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Hannah laughed. “We don’t know that yet.”
“Yes, we do,” Jake said.
Tucker shook his head. “He’s insisting the baby has to be a little brother or he’ll take her back to the store.”
“The store.” Aiden nodded at Jake. “You might have a tough time returning that one.”
“Nope.” Jake shook his head. “No girls.”
Hannah sighed. “Anyway, we’re due right around Valentine’s Day, so little Teagan will have a cousin almost her age to play with.”
I looked over at our daughter Teagan in her highchair, crunching crackers into bits. That had been our original goal—have our children as close together as possible so they’d grow up with playmates.
Of course, there was only so much that we could control. It took Hannah and Tucker a little longer to get pregnant, and now Aiden and I were already talking about baby number three.
“They’ll be in daycare together.” I smiled at my sister. “And Teagan will be a little older in school, so she can look out for her cousin.”
Hannah had to stop to help Jake with his burger. He needed it cut into smaller pieces. As moms, we’d worked hard to strike the right balance between running our in-home bakery and spending time with the kids. A new crew handled the food truck since Hannah and I weren’t working directly for the bakery anymore.
Sweetheart muffins were our business these days. They’d even made national news. We shipped all over the country, as well as providing a regular stash to our former employer.
My family’s muffins had brought more than a few couples together here in Blackbear Bluff, which was pretty amazing, considering this town still had a shortage of single women. As soon as one came here for whatever reason, she was sold on the sexy mountain men and the beautiful scenery. I couldn’t blame them for sticking around.
“Blackbear Bluff really is the best place to raise kids,” I said as Hannah returned to her own meal.
She nodded. “It’s a little piece of paradise most of the world doesn’t know about.”
“Well, the number of people who don’t know about it seems to be shrinking by the year,” Aiden said.
Tucker laughed. “Yeah, I remember when this was a town full of loggers and old-timers. Now it’s families, everywhere you look.”
I shrugged. “What did you expect when all you hot military guys decided to settle here?”
“And the new jobs are bringing in some women too,” Hannah said.
“They can keep coming here, as far as I’m concerned,” Tucker said. “The more people who couple up and have kids, the bigger our schools get, and that attracts great teachers.”
“Not to mention restaurants and shops,” Hannah said. “We can never have too many of those.”
Tucker smiled. “I remember when we had to drive all the way to Boone to buy Christmas presents every year.”
“Christmas?” Hannah laughed. “Try every time I needed new clothes or something else I couldn’t just buy online and have shipped to my house.”
“You don’t remember the days when even that was tough,” Tucker said. “It seems like yesterday that we couldn’t get a pizza delivered.”
“There weren’t any pizza places,” Aiden reminded him.
Yes, all of that had changed. Sometimes, I missed the days when the streets were clear and there was empty land everywhere we looked—beautiful greenery, trees, and views of the mountains. Luckily, all four of us had our log cabins built before real estate started getting so expensive. We bought property at the very spot where Hannah and I met our knights in shining armor.
Other loggers in town had bought property in the same neighborhood, so it was a pretty tight-knit community. Many ofour kids were in the same daycare and would be going to the same schools.
It was still a small town. There were just more of us to make it a community. And to me, that was what made a town a home.
“Ever regret giving up your big city life to move here?” Tucker asked.
I felt Aiden’s stare shift to me. He knew the answer already, but I was sure he couldn’t get enough of me saying it.
“Best decision I ever made.” I held up a fry as if as if to emphasize my words. “I was looking for that type of big city life I saw on TV shows and in movies. But what I liked about it was exactly what I found here.”
