After weeks of poking and prodding, I’d finally convinced Charlie to come with me today—or more to the point, I threatened to drag her out of her house by her hair if she didn’t agree, and I had to say, it rankled a bit that she turned out to be a complete natural while I was still flopping around like a toddler who was trying to walk and eat an ice cream cone at the same time.
It had been months since she nearly died trying to save me, and with every day that passed, we grew closer. She’d been hesitant at first, attempting to push me away, but I’d been persistent. She was a woman who meant something to Micah, but what was more, she’d become a woman who meant something to me, then to my family.
Charlie was good to her very core, it didn’t take much to see that, and I wanted to do everything I could to give her as much good as possible, so I gave her me, Micah, Ivy, and Sylvia. Once she accepted that—not that she had much of a choice since my baby girl was as persistent as me, and she’d taken an instant shine to Charlie—I gave her my friends. They’d accepted her with open arms, and she was officially part of our crew.
What I couldn’t give her, no matter how hard I tried—and I’d tried really freaking hard—was Dalton. The man was crazy about her, but the woman had put a wall around herself that rivaled the ones of a maximum security prison, and she wasn’t having any of it. Micah liked to call me stubborn, but I was nothing compared to her.
My man told me over and over to leave it alone, but I’d seen the way she watched him when she didn’t think any of us were looking. There was something there, and for Charlie’s sake, the rest of the girls were determined to see this through.
No matter how much she fought us on it.
“I’m home,” I said as I closed the front door behind me. I hung my purse on the hook by the door and pulled off my coat and scarf, doing the same with them.
“Hello?” I called when I didn’t get any kind of reply.
It was Micah’s day off, which meant he’d kept Ivy home from daycare because he liked having those days, just the two of them. It had become their thing ever since he’d moved in with us three months earlier.
“Where is everybody?” I asked the silence as I moved down the hall. The kitchen was empty, but a glow from outside the window caught my attention, and when I turned to look, I lost my breath.
Moving to the back door, I pulled it open and stepped onto the porch, lifting a hand to my lips as I took in all the beauty around me.
There were fairy lights strung up everywhere, from the garden all the way to Ivy’s treehouse. Glowing paper lanterns hung from all the trees. It looked like something out of a fairy tale, and standing in the middle of it all was Micah, with Ivy to his left and Sylvia at his right.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I got closer. “What is all of this?”
Micah stepped from between my family and moved to me. “The first time I met you, I knew I’d found something special. There wasn’t a day that came after where I didn’t regret walking away from you. Then I ran into all that beauty and fire in the middle of a grocery store, and the first thing you did was throw attitude.”
I sniffled and lifted my free hand to bat the tears from my cheeks. “That’s because you deserved it,” I said on a laugh. “You started it.”
He smirked, making my belly flutter. “Red, you’re stubborn, and full of attitude. You’re also loving and loyal. You’re wild. And when you burn, it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” I covered my mouth to stifle a sob as he continued. “There isn’t a single thing about you I’d want to change, because I love it all. And I know down to my bones, that I’ll keep loving it until I take my last breath.”
He took my left hand and lifted it up. I sucked in a gasp, feeling my eyes go wide when he slipped a stunning antique ring on my finger.
“Micah,” I breathed, looking into those beautiful green eyes.
“You’re my safe place. Even when I’m having a bad day, you make everything better, and I want to spend every day from here on out sharing my life with you. I want us to protect each other. And I want you to be my wife.”
“He already asked me!” Ivy shouted from behind him, jumping up and down exuberantly. “I said yes!”
He nodded in confirmation, one corner of his mouth kicking up in a smirk. “She did, so it’s kind of already a done deal.”
I threw my head back on a long, deep laugh as Micah pulled me against him and banded his arms around me. “Well, then I guess it’s settled,” I said on a giggle, staring up into the gorgeous face of my fiancé.
“Good, because, just so you know, Monster was prepared to use The Look if necessary.”
“You forget, that look doesn’t work on me.” I arched a single brow. “You’re the easy target, honey.”
At that, he gave me a big, brilliant smile. “Sure the hell am. And I’m not the least bit ashamed of it.”
I threw my arms around his neck and lifted up on my toes, pressing my lips against his in a slow, steamy kiss.
“You ready to spend every day for the rest of your life burnin’ wild with me, Red?” he asked once I pulled back.
I felt my lips stretch so big my cheeks hurt as I gave him the God’s honest truth. “I can’t wait.”
The End.
Thank you so much for reading.
Keep an eye out for Dalton and Charlotte’s book
coming early 2021
More from Hope Valley
After years of war, Lincoln Sheppard thought he’d left the violence and ugliness behind. He was content with the life he built for himself. Then the woman down the street came in and shook everything up.
All Eden Brenner ever wanted was to have a place to call home. She finally found that in Hope Valley. Then she went and fell in love with the man a few houses down the first time she laid eyes on him. There was just one problem. Women like her didn’t catch the attention of men like him. He was totally and completely out of her league. And to make matters worse, when her past comes knocking, the beautiful world she’s built for herself is at risk of crumbling to the ground.
When danger forces Eden into his arms, Lincoln begins to see her in a whole new light, and he suddenly finds himself wanting things he never expected. And he wants them all with the shy, clumsy woman from down the street. But when the truth comes out, that proves nearly impossible. Now he’s fighting the hardest battle of his life, and the stakes are higher than ever. Protect the woman he’s falling for while trying to win her heart at the same time.
Temperance Levine had her entire world ripped away from her at eighteen. What had once been a life full of light and happiness was torn to shreds in the blink of an eye. With nothing left but a broken heart and painful memories, she ran away from the only home she’d ever had and tried to start over somewhere else. But the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, and sometimes all you can do to heal old wounds is come back home again.
The day Temperance left him was the worst day of Hayes Walker’s life, and he’d spent every one since then merely existing. The future he’d imagined had gone up in smoke, and all he could do was take life one step at a time. But when tragedy brings Tempie back to Hope Valley, he knows this is the only shot he’ll have at getting his happiness back, and there’s no way he’ll let this chance go to waste.