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I stepped out onto the small stoop, gaping at what was right in front of me in the driveway. A white SUV, wrapped in a big, red bow. It was the very type of car we’d been looking at online for the past six months.
“Maverick!” I gasped. “You didn’t.”
“It’s awesome.” Jamie tugged on my hand. “Come on, Mom.”
She let go of my hand to run down the steps. Then she took off across the sidewalk, not even looking back to see if we were following. I glanced at Maverick, trying for a look of admonition, but it probably wasn’t very believable with the huge smile that had taken over my face.
I was still smiling as I peeked in the windows of the SUV. He’d already moved the kids’ booster seats from my sedan, which I suddenly noticed was no longer in the driveway.
“Did you trade in the car?” I asked.
His smile faltered as he glanced in that direction too. “They gave me a good deal. Is that bad?”
I was already shaking my head by the time he reached the end of that question. “No. It’s just?—”
“Memories,” he finished for me.
I nodded. “Memories.”
We’d bought that car soon after getting married the summer after we met. I’d toted both Jamie and Chloe around in that car from the time they were infants, but there were other memories. Memories of Maverick letting me live out my fantasy in the backseat of that car at a park. We still occasionally traveled to that park twenty miles away so we couldn’t be caught. Getting naked in a car was risky no matter where you were, but if we were caught here in Blackbear Bluff, we’d never live it down.
“We’ll make new memories in this SUV,” Maverick said, leaning toward me. “The next time we get Uncle Bo and Aunt Emerald to watch the kids.”
“Dad,” Jamie said. “Can we go inside and open our presents now?”
“Yeah!” Chloe called out from her spot on her dad’s hip.
“I guess we’d better get started,” Abbie looked from one daughter to the other. “We have to get to Uncle Bo and Aunt Emerald’s in a few hours.”
“I want to see Emma,” Chloe said.
Jamie and Chloe were close in age to Emma, and that worked out perfectly for the adults. The kids kept themselves entertained while the adults hung out and gossiped and rested.
“Let’s go inside,” Maverick said.
Jamie took off, but Maverick and I took our time, walking side by side, both with smiles on our faces. I hadn’t even had coffee yet. The cold weather and the big surprise had done plenty to wake me up on their own.
It was hard to believe I was living in my hometown, raising my kids in the place I’d grown up. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
