Epilogue

July

“ H ow do I look?” Jillian stepped onto the deck of the houseboat she and Dave were renting to spin in a slow circle. An evening breeze whipped at the hem of her ivory lace kimono that she’d tied over the front of her swimsuit, making the sheer fabric dance against her calves.

She was hoping she’d dressed appropriately for the waterfront cafe Dave was taking her to for dinner. She was thrilled to pieces she’d managed to shed her baby weight in time for their honeymoon. Starting her animal rescue center on the Wagner homestead next door had helped her burn it off.

“Think I’m gonna need a closer look.” Dave cocked his head at her in mock perusal, moving her way with his hands in the pockets of his white swim trunks. He’d buttoned a white short-sleeved shirt over them that he hadn’t bothered tucking in .

She blushed beneath the intensity of the very male, very approving glint in his eyes. “I wasn’t sure what else to wear to a beach cafe where the stools are sunk into the water.” It sounded every shade of romantic to her, though.

After much debate, they’d ultimately nixed their trip to Hawaii indefinitely and found a secluded getaway much closer to home. They were honeymooning on the Pecos River instead, within quick traveling distance back to Heart Lake, should their infant son need them. It was the first time Jillian had been away from little Bo overnight, but knowing he was in Grandma Eloise’s capable hands made the separation easier. She and Dave had been gone for four days already and would be returning home tomorrow.

“It might be better to just show you what I think.” Dave reached her and tangled their fingers together. “I’m so in love with you, Jills.” He touched his mouth to hers.

“Love you back even more,” she murmured against his lips.

He tugged her closer, deepening their kiss. “My way of saying that’s not possible.” His voice was rough with emotion as he raised his head to continue their favorite argument. He cuddled her against his chest. “It’s so good to be together again.”

“Very, very good,” she agreed. It was something she would never take for granted after what they’d endured during the first few months of their marriage. Now that Jan Jacobson had been arrested and was awaiting trial without bail, they’d been able to return to some semblance of a normal life — one that had included a long list of home repairs and more new furniture, thanks to the two bombs Jan and her thug associates had tossed through their basement windows.

Dave dragged a hand through Jillian’s hair that she’d left down just because he liked it that way. “We’d better get going before…” He dropped his arms without finishing the sentence. Reaching for her hand, he guided her toward the dock. He leaped out of the boat and leaned in to assist her to the dock beside him.

“Before the restaurant closes?” She tipped her face curiously up to him as they strolled together toward the strip of sandy beach that housed the waterfront cafe.

“Nope.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “Before I lose my willpower to take you out to dinner.” He winked at her as he kissed her fingers one by one. “I’m already counting the minutes until I have you all to myself again.”

She drenched him with a joyous smile that told him without words that she was counting the minutes as well. They spent the next hour dangling their feet in the water from their half-submerged stools, while eating lobster and playing several rounds of Gomoku.

It was a game of strategy, so it came as no surprise to her that Dave turned out to be a formidable opponent. She quickly figured out how to break his focus, though.

“You’re such a cheater,” he accused, leaning closer to nibble her earlobe.

“I believe the term you’re looking for is multi-tasker,” she retorted. “Fact. Only one of us is skilled at playing both Gomoku and footsies at the same time.”

“Fact,” he mimicked her tone, tugging her off her stool into his lap. “There are more ways than footsies for a man to multi-task with the most beautiful wife in the world.”

He claimed her lips to prove his point, then made his next move, neatly reaching around her to slide his fifth black marble into place on the vintage wooden board ahead of her white marble .

“You win!” She slid her arms around his neck to end the match with a celebratory hug.

“Babe, I swept the winnings the day I married you.” Since he’d already paid for their meal, he lifted her in his arms and carried her from the water back to the river’s edge. He set her on her feet to continue their stroll to the dock in the twilight. The glow of the setting sun was fast disappearing, and stars were popping out overhead like tiny white Christmas lights.

As he lifted her into the houseboat, the phone in his breast pocket vibrated with an incoming call.

They exchanged a wry look.

“I don’t have to answer it,” he said quietly.

“Yes, you do.” She tapped a finger lightly against his chest. “You know you do.”

“I’m on my honeymoon,” he reminded in a grumbly voice.

“Which doesn’t change the fact that you’re a big, honking criminal lawyer that a lot of people depend on.” It was impossible to say that with a straight face, though she came close to pulling it off.

He shook his head in amused disbelief at her as he lifted his phone from his pocket, took note of the caller ID, and mashed the speakerphone button. “Gil Remington, you’re a dead man.”

Gil’s voice was hoarse with suppressed excitement as he announced, “I’m also about to be the father of twins!”

Jillian reached out to clutch Dave’s hand and drag the phone closer to her. “Bliss is in labor?”

“Yep.” Gil sounded close to weeping.

Dave met Jillian’s gaze, silently asking.

She silently answered.

“We’re on our way.” He disconnected the line .

They were soon speeding in his brand spanking new silver Rezvani Tank toward the Heart Lake Medical Center.

Jillian chuckled as she stared down at her ivory lace kimono. “We’re still in our swimsuits.”

An answering chuckle rumbled out of her husband. “We’re technically still on our honeymoon, babe.”

In less than an hour, they were running across the medical center’s parking lot, hand in hand. Eloise held a finger to her lips as they flew into the waiting room. Bo was snoozing against her shoulder, sweetly sucking on two fingers.

Edward was lounged, half asleep, in the vinyl seat beside her. He straightened when Dave and Jillian reached them.

“Gimme!” At the risk of breaking her own never-wake-a-sleeping-baby rule, Jillian scooped their infant son into her arms. To her wonder and delight, he snuggled right in against her neck and shoulder like he always did.

While her mother-in-law pretended to pout, Edward lightly pinched her chin and tipped her face up for a kiss. “Finally! She’s been neglecting me the whole time you two have been away.”

Eloise gave him a raspberry instead of a kiss. “Neglected, my hide! I eloped with this cranky farmer an entire month before you left for your honeymoon.” She gave his flat midsection an affectionate pat. “The extra banana nut bread pounds he’s wearing are proof of just how neglected he’s not .”

While he was formulating a retort to zing her way, she turned her attention to Dave. “Question, son. Do you really think flaunting your bride in a swimsuit is the best way to bury the rumors about that illicit affair you never had? ”

“It can’t hurt.” He snorted. “By now, you should know how little I care about what others think.” He pointed upward. “I care about His opinion.” He slid an arm around Jillian’s waist. “And hers.” He tenderly nuzzled her cheek. “And this little fella’s.” He nudged a finger into his son’s tiny hand. Though Bo was sleeping, his natural reflex was to fist his fingers around it.

Jillian watched her husband’s expression melt with adoration as he drank in the sight of her cuddling Bo. Her heart swelled with an answering joy that felt like a river gushing over its banks.

Gage Hefner skidded into the waiting room of the maternity ward and instantly felt like he was intruding.

The latest partner of the Lonestar Security tetrad was standing in the center of the room, practically drooling over his baby son and wife, who — for some reason — was wearing a long, lacy swimsuit coverup. Come to think of it, weren’t the two of them supposed to still be on their honeymoon?

According to local gossip, the guy’s outspoken hoyden of a mother was shamelessly on her sixth husband, which Gage presumed was the tall, white-headed cowboy with an arm draped possessively around her slender shoulders.

And somewhere deeper within the bowels of the mother-baby ward, Gil Remington was Lamaze breathing with his wife to bring a set of twins into the world.

While a very lonely coworker — their junior by at least fifteen years — doesn’t have so much as a date lined up!

Gage swallowed a lump of jealousy big enough to choke a weaker man as he stepped farther into the waiting room. Fortunately, he had twenty years of Army Ranger experience under his belt to help him cope.

Before all the dewy-eyed sweethearts in the room noticed his presence, the door from the mother-baby ward swung open, and Gil Remington joined them. The fact that the tall, retired sheriff was wearing a long blue hospital gown over his jeans did nothing to tame the ever-watchfulness of his lawman gaze or the awareness men like him had of everything going on around them.

For this reason, he was the first person to notice Gage’s presence. “Hefner!” He raised a hand joyously in his direction. “You made it!”

Jillian and her mother-in-law went squealing in Gil’s direction for a group hug. “How’s Bliss?” Jillian asked him anxiously.

Gil hugged the two women back and gave each of them a peck on the cheek before breaking into a two-step. “Bliss is rocking her new-mom look almost as well as I’m nailing my new-dad look.”

He and Dave traded a back slap that would’ve broken the spines of lesser men. Then again, they’d been practicing the move since their high school football days. Or so Gage had heard.

Both of the newest partners at Lonestar Security were local legends. As their first private investigator in training, he intended to soak up every ounce of wisdom they were willing to share from their impressive resumes.

And maybe solicit a little dating advice on the side. Coming from them, he had no doubt that, too, would be legendary.

While Gil dashed off, promising to return with a baby in each arm, Dave waved Gage Hefner over to their huddle. It was impossible to miss the wistfulness in the guy’s gaze that he was trying so hard to hide.

Yeah, I’ve been where you are, man.

Single. Lonely. Looking, but not really believing it would ever happen to him. Dave sure didn’t miss those days.

He performed the introductions, injecting a little humor that he hoped would drag a smile out of Gage. Besides the wistfulness, he also wore the half-haunted look of a soldier who’d seen things he couldn’t unsee. “This is the love of my life, Jillian. My spoiled rotten son, Bo. My mom, Eloise. Careful. She bites. Her new husband, Edward. Pray for him. He lives with my mom.”

“Wall!” His mother mimed an imaginary wall springing between them. “Jillian, hon, I tried to warn you before you married my son, but you didn’t listen. Now, he’s your problem.”

“Speaking of problems…” Edward pointed at Jillian with both forefingers. “Before I forget, some big TV anchor from Dallas stopped by the farm today with her camera rolling. She cried fat crocodile tears to find out the new CEO of the Heart Lake Animal Rescue Sanctuary was out of town. I told her to come back in a few days for your big interview.”

Jillian blinked in surprise. “What interview?”

“Oh, honey!” Dave’s mother’s eyes snapped with excitement as she trilled, “You’re making headlines for retiring Western Storm and his famous autistic jockey at your sanctuary.”

Technically, only the horse was being retired. Jordan Jacobson had agreed to come work for Jillian as her resident horse whisperer. For once, though, Dave decided to keep his big, honking doofus lawyer mouth shut and let his mother enjoy telling the story her way.

He was more than happy to watch his wife’s gorgeous eyes light up like candles in anticipation of her interview. Maybe he was a little biased, but watching her do anything in a swimsuit was the icing on the cake for him. She was seriously hot for a woman who’d delivered a baby a few months ago. She was seriously hot. Period.

“What do you think, Dave?” Jillian spun his way, all misty-eyed and glowing, eager to hear his response to a question he hadn’t heard.

His mother burst into one of her ridiculous cackles that made a person want to laugh along with her. “Trust me, hon. There’s a preponderance of evidence that suggests my son didn’t hear a word you said.” She dropped her voice to a stage whisper. “He pleads guilty to distraction by swimsuit.”

“Counterclaim,” Dave drawled, kissing Jillian with his eyes. “It’s the woman in the suit.”

“Nice save.” Warmth and color bloomed across her cheeks. “You’re hereby acquitted of all charges.”

He slid an arm around her and tucked her against his side, wishing Gil would hurry up and show off his two squalling miracle babies, so they could get back to reveling in their own slice of Heaven on earth.

“Love you, Jills,” he muttered in her ear.

“Love you more,” she whispered back.

It was beginning to look like they’d be spending the final hours of their honeymoon in the medical center’s waiting room. On the upside, they had the rest of their lives together for him to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that he loved her the most.

Thank you for reading