26. Walker

Walker

" D oes it have to be this bumpy?" Dutton complains, hanging onto the edge of the trailer, and I have to enjoy a good laugh. He's trying, but he's still pretty much a city boy, through and through. But to be fair, he was really excited to come here today, even if he's annoyed by the bumpiness of the hayride.

"The ground is kind of rough this year," I point out as we ride along the path through all the pumpkins. It's a nice cool day, at least, and it's not snowing, so there's that, because I have definitely experienced snow in October. I've even been on a snowy hayride before. I can just hear his grumbling in my imagination at that.

"How the hell did you convince his city ass to move here again?" Archie, so unhelpfully asks, sitting on the row of hay bales across from us with his arm around his man. It's kind of odd to see my best friend all coupled up. But it's pretty cool too. He's happy. And it's that kind of blindly bright happiness I don't think either of us was really looking for until we fell head over heels in love. Snuck right up on both of us. He's definitely not the fuckboy he once was.

"Just because you got yourself a nice country boy doesn't make you superior." I can't help but tease, and right on cue, Cane turns bright red as Archie wraps his arm around him.

"It so does." He smacks a kiss to Cane's cheek, and I cackle but wrap my arm around my own man because it so does not. I have everything right here with this man.

I've never been happier in all my life. "Oh! That pumpkin," Dutton says excitedly as he tries to stand up and nearly falls. Don't worry, I wrap my arms around him and then tug him down before he tumbles right over the edge.

He huffs but doesn't look scared. I laugh and ask the guy to stop the tractor. I don't know his name—he's new, but he's friendly and stops just for us so we can climb off. Archie and Cane stay on, and I walk with my boyfriend to get his perfect pumpkin.

City boy or not, he loves this time of year. He grabs his, and I grab a couple too. "I can't believe we aren't going to have trick or treaters this year to see how I'm going to decorate our porch."

"Gabe said he'll bring Amber out," he says, finding another pumpkin. "We really should have gotten a wagon."

"Oh yeah. I forgot about Amber." I do a little fist pump, and he chuckles, shaking his head at me.

"Is it worth living out in the country?"

I kiss his nose, my arms full of pumpkins. "You know it is. I fucking love it out there."

He's beaming wide and proud. "Me too. I'm gonna miss the trick or treaters too, but I guess we'll just have to spoil Amber. And maybe our other friends will get on the whole kid thing."

"Or maybe we'll have our own," I say as we start walking toward the front of the pumpkin patch, but he stops suddenly, and I almost crash into him.

"You want that?" I can't read his expression to see if that's what he wants or not, so I tread carefully.

"I always thought I'd have a kid or two. Could be fun." Although he wasn't too thrilled about all the kid activities we did last year, he did seem to warm up to it a lot by Fourth of July. He hung out a ton with Amber and even lit sparklers with her.

"Yeah," he says almost whimsically. "Yeah, I think it would be."

"Really?" I ask cautiously. "Because it's not a deal-breaker for me. I'm good with being Uncle Walker."

He shakes his head and then leans in to kiss me firmly. "I think we would make amazing dads. Amber is pretty cute."

I grin against his lips. "She is. And our kids will be even cuter."

We start walking again, and the excitement is practically bursting inside my chest. I wasn't really planning on blurting that out, but now I'm glad I did. Kids with Dutton.

Half-city, half-country. I'm sure I'll drive him crazy by running around and making messes with them, but he'll give in to the fun.

I can't wait.

W e definitely spoiled the hell out of Amber, and I'm sure Gabe isn't thrilled with us. But I'm feeling pretty proud as they pull out of the driveway, and we close the door behind us, heading back into the living room.

"He's going to murder you. Probably make it look like a work accident," Dutton says, grabbing the bowl of popcorn we made before Gabe and Amber got here.

"Look, he's just going to have to get used to it. Amber is adorable and needs to be spoiled."

He chuckles and shoves some popcorn into his mouth as I start the horror movie we started watching but had to pause so we didn't accidentally give little Amber nightmares.

"You know, I meant what I said about wanting kids with you," he says, placing the popcorn down and climbing into my lap. "But it is kind of nice that I can do whatever I want to you right now and no kids will run in."

"You're talking about sex and not murdery things now, right?" I say, trying to look scared.

He chuckles and then shrugs. "Hmmm, I'm not sure."

"Very funny." He leans down to kiss me, and I kiss him back, my hand going into his soft strands, my fingers threading through me as I hold him to me. "I like that I know we won't be interrupted either, but doors have locks."

He grins. "Yeah. I can't wait to have kids of our own to spoil."

And when I pull back to look into his eyes, I see absolutely no fear there. He really does want that with me. I look around the huge living room, and I can already see the kids running through here.

I can see our whole future, and man, is it bright.