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Her arms tightened. “Yeah. Maybe, too long, but I guess we’ll see.”
“I guess we will. I love you, Pete.”
“I love you, too. Now, let’s go shower. You owe me a date and some dancing.”
“And kissing.”
She turned her face up to mine again, going to her toes and inviting just that. “Yeah, lots of kissing.”
My mouth covered hers. For my love of Pete, how could I say no?
Epilogue
Pete
A year later
“This is a good idea,” Mikaly said, as we stood in knee-deep snow outside our tent. I wasn’t sure he meant it. We were in the same spot where we’d camped during that first polar bear excursion. It was super cold. This time, there hadn’t been a snowstorm, at least.
I hugged my arms around my husband. “We don’t have much alone time, so I thought—”
“We’d find it,” he finished. “We always will, just like we enjoy all our time with the kids.”
I believed him. Mikaly had an uncanny knack for being right. Not that this time was that much of a stretch. I knew he was right, too. Since even before we married six months ago, we’d always found ways to make magic. And to make a family.
It was completely unconventional and unusual, but we’d gotten a new place—a bigger place—and taken in all six of the kids who’d come to the lodge for camping the weekend after I met Mikaly. I knew it made possible because of my reputation with the home, as well as several influential people, including Elvin and Mikaly’s dad, pulling strings and greasing wheels.
We didn’t care. We had our boys, and they had us. Was it easy parenting six kids all aged twelve and thirteen? Nope. Did we make it happen and was everyone happy? Yes and most of the time. We were a family. And this weekend, they were staying with Elvin and Buttercup at the lodge, with my parents and Mikaly’s parents there to help.
Both sets of parents had become fast friends over the wedding preparations. Once mine got over the shock of menotmarrying Brad, that was. When I sat down and explained everything to them, they understood why I left. And my dad had been pissed. I couldn’t be sad how things had gone, forcing me to leave Oregon. I’d met Mikaly.
Of course, Mikaly insisted we were destined and would have ended up together anyway.
I had to believe him.
Brad hadn’t been down for it. When my dad fired him, he’d vandalized the business, doing thousands of dollars of damage and landing himself in jail. I’d felt awful but both Mikaly and my father told me over and over it wasn’t my fault.
“Now that we’re all alone, we can spend the weekend snuggling and making our own heat,” Mikaly suggested. “It’ll be better than last time. And we’ll make so much noise, we’ll scare away any early rising bears.”
“Oh…I’m liking this even better,” I said, ready to retire now.
“Oh,” he echoed. “You’re going to like ita lot, Flower”
“Yeah? I think you better prove it, Big Talker.” I squealed when he swooped me up into his arms. His long strides ate up the distance to the tent. I kissed his neck. “This is what you signed up for when you married a woman like me.”
Squatting, he unzipped the door and pushed me inside before following. “Smartest thing I ever did. Now, let’s get warm, woman.”
