Chapter One
Violet
I cradled Willa to my chest and Evander tucked me into his side. Our families roamed around us. Kids sprinted through the yard, laughing and screeching. The only clouds in the sky were giant and fluffy, covering the sun at random intervals to give us a reprieve from the unseasonably warm June day.
It was perfect.
We couldn’t have asked for better weather for the day of our reception. I had my hair up in curls so Willa couldn’t reach it with her little fingers and twist until I thought I’d lose a whole lock at once.
Lily approached me, her hand on her belly. She was due any day now, but she refused to miss our wedding and she wouldn’t let me delay it. July would be haying season, then harvest would start soon after, pumpkin picking, and then working cattle. Evander would be in the middle of it all this year as he transitioned into running the portion of the farm and ranch his dad used to.
He was at my side, chatting with Stetson. The two couldn’t quit making plans about how they would help each other and work together while also running newly separated operations. I loved hearing Evander get excited, and we were planning our next pumpkin picking day. His mom had already planned the menu.
She’d also helped with today. Between her, my mom, and my sisters, we had the best home-catered reception to celebrate our justice of the peace wedding from last December. Bruce was tickled pink at the grill and Lily’s husband had joined him.
“Great party,” she said. “What are you going to celebrate? The wedding or the day of the reception?”
Evander broke away from Stetson long enough to say, “Both.”
I grinned. “You heard him.”
Willa reached for her dad. Evander took her from me and held her facing out, her little arms and legs flailing. He dropped a kiss into her dark curls and she reached for the brim of his hat. He smiled and lifted his chin before she could tug it off.
“You guys are so cute together,” Lily said.
Poppy sashayed toward us with Clover by her side.
“I can’t believe how good this place looks,” Poppy said. “I remember when Grandma and Grandpa bought it, and it was so rundown. Dad was worried.”
“I was,” Dad said, closing in. Mom was with Willow and doling out her books to anyone with kids. “But now I’m glad she did. It almost makes me think she knew what she was doing.”
Clover wrinkled her nose. “No way. I can’t believe her mind wasn’t going. Who would tie six properties to grandkids having to be married? It’s ridiculous.”
Poppy nudged Lily. “Worked for someone.” She eyed me. “I’d say two someones.”
I couldn’t help but grin. “It did kind of bring us together.” I looked from her to Clover, then to where Alder and Jasper were mingling around Bruce and Eliot at the grill. They were talking to Dad and Evander’s uncle Cameron. “I wonder who’s next,” I mused.
“I wouldn’t mind if it’s every one of you,” Dad said and walked off, laughing.
Clover gasped. “No way. Not me.” Her hair flew.
Poppy snorted. “Not with your taste in men.”
Clover gaped at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?” She wrinkled her nose. “Don’t answer.”
Lily rubbed her belly. I had no clue how she was still standing, but then this was her second. She’d been down the pregnancy road before. In the last months of my pregnancy, I had come home from work and collapsed on the couch. Evander had proven how lucky I was, and he’d waited on me hand and foot. He still did with Willa around.
It’d been great to have a kid around family, but Lily was only one sibling. Mom and Dad were in Billings. Evander had a large family that we were growing closer to each month, but I missed my own. “Do you think any of you would want to move back here?”
Poppy’s instant nod surprised me. “I would, I’m not gonna lie. But I don’t want to have to put up with some guy for a house.”
“Not even if you find your very own Eliot?” Lily asked.
Clover smirked. “Not independent Poppy.”
Poppy scanned the party, her gaze landing on our oldest brother. “It’s looking like Alder and Daisy are falling under the same spell. They don’t look like a couple pretending to be a couple.”
“They have been married before,” I mused. “So they’d know how to act like one.”
“Nope,” Clover said with the utmost authority. “Alder clearly does not have that stick up his ass anymore, and it’s because those two are a thing again. A real thing.”
Only me and my siblings knew that Alder and Daisy had decided to remarry so he could get the house and she’d have time to save up for her own place. They had to convince our parents and Aunt Linda.
I was happy for Alder, but also nervous. Just because they’d been married once didn’t mean it was bound to work a second time. So many years had passed.
Evander finished chatting with Stetson. He turned to me and nuzzled my hair by my ear. He no longer had Willa. His mom had come by to indulge in baby time. “What’d I miss?”
“I think my sisters are going to make sure Alder and Daisy stay together, or they might kidnap them both and lock them up forever.”
His gaze landed on my brother. He chuckled and hugged his arms around me. “I think your grandma might’ve been trying to do that first.”
“I was so upset with her.”
“And now?” he asked.
“I think she might be on to something. This house brought us together. Maybe another one of her properties will help my siblings find what we have.”
He ran a finger down my cheek. “And what do we have, wildflower?”
“Blistering hot sex.”
“Mm.” He nodded. “I’d agree. Is that all?”
“We have a relationship with mutual respect. I’m wildly in love with you. And I’m happy you’re the father of our daughter.”
“Wildly in love, huh?” He kissed my temple. “Just so happens I’m crazy about this woman who showed up on my porch and announced she was pregnant. She made it all worth the wait. And now we have this great kiddo together who is unrepentant about her drool.”
“She is a voracious drooler.”
“Ruthless. And so damn cute.”
“She’s got you wrapped around her tiny finger.”
He grinned. “You both do.”
“Think we should add another?” I bit my bottom lip. I hadn’t thought about more kids until now. But this day? All my family. His. Our house. Our farm. I had a job I loved, and Evander was passionate about his.
This was everything I had wanted, and for a while there, I never thought I’d get it.
“More kids?” he asked, thankfully not sounding horrified. Intrigue and curiosity were in his voice.
“I don’t want to wait to have another. I feel like I’ve waited long enough.”
He adopted a confused expression. “How does it work? You going to seduce me at the brewery again?”
I traced a finger down his chest. “I can make that work, Evan.”
He grinned at the use of the name he’d given me the first time we met. The name was more generic than Evander in case I had recognized him for who he was. It wouldn’t have mattered. There’d been a bright spark between us that night, and it’d only grown since then.
“This time you have my full name.” He buried his nose in my hair. “You have my everything. Let’s have another kid. Let’s have five more. However many you want.”
“One at a time,” I said, laughing.
You have my everything.
I’d take good care of it. Because he’d given me everything.
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