Page 125 of Gifts

I shrug. “No, but Saylor would. If you dare her, I bet she’d give him two.”

Frowning, he heads for the house, probably to find Maya and his kids to get them home. Chloe’s only a few months old and he’s already talking about having a third.

“Took you a while.”

I look to Crew. “To do what?”

“To find it. But when you did, you did it up big,” he smirks.

“We’re getting married next month,” I tell him.

His eyes widen. “Really?”

“Yeah, we didn’t want to announce it before Levi graduated and take away from his day. Not that the kids and everyone else don’t know it’s coming since we’re living here. It can’t happen soon enough.”

“Happy for you. Talk to Addison if you want to have it at the vineyard. She’ll have Evan make it happen whenever you want.”

“I don’t know.” I look around at the property I just paid off—where I met Saylor and Knox for the first time, where we got Emma back on track, where Levi is celebrating a milestone, and where we agreed to plant roots together. “I think we might do it here.”

My goal is for Keelie to live easy for the rest of her life and paying off her mortgage was the first step. Before I did it, I asked her if she wanted to move, find something easier to maintain or closer to town. She thought about it for about two seconds before reaching up and putting her lips on mine. That’s when she said, “And leave my first memories with you behind? Not a chance. I fell in love with you in this house. I used to hate it and everything it stood for. But you gave me memories here—ones I love and never want to leave.”

Even though that happened late at night after all the kids were settled, her words were enough to make me want to create memories everywhere I could. I pulled her into the pantry and fucked her on the counter with the wine fridge humming away below us. A wine fridge I keep fully stocked, but it still has kiddie drinks stuffed in every available space.

This is our life. A family of six, with kids spanning the ages of eighteen to five, goats, dogs, a donkey, and enough random barn cats that I still have no idea if they’re all ours since I can’t keep track of them.

I look around at what might seem like bedlam to others—but to us, it’s become a perfect kind of chaos.

*****

Keelie

“You tired?”

He asks me this at the same moment he takes my mouth and slides his hand into my panties.

When he moves his fingers through me and circles my clit, even if I was tired, I’d push through. I’ll never be tired enough to say no to Asa.

His voice dips. “You put your ring back on.”

“I did.” I bring my hand up and touch the platinum band holding a completely ostentatious diamond, the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. Asa slid it on my finger three days ago. There’s been so much going on with the fall of Brett White and everything surrounding that debacle—not to mention Levi’s graduation—I wanted to wait to tell everyone. Levi deserved to have his day.

“We’ll tell everyone tomorrow.” He kisses me again. “How about we get married here?”

My hands on his face tense and he stops to look down at me when I ask, “You’d want that?”

“It’s okay if you don’t. We’ll talk to Addy about doing it at Whitetail.”

“No.” I shake my head. “That’s not what I meant. I’d love to do it here, I just didn’t know if you would.” I relax and smile. “You think the animals will be quiet long enough for us to say I do?”

He grins and gives my clit more pressure. “I’ll have them shipped out for the day. They can go to a goat hotel.”

I don’t know whether to laugh or moan. “You’ll have to be the one to explain that to Saylor.”

“I can handle Saylor.”

“Yeah.” My smile fades. “You do it like you were meant to—like you were meant to be here for both of them.”

He kisses me again before murmuring against my lips. “Love you, baby. Love all of you.”

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