How Forever Feels (The Last Best Place For Love #3)

Chapter 1

BLAKE

My stomach churned as we approached Parker’s family ranch, and it wasn’t just because I suspected I was pregnant.

“Do you see that third peak to the right?” Parker pointed out the windshield. “That’s where the edge of my family’s ranch is. Murky Falls is over there. That’s where our ranch name came from.”

I nodded, trying to take it all in while also fighting the urge to leap out of the SUV and run back home. What was I thinking, agreeing to move here when I hadn’t even met anyone in his family first?

Mountains painted the midnight landscape as far as the eye could see. It should have been beautiful and welcoming, but an odd sense of impending doom told me this wouldn’t be the wonderful welcome he thought it would be.

“Blake,” Parker said, shooting me a curious glance. “Are you okay?”

“Of course,” I grinned, attempting to keep the fear and urge to puke from showing on my face.

“Then why do you look like I just told you we’re getting married?”

The smirk on his face eased the tension in my body just a little. “Well, we did come out here with the intent of starting over.”

“Just not getting married right away. Trust me, I haven’t called your family for a shotgun wedding.”

My head snapped so fast toward the passenger window at his words that I nearly pulled a muscle in my neck. If only he knew how close we were to using that phrase.

“Here we are,” he announced, stopping at the open gates of the ranch.

An emblem of Murky Falls Ranch greeted us on either side of the entrance, sealing my fate. There was no turning back now.

“It’s been years since I was home,” he murmured. “It’ll be good to see everyone.”

In order to do that, we’d have to actually drive forward, but I wasn’t exactly yelling at him to get moving. The delay was the only thing holding me together at the moment.

But just as I thought that, he pulled through the gates toward my doom.

“So, where will we be staying?”

“In the main house until we can build something of our own.” A sexy grin slid my way. “Don’t worry, we’ll be on the other side of the house. We’ll have plenty of privacy for what I have in store for you.”

“You mean, you and your monster cock,” I retorted, pursing my lips at him. “Won’t your parents be annoyed that we’re showing up in the middle of the night like this? Maybe we should just find a hotel and come back in the morning.”

“Why would they be mad?”

“Well…” I struggled to come up with a reason, going with the obvious. “Because you’ll wake them up.”

“I doubt they would be upset with me. It’s been so long, they’ll just be glad I’m not dead.”

“But it’s rude,” I argued.

“Not when it’s family.”

“But—”

“What the hell is that?” he said, suddenly jerking the wheel to the right. Hitting the gas, we sped down a dirt road toward the flames that were roaring from a house. Leaning forward, I took in the size of the flames and knew this was bad.

“Who lives there?”

“My brother Liam,” he said, skidding to a stop just outside the house.

“Wait!” I shouted as Parker leapt from the truck and ran toward the house.

I tore off my seatbelt and raced after him, terrified he was going to get himself killed.

“Parker, wait!” I shouted, but he was already rushing through the door. “Dammit!”

There was no thinking as I ran after him, pushing through the heat pouring from the front door. Thick smoke curled around me as I followed Parker into the house and toward a prone figure on the ground, pinned under a beam.

I immediately tore off my jacket, wrapping it around my hands as Parker shouted for me to get the other side. The beam weighed a ton, and my arms shook as I struggled along with Parker to remove it from his brother’s back and lower legs.

Smoke choked the air around me, making it impossible to breathe as we shifted the beam off his legs and tossed it to the ground just beyond his feet. In seconds, Parker hauled his brother to his feet and practically carried him to the front door.

I rushed after them, gulping in a lungful of fresh air the moment I crossed the line between life and death.

“Holy shit,” I whispered, bending over to catch my breath.

That was not the welcome I had been expecting. We’d just escaped dying multiple times in the past few months and had left for a simpler life. Somehow, I had the feeling that nothing about this was going to be easy, or anything as I expected.

Expected.

My hand drifted to my stomach as I remembered my earlier fears of being pregnant. And I’d just rushed into a burning house with no care for myself or the potential life I was carrying. What the hell was wrong with me?

Shoving that thought aside, I focused on the here and now. There was a building on fire and his brother needed medical attention. I pulled out my phone and dialed 9-1-1, pushing all thoughts of potential babies aside.

I couldn’t do a damn thing about a baby, but I sure as hell could make a phone call.

I’d have to worry about the rest later.