putting a hand on my belly. “I just love you like this,” he breathed against my lips.
I jerked my head back. “And did you love all the barfing?”
“Well, no. But look how sexy you are right now…” He put his face into my neck and trailed his mouth across my skin.
“There is nothing sexy about this, Jason. I’m swollen and starving. I have to pee constantly.”
He laughed into my neck. “I think I can convince you.”
Yes, he was very good at convincing me to do things. Like getting me to agree to marry him just forty-eight hours after we got back together. I’d been wearing a ring since two days after the Forum.
“What if I had said no?” I’d asked.
“Then I was going to go into plan B.”
“Which was what? Subterfuge? Tell me I’m just your girlfriend but really we’d be engaged the whole time?”
He’d laughed. “No. Unwavering, unrelenting persistence.”
I hadn’t said no, of course. But I’d made him wait a year to marry me. I didn’t want something rushed. I wanted a real wedding—and I’d kept my last name. I wanted my own identity.
We’d gotten married at the Glensheen mansion in Duluth, on the shore of Lake Superior—home of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Tucker had worn a tuxedo Kristen had made for him, and he sat at our feet as we’d said our vows. Oliver had been our ring bearer. Ernie, David, Zane, and Josh had stood next to Jason, and Kristen had stood next to me—the way it was always going to be.
“So what’s your surprise?” I asked, closing my eyes as he kissed my neck.
“It’s at home.”
We stopped at Forest Lawn like we always did when we came to town so I could visit Brandon. Jason usually stayed behind in the car to give me some privacy, except for one time, right before we were married. He’d asked to have some alone time at Brandon’s grave.
He’d spent a half an hour there while I watched from the car. He didn’t tell me exactly what he’d said. Only that he was thanking him, and letting him know he was going to take good care of me.
It meant a lot to me that he’d told him that.
Jason and I both gave blood on Brandon’s birthday, a tradition we vowed to keep for the rest of our lives.
When we pulled up to the curb in front of the house, Kristen and Josh were out front with their kids and Stuntman Mike. “My surprise?” I beamed at Jason. We weren’t supposed to see them until tomorrow.
He winked.
I got out and Kristen ran to me. I hadn’t seen her in five months.
“Look at you and your sex injury!” she said, putting her hands on my belly. “Does Jason know what this baby is about to do to his favorite playground?”
“Yes. And can you believe he wants to do it again right after this one comes out?”
She arched an eyebrow. “That’s eighteen months without raw cookie dough and real coffee. Has he met you?”
We both laughed.
Jason and Josh hugged, slapping each other on the back. They saw each other as much as I saw Kristen. The guys flew out to Minnesota for the deer and duck openers and we’d all spent a week in Ely right before the tour so he and Jason could go ice fishing. They were practically best friends. Kristen said they were having a bromance.
I hugged Kimmy and Sarah, Kristen and Josh’s adopted daughters. They were nine and eleven now.
Two years ago Josh had gone on a fatal heart attack call at work. The man who’d died was the grandfather and sole guardian of his two granddaughters. Kristen and Josh stepped in as emergency foster parents. The girls’ adoptions had been finalized just a few months ago. They were amazing kids.
“How have you guys been?” I asked, scooping Oliver up into a hug.
“Oh, you know, just doing the married thing, eating tacos with that one special person for the rest of our lives. How was the tour?” Kristen asked.
“Piece of cake. Glad it’s over, though.” I straightened from my hugs with Oliver and put my hands on my lower back as I walked to the gate.
“Are you gonna autograph my cookbook for me?” Kristen asked.
I laughed. “Sure.”
I’d published a cookbook. Slow Cooker Recipes by The Huntsman’s Wife. I’d developed most of them in the bus, on tour. All the recipes had conversions for wild game. And I painted on tour too. I had a two-year waiting list