“One dash. That’s good, right?” Kade hovered over my shoulder and rocked a happily babbling, Emma. Emma was thirteen months old now and she was about to find out if she was going to have a sibling. It was hard to believe we’d already had her for half a year.

It was hard to believe a lot of things that happened recently.

“Ah shit! Two dashes.” Kade looked down, with a discouraged frown. “Wait is two dashes bad? Or is that the amount of dashes we want?”

“That’s a countdown, you big dope. It’s almost ready.” I laughed, sitting cross-legged on our bed, and looking up at him, the warm bemusement he made me feel took a little of the anxiety out of my grin. “You bought the tests for me. How do you not know how this works?”

“I was too excited to read the directions.” Kade shrugged. They both looked down at my home pregnancy test with rapt anticipation. Although I was pretty sure Emma was only faking it. She was already walking and was well on her way to becoming even more of a little handful.

God, are we really ready for two?

Things had moved so fast in the last six months. We’d talked about this a lot after the formal adoption, and it wasn’t a decision we came to lightly. In the end, despite how hectic and influx our lives were during the holidays, we still wanted Emma to have a sibling, someone to grow up with.

After spending some time reading Jax’s letters, Kade started to see his brother in another, more sympathetic, light. That, of course, made forgiving himself for cutting Jax off and not making amends that much harder. Kade decided to keep his brother’s house and honor his memory instead of selling it, which felt like a good step.

I was all for the decision. I liked the idea of giving Emma another tangible connection to her birth parents.

“Hey.” Kade grabbed my hand. “We’re ready for this. We got this.”

“We don’t got this.” I felt a little overwhelmed.

“I know.” Kade’s concerned look melted into a loving smile. “But, at least we don’t got this together.”

“Friggin’ cheese ball,” I protested, pushing against him, which only moved me backwards. I wiped the stressed tears of happiness and worry from my face and was thoroughly reminded that, at least with Kade, I had made the right decision.

I knew that because of just how much he’d sacrificed to stay here with me.

While going through the adoption process we found out that if he legally took responsibility for Emma, while being unmarried, technically that made him a single parent in the eyes of the government. That meant he was no longer eligible to serve.

In essence, he had a choice; a past he’d always known or an uncertain future with me and Emma.

I urged him to take some time and think everything over, but he wasn’t having any of that. He just smiled and said, “always look ahead.” That afternoon he’d gone from active to veteran.

I loved him so damn much.

We really were a great team. I gave him the stability he craved, and he bolstered my confidence when it came to running both Shepherd Soaps and openly advertising Lick It Lube. The town of Douglas hated our deviance, but that didn’t matter. After a post holiday lull, sales had only picked up. Before long we had more lube sales in one month than Shepherd soaps had all year.

Kade also found us another purple aloe distributor in southern California who was more friendly to the idea of sex lube, and with Kade’s connections, the Copas and the mayor stayed away from us.

Ironically, it was my sister Amber who was most responsible for Lick It Lube’s booming success. Her video, “Douglas, Texas is now Kinky AF. And it’s all thanks to my sister,” exploded with views. For as embarrassing as it was to be dancing around like a goof in that video, it introduced so many people to my brand.

I had so many orders now that even with Kade helping out full time, it still wasn’t enough. I was looking at hiring people and maybe even looking into a larger space. That, of course, was also super overwhelming, but Kade had my back. He stepped in with his special forces efficiency and picked up all the slack.

Amber’s YouTube channel was flagged for posting a bunch of other people’s copyrighted songs and videos, and was eventually shut down. When that happened, her fanbase basically evaporated and she was forced to find an actual job like the rest of us. We don’t speak anymore, but I see Amber every once in awhile at the local grocery store. She’s by far the best-dressed cashier they’ve ever had.

“Hey Hey Hey,” Kade exclaimed pointing down at my test. His excitement made Emma giggle and coo. “It says the word Pregnant. I know that’s good!”

“Oh, man…” I laughed nervously, lowering the positive test. I was equal parts happy and terrified. “We’re really doing this huh?”

“That’s not all were doing.” Kade put Emma in her playpen and pulled out a small black leather box.

“Is that?” My eyes flashed, finishing my sentence for me.

“You’re damn right it is!” Kade opened the box and dropped to a knee at the foot of our bed. “I told you I was all in. I never want to be without you again, Genevieve. What do you say?” Kade’s sexy smile widened, and there was a twinkle in his dark eyes. “You want to make a whole bunch of mistakes with me?”

“Yes.” I laughed, openly crying now. “But only for the rest of our lives.”

Kade shot up, and shouted with joy, which startled Emma. He kissed me, then rushed over to kiss Emma, then dove on the bed and smothered me in more kisses.

I couldn’t believe how far we’d come, and how far we had left to go, but I was finally excited about the journey. This might’ve been the end of one story, but it was definitely the beginning to another.