EPILOGUE ONE
Bridger
One Year Later
Roxie bolted from the breakfast table.
One second she was sitting across from me, laughing at something I’d said about the new commission I’d taken. The next, her face went pale and she was running.
I heard the bathroom door slam. Then the unmistakable sound of retching.
I was up and moving before I’d even processed it.
I found her on her knees in front of the toilet, one hand braced on the seat, the other pressed to her stomach.
I knelt beside her, gathering her hair back from her face.
“I’ve got you,” I said quietly.
She heaved again, and I rubbed slow circles on her back.
When she finally stopped, she slumped back against the wall, eyes closed.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
“Don’t be.” I grabbed a washcloth, ran it under cold water, and handed it to her.
She pressed it to her face with a shaky hand.
“That’s the third morning this week,” I said.
Her eyes opened. Met mine. “I was hoping you hadn’t noticed.”
“Something you want to tell me?”
She bit her lip—that thing she did when she was nervous—and uncertainty flickered across her face. “Maybe?”
“Maybe?” I repeated.
“I took a test this morning. Before breakfast.”
“And?”
“It was positive.”
We were having a baby.
I let that sink in. A little piece of her mixed with a piece of me. It was the most terrifying, beautiful thing I’d ever known.
“Bridger?” Her voice was small. Uncertain. She looked at me as if she was afraid the sudden reality of it might scare me off. Not in this lifetime. Or the next. I knew with absolute certainty that this was how my life—our life—was meant to be. “Say something.”
I pulled her into my arms, holding her tight.
“Rule number one,” I said against her hair.
“What?”
“We need pregnancy rules. Rule #1: When she’s carrying my baby, she gets whatever she wants. No arguments. No questions.”
She laughed. “You sure? I could abuse that rule.”
“I’m counting on it.”
Her eyes were wet. “You’re happy?”
“Happy?” Roxie. I’m fucking ecstatic.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I kissed her softly. “You’re giving me everything.”
“We weren’t even trying.”
“I know.”
“It’s only been a year.”
“I know that too.”
“This is crazy.”
“Everything about us has been crazy from the start. Why stop now?”
She laughed again, and this time it was real. Full. Happy.
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you too.” I kissed her again. “Both of you.”
Her hand came to rest on her stomach, and something fierce and protective took hold.
Mine.
Both of them.
Mine to keep. Mine to protect. Mine to love.
I didn’t need any rules to remind me of that.
“Come on. Back to bed.”
“Bridger, it’s ten in the morning and we have things to do.”
“Don’t care. You’re pregnant. You need rest.”
“I feel fine now.”
“Don’t forget the new rule.”
She rolled her eyes but let me lead her back to our bedroom.
I pulled the oversized t-shirt up over her head and pulled off my clothes as well.
I wanted her bare against me. I knew over the coming months her body would change.
And I couldn’t wait. Her hips would widen and her full breasts would grow even heavy and denser with pregnancy.
I ran my large palms over her, silently promising her body that I would worship every new inch it gained over the next nine months.
I tucked her against me and she looked up at me with those eyes that still got me every time.
“You’re really happy?” she asked again.
“Happiest I’ve ever been,” I said. “And it’s all because you broke your momma’s rules and got in my truck.”
“Best decision I ever made.”
“Damn right it was.”
She curled into me, her head on my chest and I wrapped my arms around her, placing my large hand over her stomach where our future was waiting.
And I lay there thinking about the future. About the nursery we’d decorate. A crib I’d make. And whole new set of rules for our child.