“Why are they taking so long? I thought you told them to hurry up.” I finished my letter E and went on to the U.

Yes, just U. I was reverting to text speak for my romantic message. But the snow was not cooperating. If anything, it was coming down even harder and the remaining daylight could be measured in minutes.

Still no Ally and Sage.

I didn’t want to be that guy who just worried for no reason. It was shitty weather out, and yes, I’d lost traction on the road a couple of hours ago and it had grown much worse since then. Even so, Ally had a big, safe SUV and she was an extremely careful driver.

Then I glanced toward Seth and realized he wasn’t where he’d been standing a minute ago. I turned around, reorienting myself in the nearly horizontal slashing snowflakes, and swiped a hand over my face. Seth was already on the way back to the house, the bright blue of Alexander’s carrier flashing in the twilight. Laurie was on his other side, stomping through the snowdrifts.

Okay. Guess they were done. Or Seth was going to call Ally again? Hell if I knew.

I hurried up and finished the U—a bit sloppily, but whatever—and double-timed it toward the house. I crossed the back porch and stepped into the kitchen. All the lights were on now, and though I hadn’t heard a truck pull into the drive, my palms tingled at the possibility Sage was there. Finally. Message aside, I didn’t want her and the baby and Ally on the roads in this weather. Hell, if they hadn’t finished all their shopping, I would drive them to the mall tomorrow.

Seth stepped into the kitchen with Laurie shadowing him, her little hand wrapped securely in his. “She’s not answering her phone.”

At once, my skin slicked with ice. I’d thought I was cold outside? That couldn’t compare with the absolute gut-churning cold that invaded me now. “Try her again.”

“I tried her multiple times. I tried Sage. Neither answered—”

I was already on my way out the door I’d just walked in.

“Where are you going?” Seth demanded.

“To find them.” I didn’t have time to discuss it, and I also had no intention of slowing down.

He followed me onto the porch. “Who’s going to stay with the kids?”

“You. Because I’m going.” I was already halfway down the steps.

“She’s my wife, goddammit! Sage is just your—”

I spun around and held up a hand. “She’s my everything. And she’s having my baby. If you think I’m going to stay here, you’re wrong.”

“I can w-watch my brother.” Laurie’s tiny voice made me focus on her. She hadn’t even said it as “bwother” this time.

My gut twisted anew at the puddles of tears in her big blue eyes. She never heard her father and I yell at each other, and she had to understand Ally and Sage could be in trouble.

And here we were, making everything worse.

Seth and I both dropped down to her level. “Aw, sweetie, you don’t have to do that.” Seth shot me a look. “We’ll just bring—”

“No.” I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them again. Hopefully, everything would be fine, and the delay was just a minor one. Nothing serious. But if, God forbid, something had happened, the last thing in the world I wanted was for my niece to be with Seth. “I’ll stay here with you, Laur-Monster. How’s that? Daddy will go find your mom and Aunt Sage and bring them back to us.”

“Okay.” Laurie transferred her hold from her father’s hand to mine. “We can watch Trolls?”

How could I say no? “Sure thing.” I stood and swung her onto my hip, settling her there as Seth and I exchanged another look.

He mouthed “thank you” and we all went inside. Quickly, he checked on the baby, then he took off in his car.

All there was left for me to do was start Trolls for the ten-millionth time and wait.

Except I didn’t. I couldn’t.

I started the movie and then I tried Sage’s phone, knowing full well that if I got her voicemail, I was probably going to need a moment alone to rip some shit to pieces or tear some holes in the sheetrock with my fists.

Once my hands stopped shaking.

Helplessness was choking me. And guilt. I’d made them come back sooner than they would have, and for God’s sake, I’d told them to rush. Why? Just so they could see my big gesture. I was a goddamned moron. If she and the baby came back to me in one piece, I was going to spend the rest of my life spoiling them. Every fucking second.

I went into the nursery as the call connected to protect Laurie from seeing me lose it. Alexander was sleeping soundly in his crib and I stepped closer to him, gripping the railing while I waited through one ring, two rings, three.

“Oliver?” Her voice was so far away, snatched away by the wind and the shitty connection. But it was her. It was my Sage.

“Princess,” I rasped, leaning heavily against the crib. I tightened my hold on the railing and marveled that it didn’t snap from the force. “Are you okay? Where are you?”

“I’m okay. Accident. We slid off the road and into a ditch, but we’re okay. Oliver?”

“I’m here. Are you sure you’re all right?” I was trying to breathe and not shout at her, not demand she tell me every detail. “How’s Ally?”

“She’s fine. Well, a little banged up, but okay. She dropped her phone in the ditch and we can’t find it. It’s so dark and the snow—”

“Forget the goddamn phone. Get out of the ditch and away from the side of the road. It’s not safe. Sage, are you listening to me?”

I half expected her to yell back. “I am, and you being a jackass is probably the best sound I’ve ever heard.”

She was smiling. I could hear it in her voice. After a car accident. Had she hit her head? Christ, all I could imagine was some asshole hitting them in the storm and never even realizing it.

“Are you away from the road? Where are you? If there aren’t any houses right there, get back in the SUV if you can without injuring yourselves and wait. Seth is driving the route from the mall to the house.”

“We’re on Fairdale, just past the cemetery. We already called J&T’s Automotive and Dare’s on his way. He’s coming to help us personally.”

“Okay, good, that’s good.” I let up my grip a fraction on the crib. Didn’t want to turn the bed into a pile of broken sticks while the kid was sleeping. Snoring softly no less, even as I railed like a lunatic.

He was his father’s son, all right.

“Seth will be there soon.” I hoped. He would have to pass right by where they were if he took the usual route to the mall from here. I couldn’t stop talking to her yet to text him. Her soft, strong voice was everything. “Are you sure you’re all right? I can call the paramedics, have them meet you there just in case—”

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m fine,” she stressed. “Both of us are. I promise.”

Even knowing she couldn’t be certain, that small bit of reassurance was enough to have me letting out a sound that probably bordered on the inhuman. I simply couldn’t stop it.

“Oliver? Are you okay?”

“No. No, I’m not fucking okay, and I won’t be until you’re here and I can check every inch of you myself to make sure you’re all right. And then I’m going to take you to the doctor’s—like a bag of flour over my shoulder if I have to—so they can run every check known to man on you and the baby. Understand me?”

“Oliver—”

“No, hear me out. Do you have any idea what went through my head when you and Ally weren’t answering your phones and we knew you were out in the storm? Any idea?” I didn’t wait for an answer. “No, I bet you don’t. I couldn’t fucking breathe. Could barely stand on my two feet. I almost ran out of here until Seth reminded me I don’t have any legal hold on you, that you aren’t my wife. He didn’t mean it that way, but it’s the fucking truth. I messed up. I didn’t even give you the chance to say yes or say no. I just decreed it. Well, consider this me asking you to marry me. I don’t have a ring. I don’t have a plan. All I have is that I love you so much I can’t imagine waking up another day without you in my bed and in my life. And I want more than anything to be a father to our child. If you’ll have me. If you’ll both have me.”

The only sound on the other end of the phone was the roar of the wind and voices, so many voices. Seth must be there, or Dare. While I was so very glad about that, if she hadn’t heard me—if I had to say all of that again…

I would do it. I would say it over and over again, as many times as I needed to until she believed me. Until she loved me back even half as much.

“Oliver, Dare’s here, and Seth’s pulling up too. I have to go.”

I nodded, unable to speak. She couldn’t see me, but I still couldn’t find my damn voice. It was as if I’d stripped away everything with that speech, including the power of my vocal cords.

“I heard you, Oliver.” She was whispering, had to be. Or else the wind was so strong that it was drowning out most of her reply. I still heard enough to bow my head to my fisted hand on the edge of my snoozing nephew’s crib. “Heard every word. I love you too. I’ll take you. God, will I ever. You won’t know what hit you, I’ll take you so damn much.”

Even without full usage of my voice, I could manage to laugh. And send up a silent prayer that despite my many, many—many—flubs, I might just be able to make this work.

She and our baby were okay, and somehow she loved me. Nothing else mattered.

I grinned. “You have yourself a deal.”

“I have to go now, but I’ll be home soon.”

“Seth’s home. There’s something here for you—” I stared blearily at the dark, snowy world beyond the nursery’s windows. “Ah, fuck it. It’s probably ruined. Probably a stupid idea anyway. I’m full of them. But I’m here for you too.”

“You’re all I want.” She paused to speak to someone else, and then she came back on the line, her voice seemingly so much closer. It poured into me like warm caramel, full of promise. “And Oliver?”

“Princess,” I replied gruffly.

“Yes.”