His expression softened, and he pushed my hair behind one ear. "Who broke your heart, baby? He must have been a complete moron."

I smiled. "Maybe. What I'm saying is that I appreciate your offer, but I can't handle a broken heart while I'm learning how to be a single mother."

Sadness filled his eyes as he frowned, but he nodded. "I get that, honey." He picked me up off his lap and placed me in the passenger seat.

As I buckled in, I noticed my mother on the front porch of the inn, watching the truck.

"So much for our not dating story."

Sam looked up and saw my mother. "She doesn't need to know every detail of your life, Jenna. Our relationship, whatever it is or becomes, is ours alone."

I liked the sound of that. "Maybe so. But we need to explain all this to the rest of the family before they tell her how we really met."

***

"Pizza's on the way." Sam walked into the dining room where I was setting his huge table that had enough seats for sixteen people.

Now that Sam had told me about wanting a big family, I could see it everywhere. In all the bedrooms in the house, the tons of seating, and this dining room table.

This was a man who'd settled and built a home before he'd found a wife. I hoped whoever he married loved the house, because I couldn't see Sam anywhere else. He belonged on that mountain as much as his bobcat did.

I ignored the pain that stabbed my chest at the thought of Sam with a wife, carrying around their babies and coddling her the way he was coddling me.

"May and George just texted to say they're on their way. Cody and Carrie, and Aubrey and Noah insisted on bringing the kids even though I told him we had an announcement that needed their full attention."

"Good," Sam said.

"You say that now, but you've got a lot of nice things here."

"Nothing kids can hurt."

I set the last plate and sat in the chair in front of it. The day seemed never ending, and I was exhausted.

Sam took the seat next to me. "You sure you're up for this?"

"I have to be. Mom can never know the truth."

"Would it really be so bad?" He took one of my hands and rubbed his thumb over it, back and forth, his attention on my face. I wasn't even sure he realized he was touching me. Since our moment in the truck, it seemed like he had his hands on me whenever we were close and still. "I'm not embarrassed about how we met."

"You don't know my mother. She already has a poor opinion of you, and she's slow to change her mind about anyone. I don't want the people our son loves to argue all the time."

"That's how it was for you, wasn't it?"

When I looked up at him in surprise, he smiled sheepishly. "Jared told Brittany about his childhood and she might have mentioned it to me."

I sighed. "Yeah. We didn't have much money when I was young and my parents were always either working or arguing. It was a tense situation to grow up in."

"Was your father ever violent?"

"No." I laid my free hand on top of his. "Never. Honestly, they probably had the same fights all parents have. Arguing about money and time. I didn't understand that as a little kid, though. Nothing ever felt stable or safe. One day there might not be enough food to eat, another my mom was silent and sad because of an argument she'd had with my dad, another day the lights might be turned off because we hadn't paid the power bill. I never doubted my parents loved me, but my father was a forceful man with strong opinions about how children should be raised." Movement from my belly caught my attention. It felt like a very large butterfly flapping its wings inside me. "Oh, Sam. I think I feel the baby moving."

Sam's eyes went wide, his expression wondrous. He pulled his hand free of mine and hovered it over my belly. "Can I—?"

"Of course." I grabbed his hand and pressed it hard to my belly. "I don't know if you'll be able to feel it. The movement wasn't very strong, but… There." I moved his hand to the region of my belly where the movement was happening.

"I feel it." He bent close to my belly. "I feel you moving in there. I'm your daddy."

When he sat back up and looked at me, there were tears in his eyes. "Thank you for letting me be a part of his life."