Page 11 of Caught with the Mountain Man

“That’s right,” Grayson said. “I’m in love with your daughter.”

Had he said he was in love with me? Did he mean that? I couldn’t take my eyes off him now. And he didn’t take his eyes off me.

I looked back at Dad. “We’re in love. He also saved this place from burning down last night. I had a mishap with some taco meat.”

Dad wasn’t the slightest bit amused. “Are you going to marry this man?” He shifted his stare to Grayson. “Are you going to make an honorable woman of my daughter?”

“Iaman honorable woman,” I said. “I work hard, I don’t get into trouble, and I’m always kind to others. You raised me well. But now it’s time to let me make my own decisions.”

“And yes,” Grayson said. “I do plan to make her my wife. As soon as she’s ready.”

I was ready today, but that was a discussion we could have another time. My dad knew as much as he needed to know about our relationship.

“You and Mom raised me well,” I said. “And you did a great job after she died. But it’s time for you to start really living.”

Dad’s features softened at those words, and I knew I’d hit home. So much of his life had been wrapped up in making sure my brother and I were okay. He hadn’t dated. He didn’t evenhave his own friends. He worked and sat home alone. But he still had plenty of life left.

“I only wanted what was best for you and your brother,” he said. “It hasn’t been easy.”

“I know, and you did a great job. And I love you.”

“I love you too.” He pushed himself to his feet. “Well, I’ll let you two get back to what you were doing.”

“Stay!” Grayson said. “I have plenty of bacon for all three of us. I was going to throw an egg on once Simone got up.”

Dad looked at me, and I nodded. I wanted nothing more than to have breakfast with the two men in my life. The man who’d helped make me who I was today and the man who’d brought out a side of me I’d never known existed.

EPILOGUE

SIMONE

My husband was Mr. March.

The Rosewood Ridge Volunteer Fire Department had done a calendar with twelve of their most handsome firefighters. Well, the ones who would agree to do it, anyway.

Like many of them, Grayson was hesitant, but they talked him into it. And his picture had been one of the most unique. He’d posed wearing only an apron and his fireman’s helmet while holding a spatula and dish of his famous lasagna.

The sound of a key in the front door had me slapping the calendar shut and setting it on the island with the rest of the mail. I felt naughty for looking at it. Maybe because it had made me so wet.

He burst in with a big smile on his face. He wasn’t in his firefighter uniform, but his T-shirt, jeans, and work boots turned me on too. Knowing he’d been working hard, those muscles flexing as he hammered and sawed things…

“Whoa,” he said, his eyes widening when he saw me.

He shut the door behind him and stood looking at me. We’d moved into his cabin after getting married, but when ourdaughter, Kai, was close to being born, we’d upsized to a cabin up the mountain a little ways.

“The kids are at my dad’s,” I said, coming around the island to give him a better view of what I was wearing.

We had this whole place to ourselves tonight. It would be nice to be able to have sex without having to worry about being overheard for a change.

“Is that your Halloween costume?” he asked.

Halloween was still two weeks away, and I had no plans to wear this when we took our little one trick-or-treating in the Sugarplum Farms neighborhood with all the other parents. But I was shopping for Kai’s costume and found this and had to grab it.

“No, this one’s just for you,” I said. “Do you like it?”

I put a hand on one hip and posed similarly to the woman on the packaging. The costume had been made for a curvy woman, but it still struggled to contain my triple Ds. They’d gotten even bigger after pregnancy. I wondered if a second child would make them too big, but Grayson had no complaints.

“Like it?” He tossed his keys toward the couch and came toward me. “I can’t think of anything better to come home to after a long day of work.”

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