One of the givens of living in rural Ontario was how far everything was from everything else. This rarely bothered Natasha. She loved her Jeep and enjoyed cranking up the radio.

Her drive to Bailey’s had been lovely. She’d grabbed a coffee to go and watched the sun set as she’d headed southwest to Port Elgin. But now that it was the middle of the night and she was exhausted, the drive back seemed endless and horrid and good Lord she didn’t want to repeat it tomorrow night.

This was her last weekend of picking up bartending shifts. It had to be. She needed to get her ass in gear with the apartment listing and sell the shit out of it to people from Toronto who would pay top dollar for a hipster weekend getaway on the edge of pristine wilderness.

When she finally got home, Matt was waiting for her. She’d texted when she’d left the bar, and he’d been busy since then.

“I ran you a bath,” he said as he took her coat. “Do you want anything to eat before I tuck you into bed?”

She shook her head. “But maybe check on me to make sure I don’t fall asleep in the tub.”

He laughed.

She wasn’t kidding, and maybe he picked up on that, because he followed her upstairs, collecting each piece of discarded clothing as she stripped down. He disappeared momentarily with the pile, and came back with a towel.

“Gold star service tonight,” she observed.

He sat on the closed toilet seat and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “You had a long night. A bit of tender care is deserved.”

“You were on kid duty,” she protested.

“Easy peasy. We played a bit, watched some videos on my phone—I apologize in advance for her new interest in tobogganing, I may have started a thing—and then it was story time.”

“Whoa, go back to the tobogganing. What happened?”

“I showed her some videos I took of the snow mountain a couple of Army guys made in the park in Pine Harbour. We plow the snow from the parking lot into the grassy area, and then…” He grinned. “We sculpt some pretty good slide runs out of it.”

Tasha wasn’t sure how she felt about Emily swooshing down an icy slide run. “Interesting.”

“I wouldn’t suggest taking her this year. But next, maybe. We’d get her a helmet.”

And full body armour. “Okay.”

His smile turned bashful. “There weren’t any kids in the video. It was just the guys from when we did it last year.”

“Have you done it yet this year?”

“They did. I was, uh, busy.”

“Here?”

“Working, probably. And if I was hanging out here, I promise that is a thousand percent where I’d rather be. Not plowing snow into a sledding hill for other people’s kids.”

She sank under the bubbles. But she had him take care of her kid tonight. Wasn’t that kind of the same thing?

When she pushed herself back up, her head breaking through the warm water, he was looking at her.

“What?”

“This—you, Emily—is better than anything. This is what I want. I had a really good time with her tonight, and I’m glad I get to spend the entire weekend with her. With you both. Besides, I get rave reviews for my storytelling skills, which is good for the ego.”

That reminded her… “Oh yeah, apparently I read the troll’s voice wrong in her favourite book?” She flicked bubbles at him. “You set a high storytelling bar.”

“You can’t pin that on me, little girl,” he growled the exact line she was talking about, and she burst into a peal of laughter.

“That’s pretty good. I don’t do it anything like that.”

“What do you do?”

“You can’t pin that on me, little girl,” she said, deepening her voice a register.

Nope. Not even close. “That’s generic bad guy. You need to add some moss and grit. You live under a bridge, come on.”

She tried again and got through three words before dissolving into giggles.

Matt looked pleased with himself. “It’s my high school drama career finally paying off.”

“You did drama?”

“Of course. Theatre girls were easy.” He covered his head as she flicked more bubbles at him, his entire body shaking as he joined her laughing.

“I was a jock in high school. Track and field, volleyball, basketball. I kind of expected the same of you.”

“Nope.” His eyes darkened as she stood up, water sluicing over her breasts and down her legs. “I would have been if I’d have gone to the same school as you, though.”

He held up the towel and she stepped onto the mat, letting him wrap her in the terrycloth.

She yawned.

“Okay, my sexy volleyball player, it’s time for bed.”

She didn’t bother to protest.

In her room, she pulled on sweatpants and a t-shirt, then crawled into bed and collapsed against his inviting form. “Don’t let me sleep in, though,” she said softly as her eyes drifted shut. “I have a lot to do tomorrow.”

“What’s left on your list? Can I help with something?”

She mumbled something incoherent even to herself into his armpit, so she rolled onto her back and tried again. “Furniture shopping,” she said with a sigh. A mental image of her shopping list swam before her eyes. “I need a funky couch, a bookcase, and a nice set of bedroom furniture.”

“We could go out together, take Emily, make it fun.”

“The problem is I don’t even know where to go. There’s a really specific look that works for these short-term rental sites. Funky, modern, bold. I’m not sure I’ll be able to find what I need unless I take a trip into the city.” Which would take more time and probably more money than she wanted to spend.

Matt was quiet for a moment. “How modern?”

“Not cold. It has to be warm. Clean lines, wood.”

“Something like my stuff?”

She thought about that. Not his man-cave-esque couch, but his bedroom furniture was great. “Yeah. I like your bed. Where did you get it?”

“Uh…” He scooted down a bit so they were eye level to each other. “I ordered it online. But I was thinking you could…borrow it.”

“What?”

“If for no other reason than you’d have furniture in the unit tomorrow night.”

“Oh.”

“Would that help?” He searched her face, his gaze careful. “I mean, there are other reasons, too.”

Taking a deep breath, she pushed herself up. She was wide awake now. Both of them sat cross-legged on her bed, neither of them speaking.

It was not a simple offer. If Matt brought his bed over to her place, he wouldn’t have one at his place. “Borrowing” something would be tangling them together further, and de-tangling that at the end of the usage period would hurt.

Unless there wouldn’t be a de-tangling.

He scrubbed his hand over his jaw and gave her a sheepish look. “Is this the wrong time for this?”

She glanced at the clock. “Nah. All reckless relationship conversations should happen at two in the morning. What could go wrong?”

“You could tell me that you don’t want my stuff in your house.” Zing.

She wasn’t going to do that, though. “Your pants are currently on my floor,” she whispered. “I like your stuff.”

“If my furniture is in the apartment behind your house, I won’t really have a bed to sleep on at my place.”

“You sleep here a lot as it is.”

“Because I like sleeping with you. And you bought me blackout curtains, which I don’t want to be too presumptuous about the meaning of, but—”

“Presume.” She grabbed his hand. “Maybe it’s time to sleep in and not worry about crawling out at dawn before Emily wakes up. It’s not like she’s old enough to understand what you sleeping over means.”

“I want to help here. With the apartments and childcare and cooking dinner. Something that you brought up at Christmas has been on my mind. About having kids, and I want to set the record completely straight on that point.”

She sank back on her heels, her eyes widening.

He leaned in, his gaze burning. “Tell me if you don’t want me to be a permanent part of your life. That’s okay, of course it is. But if you wonder if I dream of a future with you, I can tell you all about that.”

“Tell me.” Two words on a breath. Another one. “Please.” Her heart pounded in her chest, sleep now the last thing on her mind.

“You want to know if I want babies?” Matt took both of her hands in his. “I want a daughter. I want bobbing curls and fierce questions. I want to be a man she can go to when she has a scraped knee, or nightmares, or a fabulous story to tell. I would happily make her a big sister as many times over as her mother wanted, or never at all if that was how it worked out. I want to be a dad so much it hurts, Natasha, and that started the day I met Emily. I want to be one of her dads. I don’t care about hypothetical babies, but I’d cut off my right arm for your daughter.”

“She loves you,” Tasha whispered. “So much.”

“I love her too,” he said gruffly. “With my whole heart. It’s layered right on top of the complicated love I have for you.”

“Complicated?”

“Do you know how hard it is to want to give you the moon, and not be able to? To have to hold back because I know you’re not ready? I want to be everything you need. I want to be a part of this. Share this burden. I want to be your best friend. I want to be your lover. I want to be your husband, someday, when you’re ready.”

“I’ll be ready soon.”

“Because I know it’ll take time—” His mouth dropped open, and his eyes went wide. “What?”

“I love you. I’m terrified, but I love you with my whole heart.”

He tumbled her backwards in a wild tackle that matched her wild heart, then kissed her fiercely. When he pulled back, his mouth was wet and his eyes so bright she thought they might catch fire. “Excellent. Stay here.”

“Matt—”

He pressed his finger to her lips. “Stay. Here. Please?”

She nodded mutely and he kissed her quickly again before dashing off the bed and out the door. His footsteps were heavy on the stairs, then silence for a minute.

More footsteps, and then he was back on top of her, his face pink with excitement. “Hi,” he said, his grin goofy and sexy at the same time.

“Hi.” She laughed.

He crowded against her, urging her arms up around his neck, and he kissed her. The familiar hunger was tinged with something new. Relief, maybe. She certainly felt that. Delight that they were finally on the same page, too.

But she tasted something else in his kiss. Not caution. Something else like that, though. Against her cheek, his hand trembled.

“I bought you another Christmas present, and then I chickened out of giving it to you,” he said. “Because we’re grown-ups, and rings have particular meaning, and I don’t want to rush you at all.”

Her heart stopped at the word ring.

“Tasha,” he murmured, kissing her again. “Shh, it’s okay.”

“I don’t know…” She did, of course. Deep down.

“One thing at a time,” he said softly. “Consider this a promise that one day, when you’re ready, I’ll get down on one knee.”

She twisted her head to the left and looked at his hand. At the world’s thinnest twist of hearts and glittery stones. “Matt, what did you do?”

“It’s a promise ring. Honest to God, that’s what it’s called. I don’t know what it says about me that Facebook ads seem to think I’m a lovestruck sixteen-year-old kid, but just before the holidays I saw this pop up and I thought, I want to give that to Natasha. And then I told myself that was insane. But I ordered it anyway, and it’s been in my bag ever since.”

She blinked again, trying to take it in. Two hearts…no, three hearts. Two hearts in the form of an infinity symbol, and another one, the glittery one, wrapping through them.

Her and Emily, forever. Matt embracing them both.

It was a pretty big promise.

She burst into tears.

“I shouldn’t have done this at two in the morning. Or this soon. Or in general. Okay, let’s walk this back—”

She grabbed him and pulled him down on top of her, silencing him with a kiss.

He wasn’t allowed to take it back.

The next day, Matt made breakfast for his girls. Then he started a group chat with his brothers.

It took another ten seconds for his phone to start ringing. Well at least they called him instead of each other.

He ignored Jake’s call and answered Sean’s instead. “Hey.”

“You’re moving in with her? I still haven’t met this woman.”

“We’ll fix that soon. Like, today. You can meet her when you bring my stuff to her house.”

From across the room, Natasha’s head jerked up and she gave him a wide-eyed, what are you doing look.

He winked at her and she blushed.

Sean laughed in his ear. “Okay, fine. What time are we meeting at your place?”

“I don’t know. We could have sorted that out via text but you all decided to call me instead.” There was a beep in his ear. He glanced at the screen. “Dean’s turn now, gotta go. I’ll text a time in a few minutes.”

He ended that call and answered the next. “Hey to you as well.”

“I’m not going to say you’re moving too quickly—”

“Good, because I’m really not.”

“Isn’t this a little out of left field?”

“Only because I didn’t think she liked me this much. I took an opportunity, man. I love her, and she’ll have me here, so…boom. Done.”

“All right. Liana wants to know what kind of wine she likes.”

“Red. Or a good bottle of whiskey if you have it.”

When he hung up the phone, Tasha had her hands over her face. “Oh my God,” she groaned. “Are we going to have a spontaneous housewarming party this afternoon? You’re telling people to bring me booze?”

“They asked. And of course we aren’t doing a housewarming party today. You have work tonight. We’ll have the party tomorrow afternoon.”

She groaned again and then lifted her head. Her eyes were soft. “I guess this is happening.”

“I apologize in advance for my family.”

“They love you.”

“And I love you. It’s going to be just fine.”

“I’m going to hold you to that, mister.” She cupped his face. “Hey, if you’re bringing your bed over, maybe bring your couch too.”

“You don’t like my couch.”

“I like it just fine for in here. For us. The red velvet one can go in the apartment for all the transient hipsters who want to give me their pennies.”

“Clever girl.”

He left shortly thereafter to head back to Pine Harbour. His brothers met him at his apartment building, where he backed in next to Sean.

“I only have about an hour,” Jake said. “I had to leave Cal with Dad, and you can imagine how that’s going to go when we hit nap time.”

“Then let’s get to work,” Dean said, slinging an armful of bungee cords and tarps into the back of Sean’s truck.

It took them forty-five minutes to get his couch into Sean’s truck and fit a couple of bookcases around it. Then they dismantled his bed and loaded that into his own vehicle.

“Do we need to fit the dresser in there?” Dean asked skeptically, looking at the overflowing bed.

“Nah. Strangers don’t need to move in to Natasha’s apartments, they just need a bedside table, and I’ll come back and grab that tomorrow. Or…” He dug out his spare key and handed it to his oldest brother. “You and Liana could pick it up before you come over mid-afternoon.”

“What’s happening tomorrow afternoon?”

Matt looked at all of his brothers. “It’s time for you guys to meet the woman I love.”

Dean held out his hand and they clapped their palms together before he was yanked in for a hug. Then Sean mauled him, a rough embrace that Matt felt right to his soft feelings place inside.

And as those two headed for their cars, it was Jake’s turn.

“About tomorrow…”

He waved his hand as his brother trailed off. “Nah. Come. Please. We’re all good. Natasha told me that you came into the lumber store.”

Jake laughed. “Dude, I wasn’t going to say I wouldn’t come. I was going to ask if I should bring any power tools.”

Matt nodded as he screwed up his face. Shit, he fucked that up out of the gate. “Right, that’s better.”

Bumping his shoulder, Jake kept chuckling. “But good to know that’s where your mind went a little bit.”

“I just overthought things for a moment. Tasha’s a little overwhelmed with the suddenness of all of…” He gestured toward the full trucks. “This. Not us, but the influx of Foster stuff and Foster brothers and Foster…noise.”

“Well, I have to go get my kid, so that’s one less bit of noise today. And tomorrow, I’m serious. If there’s anything I can do to help with the renovations, just let me know.”

Matt hadn’t talked about the work Natasha was doing in anything but the broadest, vaguest of terms. He didn’t waver from that now. “I’ll ask her about it. Thanks.”

Matt texted before they left Pine Harbour in a convoy of furniture-laden vehicles. Natasha would have been stress cleaning her house if there was anything in it.

There wasn’t, so she took Emily on a quick beer run instead. Matt’s brothers were coming over, or at least the two she hadn’t met yet.

“Maybe we should get snacks, too, baby, what do you think?”

“Can we get cookies?”

Maybe they’d had too many treats lately. “For tomorrow. We’re going to have a little party with Matt’s family.”

“What kind of party?”

Natasha swallowed hard and glanced at the ring on her right hand. “A welcome to our little family kind of party. Matt’s brothers are all kind of like uncles to you. And there will be a little boy there, too.”

“A baby?”

“A toddler. Smaller than you, though.”

“Babies are cute.”

She smiled to herself. “Yep.”

The beer store was on the other side of town, a mini standalone store. She pulled up right next to the door and left the engine running to keep Emily warm. She loved living in a small town for a lot of reasons, and that was high up on the list. Inside, she paid for a two-four at the cash while keeping an eye on her car.

She loved small town life, but she could thank her time with David in the city for her wariness.

Speaking of him… Once she was back in the car, beer safely stowed in the trunk, she pulled out her phone, because she hadn’t heard from him since he cancelled that weekend’s visit.

To his credit, he responded right away. Less to his credit, it had a sarcastic bite, but she’d started that.

It took three attempts to get a be-the-bigger-person response just right.

Then she put her phone away and went to the grocery store to get cookies. For today and tomorrow, because these were stressful times.

When they got back to the house, Matt’s truck was in the drive, and another pickup was parked on the street.

She pulled in behind Matt and unbuckled Emily. “Shall we go see what’s going on?”

Emily looked at the front door nervously.

“It’s okay,” Natasha whispered, as much to herself as her daughter.

The door swung open, and there was Matt. Big and smiling and far too handsome for his own good.

Natasha took a deep breath and grabbed the beer.

Emily had run up to the porch, but lingered there, shooting glances backward. Matt didn’t urge her inside, even though it was cold out. He crouched down at her level and waited for Tasha with her.

“I thought I should get some beer,” Natasha said when she joined them. “And then we hit the grocery store to stock up on stuff, too.”

Matt stood up and looked her straight in the eye. “That was really thoughtful.” Not you didn’t need to do that, because she did. And he got that. “Come on. We’ve already moved the red couch to the apartments, making room for the bachelor pad explosion.”

That made her laugh. “Excellent.”

Inside, she found two Foster brothers, immediately recognizable as relatives of Matt and Jake. “Hi,” she said to both of them.

Matt took the case of beer from her and gestured. “Natasha, these are my brothers. Dean…”

She shook his hand.

“And Sean.” The younger one stepped forward, his cane moving fluidly with his body.

“Nice to meet you both.”

Matt stowed the beer in the kitchen while she was saying that. “And this is Natasha,” he said as he returned quickly. “Who stole my heart over a cupcake.”

She laughed and beamed up at him. “I think that was actually Emily.”

“Yeah, a little bit.” He scooped up her daughter. “Hey, should we bring in the new couch?”

“Okay,” Em whispered, burying her face in Matt’s neck.

“How about we get out of your way and put that beer in the fridge?” Natasha offered, taking Emily from him.

And that was that. The guys went back to work, bringing in Matt’s couch first, which really was excellent and better for family lounging than the red velvet one. Then they took his bed around the back and into the more finished of the two units.

When they were done, they gathered in the kitchen. Sean waved off the offer of a beer, but Dean took one and so did Matt.

There was no grand inquisition. Neither of them even looked at her funny. They were kind and entertaining and good with Emily.

“That’s a pretty nice space you’ve got back there,” Sean said. “And Matt says you aren’t looking for long-term tenants?”

She nodded. “The business model for short-term holiday rental is pretty attractive. More risk, but better reward if you work it hard enough. I never wanted to be a landlord, either.”

Dean nodded. “Being a landlord is stressful.”

“Yeah. And honestly, I didn’t even think about that seriously. My background is in hospitality and tourism.”

The conversation slid from there to cooking and the dinner they needed to make before she headed to work that night. Matt’s brothers left quickly after that, promising to be back the next day with their wives for a longer visit.

Once they were alone, she went around back and looked at Matt’s bedroom furniture set up in the apartment. She’d ordered new bedding, crisp white hotel linens, and she squinted, seeing the room finished.

It was perfect.

Now she just needed to get the bathroom done and all those little touches wrapped up, and she could start renting it out.

Back on her side of the house, she found Matt and Emily curled up on his old couch with a storybook. She leaned against the kitchen doorframe and watched them, her loves.

Once Emily was done and went to play with her toys, Matt got up and gestured at the wall. “You know… When we finish the apartments, and the big idea wall is done, we can bring in my TV.”

“The big-ass bachelor-sized television?”

“No?”

She grinned at him and twirled in a circle. “Who says the planning stops with the apartments?”

“You’ll want another project,” he said softly. “Of course you will.”

“I’ve got big dreams.” Boy, that felt good to say. “Long-term dreams.”

“I’m in. I can’t wait to get started on the next Escape Inn.”

She laughed, feeling giddy. “Oh God.”

“That’s what you mean, right?”

“You knew that when you ordered me the guest register. Escape Inn Wiarton. Nice pun, by the way.”

“Where’s the next one after that? Escape Inn Port Elgin, Escape Inn…”

She knew exactly where she’d look next. “Pine Harbour.”

Matt pulled her in close, and she knew that was the right answer. And maybe the next house would have room for a big idea wall and a TV.