AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mia’s been silent this whole time I’ve been going over the project. Damon and I worked out a rough plan that would make best use of the space. Reviewing all the crops we’ll be planting so Mia would never run out of fresh ingredients. I want the best for her, and I’m doing my best. But the silence is gutting me.
And when I finally look at her and see tears streaming down her cheeks, it feels like my insides have been torn to shreds.
“Mia, baby. No, don’t cry.” I’m on my knees in front of her, holding her hands. Kissing her fingers. “What’s wrong?”
She smiles and it’s shaky. Her entire body is shaking until finally, she collapses into my arms. “What’s wrong?” she gusts. “I-I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what I did to deserve this thoughtfulness. This kindness. This…”
She breaks down and all I can think of doing is hold her. Shushing her as I whisper in her ear how much I love her, and that I’m sorry I made her cry.
When she calms down, she pulls away from my shoulder and then kisses me, our lips soaked in her tears.
“I love it,” Mia says. “I love you. Us. Everything,” she adds as she turns around.
There’s a lump in my throat as I swallow. “You’re not sad?”
She laughs, thumping me gently on my chest as though it’s the most ridiculous question in the world.
“No,” she says. “Overwhelmed, yes, but I’ve never been happier. This is more than I could have ever asked for. You’re… You believe in me and that’s exactly what I need.”
I sigh, pulling her into a tight hug, feeling her chest heave against me.
“I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you. This garden may not look like much now, but together I know it will blossom into something special. And you’ll have that bakery.”
“But that’s not the important part. I don’t care about the garden. The bakery. None of it.” She clears her throat. “I mean I’m not giving either of those up. But what I’m saying. What I’m trying to say. All of that is secondary to you. To us. We have each other, and that’s more than I could ever ask for.”
I pull my girl into a kiss, holding her tight as Oink squeals around us. Bandit barks at something, and Luke tumbles into us.
All of us fall into a heap and start laughing. I can’t imagine a life without Mia. Without Luke. Without this overwhelming kind of love.
And I’ll never take it for granted.
Epilogue
Mia - Seven Years Later
It’s Saturday and I’m up before the sun. There are no days off on the Hartwell farm—not even when you’re pregnant.
Well, there are, especially when pregnant, and there’s a grumpy cowboy who would be furious if he knew I’m not resting. But he’s asleep, and I can’t help myself. I’m working on a new recipe for the bakery and I’m itching to get back to it. I just need to grab a few ingredients from the garden first.
I sneak out of bed and quietly change into some loose-fitting jeans and shirt before kissing Wyatt softly on the side of his head. He groans, rolls over, and I freeze.
Crap. Crap, crap, crap. I couldn’t help myself. My brain’s simple: If I see Wyatt, I kiss Wyatt. And if he sees me out of bed, he’ll pull me right back in. Which isn’t all that bad now that I think about it.
“Maisy, stop touching Riley,” Wyatt mumbles sleepily. “Luke… Lego. Mia…” A deep sigh. “Mia… need.”
I’m trying not to laugh at my husband’s sleep-talking. He’s done it for as long as I remember, but I love every word, even when most of it doesn’t make sense. This is the most intelligible he’s been in a while, and it’s not shocking that even in his sleep he’s trying to parent. And that he needs me. A part of me wants to slip right back into bed with him but I resist the urge.
I’m still sore from last night. The man is insatiable but now that I’m pregnant again, I swear something else switched on inside of him. He couldn’t keep his hands off me before, but now I can’t walk into a room without him trying to shred the clothes from my body. I love it.
Oink and Bandit are snuggled up together when I make it downstairs, each one groaning as I pass by. They probably think I’m crazy for getting up so early, and maybe I am, but it’s easy to get out of bed when you’re living your dream life. I don’t want these days to end. I have a wonderful, loving family—Luke, Maisy, and Riley. And of course Wyatt, Oink, and Bandit.
And after opening the bakery with Lizzy this past year, everything has fallen into place. I’ve never felt happier or more complete. I smile, pausing in the middle of the kitchen as I hold my hands over my belly. We’re having a boy. We found out last week and we’re so overjoyed that the kids will have a younger brother.
Sometimes I think about what might have happened if I never wandered into the Inn’s bar that night. If the restaurant never closed, and I never came back to Whispering Winds. Would Wyatt and I have found our way back to each other? Would we have married, had kids, and built this amazing life together?
I’d like to think so. I can’t imagine a life without Wyatt, and a part of me believes that some ineffable link would eventually tug us close enough that fate would take over. Wyatt would?—
“Morning,” Wyatt rasps behind me and I nearly jump out of my skin.
