“So? Spill out what you mean.”
“I’m asking you to create a marriage with me of nonstop, gigantic risks. I want someone to climb mountains with. Someone to not feel safe with. Someone with whom I can explore all the emotions there are, all the possibilities. Someone with whom I can even risk fighting with.”
“Even that?”
For the gentle teasing in her voice, he had to kiss her. He was feeling better than he first thought. In fact, he was feeling superb. Coaxing her down beside him wasn’t even a challenge, and her lips melded against his as if they’d always been a matched pair. He tasted promise in her kiss. He tasted their future. He tasted love, as he’d never dreamed love could ever happen in his life.
“You’re my heart, Serena. The only person where I ever felt like I belonged. If I could love you every day of my life, it’d still never be enough. I want to give you sons and daughters. I want to make volcanoes in your kitchen, and make love in your yard when the kids are finally asleep. I want to make you feel wicked, the way you’ve always make me feel wicked.”
“Wicked?”
Momentarily she looked confused. Serenely happy and content, but confused. Clearly he needed to illustrate exactly what she’d always done to him. If she didn’t quite get it this time, Blake figured they had a lifetime to get those kinds of minor details straight.
Now he had a woman to cherish, and he wanted to be absolutely sure that he did it right.
Epilogue
Cold was spitting in the air. Just a taste. The wind had a bite, the stiff breeze was fresh and invigorating. Not that Nate needed anything to energize him. He’d been running circles around Blake since they’d left the car.
“We can be here a whole other hour, right, Dad?”
Blake still wasn’t used to hearing that “dad” word. It still clutched him in the chest every time. “A good hour, I promise,” he affirmed.
Nate had come to love this private stretch of Kincaid land, as Blake had once hoped. Weeks ago Nate had informed him that it was “sacred land” because it was where he’d saved Blake’s life. And they needed to go back “a lot” to pick up the “good vibes.”
“And by then Mom’ll be back from the doc, right?”
“Yup. She should be.” Blake watched as Nate swooped up the hillside, arms outstretched, and then made like an airplane and flew back down.
“What I don’t get is how come she’s going to a doctor. When you’re a doctor. And I don’t get why we should have to ever go to any other doctor when you’re right here in our family.”
“Well, this is a different kind of doctor, Nate. I like to work especially with kids, like we talked about before. So that makes me a pediatrician. But the kind of doctor your mom is visiting today has a speciality for grown-up women.”
“So why’s she going?”
“There’s nothing to worry about, son. She’s just getting a check-up.”
“Uh-huh.” Nate stopped whooping it up and down knolls long enough to heave a world-weary sigh. “I don’t know why you guys don’t tell me things, when I’m very very smart and I already know. She’s throwing up a lot. That’s why she’s going to the doc, right?”
“You’re right. You’re very smart. And I’m sorry we hid that from you. I should have realized you’d figure it out.”
“I know. I figure everything out.” Nate threw himself on a grassy spot, finally tuckered out for at least a minute.
Blake sank down next to him, his big hiking boots nudging his son’s. They’d gotten the same brand. “This throwing up thing doesn’t mean she’s sick or that there’s anything to worry about.”
“I know, I know. She’s laughing and giggling all the time. I’d know if my mom were sick.” Nate turned his head and squinted. “You’d know if my mom were sick, too. You can tell when you love somebody. Did you know that?”
“I’m beginning to learn a lot of things from you, Nate,” Blake said quietly.
“Well, sure. We teach each other. And hey, Dad, by the way, do we have to go to Cade and Leanne’s wedding on Saturday?”
“Yup, we do.”
“But do we have to get dressed up?”
“Afraid so, son.”
“Yech. We could call and say we’re sick. And then we could come here and camp out. Not Mom. She likes all these weddings. But you and me still could.”
“Well, I can’t say I’m real fond of getting dressed up myself. But remember the last wedding? How much fun you had? Don’t you like your grandpa Garrett? And all your new cousins?”
“Well, yeah. They’re fun. And I like Gramps a lot. I had the best time at our wedding that I ever had in my whole life. Except for the night I saved you and all. Nothin’ll ever be as good as that and— Oh!” Nate’s hand fumbled in his jacket pocket, and emerged with a wadded-up, crumpled piece of paper. “I keep forgetting to give you this. It’s for you. It’s from school.”
Dutifully, Blake took the paper, turning to shield it from the wind. He wasn’t sure that paper was going to survive trying to unfold it, but judging from the last artwork Nate had brought home, it was likely to be nip-and-tuck guessing what the picture was no matter what shape the masterpiece was in.
Right then, Nate hadn’t stopped talking anyway. “I’ll bet you didn’t r’lize that I could read and write, did you? But I’ve been in school for weeks now, so I know how. I just didn’t have a chance to tell you yet, because there’s always so much I want to tell you. Anyway, we had to write a story. So this is my first story ever in my whole life. Mom said I should give it to you.”
For the first time in two months—possibly longer—Nate fell silent. He looked at Blake, then away. Then at Blake again. Nate scratched his cheek, then sighed, then itched his knee, then looked at Blake again.
Blake managed to unfold the sheet of paper. Instead of artwork, there was printing on this particular school project. At the top of the page, in gigantic letters, it said, “My Hero.” The M in “my” had an extra scoop, and the H took up half of the entire line. Below that was a single sentence. “My dad is my hero.”
And that was it.
The whole story.
Except for Nate’s name printed in the upper right-hand corner. With only two erasures.
Nate scuffed some dirt, then itched his cheek again, then blurted, “Sheesh. Whatsa matter? You’re not sick, are you?”
“No. I’m not sick.” It was just hard for a heart to swell this big without bursting. And the lump in his throat was as big as a slug. His life had never been that terrible, but he’d never dreamed what a life could really be until he’d known Serena’s love. Serena, Nate, their building and exploring all the relationships in the Kincaid family…Blake felt as if his world was exploding every day, getting bigger, brighter, limitless in the possibilities.
Always, though, he had a hard time shaking his Achilles’ heel. His love for Nate was as fierce as a warrior’s. He’d have done anything for his son. But what he wanted to do, more than anything, was to be a good father for Nate. The kind of father he’d never had himself. The kind of father he wasn’t positive that he knew how to be, no matter how many times Serena reassured him. Yeah, he knew Nate got on with him. But seeing those words in that precious first-grade handwriting damn near took him out.
“Dad—”
“I’m not sick,” he repeated. “I just couldn’t talk for a second. You really touched me, Nate. I’m honored that you wrote this story.”
“Well, actually we had to write the story,” Nate said with his brand of relentless honesty. “But what we got to choose was who was our hero. Some kids really had to think, but not me. I knew right away it had to be you. You know what makes a hero?”
“No. Tell me.”
“A dad who wants to be with his kid. That’s what a hero is. Where you don’t have to be afraid of the dark, because you know your dad’ll come. And if you’re dirty and you know your mom’s gonna be mad, you can tell your dad ‘cause he’ll try and fix it for you. A dad’ll
even try to make her laugh so she’ll forget about being mad. And a dad wants to hear when you have important things to say. And you know what most of all?”
“What, Nate?”
“He loves you. And you know that every day, so you don’t have to worry about it. It’s just there. You never have to worry about it as long as you live. Do you think it’s time to pick up Mom, yet? Because I think I’m getting hungry.”
“Me, too.” Blake lurched to his feet and then held out his hands. Nate’s grin nearly split his face wide. He knew the ritual. The two males did a fancy high-five—their own private secret handshake—and then Blake swung his son onto his shoulders and started hiking downhill. Toward home.
Toward Serena.
And, just maybe, toward the chance of a new brother or sister for Nate.
Special thanks and acknowledgment to Jennifer Greene for her contribution to the Montana Mavericks series.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5714-0
YOU BELONG TO ME
Copyright © 2000 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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