“I was on the plane,” he replied. “Joe told me everything yesterday, and I got the first flight.”
“Joe? Everything?”
“The cab driver—big guy, super funny, shitty van.”
“Yes, Joe! Thank god, I’m so glad he told you.”
“I found Peony at my house that night, after I got back from the mill. I kicked her out for good, I was so pissed off that she’d tried to insert herself back into my life, but I had no idea how much damage she had done. I’m sorry, princess.”
“I’m sorry,” I replied emphatically. “I’m such a weirdo, and sometimes I let my father’s influence in my life take over. I harden myself to the world, and I shut myself off rather than dealing with things. I shut you out though, and for that I will spend the rest of my life apologizing and making up for it.”
“I don’t ever want to hear you say sorry again,” he said, holding his finger up to my lip. “You don’t need to apologize for being you, I’ll just have to learn to read the signs and recognize when you’re channelling that prick who raised you.”
“We’ll both do better,” I promised. We stopped talking and started staring at each other again. At our feet, Tiger started whining, but we ignored him, falling into the endless universe that each of our souls promised the other.
I heard a splashing sound, and we both looked down at the same time to see Tiger lifting his leg on Aaron’s backpack.
“Tiger!” I yelled, and he looked up at me without shame. He finished off, kicked his back feet a couple times, and sat down with his wide mouth set in a smile. “You’re a bad dog!”
“Naw, give the poor guy a break,” Aaron laughed as he pushed his backpack away with his foot. “We’ll get the doorman to bring that one up when it’s dry.”
We headed into my building and everything felt lighter somehow, as if the past few days had been seen through a darkened lens. I felt bubbly, as if I’d mixed champagne with helium and was about to break into mad laughter at the slightest of jokes.
We got onto the elevator, Tiger sat at our feet and stared up at us. I punched in the code to my floor, and we began to move.
“So this is it,” Aaron said, wrapping his arms around me, smelling my hair and nuzzling my neck.
“This is it,” I laughed as his beard tickled the sensitive skin under my ear. I fell against him and looked up, way up, at my gorgeous lumberjack giant. “This is everything, though.”
He looked down, smoothing the hair away from my face. “It really is. Everything.”
He bent and kissed me, his lips tasted salty like the tears that had spilled from my eyes over the past few days. He kissed me until they tasted sweet, my tears were forgotten and all was right again in our world.
The elevator doors opened straight into my penthouse apartment. Tiger bounded out, the leash dragging behind him, and we followed, moving slowly as our lips explored each other’s mouths, our tongues joining in the dance, an endless flow of pure joy.
I didn’t know exactly what the future would hold for the two of us, but being there in Aaron’s arms, none of it mattered any longer. Wherever he was, I was home, I was safe, and above all, I was loved.
Reagan
* * *
“The place looks incredible, I really love the new installation,” Penny told me as she walked around my art gallery, The Lumber Mill.
I’d been living in Alaska for almost two years now, and every month seemed to get better.
After selling my penthouse in LA, I had more than enough money to invest in myself for a change and pursue the one thing I’d never imagined myself doing. I became an artist.
I wasn’t sure if I was even that great, but Aaron built me a small studio off the back of our house, and I spent most evenings in there sculpting and painting and trying to get better at what I did.
I had decided to open the gallery when I’d gotten in touch with the local art community. There were so many talented people up here, they just needed to be discovered. That, and capitalizing on the newfound boost in tourism after Lumberjacked aired meant I could actually get by with the business. Everybody wanted to take a piece of the town back with them when they spent a little time here. Aaron and my story on the show brought them in, but the quaint charm of the place stayed with them.
The sawmill was booming too. Aaron had thrown himself into upgrading and expanding it as soon as he realized he had a wife to support.
I know, I have money, but he’s very old-fashioned that way, and I find it utterly adorable, so who am I to remind him that I’m loaded every time he brings home his paycheck? Besides, flannel and rough hands has become kind of my fetish. Sometimes I make him wear his hard hat and we roleplay…well, never mind, let’s just say I love me a blue-collar worker with a naughty secretary.
The best thing of all has been finding a mother in Penny. She was an amazing woman who ruled her sons with an iron fist, but she had a soft spot in her heart for me. She took me under her wing and soon had me doing things I’d never dreamed of back in the city, like gardening, raising chickens, and canning everything from moose meat to my own vegetables.
If the apocalypse happens, we’ve got more than enough in our cold room to live on for quite a while. And now that we have two big dogs along with Tiger and his little French Bulldog girlfriend, Tipsy, we’d be set.
“Thanks,” I told Penny as we walked around again, looking at the new exhibit of Inuit art from the arctic. It had been thrilling to fly up there and meet the artists. It had been so cold that Aaron had been pretty smug about having the beard to protect his face. “It was a hell of an ordeal getting it all here, but it looks good.”
Penny’s eyes darkened, just a fleeting shadow, and she asked me, “Did your father talk to you about Axel yet?”
I felt my own shadow flit across my heart at the mention of my father. Aaron’s brother had returned to Alaska after rehab, but he’d never really fit in up here. I’d contacted my father to get Axel onto something down south, but I wasn’t sure if it ever panned out.
“Unfortunately, no,” I replied. “I’m sorry, but you know I don’t talk to him that often. I’ll ask Melanie. In fact, you can ask her yourself—she’ll be here tomorrow.”
“She’s back already?” Penny laughed. “She must really like seeing you guys…or is it that Geologist from the mine she’s after?”
“I know she loves us, but I suspect it’s more about Roland than it is about anyone else.”
Melanie had met Roland last summer and had been up a few times to see him, and he’d been down there to see her. She hadn’t dated anyone in between, either, so I wondered if my friend was hitting her own decision soon about whether to stay in the business or make her way up here. Roland’s family owned mines up here in Alaska, so I doubted he’d be able to move down to LA.
I sure wouldn’t mind. I’d made many friends in town, but Melanie was my oldest and dearest, and I missed seeing her all the time.
I was walking slowly with Penny and just about to open the gallery for the day when I felt a wave of nausea wash over me and I wobbled on my feet. I stuck out my hand to steady myself and closed my eyes to fight the roiling of my stomach.
“Are you alright, dear?” Penny asked as she grabbed my elbow, helping me stand upright.
“I’m fine, it’s just nerves, I think,” I replied. I took a deep breath and let it out, and the nausea seemed to pass.
I opened my eyes, and Penny was staring at me, concern knitting her brows together. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure, let’s get the door open and the sign out on the sidewalk and everything will be good, I promise.”
The morning passed without any more incidents. I had a constant sense of nausea in the back of my throat, but sipping warm lemon tea seemed to keep it under control.
I managed to interact with customers, answer questions, and even sell a few things. Most of the time, people still just wanted to ask about Aaron and I once they recognized me from the Lumberjacked finale.
It had turned out Melanie was excellent at her job after all. She’d filmed more than a few of our secret trysts, and had put together an incredibly moving perspective episode to go along with Aaron’s proposal. It had been the highest-viewed show on the network ever, and nothing since had even come close to that surprise proposal episode.
Penny left early on, and I was on my own, but things were normal…well, other than the nausea and my fatigue. I sat down in between customers and cursed myself for not getting enough sleep lately. Every time there was a new show, I couldn’t sleep. Anxiety always kept me up, and that combined with apparently fighting the flu meant I wasn’t one hundred percent.
I was about to close up shop when Penny returned with a strange look on her face. She scanned me up and down, as if inspecting me for signs of something.
“Is something wrong?” I asked, turning the key and flipping the sign.
“I was thinking today, about this morning, and it occurred to me…sweetheart, have you and Aaron been trying for a baby?”
I snort laughed and said, “No, of course not…” My voice trailed off as I realized I hadn’t had my period lately…but Aaron and I had been so careful. Birth control pills made me too ill, but we’d been using condoms and sticking to oral when I was fertile.
“Oh,” I exclaimed, bringing my hand up to my mouth. There was that one time last month, or was it six weeks ago? We’d gone out with friends and had ended up playing pool and drinking at their place until pretty late. When we’d gotten home, Aaron had cracked open a bottle of wine and we’d continued to drink and slow dance to old country music on the back deck under the moonlight.
We kept ourselves up all night, and had been together all over the place…in the yard, on the deck, in the living room, and finally, one long, desperately passionate sex session in our king-sized bed in the master bedroom.
“Are you?” Penny asked and clapped her hands together. “Oh my god, you are! I’m going to be a grandma again!”
Two of Aaron’s younger brothers already had a couple adorable kids each with their wives. I’d never really seen myself as a mother, but loving Aaron and interacting with my nieces and nephews had slowly changed that over the last couple years.
“I don’t know,” I said slowly, thoughtfully. “Don’t tell anyone until I know for sure.”
“I promise,” she replied, trying to hide her grin but failing. The edges of her mouth kept getting tugged up in her joy.
“I’m serious,” I told her. “I’ll stop on the way home and pick up a test. I hope Aaron will be okay with this.”
“Oh come on, he’ll be ecstatic. You know that.”
And I did know it—he’d been talking about being a father since we moved in together. “But we’re not married,” I lamented. “My baby will be born out of wedlock.”
“We can throw together something wonderful in a month,” Penny replied before she threw her arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug. “It will all work out, you’ll see. My lovely daughter having a baby!”
I felt the warmth of her love calm my nerves, I hugged her back and fought the tears in my eyes. I left her in front of the gallery and drove straight to the drug store, picked up a couple different tests, and headed home.
A baby with Aaron seemed like the most natural and wonderful thing in the world, so why did it scare me so much? Why did I worry that he’d suddenly decide to abandon me?
* * *
I thought about playing it cool and not mentioning it until after dinner, but the moment Aaron walked through the front door, I was in his arms and babbling about everything.
“Hold on, princess, slow down,” he laughed as he held my shoulders and scanned my face. “Did you just say a baby?”
“Maybe,” I sighed, wiping tears off my cheeks. I was so wound up I could barely focus.
“How?” he asked incredulously.
“What do you mean how?” I laughed. “When a man and a woman love each other…”
He chuckled, “I know that, I mean, us, how? We were so careful!”
“That night after Ted and Linda’s party. Remember? I don’t think we were so careful then, we were pretty tipsy.”
His eyes flooded with recognition, and he smiled broadly. “I think I even remember telling you forget the condom, that I was going to put a baby in you.”
“And I thought it was pretty hot at the time,” I blushed and rolled my eyes. “But now that it might be real, I don’t know. Are you mad?”
He laughed and pulled me against him. My face pressed against his muscled chest, finding the familiar curve that seemed built for me to rest on him and listen to the pounding of his heart. It was beating faster than usual—he was excited. “Of course I’m not mad, you know I want children with you. I never did see myself as a father before, but it seems like the most perfect thing in the world with you, princess. Our family.”
“I have tests, when should we do it?”
“You bought them?” he exclaimed and pulled away. “Now, let’s do it now!”
He dragged me upstairs to our en suite bathroom after I fished the two tests out of the plastic shopping bag. I’d gotten myself a large chocolate bar too, just to alleviate my stress if the test went either way.
We opened both tests and read the directions carefully. I made him leave while I sat on the toilet and peed on each little stick.
I left them propped on some tissue on the edge of the sink and went out to our bedroom to join him, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“So how long?” he asked, squeezing my hand.
“Two minutes,” I replied, leaning against his shoulder.
“No matter what it says, I want you to know how much I love you,” he said, and he turned to kiss the top of my head. “But if it’s positive, I know you’ll make an incredible mother, and I’ll spend the rest of my life supporting you and our family in any way you need.”
“You’re going to be an amazing dad,” I smiled, realizing that my heart was slowing down, and the adrenaline rush of anxiety that had been coursing through my body was easing off. Aaron always had that effect on me. He was like my drug, and I was addicted to feeling good around him.
“Is that long enough?” he asked after a moment.
“I think so.”
We stood and walked hand-in-hand to the bathroom. We leaned over the sticks together and examined them carefully.
The digital one proudly announced, “pregnant” and the old-fashioned one had the tell-tale pink cross displayed.
My breath hitched in my chest as I looked at the two little sticks that were now predicting my future.
“We’re going to be parents,” Aaron said in a voice that was almost reverent, as if we were in a cathedral, some sacred space.
“Looks like it,” I smiled.
Tiger and his new girlfriend Tipsy came rushing into the bathroom at that moment, jumping around us and barking as if celebrating. That seemed to break the spell of enchantment, and Aaron picked me up, swung me around, and laughing with pure joy.
The four of us must have looked ridiculous, a giant lumberjack of a man swinging his pregnant woman around while two pug-faced gremlins danced at their feet.
But it didn’t bother me. Ridiculous or not, we were a family, and our family was filled with happiness and love.
And it really didn’t get any better than that.
* * *
The End
* * *
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ALSO BY ALEXANDRIA HUNT
ALEXANDRIA HUNT READING LIST
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Broke, a Secret Baby Romance
Unrelated
Christmas With the Cooper Twins
Lumberjacked
Rough Stock, part 1
Rough Stock, part 2 (coming soon)
Rough Stock, part 3 (coming soon)
Rough Stock, part 4 (comin
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Rough Stock, part 5 (coming soon)
Lumberjacked Page 17