---

“So tell me again how this happened.” Cal leaned forward in his chair and put his elbows on his knees, waiting for Chelsea to explain exactly what had happened between her and Scott and Lucas. Not that it was any of his business, a point that Milena had made repeatedly.

“Cal, leave her alone.” Milena put her arm around her boyfriend and pulled him gently back into the couch. “We don’t need all of the dirty details.”

“No,” Ian exclaimed from across the room. “We definitely don’t need any of the dirty details. We’re just happy that you’re happy, Chels. Really.”

She smiled gratefully at her big brother. The last few days had been amazing with Lucas. She didn’t know she could ever feel so happy. It was so different than anything she’d had before and as much as she would’ve liked to stay wrapped up in that little bubble with just the two of them, she knew that wasn’t possible, especially with her entire family harassing her. Everyone had seen what had gone down at the Halloween party and even if they hadn’t, word traveled fast in a small town. Lucas had been a good sport when he agreed to come by for a family dinner. But Chelsea couldn’t help but wonder if he really knew what he was getting into with all of them. They could be a lot to handle, especially when half of them had been rooting for the other guy.

“I know you’re all going to be really nice to Lucas when he gets here.” Chelsea looked at each of her brothers in turn. “Aren’t you?” She directed the question to Cal, who had definitely been on team Scott.

“Hey, don’t look at me. Honestly, Chelsea. I just want you to be happy. If Lucas makes you happy, that’s all I need to hear. It’s just big brother bullshit. I really do want you to be happy.”

She got up from the couch across the room to give Cal a hug. “I am,” she told him. “I’ve never been happier.”

That was absolutely the truth. She still didn’t know what she was going to do for money, because writing books likely wasn’t going to pay off. At least not right away. But Lucas had shown her a couple of sites on the internet that were looking for content. Places where she could write about things she knew about, and with Gwen’s help—because that was her area of expertise—Chelsea actually thought she had a shot of making enough money to keep her going until she could get her first book finished. Which hopefully wouldn’t take too long. She’d been writing almost nonstop and the ideas were flowing. It amazed her that now that she’d given herself permission to actually sit down and tell a story, how quickly the words came. It had been a combination of Lucas and writing, but Chelsea truly couldn’t remember a time when she’d smiled so much.

“Well, I for one can’t wait to finally sit him down and get to know him.” Jade walked into the room holding a tray of appetizers that she placed on the coffee table. “When did you say he was coming?”

Chelsea wanted Lucas to come with her to her brother’s house, but there’d finally been a breakthrough in the vandalism situation, so he had to deal with it before he could join them. “Hopefully soon.” She grabbed a piece of cheese from the tray. “Rhys had a pretty strong lead in regards to who was responsible for all the stuff that’s been happening at the construction site. It sounded kind of serious, but hopefully they’ll be able to get it taken care of without too much drama.”

She really did hope that they could put an end to that situation. And without too much trouble considering it’d become clear that one of the high school students was involved. And potentially, after looking at the footage, more than one student. Either way, it would be nice to finally have all of that behind them so Lucas could focus on getting his project finished up.

“I have to say that I’m not very excited to hear that one of my students might have something to do with all of that,” Mitch said. “They’re all good kids, and I’d hate to see one or two poor decisions affect someone’s future.”

“I agree.”

All eyes turned to the door as Lucas walked in. Chelsea walked over to give him a kiss on the cheek and he put his arm around her. “And that’s exactly why I requested leniency. I remember being a kid myself.”

“Does that mean that—”

“It’s all done.” Lucas kissed her on the head. “It turns out it was a group of boys on the baseball team who thought it would be a good initiation for the rookie players. Apparently the shortstop has a dad involved with the Friends of the Lake Society. He must’ve overheard something at home that he took upon himself to mean that a little vigilante justice was the way to go. But they’re just kids.”

Mitch shook his head. “Damn. I wish I could say I’m surprised, but after working in schools for the last few years, nothing surprises me anymore. It was nice of you to request leniency. That’s solid.” He walked over and offered Lucas his hand. “And I understand that you’re also the guy making my little sister pretty damn happy.”

Lucas laughed. “Well, I don’t know if I’m entirely responsible for that, but I certainly do like to see a smile on her beautiful face.”

“Aww.” Gwen clasped her hands together. “Now get in here and let’s have dinner. I’m starving.”

They all gathered around Jade and Mitch’s large dining room table and passed the platters of food back and forth until everyone’s plates were full. The noise in the room was almost deafening, but Chelsea wouldn’t have had it any other way. She loved her family, and Cedar Springs and the large family gatherings were definitely part of the craziness that she’d come to love so much.

She was going to miss it.

Not right away, but she’d been talking with Lucas about all the places she’d like to visit. There was a huge world out there to explore. And write about. And she couldn’t wait to get started.

When Lucas was finished with the Cedar View Heights project, he would have the opportunity to go over to Europe to oversee the construction of a new project that his company was working on.

Her hand found Lucas’s under the table and she gave it a squeeze. In response, he leaned over and gave her a kiss.

It was months away, but Chelsea knew without a doubt that she wanted to go with him. She also knew that Cedar Springs wasn’t going anywhere and it would always be home.

Home with a new little niece or nephew to love. She caught Jade’s eye and smiled encouragingly. She’d spoken with her sister-in-law earlier, and Jade had confided that they were going to tell the rest of the family about the baby over dinner.

“Excuse me.” Jade tapped on her glass of water. “We have a little announcement.”

Everyone quieted down and turned their attention to Jade, who straightened her shoulders and stood with Mitch at her side.

Chelsea’s heart went out to her. She couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to be in their place.

“We just wanted to thank you all for your support with everything over the last few months and especially for your excitement for our new addition.”

A bunch of cheers and whoops went up around the table. Everyone was excited about the baby.

“Because you’re all so supportive, we wanted to let you know that at Jade’s last doctor appointment, something was discovered on the ultrasound.” Mitch took over the explanation. “It may be nothing, but it also may be something. There’s a small chance that our baby has Down syndrome.”

The table was silent, but Chelsea didn’t take her eyes off Jade and Mitch.

“We know that no matter what, our baby is going to be absolutely perfect,” Jade said. “So we’ve elected not to do any further testing.”

“We just wanted you all to know.” Mitch wrapped his arms around his wife and kissed her before they both sat down again.

The rest of the family was quiet for another moment and it was finally Declan who stood and raised his glass. “To the baby,” he said. “Our very first little niece or nephew, who is going to be loved so very, very much by this family.”

Cal stood across from him and raised his glass. “And who will be the perfect addition to this family, as awesome, loving—”

“And crazy,” Ian jumped in, “as we all are. The newest little McCormick is going to be absolutely perfect.”

Tears streamed down Jade’s face, but she raised her glass. The rest of the family followed suit.

“We love you,” Chelsea said and they all toasted to their ever expanding family.

A few minutes later, when they all finally had a chance to wipe their tears away and resume dinner, Lucas bent down and whispered in her ear. “Have you told them your secret yet?”

She shook her head. She knew exactly what he was talking about. She still hadn’t told anyone about her writing and that she wasn’t going to take any classes at all, but focus on writing. It was a risk, and she wasn’t entirely sure whether all of her family would be supportive. But more than that, the reason she hadn’t told them yet was because once she said it to everyone out loud, it would become pretty real.

“Tell them.” He squeezed her hand.

Chelsea took a breath, stood up and cleared her throat.

---

---

A McCormick family dinner turned out to be a pretty big deal. He was glad he’d managed to take care of all the business with the vandalism and then, even more importantly, with his father before arriving at Jade and Mitch’s house.

The high school vandals had been the easy part. Once they had the information from Scott, Rhys was able to narrow down the possible suspects to a handful of the baseball players. After only a few minutes of questioning, they’d all cracked and confessed to what they’d done.

He was angry, to be sure. But Lucas wasn’t an unreasonable man, and in exchange for community service, including cleaning up the spray paint at his site, Lucas had elected not to press charges. Besides that, between the boys’ parents and their coach, he was pretty sure they’d be punished enough.

The harder call he had to make was to his father, but it had to be done. He’d come to a decision about the construction site as far as the nesting ground went. He was moving the site. After some calls and initial consultations, the cost wasn’t extraordinary and the goodwill between the project and the community was worth it.

Besides, it was a beautiful location and it would only add value to the potential buyers. The fact that Lucas had come to love Cedar Springs was only a small consideration, if not a mighty one.

He’d expected his father to lash out when he called to give him the news, but instead, he’d surprised him by saying, “I wasn’t sure if you had it in you, son. Congratulations.”

“Pardon me?” Lucas sat in his car outside of Mitch McCormick’s house. “You didn’t think I had what in me?”

“The balls to make the hard calls,” his father said. “But clearly you do. Congratulations. You made a good choice.”

He blinked hard and pulled the phone away from his ear to be sure that he hadn’t misdialed.

He hadn’t.

“I agree,” Lucas said hesitantly. “But I’m not sure I understand. I thought you were against me moving the second phase.”

“What I was against was you not managing the project properly. But you did that. Part of construction management is handling these situations that come up and dealing with them appropriately. It’s not always cut-and-dry and you’ll have battles all the way, including two very strong and opposing sides. But you still need to be able to put your head down and make the best decision you can. The right decision. You did that.”

He had done that. He’d done exactly that. But the shock of hearing those words from his father’s mouth was enough to render him speechless.

“You did good, Lucas,” his father continued. “And I have no doubt that you’ll be the perfect choice for some of our bigger international projects. Congratulations.”

He’d ended the call and taken a few much-needed minutes to gather his thoughts. Finally, unable to completely process what had happened, he laughed and slapped the steering wheel before letting out a whoop and going inside to join Chelsea and her family.

After their evening, Lucas was both exhausted and energized by the energy around the dinner table. He hadn’t been nervous at all to finally meet Chelsea’s family as her boyfriend. In fact, he’d been excited despite the fact that he had no idea what to expect.

It all turned out better than he had thought. It was like everything with Chelsea. Every day for the last few days, he’d woken up with her in his arms, looked over and thought he was still dreaming.

More than that, he couldn’t believe it was even possible for him to feel the way he felt about her. But he did. And the feeling only seemed to grow stronger every day.

Lucas loved the way that, even in a few short days, Chelsea had really flourished and become really excited about her writing. And he’d felt an incredible sense of pride when she stood up at the family dinner table and told everyone she cared about it. Finally. Just as expected, they’d supported her. Not that he thought it would have been any different.

After dinner, there’d been desserts and coffee and there was no doubt the family was settling in for an entire evening together. Normally Lucas would’ve been happy to have joined the family, but on this particular night he had other plans. And he was eager to get to them.

“What is so important that we couldn’t stay a bit longer?” Chelsea sat next to him in the truck, her eyes wide and sparkling. Lucas knew she would have loved to stay to visit with her family, but she was also happy to leave with him. It was one of the many things he loved about her: she was just so willing to go with the flow and trust him.

“I promise it’ll be worth it. I have something I want to show you. Trust me?”

“Of course.” She reached her hand across the seat and grabbed his. He loved how in only a few short days, their relationship had completely changed, and all for the better. To finally be able to love Chelsea openly and have her love him back was greater than anything he could’ve imagined. He found himself wanting to laugh, but only at himself. He never would have believed he’d be this lovesick in such a short time. Or ever, really. But he was, and he wouldn’t change it.

It wasn’t until they got closer to their destination that Chelsea started to get suspicious. “Are we going where I think we are? It’s going to get dark soon. We can’t be…”

“Remember, you said you trusted me.”

“I do.”

“Good.” He navigated the truck down the dirt road and pulled into a little parking space at the trailhead.

Chelsea flipped around in her seat to stare at him, open-mouthed. “Are you kidding me? We’re going on a hike? But it’s getting—”

“I’ve got it covered.” Lucas grabbed the pack he’d stashed earlier and jumped out of the truck to go open her door. He’d arranged all the details. It was true that it would be dark soon, but he wasn’t worried. They had flashlights. And if he timed it right, it would only be dark on the way down.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Chelsea laughed as they started the trek up the mountain. It was a shorter hike, especially now that Chelsea was used to hiking, and if Lucas calculated it right, it shouldn’t take them too long to reach the ridge. They talked and laughed all the way up and sure enough, it didn’t take them long at all. And more importantly, the timing was perfect.

“We can’t go all the way to the top today.” There was no way they would make it up the scramble and loose rocks to the very ridge where the two of them had stood the first time they’d been there. The very same place he kissed her for the first time. But he’d settle for exactly where they stood on Nahini Ridge, especially because they had the perfect view to the west to watch the sun go down behind the mountains.

He slipped his hand in hers and twined their fingers together. “Chelsea, I want to show you the world. And I will, I promise.” He turned a little so he could wrap his arm around her shoulders. “But for tonight, I’ll have to settle for showing you this.”

Neither of them spoke as they watched the sun sink lower in the sky. Chelsea let out a small sigh, and leaned into him as the oranges, yellows, and pinks lit up the mountains around them. And finally, when the sun vanished behind the tallest mountain, she turned and he wrapped her in his arms.

As he kissed her, he realized that it was from this very moment only a few short weeks ago that his whole life had been flipped upside down, and he wouldn’t change a thing.