Page 116 of Ablaze

I come up behind her, wrapping my arms over her and pulling her to me. “Yes, beautiful.”

Her brows pinch in bemusement. “How did you . . .?” She gasps again, as if not believing what she’s strung together before spinning around to face me. “What is this? How are we standing on this land? It was sold!”

I nuzzle my nose with hers. “It was, yes.”

Her eyes become saucers. “You . . . you’re the one who bought it!?” At my affirming smile, she shakes her head in disbelief. “For my dog party idea? But how? When?” She looks around again. “How did you–”

I shut her up with another kiss. “It doesn’t matter how or when. All that matters is that you’re in this with me.”

She climbs into my arms, and I lift her again before she wraps her legs around my torso. “Until we’re nothing but ash.”

EPILOGUE

Dean - Two Years Later

For years I lived in fear.

Fear of action, fear of inaction.

Fear of gain, fear of loss.

Fear of living, fear of dying.

Until she came along and made me realize that the only fear I could have room for in my life was the fear of regret.

Like the regret of missing the day two years ago, when I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. Or the day a little less than a year ago, when I scooped her up and crossed the threshold to my house again with her as my wife.

Or today, when our lives are about to change once more.

“The exam room is right this way, Mr. and Mrs. Meyer. Please follow me.”

The woman with a curly black bob and thick lenses, wearing a white lab coat, leads Mala and me down a short corridor, to the door marked as Exam Room 4 on our right.

I place a hand at the bottom of my wife’s spine as we enter and she looks up at me, giving me the same reassuring smile she’s given me so many times before. The smile that says, we’ve got this, you and me.

I train my gaze on her, hoping I don’t blink and miss even a second of her. Mala curls her arm around her back and grabs my hand, pulling me further into the room. She knows how hard my heart is beating–I’m sure she can hear it. It hasn’t found a steady pace ever since she told me the news last week.

I’d come home late after a shift at the fire station and found her curled up on our couch–a book resting atop the blanket on her chest. I knew she’d had a long day at work–there were two dog parties back-to-back that she and Samantha had to get DoggLandia ready for–so I’d texted her to tell her not to wait up for me.

Putting the book on the coffee table–one of her beloved romance books with the cover of some shirtless asshole–I lifted her into my arms and carried her to our bed. I had just put the blanket back on her when she stirred awake.

“Hi.” She’d tightened her arms around my neck, not letting me lift up.

I placed a kiss on her lips. “Hi.”

“I have a riddle for you.” Her sleepy voice rasped against my ear.

I grazed my scruff against her cheek, knowing it would cause the little shiver it did in her. “At twelve-thirty in the morning, you have a riddle for me?”

She nodded. “When does one plus one equal three?”

My brain was already fried from the long shift, but I couldn’t miss the opportunity to make her smile. “When someone’s shit at math.”

She giggled like I’d hoped. “No, my silly husband. One plus one equals three when your wife is pregnant.”

I’d just blinked at her. I’d heard what she’d said, but I hadn’t quite processed it. I mean, it’s not that we were trying . . . but it’s not that we weren’t not trying, either.

A laugh bubbled out of me. “Holy shit!” I cupped her face. “Holy shit. Are you serious?”

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