by C. Morgan
I giggled softly and stopped fighting against my eyelids. I let my eyes close. “Hopefully, that lasts a long time.”
“We’re going to be lucky to get more than five hours of sleep.”
“We can handle it, right?”
Rylen didn’t answer me. I forced my eyes open and whispered his name. He didn’t stir.
A smile crept across my lips as I watched the man of my dreams sleep. I ran my fingers through his hair, leaned in, and kissed him softly. “Goodnight, my love. Merry Christmas.”
Feeling like I was home, I snuggled in under his chin and listened to his heartbeat with my ear pressed to his chest. I drifted off to the steady rhythm and dreamed of mistletoe, sparkling snow, and a good-morning kiss.
Epilogue
Rylen
Four Months Later
Natalie pressed a mug of steaming-hot coffee into my hands while simultaneously stretching to the tips of her toes to give me a kiss. Her lips were soft and tasted like her favorite vanilla-flavored chapstick. She settled back down to flat feet and sipped her coffee, but her green eyes never left me.
“Happy Easter,” she said.
I grabbed hold of the sash of her robe and tugged her closer, earning myself one of my favorite giggles as she leaned into me. “Happy Easter. Should we wake the monster?”
“I’m amazed she wasn’t up before us,” Natalie said.
“She must have needed her beauty sleep,” I said.
Natalie and I crept through the house and were careful where we stepped. The Easter Bunny had visited our home last night. In other words, Natalie and I had pulled an almost all-nighter. We’d been up all night hiding little foil-wrapped eggs all over the house and leaving trails of jellybeans across the laminate for Cora to follow that all ended in a surprise. In the laundry room, a new Easter dress hung on the back of the door. Under her bed, a chocolate bunny waited to be discovered. In the bathtub, a stuffed rabbit bided its time until Cora found it and gave it cuddles. Near the fireplace, a special surprise waited, too.
It was going to be an Easter for the books.
Mona hadn’t been too pleased when I asked if Cora could spend Easter morning with me and Natalie. She’d put up a bit of a fight over it, and that was fair because based on our agreement, it was her turn to have our daughter for the holiday. But I’d laid it out for her and explained that I had a plan in place and I needed Cora this year. I’d make it up to her somehow.
Finally, begrudgingly, and with Logan’s help, Mona had come around to the idea.
The past four months had been a time of healing for Mona and me. We had plenty of sit-down conversations about both of our mistakes in the past and how we could co-parent without ever having a crisis like what happened at her and Logan’s wedding. I’d apologized in person and offered a gesture of good will, a three-night stay at one of Grady’s casinos in Vegas. He’d pulled some strings and hadn’t been thrilled to hear the trip was for Mona, but in the end, he showed up for me.
Mona and Logan had accepted the gift and agreed that the stunt at the wedding was under the bridge. We were all looking to the future now, feeling aligned and like part of a team.
It was a much better feeling than the tension that had been lying under the surface for the past two years. Cora felt it too. There were no longer awkward greetings at front doors whenever she was dropped off or picked up. We would sit and chat for a while. We’d share a drink and some laughs, sometimes even dinner, and Natalie was always welcome to join. Eighty percent of the time, she did.
She and Mona had made peace as well. At first, I wasn’t sure if it would happen based on all the things Mona had said about Natalie, but Natalie was a forgiving and understanding person, and she’d accepted Mona’s heartfelt apology and acknowledged that she played a role in the blow-up that happened at the wedding.
We all had.
I slipped into Cora’s bedroom and smiled as she rolled over and rubbed her eyes while offering a groggy hello. Natalie followed me in and we gave Cora some good-morning snuggles before pointing out the trail of jellybeans leading from her bed out into the hallway.
Cora’s eyes widened with surprise and glee. “He came!”
“Of course, he did.” I chuckled. “How could he forget about you?”
Cora peeled her blankets back, swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and hopped down to the floor where she promptly crushed a green jellybean under her heel.
She looked down. “Oops.”
I peeled the crushed and now sticky piece of candy from her heel while Natalie snickered. “There are plenty where this one came from.”
Cora started following the trail but turned back when Natalie and I hemmed and hawed about seeing something under her bed. She discovered the chocolate bunny, which lost its right ear to her teeth within seconds.
Then we were off, following the child in powder-pink pajamas down the hall to the laundry room, where she found her dress. Next, we went to the bathroom, where she found her bunny sitting in a new Easter basket in the tub. She tucked the bunny under her right arm and carried the basket in the left. As the hunt through the house continued, she added individual jellybeans to the basket.
When we reached the living room, she drew up short.
Her name was spelled out in jellybeans in the middle of the carpet.
Cora gasped. “So many jellybeans!”
Natalie and I stood back and smiled into our coffee mugs as Cora picked each piece of candy up one by one and dropped them into her basket. She offered me a black one because she knew they were my favorite. I took it and instantly regretted it as I washed it down with a sip of coffee.
Natalie laughed at my expense. “Has five years of experience taught you nothing?”
“Apparently not.” I grimaced, hating the combination of licorice and coffee on my tongue.
Cora flitted from one end of the room to the other. High-pitched squeals burst out of her every time she found a chocolate egg perched on a blind, a windowsill, or nestled between sofa cushions. She found them perched on the ledges of picture frames—a new addition to the home since Natalie started spending the nights on weekends. She’d insisted I put up some family pictures to warm the place up. She’d even convinced me to get a plant.
Only one. I wasn’t taking risks and playing with fire by trying to keep more than one alive. It was a Calathea—a plant I couldn’t pronounce, naturally—and she watered and trimmed it every time she came over. It had a happy corner by the kitchen table where it seemed to catch just the right amount of sun.
Natalie slept over almost every weekend now and we’d talked in depth about her moving in. It looked like it was probably going to happen within the next month or so when her lease expired at her apartment. Victoria was totally on board with the idea. In fact, I think she was kind of looking forward to having the apartment to herself. She had plans to convert Natalie’s bedroom into a home office now that she had more responsibilities at On His Arm and was working as the assistant to the owner, allowing Natalie to take more than just one day off a week.
For that, I was eternally grateful. For a little while there, our schedules weren’t syncing up. I was putting in a lot of hours at the clinic and she was always at the office. Something had to give, so I cut back a bit at work and gave more responsibility to Drew, who was thriving.
Cora darted into the kitchen and found more eggs. She showed off each and every one, holding up the tiny foiled things and declaring every time, “Aha! I found one!”
Natalie cheered her on and topped off our coffees.
About half an hour into the hunt, I couldn’t see any leftover eggs that Cora hadn’t found. “I think you got them all, kiddo. I’m impressed. Some of the Easter Bunny’s hiding spots this year were really good.”
Cora’s little shoulders slumped. “Why does it always end so quickly?”
Natalie went over and crouched down in front of her. “Everything goes quickly when you’re having fun. But if you make sure you enjoy ev
ery second and you’re grateful, you can make the most of it.”
Cora looked past Natalie and up at me.
I tipped my head toward the fireplace. “You know, I think there might be a little something else over there.”
Natalie looked over her shoulder and frowned at me. Without Cora being able to see her, she mouthed, “We didn’t hide anything there.”
I nodded at the fireplace again. “Go check it out. Natalie, you might need to help her. It’s out of her reach, I think.”
Confused, Natalie walked over to the fireplace with Cora, who shot me a knowing smile behind Natalie’s back.
Yes, there was indeed something there.
Natalie searched the brick and the mantel, thinking there might be a shiny egg waiting there for her. There wasn’t. She turned to me, flustered.
“Maybe it’s tucked up inside,” I said.
Eyes narrowing as she began to suspect something, Natalie bent down and reached tentatively up into the fireplace, where her fingers must have found something because her eyes widened with surprise. Cora giggled as Natalie pulled out a tiny blue box. Not putting two and two together, she held the box out to Cora.
My little girl shook her head and clasped her hands together. “I think the Easter Bunny left that for you, Natalie.”
Natalie blinked down at the box. “For me?”
I moved closer. “Open it.”
My heart raced as Natalie held her breath and flipped the little box open. Inside, tucked into a velvet sleeve, was a sparkly and familiar ring.
The same ring we’d bought in Paris. The same one she’d thrown at me outside the hotel ballroom.
Natalie blinked away tears. “I don’t understand.”
“I lied,” I said softly. “I never left it in Paris.”
Her green eyes flicked to me.
“I want to exchange it for a real diamond,” I told her. “But I thought it would be special if I used—”
“I don’t want a real diamond,” she breathed. “I want this ring. My ring. The ring we bought together in Paris.”
I smiled down at Cora, who nodded at me, her eyes full of joy.
“Well, on that note…” I took a knee.
Natalie covered her mouth with one hand. “This isn’t happening.”
Cora clapped excitedly and looked back and forth between us. “It’s definitely happening.”
I reached for Natalie’s hand and plucked the ring from the box. I slid it on her ring finger. “I held on to it and waited for the right moment,” I said. “I wanted to propose at Christmas. And then on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and your birthday.” All of that was true. Every moment had passed me by. “I waited because I didn’t want to rush things. But I’ve known from the very moment I saw you that I only have two purposes in life. One is being the best father I can be for Cora.” I smiled at Cora.
My little girl rushed into my arms, turned around, and used my knee as a chair. She grinned up at a tearful Natalie. “Don’t cry, Natalie,” she said. “Daddy is almost finished.”
Natalie wiped her tears.
I cleared my throat. “My other purpose is to make you the happiest woman in the world. I want to spend every day trying to make you laugh, even if I’m making a fool of myself. I want to make you feel safe. I want to spare you from any second that you might feel lost, or alone, or frightened. I want to be there for you. Always.”
Cora frantically tapped at my wrist. “Ask her. Ask her!”
Natalie laughed.
I smiled up at my woman. “I love you more than I thought I could ever love someone again. Natalie Fox, will you marry me?”
Natalie cried and nodded simultaneously. She buried her face in her hands, but I pulled her left hand down to slide her ring back on her finger where it belonged. Cora cheered and I pulled Natalie down to the carpet with us, where I engulfed them both in a hug and squeezed them tight.
Natalie gave me a salty kiss. “I love you, you crazy man.”
I rested my forehead against hers. “I love you too.”
We closed our eyes and stayed there as long as Cora would allow, which was a grand total of about thirty seconds, after which she peered up at us. “Who’s making pancakes?”
My house was now a home filled with laughter, love, and plenty of wall space to hang new family photos. And perhaps enough space to transform my office into something else—something new.
Something that would give our family room to grow.
The End.
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About the Author
Chloe is a hometown girl from Tennessee who loves a great short romance, drinking coffee most of the day, and hanging out with family. When she's not writing, she can be found playing the piano or surfing Facebook!
Having been a reader all her life, she's hoping that you'll find yourself lost to time, laughing and falling in love all over again with her books.
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Pretend To Be Mine
Copyright © 2020 by C. Morgan.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and plot are all either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons – living or dead – is purely coincidental.
Editor: Eric Martinez
Cover Designer: Ryn Katryn Digital Art