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Charlie and Ford blink.
“We can’t live in the lodge forever. With the baby…we could build a place up there. I’d still be around for the Ranch. I just wouldn’t be—”
“Up everyone’s ass all the time?” Ford says dryly.
I give him a look. “Up everyone’s ass all the time.”
“Well,” Ford says with an easy shrug. “Gotta stay close seein’ as we’re gonna be uncles and all.”
I cut a grin at my brothers as joy takes root in my chest and spreads.
No more shadows.
Only home.
After my conversation with my brothers, I tackle training exercises with my dogs and head back to the lodge. My job as aMarine has prepared me for some mentally tough situations, but nothing braces me for the sight that hits me when I step inside. Dakota sprawls on the big leather couch—maternity jeans rolled down, shirt pulled high, hands over her bare belly—crying. Keena stares from her nearby position on the floor.
Panic seeps through me. I’m on my knees beside her faster than I care to admit.
“Baby, what is it?” I ask, fanning a hand out over her stomach.
“I was just thinking…” She sniffles, rolling her head across the couch cushion to look solemnly at me. “What if Squish and I were on the Titanic and I couldn’t save him?”
Christ, that’s it?
Relief fills me as I smother a smile. By now, I’m used to Dakota’s crying fits over the smallest thing. It tears me up inside, but damn if she isn’t adorable.
I chuckle softly. “If you were on the Titanic, I’d be your personal life boat.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
She sniffles.
I reach for my back pocket. “Granola bar?”
A smile tugs at her mouth. “You’re like a walking vending machine, Hotshot.”
“Only for you.” I curl my hand around hers and search her wet eyes. “You okay?”
“I am the most tired woman in the world,” she admits. “I am tired when I get up. I am tired when I sleep.” She sighs. “My brain is soup. My feet are busted biscuits. My breasts are watermelons.”
“I love your biscuits.” I sweep my thumb over her cheekbone. “And I especially love your watermelons.”
“I hit my stomach on the kitchen island corner.” Fresh tears fill her eyes. “Squish is going to be born with a dented head and I’ll have to answer questions about it for life.”
I shake my head. “Dakota.”
My thumb whisks over her ring finger. Christ, I love the way that diamond looks. Love what it means. That she’s mine.
Marrying Dakota is like boarding that plane for Marine training, knowing my life would never be the same. Knowing I’d come back changed.
Dakota changed me six years ago. And she’s still doing it.
“Worries are normal, okay? But we can solve every single one of them.”
“What about a crib?”
