Chapter 12

TWELVE

Cameron

Five Years Later…

“I’m headed out now,” I tell my husband, and he smiles as he heads my way.

“Where are you guys headed?” Ford asks me.

“Over to Vera’s place,” I say as he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me against him.

Tonight is girls’ night, and Lilliana should be here any minute to pick me up. We’re headed over to Vera and Fisher’s place for the evening. We usually take turns hosting at each other’s houses while the guys get together and hang out with the kids.

“Bye, Mommy!” Our daughter, Alma, calls as she runs on her little legs towards me.

“Bye, honey. I’ll see you when you wake up.”

She nods, her blonde curls bouncing with the movement. Alma is my mini me with the same pale blonde hair and blue eyes. She seems to have gotten her height from Ford though. She’s already the tallest kid in her preschool class and seems to be growing more all the time.

I kiss Alma goodbye and set her back down. She takes off for the living room and Ford leans down, kissing me before he takes off after her. I smile as I head outside to wait for Lilliana.

She pulls up as I’m headed down the front porch steps, and I grin as I wave and head over to the passenger side door.

“Perfect timing!” She says, and I laugh.

“I know, right?”

“How was your day?” She asks me as we head out.

“Good. I painted a bit, drew some new things for clients. Alma helped me in the afternoon and she was so cute,” I gush, and Lilliana smiles.

“How has business been?”

We turn and head towards the Wolf Sanctuary, where Vera lives and works.

“Really good. That last design I did for that new romance author who went viral, and I’ve been getting a lot of new requests.”

“That’s awesome!”

It’s been great. I kind of fell into drawing characters from romance books a few years ago, but I love it. I’ve sold a few paintings here and there, but doing custom orders for things like character stickers or cards has been a blast and has only picked up over the years.

An art store opened in town last year and I’ve been working there once a week too, teaching a kids art class and then a beginner class right after that. Alma usually hangs out with me while I’m there. She says that my job is more exciting than Daddy’s. Having worked at Nosh, I have to agree.

Ford and I officially dated for about two weeks before he surprised me and proposed. I had burst into tears and then said yes. We found out a few weeks after that I was pregnant. That had been a shock, but we were both so excited to become parents.

We got married at the courthouse in town with Grams, Ford’s dad and brother, and our friends. It had been a perfect day, filled with so much love. We had our reception at Nosh before we left for a honeymoon in Hawaii. It was one of the best weeks of my life.

By the time that we got back from Hawaii, I moved into Ford’s house and threw myself back into art. I set up my own website and started taking custom orders. It took a bit, but things finally fell into place there and now I get to do what I love every single day.

I smile as I think about it and a moment later, we pull up outside of Vera’s place and climb out.

“Foster said he was headed over to your place,” Lilliana tells me as she reads the text on her phone. “Grandpa is going to join them.”

I smile as I think about my father-in-law. The Miller boys are all still close and I love that my daughter gets to grow up with a stronger family unit than I had.

Speaking of family, my grandma had been talking about moving back to Wolf Valley ever since we had Alma four years ago, and last year, she finally did it. She ended up moving into that little house that I was renting and has loved it. She was invited to girls’ night tonight, but she had dinner with her friends and had to pass.

It’s been great getting to see her more often and she’s so close with Alma. She’s getting up there in years and I’m just grateful that we get to spend so much time together now.

My phone chimes and I pull it out as we head inside.

Ford: Miss you already.

I smile as I text him back.

Cameron: Miss you more.

It’s crazy to think that we got together when I asked him to pretend to be my boyfriend, but I like to think that we would have eventually figured things out. Both of us were getting tired of hiding our feelings and I have a feeling that we would have broken sooner rather than later. Still, pretending helped speed things up.

Thank god for matchmaking grandmas, I think with a smile as I join my friends.

* * *