from my seat. The forest floor is icy, so Clay moves slowly on his prosthetic, wrapping his arm around me.
It’s deliciously warm inside the cabin, a fire already roaring in the hearth. Our home is cozier than ever now that it’s full of bookshelves, each one bursting with my favorite romance books.
