Chapter Thirty
The next time Harper opened her eyes, it was light outside. She lay there for a moment, staring up at the ceiling with a big smile on her face. She’d slept in this room plenty of nights while she was staying to take care of the girls. But now she was here with Emmett.
She turned to look at his handsome face and grinned at him when she saw that he was awake too. He was awake and watching her.
"Good morning."
"Good morning." She reached up to touch his cheek. "In fact, make that wonderful morning."
He pressed a kiss to her lips.
"Historic morning."
"Historic?"
"Yeah, it’s the first time I get to wake up with you. The first day of the rest of our lives."
"Aw. You’re kind of a closet romantic underneath the loving-dad, capable-vet front, aren’t you?"
"I don’t know about romantic. Emily always said—"
He stopped short and gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry. I shouldn’t..."
Harper sought his hand and entwined her fingers with his. "Shouldn’t what? If you were about to say that you shouldn’t talk about her, then you’re wrong."
"I know I can talk about her, but... I don’t want you to feel..."
She gave his hand a squeeze. "I don’t. Emily knew you better than anyone - and Emmett, you loved her. You made a family with her. She’s not someone to sweep under the rug, especially not for the girls' sake."
She was tempted to tell him Shelley’s idea, that Harper and Emily got half the fairy tale each, but she didn’t know how he’d feel about that.
He lifted a shoulder. "Thanks, Harper."
"There’s no need. Let’s go back to where we were. This is the first morning we get to wake up together. And I..." She gave his hand a squeeze. "I hope like hell that we get to wake up together like this for the rest of our lives. I’m starting to believe it."
She smiled when her gaze landed on the bear sitting on top of the dresser. "I’ll be the best Mama Bear I can."
He got out of bed to fetch the bear.
"Oh. Is that another one?" she asked when he picked up a smaller bear.
He turned around and held it up. "This one’s from Tanya."
He tossed her the smaller bear and she caught it. It was older, threadbare in places. She ran her finger over its little head.
Emmett got back into bed and sat beside her. "She’s had that since she was a baby. When I told her and Alana that I was going to get you a bear, she wanted you to have that one from her."
"Aw." She hugged the little bear to her. "They’re such good girls, Emmett. I feel so lucky that I get to be a part of their lives."
"We’re the lucky ones that we get you."
She stared at him for a long moment. "You really mean that, don’t you?"
He nodded solemnly. "I do." He reached out and ran his fingers down her cheek. "And I’ll keep telling you until you start believing me."
She shook her head. "I want to, Emmett. It might take a while to sink in. My whole life, since I was nine years old, I..."
"I know."
That simple answer caught in her chest.
"That’s why I’m going to keep reminding you. Things are different now. You’ve found where you belong." He tightened his arm around her shoulders. "And I’m not going to change my mind."
He held her gaze for a long moment.
She couldn’t find the words to express how she felt. Eventually, she smiled and asked, "Do we need to get up? What time do we need to go and get them?"
He shook his head at her with a smile. "Okay, I’ll let it go. We don’t need to talk about it all the time, as long as you know how I feel. And as for the girls, Blane’s picking them up and bringing them back here later this morning. He said he’ll have them back for lunch."
"He’s good with them. It’s easy to see how much he loves them."
"He’s their godfather. He feels bad that he didn’t come back here when Emily and I did.
Deacon, Trip, and Ace came, but Blane started the company with Mav and Cash.
He didn’t want to be here in the valley, but he came as often as he could for the girls - and for Brooke, of course.
He loves hanging out with them - and they love him. "
He smiled at her.
"What do you say? Should we get up and get some breakfast before they get back?"
Harper hugged the bears to her chest for a moment. "Yeah, we should get up and get this day started."
~ ~ ~
"Do you really have to go?" Tanya asked Blane.
They were all sitting around the table on the back deck after lunch.
"Yeah." Blane shot Emmett a quick smile. "I have things I need to do, and so do you guys. You don’t need me in your hair."
"I hope you’re not leaving because of me," said Harper.
Emmett was about to reassure her, but it struck him that she and Blane would do better to figure things out for themselves. Blane wasn’t easy - he wouldn’t deny that - but so far Harper seemed to know how to handle him.
He smiled as Blane turned a mock scowl on her. "You think I’d leave because of you?"
Emmett relaxed when she laughed and said, "No. I don’t know what I was thinking. If you didn’t want me around, you’d try to run me out of here."
"I wouldn’t try - I’d run you out of here."
Alana was smiling as she watched the conversation like a tennis match. Tanya was watching wide-eyed.
Harper gave Blane a sassy smile. "You didn’t manage to run me out of here after Emmett was hurt, did you?"
She grinned at the girls. "I didn’t know who he was at first. The way he stood like a sentry in the corner of your dad’s hospital room, I thought he must be some kind of bodyguard."
The girls laughed.
"I don’t stand like a sentry," Blane protested.
"Yes you do!" Alana told him. "You do it all the time, you just don’t know that you do. You fold your arms and get that look on your face."
"What look?" Blane asked, looking indignant.
Tanya made them all laugh when she scowled around at them, impersonating Blane.
"Something like that," said Alana. She turned to Harper. "I’m surprised he didn’t scare you off."
"He might have if I wasn’t already so worried about your dad." She gave Blane a sassy smile, and Emmett couldn’t wait to hear what she’d say next.
She leaned closer to the girls. "I do this thing when I’m scared. I take whatever I’m afraid of and then imagine it in a way that seems a little bit ridiculous."
Blane scowled at her, and Tanya asked, "How did you make Uncle Blane ridiculous?"
Harper laughed. "I knew he used to be in the military, so I decided he was a sentry, but he was a magical one, sent to keep your dad safe. That meant he was good magic, and good magic means sparkles, right?"
Emmett exchanged a puzzled look with Blane.
Harper shrugged happily, and the girls burst out laughing when she said, "I imagined him smiling and sparkling instead of glaring and snarling, and in my mind I gave him a new name."
"What was it?" Tanya asked.
"I don’t think we want to know," said Blane, who was smiling through pursed lips.
"Oh, we do," Alana and Emmett said at the same time.
Harper smiled around at them all and said, "Sergeant Sparkles!"
Both girls fell about laughing, and Blane groaned.
"It’s perfect, Uncle Blane!"
"Can we call you Sergeant Sparkles?" asked Tanya.
Blane glared at Harper as he told Tanya, "Afraid not, Tanya. I was in the Navy. Sergeant isn’t a rank that..."
"Uncle Blane!" Alana protested. "It’s only a name, not a rank!"
He rolled his eyes at them and got to his feet. "Yeah, I guess if you really want to, you can call me that." He made a face at Harper. "Thanks."
She got to her feet, and something loosened in Emmett’s chest when he watched Blane hug her. He hadn’t thought he’d ever want to meet someone new. And the likelihood of Blane accepting someone if he did had seemed even slimmer.
~ ~ ~
While Emmett walked Blane back to his truck, Harper and the girls cleared the table and tidied up after lunch.
"Did you have a good time last night?" Alana asked with a sideways glance.
When Harper hesitated, Alana touched her arm. "I'm not trying to give you a hard time. I know Dad wanted to bring you back here. I'm excited about it, not being snarky."
Harper held her arms out, and Alana stepped in for a quick hug.
"I did stay here, and we did have a great time, thank you."
"And did he give you the bear?" Tanya asked. "Did he give you both of them? Did he give you mine as well?"
"He did, and thank you so much. I love that little bear you gave me, and I love the one your dad gave me too."
"He wanted you to know that you're Mama Bear now," said Tanya.
Harper froze.
"It’s okay," Alana said. "I might not be able to bring myself to call to you that, I don't know. But it's what you are. I mean, Mama Bears are protective, right?"
Harper nodded happily. "I didn't know if anyone had picked up on that aspect of it, but yeah, they are. Everyone knows not to mess with a Mama Bear, and I hope you guys don't mind, but I've come to think of you as my cubs."
She put an arm around each of them and hugged them close. "And everyone knows not to mess with the cubs of a Mama Bear."
"I love it," said Tanya. "I'll be a bear cub."
Alana smiled. "I know I've been weird about it all, but I like it too." She glanced over to where Emmett was waving Blane off. "Listen, Dad will be back in a minute, and I want to ask you while he's not around."
"Ask me what?" Harper asked warily.
"I know it's only been two weeks, but you stayed here last night."
She shrugged.
"I think if you want to, you should just stay here now."
"Yay!" cried Tanya.
"I think so, too. You should stay, Mama Bear. It was crazy that you had to move back to the cottage." She made a face. "I mean, sorry, Alana. I'm not saying you were crazy."
Alana slapped the back of her sister's head gently. "I know. And it wasn't crazy."
"It wasn't," said Harper. "I think you were the most sensible one out of all of us. It was good that we slowed down, that we made sure."
Emmett rejoined them with a puzzled smile. "What are we celebrating?" he asked.
Alana raised her eyebrows, and Harper nodded slightly.