All I want is you.

The words had echoed in Cate’s head for the past twenty-four hours. She’d been so stunned when Owen had said them that she hadn’t been able to speak. She hadn’t been able to say what was in her heart, which was that all she wanted was him, too. Once she’d gotten past the shock of what he’d said and what she felt in return, she’d wanted to say it back—hell, she’d wanted to shout it from the rooftops. But Owen had already kissed her forehead and turned to gather his clothes, giving her that crooked smile she loved so much and promising to go warm up some dinner.

They’d slid right back into their routine, talking and laughing and even wrapping up in blankets to have a couple of beers on his front porch as the stars rose in the sky. Today had been more of the same, with her happily testing out the last of the cake recipes and Owen working in the greenhouse while Hunter took farmers’ market duty, and, as crazy as it was, Cate couldn’t deny the truth.

Not only was she falling for Owen Cross, but with what he’d said last night, they might just end up together instead of heartbroken.

“Hey! Are you ready?” Owen’s voice delivered her back to the spot where she stood in his kitchen, and, God, how could her heart squeeze so hard at just one little smile from this man? “Eli and Scarlett’s flight landed at BWI three hours ago, and he texted to let us know they breezed through customs and they’re about forty minutes out.”

“Oh, good,” Cate said. She was dying to hear about Eli and Scarlett’s stay in Dublin. And if they happened to have any inside scoop on the nuances of authentic Irish soda bread, all the better. “I was just finishing up. Marley and I made a bit of a mess in here with her buttercream lesson today. Trust me when I tell you that as delicious as it is, the stuff is like spackling paste once it dries.”

Owen laughed. “Yeah, I saw her at the main house about an hour ago and she had frosting in her hair, so I figured y’all had had a busy day.”

“Is she coming to dinner?” Cate asked. Marley hadn’t mentioned it, and even though she had been tempted to ask during their kitchen session today, she’d also wanted to let the Crosses make their own inroads without pushing from her side. Not too much, anyway.

Owen’s smile sobered, his gray eyes turning serious. “No. I asked her, of course, and with Eli and Scarlett coming home, I’d really been hoping she’d bite, but she said she had to work in Lockridge. I’m not sure she didn’t volunteer for the shift just to get out of the house, but…”

Cate closed the space between them, smoothing the crease between his brows with her fingers as if she could erase it. “Baby steps. Today she showed me pictures of the dress she’s wearing to the wedding, and she even seemed excited about how Emerson helped her pick it out, so that’s something.”

“She did?” he asked.

“Mmm hmm. She’ll get there, Owen. With you guys and your father. Just give her time to figure out how.”

He wrapped an arm around her to pull her against his chest. “Thank you for asking her to help with the wedding cake. Learning how to bake is really bringing her out of her shell.”

“I’m glad it’s making Marley feel more comfortable with your family to help with the cake, but I’m just as grateful to have her hands in the kitchen. She’s an excellent assistant,” Cate said, a warm feeling spreading out beneath her flowy, light blue tank top. “And while we’re on the topic of gratitude, thank you for asking me to your family dinner tonight.”

The smile Owen had ditched went on a comeback tour, making Cate’s heart speed up just as much as it had the first time. “In case you haven’t noticed, I kind of like you,” he said. “And it’s not as if you’re a stranger to my family or our dinners. Why wouldn’t I ask you to dinner tonight?”

Cate shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to join you.”

Okay, so it was a teensy bit of an understatement, but she’d really come to look forward to spending time at the main house—and not just with Owen. She loved talking with Hunter and Emerson about their wedding plans, and she’d become downright addicted to crossword puzzles after Mr. Cross had turned her onto the ones in the Camden Valley Chronicle a couple of weeks ago. Still… “With Eli and Scarlett coming home for the first time since Christmas, it would’ve been okay to keep your first dinner together to just family.”

“No, it wouldn’t. I want you there. Plus”—Owen lifted a brow, turning to eyeball the pair of pies cooling on the ledge—“the only thing better than your peach pie is your strawberry rhubarb pie, and now I get to have both.”

“You are terrible,” Cate pointed out with a laugh, and he captured the sound with a kiss before pulling back and reaching across the counter for his keys.

“Terribly glad you’re coming to dinner,” he amended. “Now, come on. Eli, pain in the ass that he is, asked for Shepherd’s pie for his first meal stateside, which means I’ve got a mountain of potatoes to peel, not to mention some prep to do for Scarlett’s vegan version.”

“Ah! Thank you for reminding me.” Cate moved to grab the eight-by-eight baking pan she’d covered in foil and set aside earlier, lifting it with a flourish. “I can’t believe I nearly forgot these.”

“Okay,” Owen said, waiting just a beat while she treated the peach pie to the same foil-wrapping treatment as the eight-by-eight pan. “What are they?”

She wrapped up the strawberry-rhubarb pie next, nestling everything in one of the baskets they used to transport her baked goods to the farmers’ market. “Vegan cherry chocolate brownies.”

They’d been a first for her, to be sure, but, actually, cooking with ingredients like flax seeds and coconut oil hadn’t been too bad once she’d gotten the hang of things.

Owen’s expression said he was definitely not sold on the idea of flax seeds, coconut oil, or vegan cherry chocolate brownies. “You made special brownies for Scarlett?”

“Well, yeah.” Cate shrugged. “I mean, I murdered a few batches before I got them passably decent, but I remembered she’s vegan from when she spent time here last fall.”

Not too many folks came in to The Bar asking to read the ingredients label on their beer bottle before they committed to throwing a few back. The fact had been pretty tough to forget.

“It didn’t seem right to only bring desserts Scarlett couldn’t eat,” Cate continued, hefting the basket to her hip. “Plus, I had a lady ask me if I made vegan baked goods last week at the farmers’ market.”

Owen led the way to the front door, holding it open to usher her into the late afternoon sunshine. “As a specialty-produce lover, I’m all about the veggies. As a cattle farmer…”

“Totally a carnivore, I know,” Cate replied with a laugh. “Most folks out here are, and I’m not sure that’ll change anytime soon. Still, if we have enough demand, I don’t mind coming up with a few vegan and gluten-free recipes to go with the rest of the baked goods we’ll offer at the storefront.”

“Huh. I never would have thought of that,” Owen said, taking the basket from her to put it carefully in the back of his truck. “Guess convincing you to come on board was a pretty smart call.”

She arched a brow even though she knew her ear-to-ear grin probably erased all the tartness she’d meant to dish up. “You and your sweet talk. My heart’s all a-flutter.”

“Only for you, sweetheart. Only for you.”

The ride to the main house went by quickly despite the lingering kiss Owen had laid on her before putting the truck into gear. Emerson and Hunter were already in the kitchen, along with Mr. Cross, and after the chorus of hellos and the warm hugs that accompanied them, they all fell into orbit around each other to get dinner ready. As Cate helped Hunter arrange fresh-cut flowers and herbs in a pair of pretty mason jars and laughed at Owen and Emerson’s potato-peeling contest, all of them calling out possibilities for Mr. Cross’s crossword puzzle as they went, she couldn’t help but feel good, all the way in her bones.

For the first time in a long time, maybe even ever, Cate felt like she was home. With Owen at her side and his family all around, she felt happy. Right.

Like nothing in the world could bring her down.

* * *

Owen stood back and took in the kitchen with a huge fucking grin. Between setting the table, mixing up a triple-batch of sweet tea, and getting the salad and two Shepherd’s pies from farm to fork (or, at least, in the case of the pies, to the oven), they’d put organized chaos to the test. But just as she had for weeks, Cate had fit right in with Emerson and Hunter and his old man, joking and pitching in and telling everyone all about her plans to try some new muffin recipes for the next farmers’ market. Looking at her now, with her brown eyes sparkling and her cheeks lit up with excitement as she unpacked the desserts she’d made in between batches of buttercream frosting for Hunter and Emerson’s wedding cake, Owen never would’ve guessed she’d been so resistant to start her own business, or to find her own happiness.

God knew he’d found his.

The familiar creak of the front door sounded off from down the hallway leading out of the kitchen, and Owen’s pulse jumped like a big mouth bass at daybreak. “Eli?”

“I’m sorry,” his brother said, his cocky grin leading the way over the threshold and into the room. His dark blond hair was a bit longer than he normally wore it, his T-shirt and dark gray hoodie definitely a little travel-worn, but, damn, he looked as at-ease and happy as Owen had ever seen him.

“Were you expecting someone else?” Eli asked with a wink no one else in the universe could pull off without looking like a dick. “The mayor, maybe? Or—I know!” He snapped his fingers. “Clint Eastwood.”

“I see all that world traveling and a seven-hour flight hasn’t made you less of a smartass,” Owen said, but damn it, he was smiling too much for the words to be anything other than affectionate.

A fact which Eli had clearly picked up on. “Ah, come on. Admit it. You missed me and my smartass ways.” He crossed the kitchen tiles to give Owen a warm handshake and shoulder-to-shoulder half-hug/clap on the back before looking at Cate and Emerson and adding, “’Scuse my language, ladies. I see my brother here still has an eloquent way with words.”

Owen recovered just enough to arch a brow as Eli made the rounds with everyone in the kitchen. He had a pair of very specific words in mind for his brother right now, but Eli—the old swellhead—wasn’t wrong. They were in the middle of their old man’s kitchen, so he’d have to keep said directive to himself. At least until later.

“Where’s Scarlett?” Hunter asked, spinning a gaze over the kitchen with a grin of his own. “She didn’t get tired of you already, did she?”

Eli snorted, and, in this case, his confidence was extremely well-earned. He and Scarlett were so overboard for each other, they might as well be their own romance novel. “Not a chance, brother. We just got cell service as we pulled up outside, so she’s on the phone with her dads.”

A weird expression flickered across Eli’s face, taking his smile down a notch. “So, before she comes in, there’s something I should probably tell you.”

“Everything alright, son?” their old man asked, his salt-and-pepper brows pulling low beneath the brim of his Stetson, and Owen had to admit, he’d never quite seen the look Eli was currently wearing on his face before.

His “yes” came out quick and honest, though. “Everything’s great, actually. It’s just—”

“Hey, everybody!” Scarlett said, appearing in the doorway to the kitchen. “Sorry I’m a little late coming in, but I wanted to let Bryan and Miguel know we got here okay.”

She stepped into the room, her movements oddly a little hesitant. She was wearing a short, flowy sundress that swished around her knees and the sort of huge smile Owen had always associated with her unvarnished personality, her face almost glowing and her eyes wide and bright. But the kitchen had gone pin-drop silent, and in that moment, he noticed that both Emerson and Cate had skipped over Scarlett’s smile to stare pointedly at the hand she’d splayed over the curve of her belly that had been hidden by her sundress when she’d first walked into the kitchen, and wait. Wait…

Holy shit. Scarlett was pregnant.