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He meets my gaze, and I smile like I’ve never smiled before.
He gives that to me. Each draft of happiness lifting me higher feels like a gift.
“I’m so in love with you, Jacob Rhodes. The parts of you that the rest of the world doesn’t get to see. The shadows.” I touch his jaw. His eye contact is intense, but I want him to know I mean this. “I thought I’d never marry after Henry signed the divorce papers. But then… You changed my mind. And you knew that I knew you want to marry me, so you’ve been teasing me ever since.”
He smirks. “It’s called edging, songbird. I thought you liked that kind of thing.”
I shake my head at him.
“Today.” He leans down and claims my lips. Hungrily. With all the lust and desire in the world. But there’s something sweeter, too. A type of cherishment I’ve felt coming off him in waves, but now seems to triple. “Get ready.”
I open my mouth when he steps back. The ring is still on my finger.
In the closet, there’s a white dress I haven’t seen before.
So maybe he has been teasing me for all these months, but this was planned. I roll my eyes and shower quickly, trying and failing to remove all the oil paint from my skin. At least it’s not in my hair.
We’ve had quite the exciting last six months.
We spent time with his parents and sister in Crown Point. Sharing the house lasted one night, until his mother made some offhand comment about creaking bedsprings. We rented a house down the street for the remainder of the week, and we had sex on every surface.
Because we could.
I studied up on literature. Reread the classics over the holidays, enjoying a lazy and hot summer while Jacob kept in shape. And when he went off to a summer intensive, I applied for an adjunct position at a community college in Denver.
No one was more surprised than me when they offered me the job. So now I teach two classes, easing myself into it with entry-level courses, and I get to talk about characters and theory I love.
I reread my favorite book. I knew most of it, but some of it still managed to surprise me.
Go figure.
At some point, maybe Jacob and I will return to Crown Point.
Maybe he’ll take over coaching hockey when Coach Roake retires—or maybe he’ll do as he first mentioned when we got together years ago and coach high school lacrosse.
Either way, he’ll do us proud.
As a hockey player, as a man… and as a dad.
I’m thirty-four. I’m about seven weeks pregnant, if we’re counting from when I got my last period. I didn’t think I could get pregnant. I thought… I thought I had done something irrevocable to my body to prevent it. Down to my bones, I was terrified of having a baby with Henry.
But miracles do happen.
Either that, or fate bent to Jacob Rhodes’ will.
And we’re finally in a place that it’s okay.
I’ll have to come up with a fun way of incorporating that into my vows. If we even exchange them. But demanding Jacob to say nice, impromptu, flowery things about me in front of witnesses seems like a great idea.
So I hide my smile and finish getting ready to marry the love of my life.
THE END
