— EPILOGUE —
OF all the days to be out of cell range…Olivia yanked her phone out of her pocket and nudged at the screen to see if she had any bars. Nothing. She stared out the window of the minivan they were using to shuttle the advance crew around the filming sites today. It was dark. He was probably home already. His first day back at work had gone just fine, she was sure of it.
But that wasn’t the only reason she was dying to talk to her husband today.
She’d had a positive pregnancy test this morning, a wonderful secret she’d kept to herself for thirteen hours and twenty-seven minutes. Rafe had left while she was still sleeping, and then she didn’t want to just call or text him. She wanted to see his face when he found out. They’d been married for two months—this time around. But neither of them had wanted to wait and she’d gone off the pill the night Rafe proposed. He wanted four, five, six kids, it kept changing, which made her laugh. They’d start with one and see how they managed. After her year of maternity leave, she wanted to build her own business. She might need to work part-time at the diner until it took off, but the last five months had showed her that there was a market for executive-level local support. Maybe a concierge service for celebrities vacationing at the islands and fancier cottage compounds on the peninsula. Maybe something specific to the entertainment industry. She had time to figure that out while she was falling in love with her baby.
She glanced around the van at her travel companions. How had they not noticed that she’d been vibrating with excitement all day? Maybe they thought it was the countdown to the start of filming. Her lips twisted in a secret smile. The job was awesome. But a baby was magical.
They’d all met at the Blue Heron Lane cottages, but as they drove out of the park and got on the highway heading south, her phone chimed. I’m home. Soup for dinner? She leaned forward and asked the driver if he could drop her off at home instead. No sense in backtracking. Rafe was off tomorrow, he could drive her to her car. Twenty minutes later, she hopped out of the van and bid everyone a distracted goodbye.
Inside, the smell of ginger and garlic swirled through the air. They’d made a giant batch of dinners on the weekend in anticipation of their first week of duelling schedules from hell, and had agreed whomever got home first would do the re-heating. She found her husband in the kitchen. He was slicing a baguette and a round of herbed soft cheese sat on a plate.
“You want some wine?” Rafe asked after she kissed him soundly.
She shook her head and smiled. “How was your day?”
He returned the smile, and his stretched all the way to his eyes. “Really good. For me. Not so much for the guy I arrested after a traffic stop turned into a seizure.”
“Drugs?” She scanned his face, looking for any sign that it had been difficult.
He nodded and leaned in to nuzzle her nose. “And it was fine. I did my job, all went well.”
“Any worry that it might not?”
He shrugged. “No more than I had in the past.”
“Well…yay!” She laughed. “Except for the guy who got arrested, I mean.”
“How about you?”
“Good. I’ve got pages of questions that I need to answer tomorrow, but we’ll be inside the whole day. And in cell range.”
“Yeah, I tried to call you at lunch time.” He mock-pouted and she kissed his lower lip. “Your phone’s going to blow up with sad, lonely text messages from me any minute now.”
“Awww, poor muffin.” She slid her hands under his shirt and let out a happy sigh at the warm flesh stretched over hard muscles. Rafe responded with a yelp. “What, are my hands cold?”
“Jesus, baby!” Muscles corded under her hands but he didn’t pull away. His warmth transferred to her as she snuggled close.
“So I wanted to talk to you about something…” She smiled against the soft cotton of his t-shirt.
“Can it wait until after we eat?”
She bit her lip to hold back a laugh as his stomach rumbled. “Yep. It’s not urgent.”
Rafe cracked a beer and they tucked into the soup and bread. She waved off the bottle each time he offered it until he finally stopped and looked at her carefully. “You feeling okay?”
“Yes.” Bliss filled her entire body as she grinned and repeated her answer.
He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “Good.”
After they ate, Olivia quickly washed the dishes while Rafe stood at their DVD shelf and called out movie suggestions. She giggled to herself. They weren’t going to watch a movie. She was going to take her husband to bed in forty-five seconds. She lifted her voice so he would hear her. “So I was thinking about work. After the movie ends, Frank will be able to give me full-time hours to the end of the summer. After that…”
She felt him fill the doorway to the kitchen as she dried the second bowl and set it on the shelf. He didn’t say anything, just stood there. Big and strong and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that he’d go anywhere she asked him to—but she’d found everything she’d ever need in Pine Harbour.
“After that,” she said, patting her tummy. “I thought I’d get to work on the nursery.” She made sure she’d turned fully as she said the second part, because there was no way she would miss the massive grin that spread across her husband’s face.
“Yeah?” He jumped up, slapping the top of the door frame as he let out a yell, then he picked her up and spun her in a circle. She shrieked and wrapped her arms tight around his neck. He slowly lowered her back to the floor, but he kept her close. “Thank you,” he whispered just before he covered her mouth with his.
THE END
Want more Pine Harbour?
Jake Foster fell in love with Dani Minelli when she was a colt-legged high school senior that he knew he was way too old to look at, let alone touch. Dani’s been trying to get his attention since returning to Pine Harbour a grown woman—and failing miserably at every turn. Their stormy single night together, and the fallout, will sizzle the pages of Love in a Snow Storm, coming December 2014. for a chance to read it before it comes out! Turn the page for an excerpt from their book.
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