Page 96 of The Mistletoe Mix-up

Sam snorted. “I highly doubt that.”

Wren’s smile slipped a bit. “You won’t come with me?”

“Hey, hey,” Sam said, wrapping his arms around her. “I’m happy to go with you, but that means going home and getting cleaned up and changed. I don’t think showing up to lunch with my night-before clothes on is going to cut it.”

Wren’s lips twitched. “He might definitely have something to say about that.”

Sam gave her a kiss and got up out of bed. He headed for the bathroom to clean up and thought about how things had changed in the course of the last few weeks.

Wren loved him. They were together now.

It was a crazy miracle he didn’t want to take for granted.

When Sam emerged from the bathroom with his tuxedo pants on, Wren was nowhere to be seen. He finished dressing, and with Duke by his side, went exploring the rest of the house to find her.

“Wren?” he called.

“I’m here.” She was standing outside the spare room with the door open, looking at it.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Trying to imagine what the room will look like when I finally get furniture.”

“How many rooms do you have?” he asked.

“I have a three-bedroom and a finished basement with a bathroom, but I think the previous owners used it as a hangout.”

“Do you wanna show me?” he asked.

“Sure, come with me.” She opened the other bathroom, pointing to the large barnwood-framed mirror and pedestal sink. “They’d done some updates before I bought it, but I honestly hate the sink. There is no linen closet or other storage in here, and that drives me nuts.

“I could help you fix that,” he said, stepping inside the bathroom. He pointed to the open space in front of the toilet. “We could install shelves here for storage. Take out the pedestal and replace it with a vanity with drawers.”

Wren grinned at him from the open doorway. “All good ideas. Wait until you see this.”

Sam followed her to the end of the hallway past the primary bedroom to an open doorway. Through the door were stairs that took them down into a great open room with egress windows and a bathroom with a shower, sink, and toilet.

“I figured they must’ve had teenagers, and this was their hangout area.”

“We would have killed for a place like this,” he said, waggling his eyebrows.

Wren laughed. “Yes, but the difference is my dad would’ve never had something like this for us, especially not a place where we could invite members of the opposite sex.”

“Touché.” Sam walked the entire area, whistling. “You know, you could add two more bedrooms down here and still keep most of the space.”

“Why would I need two more bedrooms?” she asked.

“Well, your brother likes to hang out over here a lot. It would be nice for him to have his own room tucked away downstairs rather than a few doors down from yours.”

“Fine, you aren’t wrong about that, but I feel like there was something else on your mind when you suggested it.”

Sam was afraid of saying too much and scaring her off, but he cleared his throat, going for broke. “You said that you wanted to be a mom. If it ends up being something you love doing, why stop at one?”

Wren watched him for several moments before she approached him, placing her hands on his chest. “You’re getting a little ahead of yourself, don’t you think? I’m not even pregnant yet, and you’re thinking about more?”

“I’m only looking at the space and ways to better utilize it. A second child was just the first thing to pop into my head.”

“Aha,” Wren said, heading toward the stairs.