Page 58 of Make Me Yours
Ruth’s eyes widened, then filled with excitement. “Oh, honey, that’s a wonderful idea!”
Sam nodded, smiling. “Sounds perfect to me.”
I looked at Lilly, grinning. “You sure you want to marry methatfast?”
She brushed a thumb along my jaw. “I’ve waited long enough.”
And just like that, standing on her parents’ porch beneath the Arizona stars, I realized I didn’t need to search for anything else in this life.
She already had everything that mattered—my heart, my trust, my child, and my forever.
Somewhere along the way, she’d made me hers, and I’d made her mine.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Next Beginning
Lilly
Several Months Later
The pale winter sun slanted through the front windows ofCedar & Stone DesignCo., catching on the frost and spilling across the conference table where a set of blueprints lay spread like dreams in ink. Beyond the glass, Lovelace’s main street was quiet under a thin dusting of snow, and the lake was rimmed with ice.
My fingers traced the sketched outline of our old cabin—the one Sawyer and I had nearly burned coffee over a hundred times trying to agree on paint colors—and now, somehow, it was becoming the centerpiece of something bigger.
“Picture it right here,” I told the architect, leaning forward, one hand unconsciously resting on my round belly. “A deck that overlooks Lake Lovelace, wide enough for an outdoor ceremony, maybe strung with lights. Brides could walk out through French doors straight onto the platform.”
Sawyer sat across from me, long legs stretched out, Stetson tipped back just enough to show that smirk he wore whenever he thought I was getting ahead of myself. “You’re talkin’ like we already booked our first couple.”
I shot him a look. “We will. Hope Haven is going to betheplace to get married in Montana.”
He grinned. “Guess that’s why you married a man who knows how to build a deck.”
The architect laughed politely, and I felt that familiar warmth that came every time Sawyer teased me in public—half embarrassment, half affection, all love.
The baby nudged, firm and insistent. I pressed my hand against my stomach and smiled down at the spot. “Someone agrees with me.”
We were supposed to be discussing drainage and permit timelines, but my mind drifted to the way the lake shimmered just outside the office window, the rippling blue stretching forever. The cabin sat on the far bank, its roof barely visible through the pines. That place had been my retreat once—my escape from disappointment and heartbreak. Now, it was empty, waiting for a new purpose.
The architect’s voice pulled me back. “So the ceremony deck faces west, which means sunset weddings will be beautiful here.”
Sawyer’s gaze softened. “That’s exactly what she wants—light at the end of the day.”
Something in his tone made me smile. He said it the same way he’d said his vows.
For a heartbeat, the room faded away, and I was back on my parents’ back porch in Show Low. The boards creaked under our feet, and the scent of lilacs drifted from the yard. Mama’s pastor stood between us, his voice calm and steady. Just family—simple, quiet, perfect. Sawyer’s hands trembled when he slippedhis mother’s ring onto my finger. We both cried when we kissed, though neither of us admitted it until later.
When we returned to Lovelace, the quiet turned into laughter and clinking glasses at Roper’s. A few friends, food and drink, and the old jukebox playing something slow and sweet—it wasn’t fancy, but it was us. Sawyer raised his glass, his eyes finding mine across the table, and in that moment, it felt like the whole town was toasting to forever.
A sharp twinge in my lower belly snapped me out of the memory. I shifted in my chair, hiding the wince. Sawyer noticed instantly.
“You okay, darlin’?”
“Mm-hmm,” I said, waving him off. “Just the usual practice ones.”
He raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. “You said that last night.”
“And I was fine last night,” I shot back.
