The faint jingle of silver bells woke Quinn. An even softer giggle followed the bells. Quinn forced her eyes open but didn’t lift her head.

“I think we might have a fairy lurking outside our door,” Barrett whispered.

Quinn propped herself up on an elbow, the nap officially over now that they were both awake.

“It’s only a fairy if it has fairy dust,” Quinn said, her voice purposefully lifting to carry beyond Barrett’s old bedroom at the ranch house.

A stampede of jingling bells and a three-year-old’s laughter disappeared down the hall. Like champagne bubbles, the sound of the toddler may have disappeared, but its effect lingered in Quinn’s smile.

“Come back down here,” Barrett ordered, the command vibrating in his throat.

She looked at him, one brow lifting in a challenging arc. If he wanted more time in bed with her, their bodies curled around one another, he had other options than a Sunday nap at his mother’s house. He could ask her to move in with him or not resist her getting an apartment instead of staying at the ranch in his old room as she had since Naomi’s arrest over a month and a half ago.

Barrett drew his bottom lip into his mouth. Forgetting the reason behind her resistance, Quinn moved into the crook of his arm, her head pillowed by his shoulder, her arm across the brawny chest. She breathed deeply, still fascinated by the scent of him.

On Barrett’s side of the bed, the clock switched from three twenty-seven to three twenty-eight.

“People will be arriving soon,” she warned.

“And?” He stretched the question out.

She lifted up again, half her torso draped over his. She ran the tip of her finger against the stubble on his chin. He had been back in Willow Gap less than twenty-four hours after two days containing a fire on the eastern side of the state. He had come straight to the ranch house and stayed most of the evening, but returned to his house to sleep.

“Aunt Dotty is one of those people. You’ll offend her sensibilities lingering in bed with a woman you’re not married to.”

His gaze sparkled, the curve of his mouth turning dangerous with its sharp smile. “I’m pretty sure Dotty’s done a little more living than you give her credit for.”

“Well, if we linger much longer, when we walk out there, you’ll be facing your aunt and uncle, Dotty, your mom, Jake and Leah, Sage and Ashley, Siobhan, Cassian, all of your brothers…maybe another cousin or two…”

Finished, she drew a deep breath. “Wow, no wonder your mom was up at six cooking!”

“Okay,” he relented, fingers lightly tracing Quinn’s spine. “I’ll get up—after you kiss me.”

Her skin flushed head to toe at the bribe he demanded.

“If I kiss you, it’ll be another half hour before we get out of bed.”

It never stopped at one kiss. Not like it went further than that, but Barrett had a hundred ways to kiss her without ever dipping below her collarbone.

He rolled Quinn onto her back, his body covering hers. She braced for the slow buildup of need that would stop just short of release.

“There,” he said, planting a kiss on her forehead. “That didn’t take half an hour, did it?”

“No,” she agreed with a pout.

Settling back on her side, she watched him stand up and grab the toiletry bag he’d arrived with that morning. From the back of the bedroom door, he lifted the pressed shirt he’d also brought with him from his house.

“I better make myself presentable.”

With a wink, he left Quinn in bed dreaming after him.

The silver bells returned and stopped centimeters before reaching the open door to Quinn’s room.

“Is that a fairy I hear sneaking around the hallway?”

Leah didn’t answer with a giggle. Still out of sight, she blew softly and unleashed a short-lived whirlwind of rose-colored glitter.

“It is a fairy!” Quinn proclaimed, jumping from the bed into the hall to sweep the little girl up.

Dressed in the same rose tones as her fairy dust, Leah squirmed and giggled, her tutu whispering along with the miniature bells on her tennis shoes. With her right hand curled into a tight fish she held against her chest, she used the other to clutch at Quinn’s shirt.

“I caught you fair and square, little fairy.” Quinn blew a raspberry on the toddler’s neck. “Now you must use your magic fairy dust to grant me a wish!”

Calming, Leah pulled her clenched hand away from her chest and carefully uncurled her fingers to reveal a small remaining pinch of the glitter.

“Blow!”

Closing her eyes, Quinn obeyed. Exhaling in one long breath, she removed every last particle of the fairy dust, each mote warmed by the wish that she would spend the rest of her life with Barrett Turk

* * *

“I hope everyone left room for dessert,” Lindy said, coming out of the kitchen with a platter covered from one end to the other with tiramisu.

Ashley followed after her with a second platter of the dessert.

“Since you’re eating for two,” Ashley teased as she set the dish down next to Sage.

“Leah eating for three,” the toddler grumbled as her father slid a small slice onto her plate.

“Three?” Jake asked. “How do you figure that, baby girl?”

“Leah is three,” she answered then counted off on her fingers. “One, two, three.”

A chuckle traveled around the table until it reached Aunt Dotty, who held up her hand.

“No one touch the tiramisu,” she boldly ordered. “By that child’s logic, I’m eating for seventy-two. All the tiramisu is mine.”

Leah looked to her left then her right. Seeing all the adults with their hands in their laps or hovering someplace other than the dessert platters, she shook her head.

“Leah eating for one!”

The chuckles turned to a chorus of laughter.

When the noise died down, Barrett stood up and excused himself from the table.

“I’ll be right back,” he announced.

“Don’t be long, child,” Dotty told him. “I have something I want to say and, at my age, I’ll forget if you’re slow about whatever it is you are up to.”

“One minute, I promise.”

He returned a few seconds before the deadline, his cheeks pink and his hands buried in his pockets as he stood behind Quinn. She pushed his chair out and slid a little to her right to make room for his return, but he smiled and shook his head.

“We’re all listening, Aunt Dotty,” he coaxed.

The old woman pulled a white envelope out from under the table. Prolonging the mystery, no writing interrupted the plain surface.

“Now, I didn’t say anything before now,” Dotty began. “But I took out an insurance policy on the construction site up at Jasper’s. What with the arson and the prosecutor working out a plea deal and everything, it took a while for the claim to be processed.”

She tapped the envelope against the dessert plate, her bright blue gaze moving between Quinn and Barrett.

“The insurer reimbursed me both costs and the value of the labor. I donated the labor portion to the Willow Gap Family Emergency Fund in Jasper’s name.”

A murmur of approval circled the table.

Dotty slid the envelope across the table toward Quinn.

“I expect one day you and my grand-nephew will be married after he works up the nerve to ask. And he has a home already,” Dotty said. “But Jasper’s cabin was always a welcoming place the Turk family spent time at—all of it good. It would be nice if that continued.”

Tears welling, Quinn shook her head.

Hearing Barrett’s disappointed sigh, Quinn looked up, her mood swinging from elated to distressed so fast she could feel her brain sloshing around inside her head, her vision blurring as cold nausea crept through her stomach. What was it in Dotty’s words that had upset him? The statement that they would one day be married?

“That’s nice and all, Aunt Dotty,” Barrett chuckled, pulling his hand from his pocket. “But you just stole all my thunder.”

Quinn didn’t understand. Not even when he pulled his chair completely out of the way and got down on one knee.

Only when he opened the black velvet box and she saw the diamond solitaire did the world begin to piece itself back together.

“Quinn Whitaker, I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” He paused, looked straight into her with those deep green eyes.

“Will you marry me?”

She nodded, throat too tight for words. Then the tears started and she choked out a “yes” before melting into his arms.

When Quinn could breathe again, Barrett led her over to Dotty, who squeezed them both in turn. She went from Dotty’s arms to Lindy’s then Sage, the faces becoming a fresh blur after that but everyone offering a hug or a kiss on the cheek.

Making it back to her chair after everything had settled down, Quinn found that Leah had switched seats. The little girl brought a finger to her lips then motioned Quinn closer.

“What is it, Honey Bee?” she whispered.

Eyes glowing with remembered mischief, Leah pinched an edge of her pink sleeve to reveal a few specks of glitter still clinging to her outfit.

“Did you get your wish?” she whispered back.

Head bobbing, Quinn looked around the table at all the happy faces.

“Yes, baby girl, I did. I got my wish and so much more.”