Page 140 of Rough and Rugged

Because the reality is, if I had never found Annie, I never would have found happiness.

“It was fate, babe, for me to find you on the side of the road like that with your flat tire and no spare.”

She grins again. “You were pretty fucking terrifying…”

I chuckle, the sound resonating out across the water. “How so?”

“Your big truck pulling up behind my tiny little car, all six foot four of you climbing from the driver’s seat in your flannel shirt and jeans, that axe across the back of your window in the cab.”

“Well…”—I shrug—”it was either that or my rifle.”

Her spine stiffens. “Yeah. That wouldn’t have made me feel any better.”

A lone woman with a flat along a desolate road with a guy my size advancing on her withanyweapon…

The thought now sends a chill through me.

I can’t even imagine howshefelt that night.

“Is that why you locked yourself in the car?”

She nods. “I wasn’t about to let some axe murdering psycho kill me on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin.”

“I’m surprised you ever got out.”

Her gaze softens, and she lowers her forehead to mine. “I saw your eyes through my window, how kind they were, and I knew I could trust you—despite you absolutely looking like a killer out of a slasher flick.”

I release a heavy, shaky breath. “I’m so glad you did. Fuck. I can’t imagine what my life would’ve been like the last ten years without you in it.”

She shakes her head. “Me, either.”

We remain quite for a few moments, the only sounds those of nature around us. The calling birds, the lapping water, the breeze rustling the leaves in the forest, but she finally pulls back.

The hint of sadness in her eyes that makes my heart ache.

Squeezing her tightly to me, I search her face for an answer before I even ask the question. “Are you happy, Annie, with our life?”

She hesitates a second before she nods, but it’s enough for me to know that the it is not a one-hundred percent yes.

“Yes, but…” Annie chews on her lip and waves her hand out to the side, water streaming from it at the movement. “I really do miss this. Milwaukee’s great, but I think we need to spend more time up here. Once a month, at least.”

Oh, thank God.

A vise had been tightening around my chest thinking there was somethingreallybugging her, something I couldn’t easily change.

I nod. “I agree with you.”

The way being up here has relieved so much of the tension has proven we need to be.

She grins. “Good, because I think our kid will appreciate it, too.”

I raise a brow at her. “What kid? We getting a goat and I didn’t know about it?”

Annie shakes her head, pressing closer against me. “Human one… in about eight months.”

My heart stops, my ears ringing with her words. “What? But… I thought the doctor said…”

She nods. “I know. It’s why it took me so long to figure out why I’ve been so tired and emotional. But I went to the doctor before we came up here, and they ran a blood test.”

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