Page 97 of The Mistletoe Mix-up

“I didn’t spook you, did I?” Sam asked.

“No, you didn’t,” she said, stopping to turn his way. “I’m just surprised you’d think about having more.”

“Technically, I didn’t even know if I’d be able to be involved with this one, since we agreed you’d be doing it on your own. We haven’t had a chance to discuss what changes for us now.”

“Changes, huh?” she asked, coming back up the stairs slowly, looking up at him with interest. “What changes are you wanting to see?”

“Well, since ‘I love yous’ have been exchanged, I was thinking we could try out boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“Wow,” Wren said, her mouth twitching. “One ‘I love you’ and you wanna label it, huh?”

“Heck yeah I do,” Sam said, wrapping his arms around her waist. “I want to lock this down before you change your mind.”

Wren laughed. “I could be down with boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“What about having a child that we share?”

“I still want one, and whenever it happens, it happens,” Wren said, holding him around the waist. “I already burned the contract. As long as I’m with you, I am not in a big hurry. I want to enjoy this.”

“In that case,” Sam said, lifting her into his arms, “now that we’ve got that sorted, I figure you can move in with me next week.”

“Moving all the steps up, are you?” Wren stroked his cheek with her hand. “If we’re moving in together, you would be moving in with me. I own my place.”

“That’s fair,” he said, kissing her. “Playtime is over. I better go get cleaned up and changed. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“See you then,” she said.

Once Sam made it home, it didn’t take him long to get showered and changed. It did give him time to think, especially about how fast life could change. One minute he was a single guy, taking things day by day, and now his girlfriend was picking him up, and they were taking a ride up a mountain to her father’s house. The same father who had threatened him with jail time years ago.

Sam was still dwelling on this when they took the left onto Wren’s dad’s driveway, the trees on either side growing denser the higher they went.

“Have I mentioned that I’m a little nervous?” Sam said.

“What are you nervous about?” Wren asked.

“We are going to your dad’s home in the woods, and history shows he doesn’t like me. Yet here we are, trusting that I’m going to make it out of this alive and that your dad and brothers aren’t planning to murder me.”

“It’s going to be fine,” she said, putting her hand on his knee. “My brothers don’t have an issue with you. There will be lots of witnesses, and you forget that I am a trained police officer. I’ll keep you safe.”

“Are you sure none of your brothers takes issue with me?” he asked.

“I don’t know for sure, but I think Pete likes you. Except for that whole thing about stealing his place to sleep.”

“Great. I’m going to get murdered because you didn’t want your brother sleeping on the couch.”

“Will you relax?” she said, squeezing his thigh. “Trust me, everything is going to be fine.”

They pulled up to the house and got out of the car in unison. Sam took Wren’s hand the minute he rounded the hood, and they headed up the steps. She didn’t bother to knock, simply opened the door and led the way inside.

“We’re here,” she said.

“Who is ‘we’?” Luke asked, glancing away from the television.

“Her boyfriend,” Wren’s dad said, pointing at Sam. “Sam Griffin.”

Everyone swung around to look first at Sam and then at Robert.

“And we’re okay with this?” Garrett said.