Page 96 of Wilder Heart

When his stomach was full, Wilder leaned into Cash’s side while Annalise passed out the presents, flitting from person to person with brightly colored packages. Wilder and Cash had quietly added their own presents beneath the tree throughout the month of December, and they gradually joined the piles around the living room.

The kids went first. Lain and Mary-Beth helped the boys rip theirs open, and Annalise practically vibrated with excitement while waiting for her turn. She was right about the board game, which she made Cash and Wilder promise to play with her later. Wilder had gotten her her very first cattle rope, and he and Cash had made a wooden calf she could set up in one of the training pens and practice roping.

Wilder and Cash’s presents all followed a housewarming theme, since the house should be done by spring. Mary-Beth got them a set of cookware, and Annalise and the boys gave them some framed artwork to hang on the walls. But the best gift, the one Wilder never could have guessed in a million years, came in a large gift bag with all of their names on the tag.

Cash slid it between them and remarked, “Kind of heavy.”

“Yeah,” Lain said, glancing conspiratorially at Mary-Beth. “That one is a little different. We all worked on it.”

Cash lifted the tissue paper away, and Wilder reached in first, realizing it was packed full with something long and flat. He drew the first one out and gasped out a little, “Oh.”

They were photo frames. This one was of him and Cash, standing together on the site of their new home, their arms thrown around each other and grinning broadly. Lain had taken it when they’d gone out to the plot to verify it was what they wanted. In the photo, Cash’s hat was askew, and Wilder’s cheeks were flushed.

Cash took out the next one, chuckling at what he saw. Someone had snuck up behind him and Annalise, standing at the fence together and petting Blaze. She was standing on the bottom rung, and he had an arm around her.

Photo after photo filled the bag. A photo of Cash on Hexie. Another of Wilder on Blaze. One of each of them holding one of the boys. A photo of Cash with a wet spot on his chest, mock-glaring at Wilder and Annalise laughing by the front porch with a laundry basket full of water balloons back during summer. A photo of Lain and Wilder laughing together, Lain’s hand on Wilder’s shoulder as they doubled over. He didn’t even remember what they were laughing about. A photo of Wilder and Mary-Beth in the kitchen together.

But Wilder’s favorite was one he hadn’t known they were taking. Framed by the night, their faces highlighted by the fire pit, Wilder and Cash looked like they were either in the middle of a deep conversation or about to kiss—it was hard to say, since he had no idea when the picture was taken. Cash had an arm around his shoulders, and Wilder’s legs were thrown across Cash’s lap, his straw hat resting on one knee. They both lookedso relaxed, so sure of their places in the world, Wilder wondered why he ever worried Lain wouldn’t accept them.

It had taken months of photographing to capture all these images. For the last year, Lain and Mary-Beth had taken pains to take snapshots of their lives together. To show him, in still images, how loved he was. How much he belonged.

“These are wonderful,” Cash said softly. “I had no idea you took some of these.”

“We’re sneaky,” Mary-Beth replied with a pleased smile. “And phones takereallygood pictures these days.”

His heart was too big for his chest. Cash took the frames from him before he moved, anticipating that Wilder would want to get up before he did it, and Lain met him halfway, pulling him into a strong hug and chuckling warmly in his ear.

“Thank you,” he said. It was muffled by Lain’s shoulder.

“You’re my brother, and I love you—even if I was pretty crappy at showing it there for a while. You can hang those up in your brand new house as a reminder of exactly where you belong. Right here, with us.”

Wilder groaned dramatically, because if he didn’t make a joke he was in danger of crying. Smacking a big kiss to Lain’s cheek, he said, “Don’t make me cry on Christmas, asshole.”

“Dollar in the jaaar!” Annalise crowed.

Wilder hugged Mary-Beth—and then deviated to the kitchen to add another dollar to the swear jar. It was the least he could do.

It was snowing againwhen they made it back home. Cash parked the ATV in the barn and went to check on the horses while Wilder carried the gifts and leftovers into the camper. Heleft the gifts on the table while he put the food away, and by the time he was done, Cash was there, stomping inside and shaking snow from his Carhartt jacket.

“Take those boots off on the steps, would you?” Wilder said. “I don’t want the floor to get muddy.”

“I know, I know,” Cash said, shooting him a grin as he toed off his boots and left them on the steps. The rule for the camper was that the steps could be dirty, but the shoes came off there so they didn’t track anything into the rest of their temporary home. He hung his coat up by the door.

“How’s the barn holding up?”

“Oh, it’s fantastic. Hexie and Blaze were chowing down on the hay when I went to check on them. Not a leak in sight.”

“Good, that’s one less thing to worry about.” He hadn’t really thought the barn would spring a leak, but given that they’d built it themselves and he wasn’t exactly a carpenter, he’d harbored some concerns over the roofing in particular. Walls were basic. Shingles were more complicated.

“Yep. They were nice and toasty.” Cash’s warm arms curled around him, and he pressed a kiss to the side of Wilder’s neck. Melting snow clung to the short beard he’d grown over the winter, and Wilder wondered if he could talk him into keeping it through the spring. He liked the rasp of it against his skin.

He leaned into Cash’s embrace. “Good. Now I don’t have to worry about them while we take care of the next order of business.”

“Oh? And what’s that?”

“Well, see, I need you to make this camper rock nice and hard. It just won’t be Christmas without it.”

Cash grinned. “Oh, is that so?”

---