Rocky Mountain Haven

Chapter Twenty-Three

Daniel pulled in front of the hardware shop with his dad riding shotgun just as Beth exited, two of the boys in tow. All three of them had their arms full of paint cans and brushes.

“I’ll stay in the truck,” Mike offered. “Go help your damsel in distress.”

Daniel hurried over to take her armload.

“Where’s Lance?” he asked. Nathan and Robbie dumped their supplies into the back of his truck and swung over the edge to sit in the open box. “Hey, guys. What do think you’re doing?”

Nathan popped up, both arms wrapped around one of the ranch dogs. “We wanna ride back here.”

Daniel hid his smile and jerked his thumb forward. “In the cab.”

“Awwww…” They complained but they moved, crawling through the open split window to land in puddles on the crew cab seat. Daniel chuckled until he glanced back to see Beth watching him with a raised brow.

“What? I don’t mind if they get in the cab that way. Better than thinking they get to ride in the back with the dogs.”

She shook her head. “You’re such a male.”

He leaned over and nibbled on her ear. “You were glad of that last night, Miss Beth.”

“Very.”

They held each other close, and Daniel counted his blessings like he had every damn day for the past six months.

Beth tugged on his hips. “Lance needs help. He can’t make up his mind, and I think he’s driving the clerk insane.”

“Really? Lance always seems to know exactly what he wants. And what he doesn’t want.”

“Well, this time there’s trouble. Come on, I think you’ll find it interesting.” She walked with him toward the door, her smile blindingly bright.

Daniel made his way into the store about to burst with curiosity.

Waiting to get to know each other better before doing anything formal with their relationship had been the best thing he and Beth could have done. They had no doubts that more than being lovers, they were friends.

But it was the way the boys had slowly come around that made them both the happiest. Nathan accepted the idea of Daniel the fastest, maybe because he was the first to open up to Daniel and talk about his father. Little Robbie never said anything much, just crawled into Daniel’s lap one day and kissed him straight out before kissing Beth and toddling off to bed.

Lance was the holdout. Still watching, still judging. Now that they were getting the house in town ready for moving in together, the kid seemed to finally be coming to a decision about the whole deal.

Daniel was worried it wasn’t going to be pretty. Lance reminded him a lot of himself at that age. Stubborn but quiet. The kind you couldn’t move without a bulldozer unless he decided to give way.

Lance had both clerks trapped, cans of paint and wallpaper swatches littering the countertop. One of them spotted Daniel and relief showed in the man’s eyes.

“Look, someone to help you decide. I’ll be over here when you’re ready.” Both attendants fled.

Daniel laughed. “Lance, what are you doing? You’ve got more coloured bits of paper on the counter than there are jellybeans in the candy shop.”

Lance snorted. “As if.”

“So what’s the trouble? I thought you had an idea picked out already.”

“It was too girly.”

Sweet Jesus, here they went with the girly business again. Wait until the kid realized the female sex didn’t have cooties. He was going to be a handful. “You want horses?”

“Nope.”

“Race Cars?”

“Nope.”

“Circus clowns, elephants and balloons?” Daniel thought that one would make the kid take notice. Lance grimaced in disgust.

“I’m not a baby.”

“No, you ain’t.” Daniel leaned on the counter and poked at the papers. “Seems to me most of these are a little on the young side for you. Tell you what, the room you picked out pretty much just needs a fresh coat of paint, then you can add the things you want over the next while.”

Lance stared in suspicion. “I thought we had to get everything ready for moving in a couple of weeks.”

Beth stepped closer and Daniel wrapped an arm around her, pulling her tight to his side. She felt so good in his arms, so right, and he couldn’t resist stopping to drop a kiss on her cheek. She smiled, one hand behind his back, the other resting on his chest.

Lance checked every move they made.

“We have to be able to shift your furniture in, that’s true. But there’s no way that at the end of the day we’re going to have everything the way we want it forever. In fact, that’s one of the fun parts—you get to keep changing things and making things to show off your interests. Find what you love to do, and suddenly there’s all kinds of projects you’ll want to put in your room.”

“Like the stuff you make?”

Daniel nodded. “Yeah, I suppose.”

“You think I could make something in the workshop for my room?”

“Course you could. With supervision, but I’d love to help you.”

Lance cracked a smile and pointed at the paint samples. “Which one?”

Daniel checked them out and pulled three to the side. “If you’re going to make some furniture, pick your favourite of these. They’re neutral enough to look good for a long time.” He leaned over. “And they are not the least bit girly.”

Lance checked them over slowly then picked one up. “This one.”

“Give it to the man, and he’ll mix it for you.” Daniel watched the boy track down the clerk. He turned back to Beth who was smiling, a twinkle in her eye. “What was that all about?”

“He didn’t like my suggestions,” Beth said. “I pointed out almost the same things you did, but he didn’t trust me.”

“Hell, no, you’re a girl. You might contaminate his room.”

Beth poked him in the chest and he laughed.

The clerk cleared his throat. “Excuse me, I need to make sure you approve this before I tint the paint.”

“My dad said that was the best one. He’s going to help me make things for my room too.” Lance glanced up at Daniel. “Right?”

Daniel’s heart leapt into his throat, and beside him Beth’s hands squeezed his arm painfully hard. Did Lance even realize what he’d said? The word had popped out so casually.

“Right.”

Daniel looked just about everywhere in the shop for the next five minutes as the paint shook in the machine, fighting to keep his emotional high from showing. Dancing in the aisles seemed like a marvellous idea, but it might freak a few people out.

Every bit of his world was finally coming together.

The fire crackled, the sound mixing with the other familiar noises of the big old house. Beth leaned on Daniel’s chest, cuddled between his thighs as they both stared into the flickering flames. The boys were camping for the night with a couple of their soon-to-be-official uncles, Jesse and Joel. She wondered if the twins realized how little sleep the boys were planning.

“I’m going to miss this house.” Beth stroked her hand along his leg, tracing circles with her fingertip. There were good memories tied up in the place. The kids laughing, schoolwork getting done. Everyday living that somehow felt that much richer now. Deeper.

Safer.

“You’ll be able to come and visit as often as you like since Jaxi and Blake are moving in with the girls.”

She laughed. “I still can’t believe Jaxi kept the twins a secret her entire pregnancy.”

“I can’t believe Blake made it through the delivery.”

They grinned at each other.

“It’s as if this house has a revolving door. How do you decide who gets what?” She’d always thought she’d hit the jackpot when she’d been offered the place.

Daniel rubbed her shoulders, running his fingers through the short hair of her neckline. “Whoever needs it the most, I guess. My dad took over the main ranch house since he was the oldest, and for a lot of years this place had one set or another of my uncles and aunts and cousins living here. Now they’re all scattered around the area. Some built houses on the sections of the land they own, some moved elsewhere because they decided to get into something other than ranching.”

“Like you.”

“Like me…and you.”

They were moving in together, they were getting married. She’d put off the one last thing they needed to do. She pivoted in his arms. Twisting was much easier than a year ago, the flexibility and range of motion in her limb nearly back to one hundred percent.

“Daniel, I want to…” His sexy smile distracted her for long enough he leaned in and kissed her.

Kissed her thoroughly, taking her mouth and lips by storm and turning the gentle caress into something on the hot and needy side. She dragged back with reluctance. “Whoa, cowboy, I want to do that too, but first we need to talk about something else.”

He stoked her cheek and rearranged her in his lap so she could lean back on his legs. “We’ve gotten good at talking, as well as the sexin’. What’s on your mind?”

She took a big breath. “What do you think about making the wedding a joint celebration?”

Confusion painted his face. “Who else you know that wants to get married?”

She shook her head. “No, I meant…if you’d like…if you think you’re ready…”

“Spit it out already woman, I’m dying here.”

“Do you want to adopt the boys?”

Pure, unadulterated joy leapt into his eyes. “You mean it?”

It was exactly the response she’d hoped for. The kind of response she’d expected. With every action over the past months, Daniel had shown time and time again he wanted only the best for her, and the boys. “I think they’re all ready for the idea, and isn’t that kind of what you’re getting? A wife and kids? Let’s make it official.”

Daniel dropped his head back, but not before she spotted the tears in his eyes.

“I love them too, you know. Kinda crept up and swallowed me whole, even when I was trying to not hope for anything.” He clasped her chin in his hand, his thumb reaching to brush her bottom lip in a tender caress. “Falling in love with you has changed my entire life. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come dancing into my world.”

“Stumbling in, more like it.”

“I caught you.”

She kissed his thumb as it passed by. “You did, and you held on until my world stopped shaking. Until I was able to stand alone.”

“But you’re not alone, Miss Beth, you got me. Forever and ever.”

She drew him to the carpet, and they made love. Slow and sweet, everything she had wanted for years and years, and it was because they were friends and lovers.

They were everything important. They were family.