“I’ll let Lottie decide, but when she sees them, she might want more than one,” Knox chuckled. “Let Rae’s girls choose first, and then we’ll most likely take the ones that are left.”
“I’ve got chili in the slow cooker. Want to stay for supper?” Audrey asked.
“Thanks, but I’ll get on back to my place. It’ll take some time to get used to not living in a trailer,” Knox said and headed for the open barn door. “See y’all tomorrow. Are you taking Mary Jane a piglet next week for her Mother’s Day present?”
“We offered her the pick of the litter, and I won’t repeat her answer.” Brodie chuckled.
“On Mother’s Day we plan to give her the news that we’reblessing her with a grandbaby in six months. We waited to be sure the first trimester is over before we told the family,” Brodie said.
“That’s great! I’m going to be an uncle again!” Knox gave them both a hug.
“Yep, and the family grows some more,” Audrey said. “Don’t tell anyone until Mother’s Day.”
“My lips are sealed,” Knox promised.
Thinking about both Bo and Audrey making announcements the next day, he wondered if by next year he and Lottie might be able to tell the family the same thing on Mother’s Day. Brodie’s new baby would be—he stopped and did the math—maybe six months old. If he and Lottie had a child by the following Christmas, he or she could grow up with a couple of older cousins, plus all the extended Paradise family.
He was so deep in thought that he drove right past the lane to his house and had to turn around and drive back. He entered the code, and the gate swung open and closed behind him when he drove over the cattle guard. Cheeto was sitting on the back of a rocking chair and having a staring standoff with a squirrel. The silly animal was stretched out on the side of the pecan tree as if he was wearing camouflage and Cheeto couldn’t see him.
Knox was on the porch when he noticed that the front door stood wide open. He knew he had set the alarm and closed it when he left, so he eased it open and yelled. “Who’s in here?”
The aroma of fried chicken wafted out to meet him, but no one answered. Had his youngest sister, Ivy, felt sorry for him and came over to cook supper?
“Hey.” Lottie appeared in the archway separating the kitchen from the living room. “I was hoping you would be home soon. Supper is about ready.”
“If I’m dreaming, don’t wake me,” he whispered.
She crossed the room and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m home to stay, and I’m not living in the trailer. Will you be my real boyfriend?”
“Depends.” Knox hugged her tightly to be sure that she was actually there. “The fake one was supposedly only for six weeks. How long is a real one for?”
“Until you aren’t my boyfriend anymore, but my fiancé, and then my husband, but I’m in no hurry for all that. For now, I just want to be your girlfriend who lives with you and works along beside you as a carpenter.”
“Then my answer is yes,” Knox answered and tipped her chin up for a kiss.
Epilogue
10 years later
“Good Lord. Have you seenyouryoungest daughter, Knox? Janie was completely dressed for the birthday party, but she’s been out there in the pigpen. She has rolled in the mud with those new piglets,” Lottie fussed.
“How come when Janie does something wrong, she’s my daughter?” He chuckled as he took four-year-old Janie by the hand and led her to the bathroom. “Now, you’ll have to wear your least favorite Fourth of July outfit because you have completely ruined this dress.”
“But, Daddy,” she whined. “Do we have to wash my hair, too?”
“You look like you have muddy hair,” Lottie fussed.
Janie’s big blue eyes filled with tears. “I don’t want muddy hair.”
“We’ll have it fixed in a jiffy,” Knox said and winked at Lottie. “You think this is a hot mess, wait a month until the next one gets here. It’s a boy.”
“Yes!” Eight-year-old Amanda pumped her fist into the air. “I want a brother like Garrett. Two sisters is enough.”
“I want twin brothers. Amanda says that she will get to hold our brother all the time and I don’t, and that’s not fair, but if we have two, then one can be mine,” Six-year-old Mia declared.
“No arguing, or we won’t go to Aunt Bernie’s party, and y’all all know that will make her cry,” Lottie said. “Go sit on the sofa until your daddy gets Janie cleaned up. And your aunt Bo and some of her sisters can have twins. I can barely keep up with one child at a time.”
In a few minutes, Knox emerged from the bathroom with a little girl in a cute red-and-white polka-dotted sundress, her curly hair still damp. Lottie nodded at him and then toward the suitcase.
