Page 32 of Fall Wedding With the Mountain Man
Hudson was the perfect man. And I wasn’t going to let him slip out of my life.
In a rush, all the words came out. “I love you. I’ve never loved anyone before you. It’s going to take me time to wrap everything up. I need to give notice at work. And sublet my apartment. Sell my stuff. Are you okay if I move in with you? I don’t even know where you live, or what Red Oak Mountain is like. Am I going too fast? Maybe we should start with visits.”
“Oh, Lizzie, nothing’s too fast. You’re going to love it,” he rumbled out. “Red Oak Mountain is a special place. All the Ozarks are. But if you don’t love it here, we’ll move to Deer Springs and buy the house next to Shelby. Okay?”
I shook my head. “No. I want to stay on Red Oak Mountain with you. Will you show me your place? I want to see what will fit in there? I don’t have a lot of stuff because New York City living is limited in space, but I have a few things I love. My burled-wood antique dresser, my velvet pouf, my espresso machine. Those three are non-negotiables. Do you have room for an espresso machine?”
He started laughing. “We’ll make room for anything you want, Lizzie. I’ll build an addition if I have to. But you should know… it’s rustic here. And we don’t have all the fancy things you’re accustomed to. My job pay’s decent, but it’s nothing like what you’re used to. I don’t know if i can keep you in the style you’re used to having.”
I hugged the stuffed cat to my chest and whispered, “All I need is you, Hudson Woods. Nothing more.”
Chapter 16
Epilogue
Elizabeth
Three years later.
I’d vision-boarded and goal-planned my entire future.
But I hadn’t accounted for love.
Life wasn’t about color-coded action plans.
It was messy and full of U-turns.
Like this moment right now.
If you’d asked me three years ago if my life would look like this, I would have laughed at the idea. And now I couldn’t imagine it any other way.
The nurse put our baby in my arms, and my heart opened wide. She waseverything.
Hudson wrapped an arm gently around me as he took her in, just as awestruck as I was.
“We made that,” he rumbled quietly.
“Yes, sir. We did.”
I was exhausted, sweaty and in need of some pain medication. But it had all been worth it, even if the delivery had taken a little longer than planned.
Now that she was here, and I was staring into her beautiful blue eyes, I realized we’d gotten it all wrong. “I think we should name her Edna.”
Hudson wrinkled his forehead into a knot. “But I thought… you wanted her to be Camille.”
I laughed and stared into her tiny little face. “I do. I mean, I did. She can be Edna Camille Woods. How does that sound?”
Hudson had wanted to name her Edna after his great-grandmother on his mother’s side. Evidently, he’d been really close to her growing up.
But I’d felt like the name sounded too old-fashioned. Now that I saw her, though, I could tell it was theperfectname. It had always been the perfect name.
I cooed down at her, “Hi Edna. We’re your parents. And we’re going to love you and take care of you. You’re going to have a good life. A really good life.”
Hudson squeezed my shoulder and kissed the top of my head, his eyes never leaving his new baby girl.
“Can I hold her?” he asked in a reverent tone.
“Of course.”
