Page 102 of Single Chance

Chance:She said yes!

“She knew?” I asked, overflowing with laughter and happiness.

“Remember she’s the one who set me straight,” Chance said. “She helped me come up with the grand gesture, as she insisted on calling it.”

He no sooner got the words out than my phone buzzed with a message at the same time his sounded again.

I reached to the bed, where I’d tossed mine aside, and picked it up as Chance looked at his. When I opened the message from Sam, my screen vibrated with a fireworks display and a message she’d sent to both Chance and me:

Sam: Congratulations, you two! I can’t wait to be a family of four.

We both typed into our respective phones.

Rowan: Thank you for setting him straight! Love you.

Chance: Thanks, Sammy. I’ll be home a little later.

Sam: Don’t want to know any details!

Laughing, we set our phones on the nightstand at the same time. Then Chance lowered me to the bed and covered my body with his.

“The details,” he growled into my ear, “are the very best part.”

“I love me a detail man.”

“I’m so damn happy to hear that, because this detail man is yours for the rest of your life.”

Epilogue

Two months later

Rowan

Dragonfly Lake in the springtime was stunning as promised.

With my husband by my side, I breathed in a full, fragrant breath of the May evening and marveled that this was my life now.

Rusty Anchor’s beer patio, bordered by lush, colorful flowers on two sides and a vista of the lake on the third, was the ideal venue for our gender reveal party. We’d closed it to the public for the duration, allowing our thirty-ish guests plenty of space to eat, drink, spread out, and enjoy the view before it got dark.

“This is beautiful,” I said to Chance, whose arm was around me as we mingled with our friends.

We were minutes from sunset. The colors cast over the water ranged from gold and coral to a deep, dusky grayish plum. A bank of clouds in the distance increased the sky’s drama without threatening our perfect spring weather.

“You’rebeautiful,” he said in my ear.

Even though we were surrounded by our friends, his intimate declaration awakened a physical desire deep inside me I knew I’d be quenching later tonight.

I pressed a quick kiss to his lips, a grin on my own.

The joy I felt in my soul made it impossible not to smile, laugh, love, not only my handsome husband but all the people who’d joined us this evening. It was hard to remember how depleted and overcome with sadness I’d been when I’d happened into this little town five months ago. I’d lost everything then, and somehow I’d lucked into a life overflowing with friends and goodness and love.

In addition to Chloe, I’d gotten to know several of her friends, plus the dads in Chance’s group, and the wives and fiancées of Knox, Ben, and Max. They were all with us tonight, as were Sam and her friend Kinsley, Loretta, Kemp, and the rest of the brewery employees. Magnolia from the Lily Pad had volunteered to help me plan the details, from the silver, pink, and blue balloons and centerpieces to the guess-the-gender board and the suggest-a-name station.

Chance and I stood in a cluster with Chloe, Magnolia, Emerson, Loretta, Olivia, and Anna.

“This looks fantastic,” Emerson said as she bent over one of the tables to sniff the flowers in the middle.

“Magnolia deserves all the credit,” I said.

---