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Shiloh turns on her heel and grumbles, “Yeah, yeah. Merry Christmas. Now, out of bed. We got presents to open, people.”
I bark out a laugh and Journey covers her mouth with her hand. I grip her wrist and pull it away before I kiss her softly.
“Merry Christmas. This is the first of a lifetime of Christmases together.”
She nods and whispers, “Merry Christmas, Tanner.”
“Move in with me,” I grunt and watch as my woman’s eyes widen. “Move in with me and marry me. I love you and our daughter. You both belong with me.”
“Are you sure?” Her eyebrows pull together. “I just mean, this has been so fast and while I wouldn’t change it, I don’t want to mess it all up.”
“I’m sure,” I assure her and wrap her up in my arms even tighter. “If you want to leave Christmas Falls and start somewhere else, fresh and without the past, we can do that too. I know guys in other clubs from rallies and shit. The guys in the Devil’s Saints MC are good men. They have chapters in Seattle, New Orleans, Charleston and even Tampa. We don’t have to stay here.”
She jerks back and looks at me with wide eyes. “You’d leave your club? Christmas Falls?”
As I press my lips against her forehead, I murmur, “I just want you to be happy. I hate how people have treated you here. Maybe a fresh start is what we all need. It’s up to you. You can take your business anywhere and find success. I can go anywhere. We can do whatever we want, as long as we’re together.”
“Chase our bliss,” she mutters, more to herself than to me, but I nod anyway. “I want to stay, at least for now. Maybe,” she pauses, and I pull back to see her looking at me from underneath her lashes, “how about we go on a road trip this summer and have some fun? It’ll be good for Shiloh to see more of the country. Maybe we can meet up with Lane while we see the sights and some of those clubs? Figure out our options?”
“I love that idea, pretty girl.”
I kiss her, hard and deep, hoping she knows how much she means to me.
“Does that mean you’ll marry me and move in here? Until we figure out where life is taking us next?”
“Yes,” there are tears in her eyes as she answers me.
“Good.” I stand up and then throw my woman over my shoulder because I can hear Shiloh yelling for us from the living room. “Your ring is under the tree waiting for you to open it.”
Journey slaps my ass and hisses, “Put me down, I need to get cleaned up and put on panties.”
I sigh and let her slide down my body. The way she smiles at me has my breath catching and my heart beating wildly in my chest. I don’t know what I did to get so lucky, but I’m thankful as fuck.
It doesn’t take us long to clean up, put some clothes on, and make our way into the living room. Shiloh has put all the presents into three piles and the impatient look she shoots us has me swallowing down a chuckle.
“Finally,” Shiloh exclaims. “I thought I was going to have to start without you.”
I lead Journey to the couch and when I sit next to her, she tucks right into my side. She looks around and bites her lip. “Sorry, it seems Christmas and the presents exploded all over your house.”
“Our house,” I rumble, and she blinks up at me before a smile spreads across her face.
“Right,” she gives a curt nod, “then I’m not sorry at all.”
I look over at Shiloh and smile. My little one is barely holding back from ripping into her pile of presents and it’s adorable as hell.
“Little one,” her eyes snap to mine, “I know what we talked about and planned, but I couldn’t wait and already asked your mom to marry me and for you two to move in.”
Journey gasps as Shiloh sighs. “I’m surprised you held off until this morning,” Shiloh admits. Then the little girl with almost too much sass to contain abandons her gifts and crawls into my lap. Her small arms wrap around my neck, and she kisses my cheek. “It’s okay, Daddy, it’s hard to keep secrets sometimes.”
Journey’s voice is hesitant, “You’re okay with this, baby girl?”
Shiloh screws up her face like her mom has just asked the most ridiculous question in the world. “I love Daddy and we’re a family. You’re happy. I’m happy. Daddy is happy.”
This girl.
Journey wipes tears from her cheeks and I wrap my free arm around her to hold her as close to me as I can.
Shiloh nailed it though. We’re happy. We’re a family.
