Graham stepped into the kitchen, the smell of brown sugared ham and butter meeting his nose. “Celia, you’re a miracle worker.” He surveyed the spread of cakes, pies, breads, and salads, his mouth watering.

She trilled out a laugh and nudged him away from the candied meat. “Not until dinner.”

“I’m starving,” he said.

“You think you’re starving?” Laney entered the kitchen, one hand on her pregnant belly. He swept his arms around her and kissed her, his happiness shooting toward the sky.

“Hello, wife,” he said, a smile in his words and on his face. He’d asked her to marry him on Valentine’s Day. Quite romantically, too, in his opinion. He’d taken her and Bailey to a nice restaurant in Jackson Hole and surprised them both with the ring.

They’d gotten married on May third, according to their plans. Mother Nature had been kind, for maybe the first time, and had held off on the snow until the following week. Graham had taken Laney to Spain, and they’d missed the worst of the snow.

He’d paid off her loan, and they’d hired on two more men to help with the ranch that summer. He loved living in her house, with her and Bailey, the dogs, all the horses and cows and chickens.

When he got up in the morning, he didn’t even recognize the man who’d come to Coral Canyon two years ago, and he was very, very happy about that.

Laney had not been able to get pregnant right away, though not for lack of trying. Graham kissed her again and asked, “How’s the baby? How are you feeling?”

“Doing okay today.” She grinned at him though he could tell she wanted to roll her eyes. She’d done that a few times, and Graham hadn’t liked that. He’d finally gotten the courage to tell her he had every right to be concerned about his wife and unborn child, and if wanted to ask how she was, it wasn’t because she was weak or because he thought she couldn’t handle the pregnancy.

They’d had several conversations like that over the months of their marriage, and Graham was glad he’d found someone he could be honest with and forthright about his feelings. She did the same, and Graham had taken a few opportunities to analyze his behavior and modify it to make sure she felt safe, loved, and that she was his top priority. Because she was.

“When are you due again?” Celia asked.

“Not until the end of May.” Laney eased onto a barstool and reached for a cheddar biscuit. Celia did not swat her hand away, and Graham lifted his eyebrows.

“Oh, so she gets to eat before dinner?”

“She can eat whatever and whenever she wants.” Celia gazed at Laney with all the affection of a grandmother. “Are you going to find out if it’s a boy or a girl?”

Laney met Graham’s eye. “I don’t know. Do you want to know?”

“Did you find out with Bailey?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want to know?”

Laney did roll her eyes then, and Graham snatched a piece of sugared ham. “I want to know,” he said. “But I don’t know when that all happens.”

“I’m just barely out of the first trimester,” Laney said. “So not for another couple of months.”

Someone entered the house through the back door, stamping the snow from his feet. “Woo boy!” Eli whistled and came around the corner from the mudroom. “It is cold out there.”

“Wishing you were back in Bora Bora now, aren’t you?” Graham grinned at his brother. Both he and Andrew were living in the lodge now, but with Graham’s departure for Echo Ridge Ranch, Eli had taken the master bedroom and put Stockton across the hall, with his nanny Meg in the third bedroom in that wing of the house. It was perfect for their situation, and he had a desk in the office with Graham.

Andrew had taken the largest bedrooms downstairs, and it had a big enough area for his office in the corner. He came upstairs sometimes and worked with the other brothers, but sometimes he stayed in the basement, concocting new events to bring more customers to the lodge, writing press releases for Springside Energy, and basically keeping Graham from having to deal with anything related to the media.

“Nah.” Eli took off his hat and shook the snow from it. “I actually like the snow. Stockton is going crazy. Third snowman this week.” Eli grinned, a happy smile that made Graham warm from the inside out.

Eli took off his coat and boots and came into the kitchen, taking a marshmallow treat dipped in caramel. “Celia, I love you.”

“That’s what all the boys say.” She let Eli press a kiss to her cheek before he turned to Laney and Graham.

“How’s the baby?” If anyone was as excited as Graham about having another Whittaker, it was Eli. Stockton had turned six over the summer, and he and Bailey were inseparable around the ranch and lodge.

“Doing great.” Laney put the last bit of biscuit in her mouth. “Graham was just saying he wanted a boy.”

“I was not.”

“Well, I have a great name for him if it’s a boy.” Eli gave them a playful smirk. “Eli is such a strong name, don’t you think?”

Graham shook his head and chuckled. “We’re not naming our baby after you.”

“Why not?”

“I think Laney would like to name a boy after her dad,” Graham said, returning to Laney’s side and rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand.

“Or yours,” she said, gazing up at him.

Absolute love poured through him at her statement. He swept a kiss across her temple as Meg came down the hall. Her normally short hair, usually cut into an A-line, had grown out since she’d come to Coral Canyon.

Eli practically jumped toward her, a huge smile on his face. “Hey, Meggy.”

Her smile didn’t come as fast, and Graham watched the two of them with interest. He’d asked Eli if he had any romantic interest in his nanny, but Eli had denied it outright. Still, Graham thought there was some pretty strong sparks there.

“What’s wrong?” Eli asked.

“It’s my mother.” She wrung her hands. “She called and she’s hoping to come here for the holidays.”

Graham couldn’t see his brother’s face, but from the panicked expression on Meg’s, he knew having her mother at the lodge for Christmas wasn’t at the top of her to-do list.

“It’s fine with us,” Graham said. “I mean, I don’t even live here anymore.” Sometimes he forgot that yes, he owned the lodge, but he didn’t actually live in it.

“There’s plenty of room,” Eli said carefully, almost in a hushed tone like he’d rather have this conversation in private.

Meg’s dark, brown eyes searched his. “She doesn’t have anywhere else to go, and now that I’m back in the states….”

Eli reached out and ran his hand from Meg’s wrist to her shoulder, a quick movement, but intimate nonetheless. “Invite her. It’ll be fine.”

Meg nodded and turned to go back down the hall. Graham averted his eyes so it wouldn’t be so obvious that he’d been watching them like they were the best movie he’d ever seen.

“So what’s going on with you two?” Laney asked, no shame whatsoever.

“Nothing,” Eli said, but his voice definitely held a note of mischief and falseness.

“Right,” Laney said. “Just like I didn’t have a crush on my best friend in high school.”

“And look how that turned out.” Graham put his arm around his wife’s shoulders and grinned at his brother.

“She’s my nanny,” Eli said. “I’m going to go shower.” He left, and Celia clucked her tongue.

“What do you know?” Laney asked.

“Oh, Meg’s liked Eli for a while,” Celia said. “But that man is as stubborn as all the Whittaker’s put together.” She gave Graham a pointed look and said, “I’m going to take a nap before dinner.”

Graham’s mind spun with what he’d just seen and what Celia had said. But he still had the wherewithal to say, “I’ll keep an eye on this ham for you,” as she walked out.

Celia and Laney both laughed, and Graham sent a prayer of gratitude to the Lord for all the beautiful things his life had been filled with since returning to Coral Canyon.

Especially Laney, he thought.

“Oh, I got you something for Christmas,” he said. “Want to come see?”

“How far do I have to go?”

“It’s down at the homestead.”

The look on her face said it all. So he pulled out his phone and swiped to the picture of the cradle he’d had specially made for their bedroom. He showed it to her and said, “So you can have the baby right by us.”

She gazed at the phone and then him. “I love you, you know that?”

“I love you, too.” He kissed her and pulled back a fraction of an inch to say, “And I do want a boy.”

Laney laughed and hugged him and Graham was so glad he got to spend a lifetime of Christmases with her in Coral Canyon.