Page 60 of Midlife Wolf Captured My Heart

“All is forgiven.”

He kissed her on the cheek. “I wish you a lifetime of happiness and love.”

Sadie watched him walk away, feeling as though another chapter of her life had ended. Then, she touched her stomach and realized that a new one was about to begin.

26

Sadie

Three weeks later, Sadie was standing in the nursery, looking pleased with the progress. As promised Eric and her father had painted the room. She found some border wallpaper that had cartoony animals and lined the room. The top half of the walls were white and the bottom half were blue. She hung the collage Dakota had made for her on one of the walls.

When her mom saw the walls, she shook her head. “You aren’t having a girl, are you?”

“’Fraid not, Mom. Dakota James is on his way.”

Her father raised an eyebrow. “Dakota James?”

“Yeah. I figured we would call him Cody for short.” She knew that her father didn’t like her choice for the baby’s first name, but they wouldn’t hassle her about it, if for no other reason than they knew exactly how stubborn she could be.”

“Cody it is.” Eric hugged his sister.

She hugged him back, grateful for her brother. He had been checking on her daily and they became closer than they ever were before.

Opal sighed heavily. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing that I haven’t gone out to buy a ton of clothes.”

“Don’t worry, Mom. I’m sure Eric will find a mate before too much longer and they can have a ton of girls.”

“Really?” Eric asked.

Sadie giggled. “Yep. I’ve seen the way that the women around town look at you. You could have your pick of mates.”

“I’m not quite ready for that. Maybe in twenty years.”

“You’d be almost fifty. I think you’d better figure things out sooner. You know your father and I went through the mating ceremony when we were eighteen.”

“That’s way too young.” Eric shook his head vigorously. “I have some time yet. I just got out of the army. I get to enjoy my freedom.”

It had only been three weeks since Dakota had been gone and Sadie missed him, although she had stopped crying herself to sleep. She would have this baby and maybe work on one of the book projects that had been floating in her mind. “I won’t stop living just because he’s gone.”

She had to laugh. Dakota was very obvious about leaving and she had thought it would be easy to deal with him being gone from her life. Sadie thought she would be left with great memories and it would be easy to move on with her life. “I never counted on that whole ‘falling in love’ thing.”

A loud ringing sound startled Sadie, as she relaxed on the couch with a book. She dropped the book and sat up confused for a minute, looking around her. Then, it dawned on her that it was the doorbell.

“Who in the hell is dropping by this time of night?” she muttered as she checked the camera. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw who was at the door.

Flinging open the door, she stared at the man on the steps in disbelief. “Dakota. What are you doing here?”

“Hi, Sadie. Can we talk?”

“Yeah, sure, I guess so. Come in.”

Dakota stepped inside and followed her to the living room. He sat in the chair across from the couch, where she sat, cross-legged, holding a pillow to her chest.

“How was your trip?”

“It was great. I got so many amazing photos and videos. I have enough for my next book and a documentary. Maybe the awareness raised will increase donations to the protected forest.”

“That’s awesome.”

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