My hands came to my face, but it wasn’t enough to catch all the tears.
“Yes!” I said. He gently reached for my hand and slid the beautiful, huge, diamond onto my finger.
“It’s so perfect,” I said.
“You’re perfect.”
We drifted through the clouds as he held me in my arms. At that moment I knew it was impossible for a girl to feel more loved.
EPILOGUE
Jack
One month later
W hatcha cookin', good lookin'?” she said from behind as she wrapped me up in a hug.
“Campfire beans and wieners,” I said.
“Sure doesn’t look like it,” she said sticking in her finger for a sample. “Wow, that is really good. How did you learn to cook so well?”
“A man’s gotta eat,” I said.
“And a big man needs to eat a lot,” she said playfully grabbing my crotch.
“Hey, I was looking through the bank statements today and I noticed your account was almost empty. Did something happen?”
“Not really.”
“Sounds like there’s more to that answer.”
“Not really.”
I slapped her butt with a wooden spoon.
“Ohhh!” she said. “That was nice. Who knew cooking equipment could double as sex toys.”
“We’ve got all kinds of exploring we can do in this house.”
“I can hardly wait.”
“But really. Is everything okay? The bank didn’t make a mistake or something did it?”
“No, I pulled it out.”
“What happened?”
She paused. “I wasn’t going to tell you, but I guess now’s as good a time as any.”
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want. I just wanted to make sure you knew and everything was okay.”
“It’s okay,” she began. “Remember how I was so persistent when I came looking for a job that day?”
“Do I ever.”
“Very funny. Well, there were actually two reasons. First of course was because of you. You and I knew both that I might be able to help get the business back on track. I’ve seen my dad’s books from the business he’s running up in the oil sands of Canada these days, and I know sometimes there are a lot of little things I can do that can make a big difference.”
“That’s nice of you.”
“Thanks.”
“The second thing?”
“The second thing, I didn’t want to tell you. My mom lost her job a week before I came to you. Without her job, I couldn’t afford to finish my last semester. I felt terrible, and my mom tried to convince me to stay, but there was no way I could spend thousands of dollars my family didn’t have. I wasn’t ready to take a loan, but more importantly it was a wake-up call. I needed to be an adult and do things for myself. I shouldn’t rely on the generosity of my mom and dad to get me through school. I should have worked while I was taking classes. Even a simple job would have helped out our family finances a lot.”
“Very thoughtful of you not to continue, especially when you were so close to finishing,” I said. Man, this woman never ceased to amaze me with her kindness and generosity.
“Thanks. So I took some money out and gave it to my mom.”
“Is she going to be okay?”
“Good news came last week. She’s going to be better actually. She got a new job that pays her a lot more. With the difference in pay she won’t even notice those couple months she wasn’t working. It’s going to turn into a mini vacation for her.”
“But a stressful one.”
“Exactly. She didn’t really get to enjoy it like that, so I gave her some money to pay her back, the first installment of many more to come, for all the years she helped me out with college…plus a little more so she and my dad could take a nice weekend somewhere together.”
“Like Napa Valley?”
“Ummm, maybe I, ummm, might have suggested that,” she said holding the tip of her pinky finger to her corner of her mouth.
“Daughter of the Year Award Winner.”
“Very funny,” she said. “And you know, I was meaning to ask you something too.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“I noticed that your other bank account had a big hole in it as well.”
I laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“What was I thinking…that I could hide something from my fiancé who was also doing all the accounting for our businesses?”
“Hide something? Jack, come on. You don’t have to hide anything from me.”
I turned the heat down on the stove. “One second,” I said. I went to the other room and pulled out the envelope from underneath my old boot box.
“I agree,” I said, as I came back into the kitchen. “But there are a few times when I have to,” I said, handing her the envelope.
I smiled as I watched her face. She looked intrigued as she opened the letter. When she read it, I saw the smile cover her face. Her hands dropped to her sides.
“You are amazing!” She hugged me. “When did you do this?”
After that big order we got from Aberness and Eagle, I took some of the money and just wired it right to Berkeley.
“Right into my account.”
“Right into your account. I spoke with the counselor and she told me exactly how much it would cost for one more semester.”
“Amazing,” she said. “But this is more.”
“Well, you know. Have to be prepared for anything, plus my baby’s gotta have some extra to enjoy the good life from time to time. Can’t study every minute of the day.”
“But still…this is too much.”
“Nothing is too much, or too good, for my girl.”
She went to put the paper showing her student account balance back inside the envelope, and then she saw it.
“Wait, there’s something else in here?”
“How did that get in there?” I said jokingly.
She pulled it out. “It’s a check. I don’t get it.”
“I’m setting aside money starting today.”
“That’s great, but money for what?”
“You may be the first one in our family to graduate college, but you’re not going to be the only one.”
“What do you mean?”
“What I mean is,” I said, hugging her tight, “we’re going to fill this house with babies and by the time they finish high school there’s going to be all the money they need ready and waiting so they can pursue their education anywhere in the world they wish.”
“Ohhh, Jack! This is a big start for a child.”
“Child is singular, you know we won’t stop there.”
“But we don’t even have one yet.”
I turned back around and turned the oven all the way off.
“Well we better get started then hadn’t we?”
“Ohhh,” she said as I scooped her off feet and carried her to the bedroom.
I hit the play button on the CD player and my last surprise came to life through my new favorite song, a John Mellencamp classic.
‘Little ditty about Jack and Diane…Two American kids growin' up in the heartland.’
“Two American kids, huh?” she said.
“Yeah, I’m also hoping for twins right out of the gate.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she said in between laughs as I held her down and tickled her.
“But it’s what you want, isn’t it?”
“Of course it is. I want you, and I want us.”
“And not just us,” I said holding my hands close together, “but us,” I said opening them wider to signify how ‘us’ will expand as we welcome new additions to our family.
“To our love,” she said. “May it be even bigger than the forest.”
“And may we get lost in that forest of love often. And like each acorn we will plant every time we welcome a new child, our own little forest will only continue to grow.”
“And this is one tree, our family tree, which will never get chopped down. It will only grow bigger and bigger and branch out even further and further, forever.”
“Forever.”
The End
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SNEAK PEEK: PROTECTOR
Jax has trust issues. The mark on his eight-pack abs reminds him of it every day.
Abandoned by his mother. Betrayed by his ex. Now seemingly forgotten by the country he fought so hard to honor and protect.
Burned one too many times. There's no more point in trying.
Until her.
Can Jax put his troubled past behind him and learn to trust, and to love, again?
In this small Midwest town everybody knows everything about everybody...or so they thought. What secrets are Kate hiding? Can Jax protect Kate from her stalker and win her heart? Can she win his trust?
What neither one of them counted on was falling for the other. But that might be just what they need. Each other.
*Protector is a standalone romance with an HEA, no cheating, and no cliffhanger.
Order Now
Lumberjacked: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 14) Page 5