She wasn't sure if it was the rush of hormones from having given birth or just the emotion of the day, but another rush of tears welled in her eyes as she thought of a life with Luke in their little house.
A place all their own.
“Let’s,” she murmured, and he kissed the top of her head again.
"We'll see it as soon as we can, then."
She nodded and then Suzette reappeared in the doorway, coffee in hand.
"Your mother just got back with the whole gang and they’re champing at the bit to get in here.” She settled into her seat by the door. "So, you guys both stopped being idiots yet?”
She and Luke grinned at each other. "Maybe. But maybe not. We're getting married."
Suzette beamed. "That's the best news I've heard in a long while."
Tawny had to agree--that was, until the nurse returned with Michael along with the report that he was healthy as a horse and that they would be able to welcome guests as soon as they cleaned her up.
Luke pulled a chair up close by her bedside and rested his head against Tawny's arm, that much better to see their son. This--him and Michael and everything they represented--was all she'd ever wanted. This, she realized, was her happily ever after.
And it was only just beginning.
Epilogue
Three Years Later
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no.”
Tawny spun in front of the kitchen sink, and Luke looked up at her, his morning coffee still halfway to his lips.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“I just—” She checked the area around the sink again, then heard the patter of tiny feet and a scream of mirth.
“Dammit, I knew it.” But how could he have even gotten it? He wasn’t tall enough to reach the counter. Unless…
Unless she’d left it on the kitchen table. It was a bad habit she’d developed when her toddler had only been a baby. But now that he could grab and run…
Well, there was no stopping the kid.
“Michael has my wedding ring and the kids are going to start getting here any minute.”
“Again?” Luke jumped up from the table, but Tawny waved him off.
“Sit. Eat. I’m fast enough to tackle him.”
She paused and listened as another peal of laughter sounded on the other side of the house.
This was, she realized, practically its own morning routine. Ever since she’d opened up the daycare in their house—Luke’s brilliant idea as a way to ensure that she was working with kids the way she’d always planned while also allowing her to be with Michael until he was ready for school—that little boy had found some way to distract her or tie her up. So that, by the time the parents arrived to drop off their kids, she looked like the last person on earth anyone would want to leave their child with.
When she made it to the living room, she found Michael sitting in the middle of the floor, couch cushions stacked around him like a fortress.
“What are you doing, little man?” she asked, though inside she was secretly hoping that girls would be easier to raise. If not, they were in for one hell of a doozy three months from now.
“Playing pirates,” he lisped back.
She breathed a sigh of relief. At least she knew pirates didn’t eat diamond rings—or stick them up their nose.
“Where’s the treasure?” she asked.
“You have to follow the map,” he said, matter of fact.
She pinched the bridge of her nose and tried again. “Michael, did you take Mommy’s ring?”
“Yes.” He grinned and his blue eyes—so much like Luke’s—twinkled up at her.
Sometimes, she found herself wondering if he looked anything like her at all, in fact. He had the same mop of dark curls his father had, the same mischievous smile. Maybe there was something of her in the straight nose, but other than that? He was a carbon copy of his father.
Which, of course, made it that much more difficult to punish him.
“Front and center,” a deep male voice sounded behind her and she found Luke standing in the archway to the room, giving Michael his best fatherly I-know-you-did-something-wrong look.
As commanded, their son trudged toward his father, something clearly gripped inside his chubby fist.
Luke opened his palm wordlessly and extended it toward their son, and Michael dropped the ring without complaint.
“What have we been talking about?” Luke asked.
“Not taking things without asking.”
“Right, but what else?”
Michael stared up at him.
“You and me are the men of this house and we have to take care of Mommy and the new baby. Now that you’re going to be a big brother, what’s the best thing you can do to show Mommy and your new baby sister that you love them?”