Page 20 of The Mountain Man's Valentine Baby

He stands from the table and carries me to the couch. He sets me down gently, reverently. “It’s your turn to close your eyes now.”

I put my hands over my eyes, fighting the urge to peek through them. He leaves the room only to return a few minutes later with a book. He settles beside me on the couch, our thighs pressing. “Open it,” he whispers.

The moment I do, my eyes fill with tears. Big, fat ones roll down my cheek as I stare at the scrapbook pictures. “How did you get these?”

“Dotty went through your things and found them when I called her,” he explains, tapping the baby picture of me in the hospital right next to my birth certificate. “Every moment of your life is special becauseyouare special. You matter. You’re my whole world now. You make my heart whole, just by existing.”

I’m sobbing now, big tears rolling silently down my cheeks.

He pulls out the ring box from his pocket and opens it to show off a glittering princess cut diamond in a gold band. It’s exactly what I would have chosen for myself. “I’m completely in love with you. Be my valentine, Thea Madison. Be my valentine today and every year for the rest of our lives.”

I hiccup softly and blot at my face with my hand. “This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. It’s amazing. But I’m scared, Jasper. What if we’re talking about marriage because of the baby? What if our loneliness is what’s pushing both of us toward this? Then in a few years, you realize you never really liked me. You only liked the idea of a little family and—”

He puts a finger on my lips to shush me. “I need you to see something.”

Without waiting for my answer, he scoops me up into his arms again and carries me to the room across from his bedroom.

“This is my art room,” he explains and sets me on my feet. There are so many canvases covered with sheets and dozens of cardboard boxes.

He taps a pile of three sketchbooks on the big desk in the center of the room. “These were going with me in my carry-on. Glad I left them out now. Come, look at them.” He gestures me closer and opens the sketchbook on top.

I gasp at the drawing of the woman smiling back at me. It’s me. He drew a picture of me, even capturing the tiny mole on the side of my neck.

I flip to the next page and find another drawing of me. It’s a whole sketchbook filled with drawings. In some of them, I’m smiling and laughing. In others, I’m across the room at the wedding.

“You asked me if this is just loneliness. Every single day we were apart, I sketched you at least once. Usually, a few times until I felt I got it right. This is love.” He pulls out a second sketchbook.

My breath catches in my throat when I realize it’s another book filled with drawings of me. Only this one is different. He’s in all of the sketches. On the first page, it’s me and him holding a little baby. In the next one, we’re at his cabin with the baby and a dog resting on the couch. I flip through the sketchbook realizing that he’s been mapping out our whole life together, all the things he’d hoped would happen.

I snap it closed and stare up at the mountain man whose whole heart is on display in front of me. He’s been all in since the moment we met. He’s completely in love with me.

I’m still scared, but he’s so sure of us. He believes in what we have, and his faith makes me want to be brave. “Yes. Yes, to being your Valentine and your wife. I love you so much. I can’t wait to raise babies with you right here in this cozy cabin.”

He slides the engagement ring on my finger. “I promise I’ll always take care of you. You and our little babies. I’ll make sure to spoil you day and night.”

He pulls me into his arms, giving me a long, passionate kiss that has me gasping for breath and my panties growing damp. “Wait.” I put a hand on his arm. “Can we get married today, if there’s a way to get down the mountain?”

The smile he gives me lights up the whole room. “Honey, I’ll get us down the mountain if I have to build a damn snowplow using spare parts in my shed.”

Chapter14

Jasper

One phone call. That’s all it took and the next thing I knew, the roads to my place and into town were clear. Officially, I have no idea who did it. I’m never going to tell a soul, but I saw Whiskey hanging around my place.

I know that he and some other mountain men did it. They cleared the path and gave me a way to get Thea into town. I owe him and all of his friends a round of beers if I ever see him again. I hope I do. I hope one day he has the courage to come out of the shadows and understand that we want him back.

Now, it’s me and Thea in a tiny room of the chapel getting ready together. I helped her into her wedding dress, wrapping her up in all the white that I’ll pull from her body later tonight when we make love together for the first time as man and wife.

She’s sitting in front of a vanity carefully applying some type of gloss to her lips that I already can’t wait to kiss off. I can’t believe I get to spend the rest of my life with this woman.

The door opens and I turn excitedly. Zac and Dotty are supposed to be here in a few minutes.

When we called them with the good news that we were getting married, Zac managed to find a private plane and he hopped on board. I’m glad our friends are going to be here to witness this moment between the two of us. It makes it even sweeter.

But it’s not Zac and Dotty who come into the room. It’s Emma May, and she scowls. “Did I raise a young man or a slob? Come here and let me fix that tie. I swear, thirty-something, and you still don’t know how.”

I bend and let her fix it. I watched a video years ago on how to do this. I’ve been tying it correctly for years. But every time I’m around Ma, I always mess it up, so she has a reason to fuss over me. She likes to cluck over her boys, and it’s a small thing, so I let her. I let her be the mother she still is because it’s the one role that never really stops.

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