Since being rescued, I had learned that proper footwear was a must when hiking through the mountain. Now, I never left the cabin without a good pair of boots. I had also learned how to navigate the different paths and had even found some parts of the forest that Cole had never seen before. I didn’t think I would ever get to know the mountain like the back of my hand as Cole did, but if I could save myself from getting lost, that was good enough for me.
Then again, I didn’t think it would be such a bad thing if Cole came to rescue me again. I’d get the chance to fall in love with him all over again.
I rounded the tree where we had both carved our names into a giant pine tree and smiled, running my fingers across the different letters. Perhaps it was a little juvenile but spelling out our love had meant a lot to us. Even now, I could feel the butterflies of that day.
It still amazed me that Cole was the same exact person I had met on the helicopter. For the weeks that followed my decision to stay, I had looked for changes, however subtle. I wanted to believe Cole that he didn’t have some flip switch, but nearly everything leading up to that moment had shown me differently. I kept holding my breath, waiting for his true colors to show, but then there came a point when I realized that Cole wasn’t going to change – that the Cole I loved was the man he’d always be.
What did change was our love for each other. Day after day, it grew stronger and stronger. It grew beyond that puppy dog love and blossomed into something that I knew could last a lifetime. He was the man I had been waiting for – the man I would grow gray and old with.
Closing my eyes, it became so easy to imagine our future. I knew it would be everything I had ever hoped for and so much more. In the short time we had been together, Cole had already shown me the world and how absolutely beautiful it could be. Now I wanted to walk through that beautiful world with his hand in mine.
Further up the path, I gathered some of my favorite berries. I couldn’t resist popping a few of them in my mouth. They were incredibly sweet and juicy — just the way I liked them. The rest of the berries, I brought home, thinking I could make a nice pie with them. Over the months, I had really perfected my recipe and at this point, I was pretty sure Cole would do just about anything to get his hand on a slice.
I chuckled at the thought as I wrapped my apron strings around my waist, tying them behind my back. Soon, I mixing the berries into a bowl, getting them down to a nice jam-like consistency. I never thought I would be much into baking, but it has a certain therapeutic quality to it. Back when I lived in the corporate world, cooking and baking were just two things I could never find the time for. Now, I could spend all day in the kitchen, whipping up new recipes just to see Cole’s expression when he tried them.
With the berry filling done, I rolled out the dough. As I began to hum and dance, my mind wandered back to that first day. If Cole hadn’t called me out on my behavior that day, I probably never would have bothered to give him the time of day and he would have been the one that got away. But thankfully, that didn’t happen. Luckily, he gave me a chance and I learned to trust him – to believe he could be different than all the other assholes out there. And now, because of all that, I have everything I ever wanted.
A little while later, I took the pie out of the oven and brought it outside to our picnic table. I drew myself a slice, thinking that nothing could make this moment sweeter than sharing it with the love of my life. I thought about looking around the property in hopes of finding him but before I could even get up, there he was, covering my eyes from behind. “Guess who,” he whispered against my ear.
“Hmm, oh, I don’t know,” I answered. “A wood elf, maybe?”
Cole chuckled. “Here, let me give you a hint.” His lips traveled across the side of my neck, all the way up to my ear when he gave it a little nibble. Even after a year of being together, he still knew exactly how to give me the shivers. More than that, he kept getting better at it. If I thought I was flying on cloud nine the first time we were together, it was nothing compared to what Cole did to me now.
“Hmm, okay, in that case, could it be the most amazing man in the world?”
“Ding! Ding! Ding!” He laughed and turned my head so he could plant a kiss on my lips, sweet and tender as always. When he pulled away, I was left with a fluttering heart and the burning of my cheeks. How did he always manage to do that?
“I see that you’ve kept yourself busy while I was gone. This smells absolutely wonderful, as always.”
“I was craving some blueberry pie,” I said as I tried to look innocent but I knew that the news was written all over my face the second he glanced at me, and his eyes widened with surprise. “I might even have another slice because it feels –”
Cole jumped to his feet before I could dish out the second clue. He rounded the picnic table and grabbed me by the arms as if that might let him see me better. If his eyes widened any further, I feared they would pop right out of his head. “You’re glowing!” he exclaimed. “Don’t tell me…”
I thought about teasing him a little further, but I couldn’t keep him in the dark – not when he was this excited.
“Yes,” I said. “It’s true, Cole. You’re going to be a father!”
All of a sudden, I was being spun through the air with Cole’s lips pressed firmly against my own. He tripped on something and fell into a bush. Landing on top of him saved me from injury, but I still had the air knocked from my lungs.
“Are you alright?” he asked, voice full of concern. “The baby…?”
I placed my hand across my stomach and smiled. “The baby is going to be just fine with a dad like you.”
Click here to read the bonus epilogue, twenty-five years later.
Want to read the next book in the Olympus Mountain Man Romance Series?
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Mountain Man Doctor: A Mountain Man Virgin Medical Romance
Mountain Man Guardian: A Secret Billionaire Romance
Mountain Man Seeking Curvy Girl: Alpha Mountain Man Curvy Girl Romance
Baby For The Mountain Man: A Mountain Man Pregnancy Romance
The Mountain Man’s Secret Baby: A Mountain Man Baby Romance
The Mountain Man With Babies: A Mountain Man Baby Romance
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