I took another step inside, closing the door behind me. If Easton had wanted to give me the tour, he’d have to live with the disappointment. The guest bedrooms on the main floor were down a hallway off the living room along with a sparsely decorated office. I peeked into the pantry along with both the mud and laundry rooms.
When I walked down the hallway leading to the back of the house, Easton’s scent greeted me before I stepped into the enormous, master suite.
His bed was unmade. The charcoal sheets were rumpled and the suede quilt strewn on the floor. Every night he’d spent at the cabin, he’d slept like a rock, barely moving. Which meant last night, he’d probably tossed and turned.
I walked deeper into the bedroom, not bothering with the light. He’d vaulted the ceiling in the bedroom and the back wall was made almost entirely of glass. Sunbeams streamed inside, lighting the room and warming my face.
Every step felt heavy. Deep. Like with each one, my feet sank through the hardwood floor, past the concrete foundation and into the earth.
Like a tree’s roots taking hold.
A wave of emotion welled in my chest and I was crying again. Damn it, I’d cried more in the past twenty-four hours than I had in the last eleven years.
Maybe that was expected when someone like me finally found it.
Home.
I hadn’t cried for long when two arms banded around me and Easton pulled me into his chest. “You okay?”
I nodded, leaning into his embrace. “They’re happy tears.”
“Good. Welcome home, darlin’.”
Epilogue
Gemma
Six months later . . .
“I don’t like the doctor.”
Easton chuckled. “At last week’s appointment, you loved her. You invited her to the wedding.”
“She can forget that invitation now.”
He reached across the cab of the truck and took my hand, holding it as we bumped down the road. “We’ll get the car to California. It’s just not going to be for a while.”
“A long while.” My shoulders fell. “I need to call Londyn.”
“She’s not going to care.”
“She might.”
He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. “She won’t.”
My fiancé was right. Londyn wouldn’t care about the car. Hell, she’d had it in West Virginia for a year before I’d taken it on my adventure. Mostly, I was pouting because the doctor’s news was not what I’d hoped to hear.
As of today, I was on activity rest. I’d be trapped inside the house for months while I finished growing this baby. And the trip that we’d planned to take to California in three weeks was on hiatus. Neither Easton nor I would risk being on the road with the warning light on this pregnancy.
“I hate this,” I muttered. “I’m scared.”
He looked across the cab. “It’s going to be okay.”
“What if we can’t get my blood pressure down?”
“We will.”
I found it cruelly ironic. If the doctor didn’t want me stressed during the remainder of my pregnancy, she shouldn’t have told me all the bad stuff that could happen.
She was definitely not invited to our wedding.
The day Easton had stopped me from leaving and given me his caveman proposal, we’d spent alone at the house. He’d brought in my things and had helped me unpack, moving me into his house—our house. And that night, he’d insisted we go to family dinner.
We’d walked in the door at Carol and Jake’s, and before anyone could react to the fact that I wasn’t on my way to California or scold me for leaving a note, he’d announced we were engaged.
Two weeks later, he’d come home with a diamond ring.
Two weeks after that, I’d come home with pregnancy tests.
So far, this pregnancy had been a cakewalk. I hadn’t had any morning sickness and my energy levels had been great. But two weeks ago, I’d gone in for a routine checkup and the doctor had worried that my blood pressure was higher than normal. This week was more of the same. If next week’s checkup was a continuation, I’d have to take medication, something I’d avoided completely since my pregnancy test had shown positive.
I was eating healthy. I was getting exercise. But the anxiety of growing a human and becoming a mother was getting to me.
I hadn’t exactly had a good role model during my formative years.
“I just want the baby to be okay.” I stroked my belly, taking deep breaths.
“He will be.” Easton clutched my hand. “You both will be.”
It would be easier to believe him if his nerves weren’t coming through his voice and there wasn’t a worry line between his eyebrows.
Easton was over the moon that we were having a boy. Last month, he’d gone into Missoula with the trailer to pick up some specialty mineral supplements for the livestock, and while he’d been at the farm and ranch supply store, he’d found a pair of baby cowboy boots. And a baby cowboy hat. And a baby pair of felt chaps.
The getup was currently in the nursery closet, awaiting the day when he’d be old enough to wear them and I’d take a million photos.
Easton had also told Cash that the best colt born this year was ours.
Maybe I hadn’t had good parents, but I was lucky that the man at my side would more than compensate for my shortcomings. And we could lean into our family.
The Greers were as excited about this baby as we were.
We pulled up to Carol and Jake’s place and Easton shut off the truck. We were late for family dinner because my appointment had gone long, but it was a gorgeous evening.
The May flowers were in full bloom, the front of Carol’s flower beds brimming with canary-yellow daffodils and fuchsia tulips. The ranch was as green as I’d ever seen it, the meadows lush and the trees overflowing with blossoms.
Calves danced around their mother’s legs. Fawns bounded through the grass. JR and Liddy had a batch of baby chicks and there was a litter of new barn cats.
And soon, I prayed, we’d have a healthy and happy baby boy.
“Don’t get out,” Easton ordered. “I’ll come around and help.”
Normally, that would earn him an eye-roll. But tonight, I’d listen because he was worried and I knew he felt helpless.
As he opened my door, I swung my legs to the side and took his face in my hands. “I love you.”
He leaned in, sliding his arms around me and tucking his head against my neck. “I love you too.”
We held on to each other until the front door opened and Cash called, “Granddad wants to know if you both want cheese on your burgers.”
“I’m pregnant. What kind of stupid-ass question is that?”
Easton laughed and leaned away to holler at Cash. “Yes, cheese.”
“Double on mine!”
He grinned and helped me to the ground, then pinned me to his side as we walked to the house. The minute we crossed the threshold, we were bombarded with questions about my appointment. Carol ushered me to a chair at the dining room table, Liddy brought me a glass of iced water and Katherine sat down beside me.
Easton dropped a kiss to my cheek, then disappeared outside to find the guys who were hovering beside the grill, while I gave a recap of my appointment.