dogs for the first time.
Then Nick headed back into Accord, to Laura’s.
He pressed his face to the glass of the bakery. The place was busy. To his surprise, he spotted Laura behind the counter. Working already?
He stepped inside.
The café was full, almost every table taken, but the lineup was short. Tilly, another woman, a young man and Laura worked behind the counter.
Laura laughed at something someone said and the huskiness, the earthiness of it, thrilled his nerve endings.
She looked tired but happy. She glowed every bit as much now as she had during pregnancy. Her breasts were heavier, full of milk. She looked womanly and wonderful.
Then she saw him.
After the initial unguarded look of shock, her expression closed.
He stepped up to the counter.
“We need to talk.”
She nodded, stepped into the back and then returned with Pearl on her shoulder.
He followed her out of the shop and upstairs and into her apartment. She put Pearl down in her crib then walked to the living room and turned and watched him quietly.
“I meant what I said in the hospital.” He stepped closer to her. “I love you and want to marry you.”
“You have an odd way of showing it. Where did you go?”
“I flew to France. I picked up Emily and brought her home. I quit my job. I put my house up for sale.”
By the time he’d finished with his list, her eyebrows had shot up.
“I’m committed. Emily and I are moving to Accord. I don’t know where we’ll live. With you, if you’ll have me. If not, somewhere else, but close enough that I will be involved in Pearl’s life. Daily.”
He stepped even closer. “I’m never leaving again. I’m here for the duration. I love you, Laura, with all of my heart.”
She grasped the back of his head and pulled him to her for a searing kiss. When she finally released him, they were breathing hard.
“Don’t change your mind on me, Jordan,” she said. “I’ll hold you to every single word. To every commitment. I love for life, Nick. I don’t do divorce.”
“I’m here for good, love.”
They sat on the sofa, together, and talked and touched and murmured words of love until Pearl woke up.
Laura brought her to the living room and sat beside Nick.
“Can I hold her?”
“After I feed her.” Laura unbuttoned her blouse and unhooked her maternity bra then lifted out one breast, unashamed. Pearl latched on and started suckling and Nick didn’t think he’d ever seen anything more beautiful in his life.
Laura’s breast was large, full with the life-giving force that would help Pearl grow and become strong.
Why had Nick never seen it as the beautiful miracle that it was? Why had it always made him squeamish?
Laura let him hold Pearl and taught him how to burp her.
Then she put the baby to her other breast.
Nick watched, couldn’t get enough of it. He touched one finger reverently to the velvet skin above where his baby nursed.
He ran his fingers through Laura’s hair, pushed it back away from her face and kissed her.
When he thought he couldn’t leave Emily with Gabe any longer, when he was bursting with so much excitement he couldn’t wait another second, he left to get her.
Gabe’s house was coming along. Work was stalled for the winter, but he’d managed to complete enough of the rooms for them to live indoors with the baby instead of in the prospector’s tent.
Nick walked around the house and back to the clearing where the dogs lived.
Emily was helping Gabe to feed the dogs. When she saw him, her face lit up, as though the sun had come out on this dreary day.
She flew into his arms.
“How was the dogsledding?” he asked.
“Awesome. Amazing. The most incredible thing ever. Dad, you have to try it.”
Gabe approached. “Anytime, Nick. Come out and I’ll show you how it’s done.”
“I will, Gabe.” Something fundamental had changed between them. With Nick’s happiness had come peace. He’d let go of childish resentments. These days, he had room only for the good in life.
“Heard Laura had her baby.”
Nick nodded. “Pearl. She’s beautiful.”
While Caleb, and even Rebecca the last time he’d seen her, looked like average babies, Pearl was stunningly beautiful.
Gabe laughed and Nick stared at him. “What?”
“You’re in love with her already, aren’t you?”
“Madly.”
Emily stiffened at his side. He looked down at her. “You will be, too. Come on. Let’s get you over there to meet her.”
When he returned to Accord, she walked into Laura’s apartment beside him, her face flushed from her dogsled ride