Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
“Sorry, this has already taken up too much of our day and I want your lawyer out of our home so that I can have you all to myself again.”
“That’s my cue,” Cyrus said with a chuckle, capping his pen and carefully placing the contract back into his briefcase. “You get well soon, young lady.”
“Thank you, Cyrus.”
“I’ll be in touch next week to discuss further details on the sale of your company. We’re going to need to set up a meeting with your bank manager ASAP and—”
“Yes, thank you, goodbye, Cyrus,” Cade said, jumping up and crowding the laughing man out of the front door.
Once he’d shut the door behind Cyrus, he turned to face Fern.
“Alone at last,” he said, a predatory smile lifting the corners of his lips. And she squealed as he stalked toward her.
“How do you feel, Fern?” he asked as he closed the distance between them. She leaped to her feet as he approached, catching her bottom lip between her teeth as she waited.
He was next to her in seconds, but because of the height disparity, she had to bend her neck too far back and she jumped onto the sofa to close the height gap.
“I feel fantastic,” she told him, winding her arms around his strong neck.
“No headache?” he asked as he nuzzled her neck.
“Nope.” She caught his earlobe between her teeth. “You?”
“No.” He laughed softly. “Thanks for asking.”
“Cade… what you just did—” she whispered, serious now.
“I did because I love you. And I want the whole fucking world to know it. I love you so much I want to beat my chest and shout it from the rooftops.”
She leaned against him, trusting him to support her weight and—with her lips hovering the merest breath away from his—whispered, “I love you too, Niall”—kiss—“Caden”—kiss—“Hawthorne, and I can’t begin to imagine what my life would’ve been like now if I hadn’t met you. If I hadn’t followed my instincts and trusted you. You’re my hero, Cade. You saved me.”
He laughed and shook his head.
“You’re the hero, Fern,” he corrected. “You saved yourself. You saved me. And that’s yet another thing I love about you. Your strength. Your bravery…. How the fuck did I get so lucky?”
He kissed her, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist and lifted her from the sofa. She hooked her legs around his waist and kissed him back. Hungrily. With an eagerness that bordered on desperation.
He strode to their bedroom, never once lifting his mouth from hers and gently deposited her—on her back—on the bed.
He stared at her, his eyes warm, expression gentle.
“My father told me last week, that he’d felt like he’d lost me somewhere along the way. But what nobody knows is that I felt like I’d lost myself too—until I met you. You found the man I’d buried deep down inside, beneath layers of granite and emotional debris. And you made me whole again.”
He kissed her, reverently, deeply.
“Thank you, Fern.”
Epilogue
THREE MONTHS LATER
His wife had a coronet of flowers in her hair and Cade found himself ridiculously charmed by how beautiful she looked. Like a heavily pregnant elven princess with her long, wavy platinum hair and her flowing teal chiffon dress with its empire waistline.
She had a becoming flush on her cheeks and happy sparkle in her eyes.
“How was it?” he asked as he tugged the seatbelt over her belly and clipped it in. A task which—at eight months pregnant—defeated her.
“Amazing. And did you know? Iris was there? Of course, you knew. She told me you knew… you were all sneaking around behind my back to make this work.”
“Trystan and I knew how much it meant to both of you to have her here,” Cade told her with a smile, before nodding at Ian to drive. “So, he shuffled some things around to make it happen.”
“Well, it works to their advantage because she tells me they’re going to view some houses while they’re here. Isn’t that exciting?”
“Hmm.” Cade nodded, eyes still lingering on her face. “And what did you ladies get up to?”
“The usual baby shower things. Well, I’m told they’re the usual things. I’ve never actually been to a baby shower before. We played some really weird games, and the food was amazing. And I think we scored everything we wanted off the baby registry.”
Because they didn’t really need anything for their baby, she’d set up a registry to donate gifts or money to a local sanctuary for orphaned and abandoned babies.
“Oh my God and the venue was beautiful,” she said. “I’m going to have to be on my A-game when it’s my turn to host a baby shower for Beth. I don’t know if I’ll even come close to competing with this.”
She ran her hand in soothing circles over her distended belly. The baby bump had pretty much doubled over the last six weeks. And Fern could now only walk at a slow waddle. She was studying mostly online, and would take a leave of absence soon, intending to continue later in the year with more online courses, before continuing on campus in March at the beginning of the school year.