Safer.
“You’ll be able to come and visit as often as you like since Jaxi and Blake are moving in with the girls.”
She laughed. “I still can’t believe Jaxi kept the twins a secret her entire pregnancy.”
“I can’t believe Blake made it through the delivery.”
They grinned at each other.
“It’s as if this house has a revolving door. How do you decide who gets what?” She’d always thought she’d hit the jackpot when she’d been offered the place.
Daniel rubbed her shoulders, running his fingers through the short hair of her neckline. “Whoever needs it the most, I guess. My dad took over the main ranch house since he was the oldest, and for a lot of years this place had one set or another of my uncles and aunts and cousins living here. Now they’re all scattered around the area. Some built houses on the sections of the land they own, some moved elsewhere because they decided to get into something other than ranching.”
“Like you.”
“Like me…and you.”
They were moving in together, they were getting married. She’d put off the one last thing they needed to do. She pivoted in his arms. Twisting was much easier than a year ago, the flexibility and range of motion in her limb nearly back to one hundred percent.
“Daniel, I want to…” His sexy smile distracted her for long enough he leaned in and kissed her.
Kissed her thoroughly, taking her mouth and lips by storm and turning the gentle caress into something on the hot and needy side. She dragged back with reluctance. “Whoa, cowboy, I want to do that too, but first we need to talk about something else.”
He stoked her cheek and rearranged her in his lap so she could lean back on his legs. “We’ve gotten good at talking, as well as the sexin’. What’s on your mind?”
She took a big breath. “What do you think about making the wedding a joint celebration?”
Confusion painted his face. “Who else you know that wants to get married?”
She shook her head. “No, I meant…if you’d like…if you think you’re ready…”
“Spit it out already woman, I’m dying here.”
“Do you want to adopt the boys?”
Pure, unadulterated joy leapt into his eyes. “You mean it?”
It was exactly the response she’d hoped for. The kind of response she’d expected. With every action over the past months, Daniel had shown time and time again he wanted only the best for her, and the boys. “I think they’re all ready for the idea, and isn’t that kind of what you’re getting? A wife and kids? Let’s make it official.”
Daniel dropped his head back, but not before she spotted the tears in his eyes.
“I love them too, you know. Kinda crept up and swallowed me whole, even when I was trying to not hope for anything.” He clasped her chin in his hand, his thumb reaching to brush her bottom lip in a tender caress. “Falling in love with you has changed my entire life. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come dancing into my world.”
“Stumbling in, more like it.”
“I caught you.”
She kissed his thumb as it passed by. “You did, and you held on until my world stopped shaking. Until I was able to stand alone.”
“But you’re not alone, Miss Beth, you got me. Forever and ever.”
She drew him to the carpet, and they made love. Slow and sweet, everything she had wanted for years and years, and it was because they were friends and lovers.
They were everything important. They were family.
About the Author
Vivian Arend has hiked, biked, skied and paddled her way around most of North America and parts of Europe. Throughout all the wandering in the wilderness, stories have been planted and they are bursting out in vivid colour. Paranormal, twisted fairytales, red-hot contemporaries—the genres are all over.
Between times of living with no running water, she home schools her teenaged children and tries to keep up with her husband—the instigator of most of the wilderness adventures.
She loves to hear from readers: vivarend@gmail.com. You can also drop by www.vivianarend.com for more information on what is coming next.