“Me too,” I admit. “Honestly, I can’t really believe we’re both here, like this. It feels too good to be true. Doesn’t it?”
Wilder exhales, then asks, “Baby, I never even asked. Are you tired? Need something to drink?” He rests his hand on the small of my back and begins leading me toward the house.
“I’m fine, a little tired, but that’s nothing new.” I stop walking, not really wanting to keep anything from this man. The man whose patience seems unending. “Wilder, we need to talk.”
“We sure do. I have plenty of things I need to tell you.”
“No, Wilder I need to tell you things first.”
“What things?”
I look around, the camera still on us and I shake my head. I don’t want everything I say to Wilder to be caught on tape.
“Later,” I say, retracting. “I can’t talk with all these cameras around. I don’t think I can do the show at all.”
I look for help, the cameraman still running his film, and Janice walking toward us, and I clench my jaw, having a few choice words for her if she is behind this.
“I’ll get you somewhere safe, baby,” Wilder promises. “Don’t you worry.”
He wraps his arms tight around me and leads me away from the film crew.
He leads me away, and I follow.
Chapter Fifteen
Wilder
She looks stunned. Shocked. Scared.
I wrap my arms around her, not wanting the cameras to see our story unfold.
It’s one thing to have a film crew capture Jax, Buck, and me as we hammer nails into two by fours. It’s another thing for them to witness the moment I tell Stella there’s no way in hell she’s leaving me again.
By the look of fear in her eyes, she doesn’t want them to capture that moment either.
“I’ll go find Janice,” I tell her. “If she set us up for this, she’ll be sorry. Sure, we agreed to be on their show, but I did not agree to be in their circus.”
Stella shakes her head. “Maybe they didn’t know that we... I mean, how could they?”
I think back to the words Rosie said on the day of our photoshoot. She had been so exhausted and the kids were wearing her down. She let Stella’s name slip, but instantly realizing her mistake.
I remember Janice pouncing on it then. Asking Rosie to spell it out. But Rosie had shaken her head and refused.
Still, Janice had gotten Stella’s name. It must have triggered something. She knew Stella Saint Claire was on the fucking payroll. She is smart enough to put things together.
“Well, they knew your name,” I tell her. “Of course I told my friends about you, that we were having a baby. Everybody’s been dying to meet you or at least understand what’s going through your head. So I had told them that we’d spoken, told them your name.”
“It’s fine that they know, of course, they do. They are your people. But Janice had no right to intrude this way. I need to go find her. She tried to set us up and catch us off guard. In fact, “she screams at the cameraman following us. “Get that camera out of my fucking face.”
I don’t blame her for having an outburst one bit. This is way over the line of acceptable.
Stella takes a step back from me, getting teary-eyed. “This is not how I wanted this meeting to go.”
Understanding what she needs, I turn to the cameraman, “You need to get the producer here now. Go find Janice. And turn that fucking camera off. Do you understand me?” I ask. He must have gotten a clue because he scampers off without another word.
Stella looks up at me stunned.
“What, I’m not gonna let you get played.”
Stella nods, blinking back tears. “Thank you Wilder, or going all cave-man for me. Thank you.”
...
Janice marches towards us, lips pursed.
I’m not having any of it.
“Calm down, calm down, you two.” She motions with her hands for us to settle down like we’re fucking toddlers. Or cattle. “You both agreed to the terms of service. You’re on a television show. A reality television show. Things are getting real here.”
“No,” I snort. “They aren’t getting real.”
We must be getting loud because I see Buck and Jaxon walking toward us as if trying to sort out whatever’s going on.
“You need any help, brother?” Jax hollers.
“Yeah, you need to find a new person for your crew. Because I’m not working with this woman anymore.”
Buck raises his hands gesturing for us to calm down.
Just then Rosie’s Sprinter van pulls up. Harper’s in the passenger seat and they get out, eyes wide.
“What’s going on?” Rosie asks walking toward us. The town car is still here and the film crew is capturing everything.
Janice just smugly watches this montage unfold.
“Our producer set me up,” I shout. “Stella’s the designer. For the fucking show.”
Harper’s eyebrows raise in alarm, stepping closer. “Stella? I don’t follow.”
But everyone else seems to follow. Because their eyes land on Stella’s stomach. Her much larger than last time stomach. Her clearly pregnant stomach.
“Stella?” Harper asks. “You’re Stella? You’re Wilder’s Stella?”
Harper doesn’t seem to track as quickly as the rest because everybody starts running ahead and saying yes, obviously this is Wilder’s woman.
Stella doesn’t answer, she just shakes her head, looking distraught -- completely overwhelmed.
But quick enough she finds her words and lashes out at Janice. “How did this even happen? I’ve been working on the show for the last month. This whole time, you knew I would show up here and Wilder would be....” Her sentence peters out because what do you even say?
“We didn’t know the whole time. But a few weeks ago Rosie let it slip and it seemed like a producers wet dream. What more could I ask for?” Janice shakes her head as if she has done out of the ordinary. “My interior designer is pregnant with the show’s star and it’s some unrequited love scenario? You can’t write that shit.”
“Yeah and you can’t use that shit either,” I shout. “Get the cameras off us. This is my life. This is my woman. And this is our baby.”
Stella trembles. “Wilder, not just your baby.”
“I know that. It’s your baby too. And it can be our life, Stella. That’s why we just need to step away from the show we can have an actual conversation.”
“No, you don’t understand. It’s not just a baby. It’s two babies. Wilder, I’m pregnant with your twins.”
The cameraman swings his lens to me. I can only imagine what he captures. The mountain man who had a long day of work, caught by surprise, suddenly the father of not one baby, not two. Suddenly the father of four.
Chapter Sixteen
Stella
The scene unfolds dramatically just like Janice wanted. Everyone is upset with her, but in some ways I’m relieved.
I wanted to get the truth out in the open, I was so tired of holding onto it, holding it from Wilder. And standing here with him, I couldn’t keep it back for a second longer. I should have told him the moment I knew.
I never want to keep anything from him again.
And the truth is, part of me wanted to tell him when he wasn’t expecting it. So I could see his true reaction. Part of me wanted to see his reaction unstaged.
Wilder shakes his head in disbelief. “And you didn’t tell me? Stella, you can’t keep things from me like this.”
I try to answer, but I just start sobbing, unable to rein in my emotions. The truth is, I’m caught off guard too.
“Stella, talk to me baby,” he tries, but I can’t talk. I need to get away from the cameras and cry in peace.
The woman, Harper wraps her arms around me and leads me to her van. “Hey, sweetie, we’re gonna drive you home now, okay?”
“The men can meet us there after they’ve finished explaining things to Janice,” Rosie says.
I sit, stunned, as she puts the key in the ignition and begins driving her big van down the mountain.
It’s only then that I looked behind me and realize I’m not alone in this van.
“All of these are your kids?” I ask, counting four kids buckled up in car seats.
“No,” Rosie says looking over her shoulder at me in the back. “Harper's in-laws have some back at their place. That’s where we’re headed now. Their great-grandparents have a trailer they keep up on their property so they can stay there half of the year. She’s real lucky.”
“We all pitch in like that,” Harper says. “One big happy family. Only getting bigger.”
“Something like that.” Rosie laughs. “Is there something you’re not telling me? Are you pregnant again?”
Harper blushes but shakes her head. “No. Right now, I think one of us being pregnant is plenty.”
I look up at Rosie, and her eyes are already on me in the rearview mirror. “I’m talking about you, Stella.”
Me? It’s like they count me as one of their own.
“I cannot believe what just happened up there. Do you think the guys are gonna call the whole show off?” Harper asks.
Rosie drives the van down the mountain but doesn’t go far when she turns off the main road and starts up the winding road to a beautiful log cabin nestled in the woods.
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Rosie says. “Wilder was pissed off. With reason. I cannot believe Janice did that. I’m so sorry, Stella I can’t even imagine what you’re thinking right now.”
What I’m thinking? That this is surreal. This it’s like I swallowed a massive serving of fate. That the connection I felt with Wilder the moment we met was real.
Wasn’t forced. Wasn’t fake. We are supposed to be together, because how else do you explain it?
I don’t say any of those things, instead, I just follow the women out of the car and watch as they unbuckle babies and pass them to one another.
“This is your house?” I ask Harper, seeing a trailer in the driveway.
“Yep, Jax built it for me.” Her long blonde hair frames her face and she looks like an angel. Her eyes are large and wide, so sweet and tender.
Taking a good look at Rosie, she has the same innocence about her. Not a stupid sort of innocence... maybe not even innocence at all.
Maybe Rosie just looks happy. Plain and simple. Content.
I think about the mountain men up there at that cabin that is being built. The three of them look so rough-and-tumble, tattoos and beards and dirty jeans and boots. Like, real men.
Real men who know how to take care of their women.
Maybe that’s why Rosie and Harper look so dang happy right now. They are.
Inside an older woman stands at the kitchen island chopping vegetables. Harper introduces us to her as Barbara, her mother-in-law.
“I didn’t expect to see you so soon. Your husbands calling it a day so soon?” Barbara asks.
“Something like that,” Harper says setting the babies in her arm down and picking up a toddler who comes running toward her. He plants kisses all over her face and she laughs. “Cedar, you’re a kissing monster today.” She sets him back down the floor and he runs away to a gaggle of children, and all three women laugh knowingly.
A laugh I don’t quite understand.
Rosie fills Barbara in with on drama that unfolded at the cabin. I watch as Barbara’s eyes get wide, taking me in.
“Oh, my word, Stella, it’s so good to meet you, darling.” Barbara wraps her arms around me in a big hug. She squeezes me tight, then pulling away and pressing both of her hands on my belly.
I’d feel like we need to create boundaries, except Barbara is so motherly that I can’t help but lean into her confidence.
“It’s good to meet you too, I just feel really... really...” That’s when I started to sob again.
“Oh sweetheart,” Harper says patting my shoulder. “Wilder will be here soon to take care of you.”
“Do you want to meet his twins?” Rosie asks. “Would that make you feel better? Like... I don’t know, maybe seeing them would make this feel more concrete. More real.”
“I don’t know if Wilder would want me to meet them without him here.”
Rosie’s eyes looked past me, though, and I follow her gaze. A set of twins, a boy and a girl, and matching clothes jump up and down in plastic contraptions.
“Regardless, you’re here. And so are they.” Rosie says taking my hand and leading me toward the babies.
“This is Briar,” Harper says pointing to the little girl. “And this is Finn. Briar’s the bigger handful. Constantly demanding. But I think we can all relate to that, being women and all.”
The ladies laugh, and I wipe the tears from my cheeks, looking at these two perfect people that Wilder has been taking care of all on his own.
“How has he done this, taking on so much?” I kneel down the floor with Rosie and Harper.
“He didn’t really have a choice, did he?” Rosie says quietly. “I know the way you got pregnant, and with twins at that… it probably wasn’t what you planned. But sometimes the magic is in the surprise. Sometimes beauty is in the unexpected.”
“Is that how it was for you and Buck?” I ask her, already accepting her confidence. “Was it unexpected or did you plan on having the twins?”
“We did not plan on the twins. Nor do we plan on the newborn. But….” Rosie shrugs. “It’s never felt like a bad thing. Of course, it’s hard some days, but there’s also a lot of beauty creating a life with another person. Making a life with someone who loves you.”
Harper nods as if she knows exactly what Rosie is saying. “I didn’t plan to have triplets either. Jaxon and I weren’t exactly a couple when I got pregnant.”
Her cheeks redden and she tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear not wanting to meet my eyes. “But whether or not we were a couple didn’t really matter. We were meant for one another. So what started as something reckless, quickly turned into something real. A snowstorm brought me to Jaxon’s house, but love is what kept me there.”
Something in my chest tightens, maybe I’m jealous of Rosie and Harper’s complete assuredness about their lives. They have no doubt, no questions. They know absolutely, 100%, who they are and what they have.
“I don’t have that,” I admit. “I mean, Wilder and I aren’t in love. We’ve never said those words one another. We only spent a few days together, hardly even that. And I think that is what scares me, Harper shushes me. “Sweetie, slow down, deep breaths. It’s okay.”
“I think you can fall in love in the space of one afternoon,” Rosie says solemnly. “I think you can fall in love in the space of one minute. One second. Maybe some people have love stories that take years to unfold, but other people,” she says licking her lips and looking at Harper and me. “Some people’s stories are written in a single moment in time. And those people ... us... we are the lucky ones.”
Rosie’s eyes brim with tears and she brushes them away, as Harper brushes away her own.
And then I’m crying too.
Because what she says about love feels like what I want to believe about Wilder and me. About our life together.
I could never say something like that to my sister because she wouldn’t understand falling in love in the blink of an eye.
But Rosie and Harper seem to understand exactly what I’ve gone through. They don’t judge me or condemn me or question me. They accept me.
“So what happens next?” I ask just as the door opens and in walk our three men.
Harper takes my hand squeezing it tight. “Now you go get what you want.”
Chapter Seventeen
Wilder
We tell Janice off just like she deserved.
“Okay,” she sputters. “I get that you’re calling it quits for the day. But you will be back tomorrow. On set, correct?”
I shake my head, rolling my eyes, so done with her. Only wanting one thing at
the moment: to get to Stella.
Rosie and Harper took her under their collective wing and guided her to the cabin, so at least I know she’s safe. At least I know she isn’t going anywhere.
I grab her suitcase out of the town car, toss it in the back of my truck. Buck and Jaxon get in their own trucks and in minutes we leave the construction site headed for home.
The idea of another set of twins doesn’t scare me. I’m not mad. That’s not what has my heart racing and my blood pumping.
The twins aren’t what has my head spinning.
What has me torn up right now is thinking about her for the past month, knowing all this and worrying about the babies, and not having anyone to confide in, rely on. Not having me to hold her hand and carry her heart.
It kills me that she’s been doing it all alone.
Because I’ve been doing it alone with twins ever since they came to me. Ever since my brother died. And it’s been a long fucking road. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, let alone the woman I love.
Pulling up at Jaxon’s house, I turn off my truck and slam the door. I head to the door with Buck and Jaxon right behind me.
We walk inside and I see the girls crouched in front of Briar and Finn and my heart surges.
Drops.
Leaps.
Fuck it, I don’t know what my heart is doing, but fnally, it soars.
And I’m not waiting.
For permission or for anything. I walk to Stella and I get down on one mother fucking knee.
“Oh, baby, baby.” I wrap my arms around her waist, and her arms reach around my neck. And I kiss her belly. The belly that holds my babies, my future. My forever.
And Briar and Finn are right beside us, and I wrap them in my arms too, kissing the tops of their heads, and then kissing Stella on the lips.
This family is unconventional, made from broken pieces, but together we are whole and we are enough.
“I love you, Stella. I love you now and I know it’s crazy and I know it’s fast. But it’s real.”
The Mountain Man’s Babies: Books 1-5 Page 29