Page 55 of Choosing Happily Ever After

“Me too.” He gave her another kiss. “But you know I would have been fine if you hadn’t.”

“I know.” She smiled at him and he couldn’t help but kiss her again. “What are you up to? Are Aunt Debbie and Katie here yet?” She wiggled out of his arms before he could kiss her yet again and grabbed a handful of T-shirts. “Katie said she was going to sweet-talk Brody into packing us up a lasagna and some salads on her way over so we didn’t have to cook anything.”

“That would be delicious.” Levi’s stomach growled. Delicious would be an understatement. Brody Morris took over as the head chef at Birchwood while Levi had been out of town. Although it had been a good restaurant before, now it was absolutely amazing. Pretty much everything Brody cooked was five stars. Lasagna would be a treat considering they were about to spend the next few days eating nothing but airline food.

“Are you still packing?” Levi flopped down on the bed and assessed what his wife had collected. “There is way too much here.” He shook his head. “I told you a million times, Hope. You don’t need much. Just pack what can fit in the backpack. You don’t want to be lugging a suitcase all over the place.”

“I know, I know.”

He looked at her in question, because it certainly didn’t look like sheknew. He picked up a pair of black high heels in front of him. “You definitely won’t need these. I can’t imagine there will be many cocktail parties to attend in Thailand.”

“You never know.” She snatched the shoes away from him and laughed.

“Oh, I know.”

Everything had moved so quickly in the days after the wedding. They’d settled on a rough itinerary, trading in their Mexico tickets so they could start in Asia, before moving over to New Zealand and Australia. If time permitted, depending on Hope’s health and how the baby-making went, they’d head over to Europe for a few months before coming back to the ranch and settling in. It was an ambitious schedule to be sure, but Levi had wanted to fit in as much as possible before starting a family. With such a tight timeline, they were going to be on the move a lot. Packing light would definitely help.

“I promise I’ll scale things back,” Hope said, as if she’d read his mind. “I’m just starting with everything and slowly weeding things out.”

“Okay.”

“You don’t look like you believe me.”

Levi hoisted himself off the bed. “I’ll believe it when I see it, babe. But either way, make sure you’re ready to go in the morning. Because ready or not, we’re doing this.”

Once again, he pulled his wife into his arms and kissed her thoroughly. “You are ready for this, aren’t you? I know everything has happened really quickly. I just want to make sure that—”

“I’m good.” She cut him off. “I really am. And now that Doctor Barrett has given us the all clear, not even Faith can protest this.” She shrugged. “Well, she can’t protest too much, anyway. But honestly, I’m good. This is amazing. It’s all amazing. I know Faith is feeling a little overwhelmed right now, but she’s going to be so great at this.” Hope’s mouth pressed into a line. “And I think it will be good for her, too.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“There’s something going on with her,” Hope said. “I don’t really know how to explain it, but even having her home for the last few weeks, she’s changed. I think that being at the ranch and running things on her own for a bit will help her with some clarity.”

“Babe, there’s been something going on with Faith for a long time.” Levi didn’t mean for it to sound insensitive, not at all. But it was true. It was clear to anyone who knew her well that Faith had been running away from something for a long time. “I hope this really is as good for her as we think it will be.”

Hope nodded. “And I hope she deals with whatever, or I should say, whomever it is in the city that she needs to deal with.” Hope shook her head. “She won’t talk about it, but she did tell me she had a call to make.”

“Maybe that’s where she was going,” Levi suggested. “As I came in, I saw her heading toward the river. I thought she was going for a walk, but—”

“No. She was going to our spot.” A small, knowing smile crossed Hope’s face. “I thought maybe she’d forgotten about it. Getting out there will help her figure things out.”

Levi looked at her in confusion. “How do you know that? How could a spot by the river possibly help anything?”

Hope laughed and kissed him quickly on the nose. “Because it’s home.”

Faith

Faith hadn’t been to the special spot by the river since she was a teenager. It had been hers and Hope’s spot. At some point over the years, when everything changed for her, she’d stopped going. It was as if she’d stopped believing in magic altogether the day she discovered that love wasn’t a real thing but just a line that people told to get what they wanted.

Even thinking about it made her feel jaded and bitter. And maybe it wasn’t really all that bad. After all, Hope and Levi were in love and that story had definitely had a happy ever after.

Did it?

She hated herself for being skeptical, but she couldn’t help it. Sure, Hope and Levi were happy now, but it had been a long road to get there, and who knew how long it would last.

“No.” She spoke aloud even though she was completely alone. She may be a non-believer, but it was like Santa: just because she didn’t believe, didn’t mean that others couldn’t. And she refused to let any negative feelings creep in where Hope was concerned.

Besides, that’s not why she’d come out to the river to be alone.

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