Page 17 of Dangerous Mountain Man

Oh lord. He didn’t scare me at all. In fact, I couldn’t stop the smile that was spreading over my face.

“You don’t scare me,” I said. “No way. This is exactly what I want.Youare exactly what I want.”

And as I said the words, I realized just how true they were. As he’d put it—he was my future. He wouldn’t get in the way of me achieving my dreams. He’d be part of my dreams.

And I knew he’d support me in whatever I wanted to do.

“Let’s go get dinner,” he said.

As we sped out of the parking lot and headed toward Adairsville for a romantic steak dinner—our first true restaurant meal together—I realized everything was finally clicking into place. This was what I’d been missing all along.

I couldn’t wait to see what the future held.

EPILOGUE

MALLORIE

Iwanted my husband, and I wanted him now.

That was my only thought as I entered the cabin where he’d lived alone the day I met him. Next door was one of Memphis’s logging crew buddies and his wife. They’d met and married around the same time and we’d both gotten pregnant within a couple of months of each other.

Our neighbors were four months along, and she’d announced to our friend group a few weeks ago that they were expecting. I had only gotten the confirmation from the doctor a couple of weeks ago, so I was still keeping our pregnancy a secret.

“I’m home,” I called out.

It had been a long night. We’d gone to the new sports bar in town, then to the Mexican restaurant—mine and Cassady’s longtime hangout. But these days, our friend group included a lot of women who’d moved to town like we had after falling for hunky mountain men.

“How’d it go?” Memphis asked.

He was in the kitchen, standing at the counter. He had his guys’ night last night. We would have coordinated, but half the guys he hung out with had kids. And half the women I wasmeeting up with were their partners. That meant someone had to stay home, which also meant staggering our nights out.

“I think they suspect I might be pregnant,” I said, stopping at the counter that separated the living room from the kitchen. “I ordered a water with lemon instead of a drink. I told them we were trying, but there were a couple of exchanged looks.”

He shrugged. “Let them talk. It won’t be official until we tell them.”

I had always heard you should wait until at least the second trimester to make the announcement. But I was dying to tell our friends. I would be marking off the weeks on my calendar until we could.

“So, what did you do tonight?” I asked.

“The neighbor and I ordered a pizza. Split a six-pack of beers.”

I frowned. “What are you doing in the kitchen?”

I rose on tiptoe and peered over the ledge that separated the kitchen from the rest of the cabin. On the counter in front of him was a cookie sheet.

“Oh, and I made some cookies,” he said.

“You baked cookies?”

He laughed. “Don’t give me too much credit. I used the pre-made cookie dough from the fridge.”

He’d bought that the last time we went to the grocery store together. I told him I could make cookies from scratch, but he seemed to know there would be a time when he’d be here alone, craving cookies. And clearly, he’d been right about that.

“I’m craving something else,” I said.

He picked up a cookie and held it out to me, but when I spoke, he started to pull it back. I reached out, making it clear that I wouldn’t turn down a chocolate chip cookie, even when something else was on my mind—something a little racier.

“So what is it exactly that you’re craving?” he asked.

---