Page 120 of The Candlemaker

“I love you,” he drew back and repeated, sliding the delicate diamond flower ring onto my finger.

“I love you, too.”

And then he was standing, and I was in his arms, my toes barely scraping the ground as he held and kissed me.

“How did you do all of this? I can’t believe Lou…” My sister was fanatical about the inn and keeping everything under wraps and untouched until it was ready to open…but she’d let Chandler use it for this.

“I’m not the only one who thought you deserved some of the magic you give to everyone else.”

A fresh round of tears washed over my cheeks. “And you knew I’d say yes.”

He grinned and lowered his mouth to mine. “I only make deals I know I’ll win.”

I tipped back, evading his searching lips a moment longer. “You didn’t win our first deal. The inn is haunted.”

“I guess we’ll just have to stay the night for you to prove it.”

“Really? Lou said?—”

“Your sister said I had free rein of the inn for one night.”

“What did you have to promise her?”

He brushed a strand of hair back from my face. “To make you happy.”

I cried and smiled at the same time as I said, “She let you off easy. I guess I’ll have to make you work for it.”

He growled and came for my mouth again, pulling me tight to where I could feel his thick length pressing against my stomach. “Oh, I plan on working for it all night, my little flame.”

Epilogue

Chandler

Three months later…

“A wedding and a baby shower was a genius idea. Pure genius.” Gigi pulled me in for a strong hug.

“It was all your granddaughter,” I confessed, my gaze sliding over to my wife.

My wife.

More than any sale or acquisition or any number of zeros in my bank account, making Frankie mine was the most rewarding thing I’d ever accomplished. Every day since I’d asked her to marry me right here at the inn, I’d felt lighter.Free.

“She is something, isn’t she?” Gigi looked at her granddaughter with the kind of pride that couldn’t help but fill me, too.

Heat thrummed through my veins, my gaze traveling back to the woman who held my heart…and carried mybaby.

Frankie had holly woven into her hair and a fur shawl draped over her shoulders. A winter goddess in a flowing white dress that fit just a little too damn snug over her chest, her breasts so full now that we were in the last trimester.And sensitive.My new favorite pastime was worshipping them until she came.

“Yeah.”

“They both are.” Her gaze softened—saddened—a little when she looked at Lou.

Frankie’s twin was in a deep emerald dress standing by her side. She looked happy, there was no question. But as someone who’d seen her that night at the house after she’d read her own label, there was a weight about her. Frankie still wouldn’t tell me what was on it, and I wouldn’t ask. It was obviously something a whole lot more than the responsibility of the inn that she’d shouldered so effortlessly.

“She’ll figure it out. Whatever it is,” I assured her quietly, knowing it weighed on Gigi to have given her the message.

Four months with the Kinkades were plenty to appreciate Lou’s understated resilience.

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