“If you are, if we are, I’ll do everything in this world to make you happy. I swear it on my life.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I’ll make both of you happy and me too. Or you know, all four of us—” He laughed as I punched him in the ribs. “Ow. My woman is strong.”
“Is that what I am?” I was still dazed from all he’d said.
Words were easy. Emotions and actions weren’t. And if he was faking his reaction to the possible existence of this child, then he had me fooled. His sincerity was as much a part of him as his cedar scent or the misty gray of his eyes.
Or his sweet, confusing heart.
He drew me against him and brushed my hair off my cheek. “If you’ll have me.”
“I’m scared.” Admitting it was probably the hardest thing I’d ever done.
“Oh, baby, I am too.” He pressed my hand against his chest so that I could feel his rapid heartbeat through the material. “But it’s a good scared. It means I want this. I want you and what can be. Whatever is meant for us. I’m right here, ready to take every step with you.”
My lips quivered into a smile as I put my sunglasses back into place. “Is that casual lunch still on the table? Because suddenly, I’m starving.”
I wasn’t lying. For the first time in a while, all I wanted was a big juicy cheeseburger and thick steak fries from the diner. Or that poutine from Gina that Paisley had mentioned.
And if some of the reason my appetite had returned was because of this impossible, incredible man beside me, well, so be it.
I wasn’t running anymore.
“Absolutely. Your choice. Let’s go.” He started walking around the Jeep to the driver’s side, but I grabbed his hand and held on tight as he looked back at me.
“After we go buy a pregnancy test? If you wouldn’t mind being there while I make sure.”
This time, I wasn’t even surprised when he spun me around. Although I made him put me down a lot faster, since my stomach and I weren’t on the best of terms when he tried stuff like that.
But the rest of me secretly loved it.
God, I was a sap.
The whole way to the drugstore a town over, Callum rubbed my knee and smiled at me every time our gazes locked. Which was often.
When I’d told him where to go, he hadn’t even questioned why we had to travel so far when there were stores in town.
And when I went in the store’s small, dingy bathroom to do what I needed to do, he paced in the hallway, asking every thirty seconds, “Is it time yet?”
I opened the door and took a quick glance around before dragging him inside so he could look at the little stick with me.
One of us whooped. It was probably him. I was too shell-shocked to do anything but press my forehead against his strong, solid chest when he hauled me into a hug.
“We did it,” he murmured into my hair over and over.
I let out a sniffly laugh. “You do realize this wasn’t a goal we were aiming for. It just kind of happened.”
“Yes, we got lucky. It’s as if we’re in our own mythology tale, centered in that far away land called Crescendia Cove. They’ll write about us someday.”
As I laughed harder, he smoothed his thumbs under my cheeks. That was how I knew I was crying. “Is that so?”
“Yes. The story will be about the beautiful woman with pink messy braids and hope in her eyes who kissed the lonely man under the mistletoe and gave him a reason to believe. And he pledged to give her and their baby a lifetime of Christmases, because who says you can only celebrate once a year?”
I leaned against him, because I was finally beginning to have faith that I could. That he wouldn’t have come back so many times if he didn’t truly want to stay.
“Who says,” I repeated softly as his lips met mine.
Epilogue
Ellie
CHRISTMAS EVE EVE
My breath caught on the turn into my house. Our house—a house made for a family. Something I’d never dreamed of having. Cal had indulged me in my love of Christmas decorations. I was pretty sure he might be out-Christmasing even me.
The huge oak tree at the edge of our property was decked out in about a bazillion white lights. Huge red Christmas balls and illuminated white stars swung merrily in the breeze off the water. Callum had spent one of the nice Sundays in November monkeying all over that tree to get it done. All because he found a photo in my family look book.
Well, it was sort of ours now.
Photos for inspiration that I’d found in magazines and printed out from online made up the book, just like with my hair-focused one. I knew Pinterest would be easier, but it had seemed to be the perfect joint planning thing for us as we’d gotten to know each other over the last year. He sneaked in sketches, and I went for glossy photos.
His brothers—who were just as insane as he’d warned me—had come to help decorate while his mom and I stayed on a quilt with the babies.
Yeah, babies. Plural.
Wouldn’t have pegged me spending my pregnancy bonding with my mother-in-law-to-be through thick ankles, stretch marks, and late night cravings, but I had. Cal had gotten the news that his mother was pregnant a day after we’d taken our test. We’d gone to tell his folks, and they’d had a special update of their own.
Cal and his dad had worn matching stunned expressions for a few weeks.
His mom had given birth to Cal early in life, and while she wasn’t the oldest mother in the medical journals, she’d astounded our obstetrician with how easily she’d made it through the pregnancy. I guessed after triplets, anything was easy. And because I didn’t have a doctor of my own, we’d just ended up doing our entire pregnancies together, right down to the office visits.
But my fiancé had a master’s degree in adapting. He happened to have one in Mythology as well. If he ever finished his thesis for his PhD, he’d be a full-fledged doctor too.
But our new little family kept him busy.
Our deep and abiding love for this crazy Victorian house on the lake took up even more time. Cal had made it his mission in life to make all my dreams come true. It was a bit more of a fixer upper than we’d been expecting. There had been a reason the sellers had taken his offer with no questions asked. We’d been renovating it during the majority of my pregnancy, but we were taking a break to enjoy our new little girl’s first year.
That and our daughter had inherited my allergy to plaster dust.
It was just too much misery for one man to take.
The farther I got up the drive, the more I was able to let the stress of the day fade. The salon had been madness. We’d hired two more stylists and a barber. With the unending beard love, men were looking to up their salon game, and we were happy to move with the times.
Going back to work had been hard, but knowing our daughter was in good hands—mostly her dad’s—had made it a little easier to go back part-time. Cal was done with school for the holidays and had decided to bring his class load down to two classes in the new semester.
Painting was taking up more and more of his time. And he liked being home with our baby. She was such a daddy’s girl, she’d probably have a paintbrush in her hands before a crayon. I was okay with it, especially because Cal was just as wrapped around her little finger as I was.