Page 81 of The Seal's Promise

“I can’t believe it all worked out,” Brooke said.

“Now you can take some time off work and spend more time with Max and that charming new boyfriend of yours,” Dalton said.

Brooke put her arms around Dalton’s shoulders. “I think that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

His arms enveloped her as he leaned down to kiss her, and Brooke couldn’t remember a time when she’d been as happy. She had been right all those years ago about where she belonged, and it was definitely in Dalton’s arms.

EPILOGUE

Three Months Later

Dalton carefully threadedthe loop of a red lure onto the fishing line from the new pole he’d selected for Max. Then he handed it to the eager boy sitting next to him in the pontoon boat, ready for their first fishing trip. They were anchored out in Bull River on a rented boat to fish for some bull trout. Brooke was spending the day with her sister for some much-deserved downtime.

“Do you think we’ll really catch anything?” Max asked, followed by another question before Dalton could respond. “Are you nervous about standing in front of my class for show and tell next week?”

One thing Dalton had learned in the last few months since he and Brooke had been officially dating was that Max usually asked several questions in succession before he was ready to hear any answers.

“Are you going to be my dad?”

There it was: the real issue weighing on the now eight-year-old’s mind.

Dalton looked over at Max to see if he could read his body language. Max looked down at his fishing rod with his elbows on his knees. Dalton set his own rod, now loaded with another lure, to the side and leaned forward to mimic Max’s pose.

“Do you want me to marry your mom and be your dad?”

His head popped up and a big smile lit up his entire face.

“More than anything ever. I even told Mom I was going to ask Santa for it for Christmas.”

“Max, you know I love your mom and I hope you know I love you?”

“Oh, yah, I know—you tell me every night when we read together.”

“Good.” He put his arm around Max and then pulled him in to give him a side hug. “I’m really glad you brought this up, because man-to-man, I wanted to ask you if it’s okay if I ask your mom to marry me?”

“Really? Heck yeah, that would be okay with me.”

Max stood and set his fishing pole against the seat, then turned to Dalton and wrapped both his arms around him. Max squeezed him hard for a bit and then sat back down.

“Dalton, you’re not going to change your mind, right? You won’t get sick of me or my mom?”

“No way, son, I’ll never get sick of you or your mom and I won’t leave. I just need to convince your mom she can’t live without me.”

“Well, I overheard Mom telling Aunt May how much she loves you and that it’s scary. Which seems weird because you’re not like a zombie, but girls are weird, right?”

Dalton couldn’t help but laugh. “Yah, us guys need to stick together.”

For the next hour they cast their lines into the river and sat and waited for a bite. Although Dalton told Max it was best to stay quiet, they ended up talking about baseball. But, finally, they caught a few trout and could head back to the dock with pride. He showed Max how to clean the fish, and then they took their fresh filets home to Dalton’s house. Although technically the house was still Levi’s, Dalton had made it his home when he wasn’t staying at Brooke’s. Usually on the weekends they took advantage of the beach access and would pop in to see Gran. Max and Dalton were getting ready to play a round of virtual baseball when Brooke arrived home early with lots of shopping bags.

“Wow, did you and May leave anything for anyone else?” Dalton teased.

“It’s been so long since I’ve done any real shopping in actual stores where you can try things on. I got a little carried away.”

“Good,” Dalton said, and kissed her before taking some of the load out of her hands and setting it to the side.

“We caught five fish, and Dalton skinned and gutted them and then he let me try too, it was disgusting and awesome!” Max said in a rush as he dove in to hug his mom.

“Sounds like you had as much fun as I did,” she said, scrunching up her face.

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