by Jillian Neal
“Damn.”
By the time they were back in the truck, he’d processed what was coming. He sported a smug grin for the next hour. “What’d you say to me that night about a month ago?” he goaded.
Laughing, she rolled her eyes at him. “I told you to get me pregnant.”
“And what did I do?”
“Are you gloating, Grant Camden?”
“Maybe a little.”
“I guess you deserve to gloat. You okay getting married next month sometime?”
“Let me get the hay in and then I’ll vow to love you even during calving season.”
“Aww, you say the sweetest things.”
“I love you, Katy Belle, more than life itself.”
“I love you, too.”
Epilogue
Kaitlyn tried not to remember the last time she’d been standing in a room in a wedding gown. This time was certainly different. Last time all she’d wanted to do was run away. This time all she wanted was to rush down the aisle. Last time, the earth itself had violently protested her upcoming nuptials. This time the sun was high in the sky over the ranch. The incessant summer heat had even eased for the day. Hay bales cast shadows over the endless prairies and calves dotted the landscape, the most picture-perfect morning she could imagine.
“Hey, Sophie.” She’d put this off for way too long.
“Yeah?” Sophie checked her hair in the mirror again, hoping to attract one of the Pleasant Glen cowboys who were still unattached.
“I’m sorry I kept running away. That night I left Mom and Dad’s I should have made sure you were okay.”
Her sister gave her a kind grin. “Well, I should have made sure you were okay for a long, long time, Katy, and I didn’t. So we both screwed up, but I don’t think you were actually running away.”
“You don’t?”
“Nope. I think you were trying as hard as you could to run to where you know you belong.” She gestured to the sanctuary of land surrounding them.
“Yeah, I think I was, too.” Running her hands over her tiny bump, she thanked God for all he’d blessed her with.
“I told you months ago, Sommervilles do not run away. We always run towards things, and that’s the third time you’ve rubbed that little pooch you have.” Her grandmother’s smirk said she already knew. Sophie squealed and threw her arms around her sister. “When will my great-grandbaby be making his arrival?”
“We don’t know what it is yet.”
“I know, darling. I always know.”
“Late February.”
“I take it Langston doesn’t know.”
“He’s doing good with counseling and working on everything with Mom. And she’s been out of bed more than she’s been in it. They’re doing really well. I thought I’d share this with them after the honeymoon.”
“Smart girl. A father’s heart can only take so much.” Her grandmother reached up and tugged on her good ear. Kaitlyn did the same.
“I’m going to be an aunt!” Sophie proceeded to dance around the room.
“What was that?” Their father opened the door.
“Nothing Daddy,” Kaitlyn and her sister shared a quick conspiratorial grin.
“No offense, sweetheart, but I hear just fine. I’m not going to think about what I just heard for a little while, though. Are you ready?” This time when her father made his appearance, she was waiting on him.
“So ready.”
“Your belly or your sweet little ass,” Grant asked his wife as soon as he got her inside the hotel room in Denver.
“What?”
“Which do you want me to rub first? I know you’re tired and wanting a nap, and I have plans for you all night, Mrs. Katy Camden. I’m gonna put you to bed for a while first. I can always get you to sleep when I rub your ass, but you get all sweet, and cuddly, and sleepy when I rub your belly, too. I didn’t know which you wanted.”
“I’m sorry I’m so tired all the time.”
“You’re growing my baby in there. That’s hard work.”
“If he’s as stubborn as his daddy, it might be,” she laughed.
“Determined, and he?”
“Nana says it’s a boy.”
“I don’t care what it is.”
“Me either, and rub my belly.” She spun and directed him to the zipper than ran the length of the wedding gown.
“Trying not to remember the first time I took you out of one of these.”
“I tried that all morning, but we can’t have a future if we don’t have a past.”
“Yeah, I know. Thank you for being my future, peaches.”
“There is nothing else I’ve ever wanted to be.”
Another Epilogue
Ten Years Later
Staring down at the massive bump that prevented her from seeing her feet, Katy whimpered. “I’m too fat to reach the mixing bowls in the cabinet. How am I supposed to pack them?”
A loud crash sounded behind her. Spinning quickly, she shook her head. “You helping Mommy pack up the house, Kade?” She scooped up their sixteen-month-old son from the pile of pots and pans he’d successfully yanked out of the box on the floor.
“No, no, no.” Kade wriggled until Katy set him back on his feet, just as determined as his daddy. He promptly climbed inside the box and sat on the cookbooks she’d lined along the bottom.
“Fine, sit in the box.” She sighed.
Before she could decide what to work on next, Grant flung open the kitchen door carrying a soaking wet three-year-old Barrett inside. Keith and Dallas followed him in, and the guilt written all over their faces said whatever had happened had been their fault.
“What did you do to him?” Katy demanded.
“He said he wanted to go swimmin’, Mama,” Keith pled. “I promise.”
“They dunked him in the stock tank again,” Grant sighed. “Get on back outside. Stop bringing mud and manure in the house we’re trying to move out of. Your mama just cleaned the floors. The both of you can muck the stalls in all four barns for this.”
“Keith Langston Camden, how many times have you been told not to dunk your brothers in the tanks?” Katy huffed.
“It’s hot outside. We was bored. We didn’t hurt him none,” Dallas pled on his big brother’s behalf.
“No. Don’t say we was bored to Daddy,” Keith pled through his teeth.
“Oh, I’ll take care of you being bored, son. That won’t happen again. There’s six dozen hay bales of you can stack after you get the stalls clean. And the front porch the new house needs painting. Now, get,” Grant ordered. The boys marched back out to the front porch. “I was gonna put him up in the combine with me, see if I couldn’t at least get one of ‘em to nap so we can get some more stuff up to Mama and Daddy’s.”
“Are we always going to call it your mama and daddy’s house?” Kaitlyn grinned as she grabbed a roll of paper towels and handed them to her husband so he could mop up Barrett. “I already took all of the towels up there, of course.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Dakota and Savana were supposed to keep an eye on ‘em. Dad’s got most of their stuff packed up. Mama and Holly are heading down here in a little while to help with the house trade.”
“It’s okay. The boys are excited they get their own rooms. I’m a little sad, though,” Kaitlyn took in the house, remembering the time she’d stumbled in the kitchen on her first night at the ranch and then each and every time Grant had eased her inside carrying their newest baby in his capable arms.
“Yeah, it’ll be different, that’s for sure, but sugar, we’re all outta room.” Stripping Barrett out of his soaking wet clothes, he located a pair of Batman underoos from one of the laundry baskets nearby. “And I know you’re excited to cook in that kitchen.”
“I do it!” Barrett proceeded to pull on the underwear backwards.
“I ain’t even gonna fix that right now.” Grant shook his head and then paused to give her that sexy-as-sin grin that always got them in trouble. He guided her to
his chest.
“Every time you give me that look, I end up pregnant again.”
“That ain’t exactly the way this all works, peaches, and you know it. It is probably a bad sign how often I thank the Lord up above this one’s a girl, though.” He rubbed his hand over her bump.
She giggled. “After five boys, I’ll believe it when I see it. Where’s Brady?”
“He’s out with Dad checking cattle.”
“You mean he’s out with your dad talking him into convincing me to let them get another puppy.”
“One in the same, ain’t it?”
“Five boys, three dogs, and another on the way, it’s a good thing I love you, Grant Camden.”
“It’s a real good thing, but if you weren’t so damned sexy we wouldn’t have this problem.”
“So damn sexy, so damn sexy,” Barrett repeated as he scampered to his half-empty room.
“Grant!”
“Sorry,” he cringed. “It’s the truth though.”
“Yes, well, I fielded everything the last time they were down at the front of the church for children’s time and Brady informed the pastor that he wasn’t allowed to point with his middle finger even though his daddy and his uncles do it to each other all the time. If he tells Pastor Jenkins he’s so damn sexy,” she mouthed, “it’s all you, cattle rancher.”
“That’s only fair. Now, what can I do to help?”
“You can keep Kade from unpacking everything I pack.”
“Sweet Jesus, he ain’t supposed to be mischievous yet.”
“Yes, well, he is his father’s son. Hey, instead of making them clean horse stalls why don’t we get the older boys to carry boxes up to your parents?”
“We could, but your cookbooks ain’t likely to survive, and I’m scared to think about what might become of the good dishes of my grandmama’s you love so much.”
“Good point.”
“How about we wait on Mama and Aunt Holly to get down here to watch these youngins, and I put you up in my truck, and we go spend the afternoon at the creek. Trust me, I can’t get you more pregnant. I know. I’ve tried.”
Dissolving into a fit of giggles, Katy shook her head. “I thought we were moving today.”
“We are, but I miss you, peaches. Just for a little while.”
“Grant Camden skipping out on work. I must be a terrible influence.”
“I’ve been telling Mama and Daddy for years you were nothing but trouble. Nobody believes me.”
Katy rolled her eyes, wishing the offer wasn’t quite so intriguing. They had so much work to do. She couldn’t help herself. He was and would always be her everything and spending a few hours all alone with him sounded like heaven. “That sounds so fun, but I don’t think I can get in the back of the truck anymore.”
“Come here to me.” Before she could protest, Grant scooped her up in his arms and tried to hide his slight strain from her. “See, I still gotcha, peaches.”
“Put me down. I’m too heavy for you to do this. I’m seven months pregnant.”
“Keep talking like that. I’m counting strikes.”
“Are you now? Well, trust me, my ass is plenty big enough to…”
“That’s good for at least ten, Katy Belle.”
“It’s a good thing you’re so damned sexy,” she quoted back.
“And this right here is how we ended up with six kids, just so you know. I sure do love you, Mrs. Camden.”
“Oh yeah? Well, I kind of think I love you, too, Mr. Camden.” The twinkle in his pale green eyes said he remembered all too well.
“What’s a guy got to do to make you damn sure?”
“Give her every possible thing she ever wanted and put her up in the back of his truck out by the creek.”
About the Author
Bestselling author, Jillian Neal, was not only born 30 but also came accessorized with loads of books and adorable handbags in which to carry them, at least that’s what she tells people. After earning a degree in education, she discovered that her passion could never be housed inside a classroom. A vehement lover of love and having maintained a lifelong affair with the awe-inspiring power of words, she set to turn the romance industry on its head. Her overly-caffeinated, troupe-spinning muse is never happy with the standard formula story. She believes every book should be brimming with passion, loaded with hot sexy scenes, packed with a gut-punch of emotion, and have characters that leap off the page and right into your heart.
Her first series, The Gifted Realm, defines contemporary romance with a fantasy twist. Her Gypsy Beach series will leave you longing to visit the sultry shores of the tiny bohemian beach town, and her erotic romance series, Camden Ranch, will make you certain there is nothing better than a cowboy with some chaps and a plan. The sheer amount of coffee required to keep all of those characters dancing in her head would border on lethal, so she unleashes their engaging stories on page after page of spellbinding reads.
Jillian lives outside of Atlanta with her own sexy sweetheart, their teenage sons, and enough stiletto heels, cowgirl boots, and flip-flops to exist in any of the fictional worlds she brings to life.
For more information…
@jilliannealauth
jilliannealauthor
jillianneal.com
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Also by Jillian Neal
The Gifted Realm Saga
Within the Realm
Lessons Learned
Every Action
Rock Bottom
An Angel All His Own
All But Lost
The Quelling Tide
Gypsy Beach
Gypsy Beach
Gypsy Love
Gypsy Heat
Gypsy Hope
Gypsy Beach to Camden Ranch
Coincidental Cowgirl
Camden Ranch
Rodeo Summer
Forever Wild
Cowgirl Education
The Gifted Realm: Academy
Free, web serial