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I straighten and Jude sees me, his eyes widening. “We need a medic.”
He runs to me and lifts me up like some goofy heroine from an 80’s romance novel. I try not to let my heart soar into the stratosphere, frowning at him.
“I can walk.”
He leans into my face, his teeth gritted. “You don’t want to argue with me right now, angel. You promised me that you’d stay inside.”
“I… I saw that the door was unlocked. I had to fix it before it got broken permanently.”
He shakes his head harshly. “I don’t care. You told me that you would stay inside. Now you’re hurt.”
I sigh and rest my head on his broad shoulder. “My head hurts.”
He nods and holds me tighter while I hear the sheriff calling for the doctor to come out here. “And I’m gonna let you slide for right now because of that.” He growls in my ear. “But when you’re better we’re having a very serious conversation that may include me paddling your ass.”
“Fat chance,” I grumble.
He sits down on the picnic bench and holds me tighter still. He kisses my forehead. “I love you, angel. But if you ever do anything like this, I will paddle your ass until you can’t sit for a month.”
I sigh and breathe in his manly scent, letting it wash over me and settle my nerves. My body feels like it’s floating but I don’t feel so much hurt as joyous.
This is my man. I can’t believe it, but this crazy, sexy man loves me. And I love him too. He wants to take care of me, and I’ve never really had a lot of that in my life.
“You’re marrying me as soon as you feel better so I can keep an eye on you.”
I nod my head and rub my cheek into his coat. “That sounds nice.”
Sounds more than nice. It sounds perfect. Just like Jude. Just like our love.
Just like a life with him sounds. Perfectly perfect.
EPILOGUE
JUDE
Jude
“There’s my girls,” I say, smiling when I come back to our large cabin up on the mountain. I’ve been out hunting for a couple of hours. Of course I knew what I’d find when I got home. My wife is curled up with my twin girls in their playpen in the living room and she’s working on a brand-new project that involves rose quartz and amethyst stones braided into a fascinating dream catcher that she’s making for our daughters’ room. The rose quartz is used to give intention to our love for our daughters. The amethyst is a protective stone that helps to repel negative energy.
The dreamcatcher is a project for our daughters, but I have a feeling that there will soon be some new ones for sale at the farmer’s market in town.
Our cabin is much large than it used to be and there’s another one up on the mountain as well. Another ranger has been hired to help me out since I’m now a family man and we have much more people coming up on the mountain.
I sit next to the bassinets and smile at my sleeping girls, both of whom have wispy curls of the palest red and soft blue eyes like their mother. Freckles dot their little noses and rosebud lips purse and pucker as they dream.
I can’t stop smiling. I look over at my wife where she’s sitting, and I can’t believe what a lucky bastard I am. It took a while for Treaty to get pregnant but that gave us over a year to enjoy each other and learn all about each other. It also gave us time to build a big addition to my cabin and for another cabin to be purchased for the new man, Lassiter.
He’s a good man but he’s happy a little further up the mountain and even further away from all the people in town.
Treaty invites him over to eat regularly and he comes, but he doesn’t hang around a lot after dinner. He’s a quiet guy. Keeps to himself.
I stand up and move across to touch my wife’s hand and she leans into my leg, her eyes flashing with icy fire. “Hello, Jude. How was your day?”
I lean down and kiss her… hard, loving it when she breathes deeply, almost panting. I lick along the seam of her mouth and nibble at her lips.
“It’s better now. It will be even better when we’re alone later,” I whisper in her ear. She shivers lightly.
I help her get the afternoon’s work done and then settle my little girls in my arms, rocking them to sleep later, after I feed them. Treaty tried to breast feed them but unfortunately couldn’t make enough for twin girls. So they’re bottle fed and I get the joy of taking care of my little girls’ appetite.
