“Very serious,” I assured her. “What else do you want? Hot tub on the deck, obviously.”
“Obviously.” Delaney sighed and moved back against my chest.
I would have to talk to Pia about how to propose. It had to be special, like the woman nestled between my legs. But I would propose and make Delaney my wife. Yesterday, she told me that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me after I’d asked her if she could see herself getting married, and that had sealed the deal.
“We should probably talk about living arrangements in the meantime.”
“I actually don’t mind how it is now. Unless that’s a pain for you, being part time at the inn and part time at my place?”
“It’s fine. If that works for you.”
“For now it does,” I said. “I can keep helping Mason renovate the inn while putting all of the pieces of the new business in place. I think by the end of spring, we’ll have everything finished.”
“Speaking of timelines…”
We talked about our new businesses, of our future. We talked until both Delaney and I were wrinkled, a signal for us to finally get out.
We were dressed in thick white robes, and I pulled her toward me, kissing the woman that would, someday, become my wife.
“To think all of this happened,” she said, “because you broke one of the rules.”
“Never stay the night.” I smiled. “I’m glad I broke it. Glad I won’t be collecting that money.”
“Who do you think will?”
“Between Beck and Cole? That’s anyone’s guess. All that matters is, not me.”
“I’m glad you broke it too. Now let’s go get some sleep.”
Following her into the bedroom, I didn’t correct her. If Delaney thought we’d get sleep tonight, with neither of us working in the morning, she hadn’t been paying attention.
Thankfully, I was a patient teacher.
EPILOGUE
DELANEY
“Talk about déjà vu,” I said, glancing around the log cabin where it had all started. Like that first time, it was snowing outside, but this time, just lightly. Thankfully not enough to cancel the trip, especially for Cole, who’d come in for the weekend. And it was his colleague, after all, who’d loaned us the place.
“With one major difference.” Pia lifted up her iced tea.
Mason made a face that said he was thankful it was Pia, and not him, who couldn’t drink.
“The sacrifices you make,” Beck called from the great room. He was still “warming up” by the fire despite the fact that we got here a half hour ago.
“That’s enough from the peanut gallery,” Pia said. “Where did Cole disappear to?”
“He’s checking on the hot tub.” Parker smiled at me. Was he remembering our first time in that tub? Most likely. I definitely was.
“When the two of you are finished eye fucking each other, can we talk about dinner?”
“I said,” Parker countered, “either is fine with me.”
More accustomed now to Mason’s blunt nature, I didn’t take offense. “Same,” I said. “Let the preggo girl decide.”
We had all been shocked when Pia and Mason told us. Although they’d been planning for a small wedding at the inn, the surprise news had them moving up the date from October to June. Apparently, although they hadn’t been trying for a baby already, they hadn’t been actively trying to avoid getting pregnant. And, voila.
If we thought Mason was protective before, he was downright vigilante now. Just the other day he’d found her using Windex and hired the inn’s cleaning lady to start doing the house portion of Heritage Hill too, despite the fact that Pia insisted using it was safe for the baby.
