She finally managed to unfurl the baby’s fingers from around the locket and turned him on her lap so that his back was to her front. She jiggled the keys again, and he immediately grabbed for them.
“More than once, you mentioned that Joel should have a brother or sister,” she reminded him.
Kyle shrugged. “And then I remembered that sibling relationships aren’t really all they’re cracked up to be.”
Of course, he was lying. She’d seen him with his siblings. Not just Lucy, but even Duncan, Callum and Fiona.
“I hate the idea of you giving up your dream of a big family for me.”
“It was only a dream,” he pointed out. “And a recent one at that. You and Joel are real, and you’re everything that I need. You are my family.”
He said the words with such intensity and conviction, she knew that he meant them.
But what if, somewhere down the road, he changed his mind?
What if he began to resent her for taking the choice away from him?
What if she stopped being afraid of the future and accepted everything he was offering her right now?
“I love you, Erin. Not because you’re the mother of my child, but because you’re you. And any decision about whether to have or not have another child isn’t going to change the way I feel about you. I only ask that we make that decision together.”
She realized then that it wasn’t easy to let go of her fears, but it was the simplest thing in the world to open her heart to the man she loved and the possibilities for their future together.
“I love you, too, Kyle. You know that, don’t you?”
“I know,” he said with a small smile. “But I still like to hear you say it every now and then. Or all the time.”
She smiled then, too. “I love you more than I could express if we had a hundred years together, but I’m still scared that I’m going to screw this up.”
“You’re not going to screw anything up, because there’s no you or me anymore,” he told her. “We’re a team. Whatever choices need to be made, we’ll make them together. Whatever the repercussions, we’ll face them together. Okay?”
“Okay,” she agreed, her heart suddenly feeling lighter, lifted by his love. “But there is one little snag in your plan.”
“What’s that?”
“I detoured by Larrea Drive on my way home,” she confided, as she gently jiggled the baby. “I was hoping to reassure myself that the house wasn’t as perfect as I remembered. But I was wrong... It was perfect. And now it’s sold.”
She didn’t know how to explain the profound sense of disappointment she’d felt when she saw the SOLD sticker affixed to the For Sale sign, when she’d realized that her dream of living there with Kyle had barely had a chance to materialize before it was gone.
“I know it’s sold,” Kyle told her. “I bought it.”
“You...what?” She didn’t realize she’d stopped jiggling her leg until Joel started to squirm, prompting her to resume the rhythmic motion. “Why?”
“Because I decided it was going to be ours as soon as I saw your eyes light up when we walked into the master suite.”
She remembered the walk-in closets, the full en suite bath and the sitting area with a gas fireplace. And she remembered how easy it had been to imagine making love with him in a king-size bed in that room while their son slept across the hall.
Still, she was stunned by his response. And perhaps a little wary. “Do you think that if we’re living in that house, I’ll change my mind about wanting to have another baby?”
“Do you think I’d buy a house in an effort to manipulate your feelings?”
“No,” she realized, immediately chagrined that such a thought had even crossed her mind. “But it’s a lot of house for just three people.”
“It’s the perfect house for us,” he insisted. “You said so yourself.”
“I did,” she acknowledged, hugging the baby a little closer.
“Now...if I ask you to marry me again, will you say yes this time?”
Joel tipped his head back against her chest to look at her, as if he was waiting for her answer, too.
“What do you think?” she asked him. “Should I marry Daddy so that we can be a real family?”
“I know it’s a little early for your first words, Joel,” his dad said. “But if you could chime in here with a yes, I’d appreciate it.”
The baby blew a raspberry.
Kyle sighed. “Not quite the endorsement I was hoping for.” He shifted his gaze to Erin then. “It’s going to have to be your call then.”
“Well, you did once tell me that I should marry someone who knows how to cook,” she reminded him. “And you definitely check that box.”
His brows lifted. “Do I check any other boxes?”
“You’re a fabulous father. You also have a great sense of humor and a kind heart, and you know how to rock my world, horizontally and vertically.”
His lips curved. “Is that a yes?”
Joel answered with another raspberry, making both his parents laugh.
But Erin’s expression quickly turned serious again and she lifted a hand to Kyle’s cheek. “That’s very definitely a yes,” she said. “For now and forever.”
Epilogue
“We should have done this in Haven,” Erin remarked, as Kyle parked outside of the main house at Sunfish Resort. “We met in Haven. We live in Haven. Why wouldn’t we get married in Haven?”
“Because it’s traditional to get married in the bride’s hometown,” Kyle said, as he began pulling suitcases and various baby items out of the back of their rental vehicle. An SUV, of course, because when you traveled with a child, you needed a lot of stuff.
“I think the fact that our eight-and-a-half-month-old son is going to be our ring bearer is proof that we make our own traditions.”
“And also because your mom asked,” her soon-to-be husband reminded her. “Because she wanted the whole family to come together here in celebration.”
Which Erin understood, because the last time they’d all been together was for her dad’s funeral.
Six months later, so much had changed for all of them.
Anna and Nick and Nicky had moved into their own home, only a few miles down the road from the resort, leaving Bonnie on her own.
But not for long.
A few weeks later, she’d decided she wouldn’t mind having a roommate. Coincidentally, Marissa’s widowed mom, Luanne Harding, had moved to Silver Hook—and moved in with her daughter’s family—making all of them a little crazy. Living at the resort allowed Luanne to be close enough to visit her grandkids whenever she wanted, but far enough away that she wasn’t tripping over them every time she went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea.
Ian and Marissa continued to run the resort and were considering new offerings and packages to increase their off-season occupancy.
Owen and Roger had run into some roadblocks in their efforts to have a baby but had recently adopted two-year-old Maisy and three-year-old Libby and were happily tackling the challenges that came with being a family.
“Which we didn’t anticipate would include seven and a half hours of connecting flights to get from Oregon to Arkansas for my sister’s wedding,” Owen grumbled, when Erin shared their plans.
“But we wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Roger promised.
Erin couldn’t wait to meet her new nieces in person. And to give lots of love to Ella, Amie and Nicky, too.
She’d been both looking forward to and dreading this trip—her first time back since her dad’s passing. Even planning the informal ceremony from a distance had made her heart ache, because she knew he wouldn’t be there to walk her down the aisle or share the traditional father-daughter dance—or sneak away from the reception early to do some night fishing. And she’d worried that bein
g in Silver Hook, at Sunfish Bay, would only make her more aware of her father’s absence.
But as she breathed in the familiar pine scent and listened to the birds singing in the trees, she realized that her dad was there.
Every which way she turned, there were memories of him, surrounding and enveloping her. And she knew that this was exactly the right place to formalize the start of her new life, with the man she loved and the child they’d made together.
* * *
The ceremony, three days later, went off without a hitch.
The radiant bride carried a hand-tied bouquet of white calla lilies; the smiling groom held an eighteen-pound baby sporting a bow tie just like his daddy’s.
Family and friends witnessed the exchange of vows and rings beneath clear blue skies, with the sun sparkling off the lake in the background and Brian Napper’s beloved fishing boat tied up at the dock.
Afterward, there was plenty of food and drink for the guests to enjoy as they mixed and mingled and passed babies around.
Bonnie had stolen Joel away from his parents at the first opportunity, wanting to spend as much time as possible with her grandson. Jo was currently helping Owen assemble plates of food for his daughters, while Roger chased the girls around the yard. Lucy had ducked into the house for some peace and quiet to nurse Seraphina, and Claudio and Nick could be overheard debating the merits of live bait fishing.
Erin watched as her baby was passed off to Marissa so that Grandma Bonnie could give some attention to Ella and Amie, then her own attention was snagged by Nicky, toddling across the grass, before zeroing in on Joel again.
“Look at that,” Erin whispered, touching a hand to her husband’s arm.
Kyle turned his head to follow the direction of her gaze.
Marissa had set Joel down for a minute to pour a glass of punch for Libby, but the baby had apparently decided he didn’t want to suffer the indignity of being on his bottom.
“He’s pulling himself up,” Kyle realized.
She nodded.
Joel had been able to stand for a while now, holding on to the coffee table in their living room or the leg of a chair in their dining room, but he hadn’t—until this moment—demonstrated the ability to pull himself into a standing position.
“Another beautiful memory to add to our perfect wedding day,” Erin said, her eyes growing misty.
Until Kyle said, “Uh-oh.”
“What?”
But her husband was already racing toward their son, who was starting to wobble on his feet, both of his hands still clutching the fabric draped over the cake table.
Erin watched in horror as the baby started to fall, taking the cloth—and three-layers of exquisitely decorated pink champagne cake—with him.
Kyle pulled the baby out of harm’s way just as the cake hit the ground.
There were gasps of shock mixed with a few stifled giggles.
The shock of being unceremoniously yanked, even into his beloved daddy’s embrace, made Joel’s lower lip wobble and his blue eyes fill with tears.
“Ohmygod.” Marissa looked from the cake carnage on the ground to the bride, her expression stricken. “I’m so sorry. I only turned my back for a second.”
“And that’s why it’s important to babyproof,” Kyle said.
Erin laughed.
She couldn’t help it.
While her sister and sister-in-law frantically tried to salvage at least part of the cake, she heard Luanne ask, “Who wants ice cream?”
“Cake,” Libby said, filling both hands with the pink confection.
“Cake,” Maisy agreed, following her sister’s example.
Then Ella and Amie were there, too, determined to get their share.
Kyle handed their teary-eyed son to his mommy.
Erin wiped a smear of frosting off Joel’s cheek, then let him suck the sugary treat off her finger. He smiled through his tears, happy to discover a new—and delicious—food.
As the bride hugged the baby close, she felt the groom’s arms come around her.
“You were saying something about our perfect wedding day?” he reminded her.
“Maybe not perfect,” she allowed, tipping her head back against his shoulder, “but certainly unforgettable.”
* * *
Look for Devin Blake’s story, the next installment in Brenda Harlen’s miniseries, Match Made in Haven, coming soon to Harlequin Special Edition!
Return to Rendezvous Falls for the next charming and heartfelt book in Jo McNally’s series!
Read on for a sneak peek of Love Blooms by Jo McNally.
Love Blooms
by Jo McNally
OWEN DIDN’T KNOW how to respond. She was right. He wasn’t the guy Lucy had known before. His time in the military had changed him. There was a bright flash beyond the trees, and a rapid series of explosions followed by more colors lighting up the sky. The finale of the fireworks show. His body tensed at the bombardment of sound and light, no matter how distant. Lucy’s hands gripped his biceps, and her forehead touched his. She was trying to stay connected...trying to keep him connected to her. To the present, not the past. He rested his hands on her waist, completing the circle, but not pulling her closer.
Neither of them said a word while the finale came to its explosive conclusion. There was a beat of complete silence after the echoes faded, then the sound of car and boat horns rose up from the lakeshore as people expressed appreciation for the event that had sent him running.
And still they stood without moving in the empty parking lot. He breathed in the soft floral scent of her and wished they could stay connected like this forever. Once silence fell on the Seneca Valley again, Lucy made the first move, slowly backing away. Moving out of reach, but not by much. That had to be a good sign, right? Was this whole night a good sign? Or a goodbye?
He looked up, unable to see her face in the shadows cast by the parking lot light behind her. But he could see she was looking back at him. Waiting for some kind of answers. He was suddenly exhausted from holding onto everything he was carrying, and his shoulders fell in defeat.
“You’re right, Luce. I didn’t come back the same. The last tour...it was so many levels worse than the first two for me. Those were no picnics, but the last one...the mountains, the weather and the action... We ended up in the thick of things more than once. Screwed up intel. Lousy luck. I don’t even know.” He stared off into the darkness under the trees. “People died before. Even people I knew...sort of. But this time...” His head dropped. “This time some of them died in my arms. Friends died in my arms....” Lucy made a strangled sound. She was getting the idea. “It made everything else seem so...unimportant.” He rushed to clarify, looking straight at her. “I don’t mean that it made you unimportant. But the wedding plans...the dress...the food...” His hand rose and fell. “I know it was important to you, so I should have made more effort, but I truly didn’t care.” He stopped. “There, I said it.”
She considered his words for a moment.
“Yes, you said it. And I...I respect that, after what happened. But what you didn’t hear is that the problem wasn’t in the wedding plans—I never expected you to get excited over choosing the centerpieces. The problem was that I wanted a small, intimate ceremony and I was getting a country club reception with an orchestra. The wedding plans weren’t what I wanted you to care about. My feelings about them are what I wanted you to hear.”
Silence hung between them again, heavier than before. He’d been such an idiot.
“I’m sorry, Luce. You’re right. I should have heard that, but I just...I was barely hanging on, you know? I didn’t want any deep dives into feelings. Not mine. Not yours. I get why you left me standing at the church. I deserved it, and it helped jolt me out of my stupor.” He thought of the week he’d spent drinking alone in their apartment. “Eventually, anyway.”
He turned her toward the car. “We should head back.” He took her hand, not sure if she’d allow it. She didn’t push his hand away as she fell into step at his side. His heart jumped. As they walked, she wound her fingers through his. Progress! There had clearly been a shift in the mood between them tonight.
His chest felt lighter. Her hand was warm and familiar. She’d come up here with him when he needed her. She still cared. Owen Cooper had never been a quitter, and he wasn’t about to give up on their future together. If he had to win Lucy’s heart all over again, he’d do it. And this time around...this time she could wear whatever damn dress she wanted when she married him.
Don’t miss what happens next in...
Love Blooms
by Jo McNally
Available August 2021 wherever HQN books and ebooks are sold.
www.Harlequin.com
Keep reading for an excerpt from Their Texas Triplets by Cathy Gillen Thacker.
Copyright © 2021 by Jo McNally
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Their Texas Triplets
by Cathy Gillen Thacker
Chapter One
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Cooper Maitland’s low, teasing voice drifted through the sweet summer air.
Jillian Lockhart paused, one leg over the sill of her open bedroom window. Somehow, she wasn’t surprised to see the ruggedly handsome cowboy loitering in the shadows beneath. Every time she turned around lately, the sexy young cowboy was there. Working. Observing. Doing whatever he could to get under her skin. And given how much he had shown up in her dreams lately, it didn’t take much...
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